LCA Food 2012 in Saint Malo, France! - Manifestations et colloques ...

GROUP 3, SESSION A: LABELLING, CONSUMERS, DIET 8 th Int. Conference on LCA in the
Agri-Food Sector, 1-4 Oct 2012
788
88. Communication strategies for product sustainability messaging
aimed at end consumers
Thomas Redd 1,* , Doug Harrison 2 , Laura Riley 2 , Greg Thoma 3
1 The Sustainability Consortium, jointly administered by Arizona State University and University of Arkansas,
USA, 2 Harrison Group Inc., 3 University of Arkansas, USA, Corresponding author. E-mail:
tredd@asu.edu
The proliferation of communication guidelines for environmental claims and conflicting eco-labelling
schemes has caused industry organisations to acknowledge the need to provide consumers with a more harmonised
set of sustainability labels and claims in the marketplace (Ryan Partnership Chicago/Mambo
Sprouts Marketing, 2011). Government and industry organisations also widely recognise the need for more
scientific research to help us understand how to effectively communicate sustainability information to endconsumers
(Ernst & Young, 2009; Galatola, 2011; Ryan Partnership Chicago/Mambo Sprouts Marketing,
2011). Initial reports conclude that consumers prefer to be presented with grades or scores of a product’s
sustainability performance, rather than the absolute values, ratios, and physical units found in most LCA
studies (Ernst & Young, 2009). Consumers’ intent to use product level sustainability disclosures is also
highly dependent on the message being presented at the point of sale and verified by an independent organisation
(Ernst & Young, 2009; Ryan Partnership Chicago/Mambo Sprouts Marketing, 2011).
Building on these industry reports, The Sustainability Consortium launched an applied research project to
answer some of the key questions posed by leading retailers and brand manufactures in the Consumer Goods
industry. This particular empirical study seeks to understand, from a consumer’s perspective, how the design
and format of LCA-generated scores presented with products at the point of sale affects the message’s understand-ability,
believability, comparability, and usability. Researchers also attempt to measure consumer preferences
for 13 sustainability attributes (Fig. 1) and 22 messaging formats (Fig. 2) on product level disclosures.
To examine variance in consumer preferences across product categories, the attribute and format variables
are tested in combination with five different product category variables such as cereal, paper towels,
and laundry detergent. Variance in consumer preferences across geo-political scales is also examined by
sampling consumers from four different sovereign nations, including France.
Qualitative and quantitative results from ten focus group sessions and three online surveys suggest there are
ample opportunities for establishing scientifically-grounded best practices for communicating LCAgenerated
information. From a global perspective, the data indicates 1) the presence of a scoring scale and
attributes with a positive tone are critical for establishing understand-ability among consumers 2) consumers
are most likely to prefer a messaging format that’s grounded in the percentages scoring technique 3) scores
accompanied by stoplight colour coding that identifies three thresholds of relative industry performance substantially
enhance usability. Further research is ongoing and scheduled for completion in May, 2012.
References
Ernst & Young, 2009. Pistes pour un etiquetage environnemental lisible et efficace – Resultat d’enquete
consommatuer.
Galatola, M., 2011. The role of the ILCD Handbook as methodological basis for robust life cycle based environmental
policies, SETAC 2011. Milan
Ryan Partnership Chicago/Mambo Sprouts Marketing, 2011. One Green Score for One Earth Consumer Sustainability
Survey.