Carbon Footprint Labelling Study

February 6th, 2010

A new study from Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University reports consumer views on proposed voluntary carbon footprint labeling for food items. More than 400 supermarket shoppers took part in the survey, which was conducted across all major UK supermarket chains.

Key Findings

72% of respondents said that they wanted to see carbon footprint labeling, although 83% of the total sample did not know their personal carbon footprint.

Almost three-quarters of respondents said that clearer carbon labeling on food products would help them to think ‘green’.
63% thought that carbon labels were a useful indicator for comparing environmental standards, although largely quality and taste (76%) were still deemed more important when purchasing food than environmental issues such as carbon (44%) and food miles (42%).
However, 68% claimed their purchasing behaviour had changed significantly in the past ten years.
Consumers stated that their spending habits had shifted towards purchasing more free range (46%), more fair trade (42%), more locally sourced food (32%), and more organic and less processed food products (32%).