JEDDAH: A new study by the top four global custom market research firm, Synovate, on "green" behavior showed that consumers in the UAE are among the top purchasers of ecological and organic products, but rank near the bottom when it comes to recycling household waste. The survey also found women and older consumers are more environmentally conscious. Synovate, as part of its ongoing Global Trends Study, interviewed 22,000 people across 28 countries: Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Chile, China, Colombia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, India, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, Norway, Russia, Serbia, South Africa, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, UAE, UK and US. Respondents were asked about their recycling habits, purchase of ecological products and purchase of organic foods, as well as their general beliefs on life, in order to also determine if there was a correlation between those beliefs and green behavior. When it came to purchasing ecological products, UAE was in fourth place at 35 percent, with Denmark, Sweden and South Korea leading the pack (59 percent, 52 percent and 42 percent respectively), while Serbia (8 percent) and China (9 percent) were lowest. Women in the UAE ranked higher than men across all green behavior categories, while people aged 56 and 65 years ranked highest in recycling and buying ecological products. Those in the 16-25 age group scored lowest across those latter two categories but were just as likely to purchase organic foods as their older counterparts. "We asked respondents to show agreement and disagreement with several topics related with basic needs and attitudes that anyone in the world would have in different life situations. We used these results to conduct a global segmentation framed under our Censydiam research model," said Tamer El Naggar, Synovate CEO for the Middle East and North Africa. “Those who showed the highest levels of agreement with statements related to concern about the future or the importance of family were actually the ones purchasing fewer ecological and organic products, and recycling less. The segmentation demonstrates that those who recycle more are also more group-oriented.
