Neulinger Ágnes (2023): A fenntartható fogyasztás kihívásai válság idején. In: Révész Balázs – Gyulai Zsófia (eds.): Reziliens Marketing - Válaszok változó kihívásokra. Szegedi Tudományegyetem Gazdaságtudományi Kar: Szeged. ISBN: 978-963-306-960-8 DOI:10.62561/EMOK-2023 pp. 251–253.

Authors

• Ágnes, Neulinger. Pécsi Tudományegyetem.

Abstract

The challenges of sustainable consumption in times of crisis

Changing lifestyles in a sustainable direction is in the interest of humanity, and it necessarily includes the transformation of consumer behavior. But how can a sustainable lifestyle continue to spread in Europe at the time of the economic crisis, the migration crisis and the crisis caused by the Russia-Ukraine war?
If we look at the global and European climate goals, they cannot be achieved with the sustainable decisions and consumption of a niche consumer group. Despite the fact that environmental protection is considered important by a wider group in Hungary (according to the Eurobarometer (2019) 85% of Hungarians consider climate change a very serious problem, according to the NRC (2021) 84% of Hungarians consider sustainability efforts important and 90 % says that it is important for companies to operate in a sustainable manner), if this is not reflected in consumer actions. One of the reasons for the lack of behavioural change is the difficulty of access, due to, among other things, the often higher price of the more sustainable, environmentally friendly products. A study by the MNB (2022) states that only 17% of the Hungarian population can be considered committed green consumers, and another 34% consider environmental protection important if it involves savings. At the same time, in addition to committed green consumers and savings-driven green consumers, the goal is also to reach others (the above cited MNB (2022) analysis describes them as consumption-oriented (16%) and indifferent consumers (33%)).
It should also be important for companies that consumers consider their more sustainable offers as attractive, since without this they cannot achieve their own (voluntarily undertaken or mandatory) climate goals. As Lauren Taylor, CEO of the Boston Consulting Group put it: "We need to make sustainable options meet consumers' core needs, rather than expecting the majority to make trade-offs when they choose a sustainable option" (BCG, 2022).
The goal now is clearly to achieve green mainstreaming, i.e., achieving that green consumption and a green lifestyle become mass. This is supported by the tightening regulations at both the global and European levels, which ultimately affect consumption due to the companies' need to adapt. At the same time, the key issue of a mainstream, more sustainable lifestyle is the affordability and broad accessibility to it, which, according to last year's Eurobarometer survey, will doubtless be available to everyone until 2050. At the same time, the population (both the entire EU sample and the Hungarian results) largely support (typically with over 80% agreement) the increase of investments in public transport infrastructure, subsidising people to help make their homes more energy efficient, encouraging private companies, through rules and incentives, and taxing products and services that contribute most to climate change. There is one topic though with a lower degree of public support in both the EU and Hungary: the most relevant and limiting issue for the individual, i.e., allocating a quota of energy to each citizen to ensure everyone makes their fair share of effort to tackle climate change, was agreed by 62% (EU average) and 63% (Hungarian result) respectively.
The presentation of the workshop introduces dilemmas of the mass adoption of a more sustainable lifestyle and consumption.

sustainability mainstreaming crisis

Language

hungarian

Details of publishing collection

Révész Balázs – Gyulai Zsófia (eds.) (2023): Reziliens Marketing - Válaszok változó kihívásokra. Szegedi Tudományegyetem Gazdaságtudományi Kar: Szeged. ISBN: 978-963-306-960-8 DOI:10.62561/EMOK-2023

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