According to a recent Decision Lab survey, Vietnamese believe that corporations can do much more to protect the environment in Vietnam.

Sustainability is a key issue for corporations worldwide. Brands invest heavily in sustainable initiatives to protect the world's environment and create an eco-friendly brand image. Yet, in Vietnam, consumer sentiment towards sustainability issues are unclear: Do Vietnamese people care about environmental issues? And what are their perceptions of corporate environmental responsibility?

A recent survey by Decision Lab revealed that Vietnamese consumers are, in fact, highly interested in environmental issues. Most importantly, Vietnamese consumers believe that corporations operating in the country should do more to protect the environment.

Environmental issues are of high importance to Vietnamese

In this survey, Decision Lab interviewed 1107 respondents from all over Vietnam. When asked about their level of interest in environmental protection issues, 73% of Vietnamese rate environmental issues to be important and very important.

This figure urges brands in Vietnam to start cultivating an environmentally responsible image. When they do so, at least 73% of Vietnamese will pay attention!

Additionally, Gen Z (73%) and Millennials (75%) appear to be more interested in environmental issues than Gen X (65%). As such, brands should consider targeting the younger age groups in green marketing campaigns.

Vietnamese are willing to recycle and pay more for eco-friendly products

Vietnamese are willing to take personal actions to protect the environment. 66% of Vietnamese are willing to recycle and pay higher prices for eco-friendly products, especially among Gen X Vietnamese.

This comes from the fact that close to 40% of Vietnamese think that environmental protection is every Vietnamese citizen's responsibility. In contrast, only 21% and 11% respectively think that the government and corporations should be primarily responsible for the environment.

Interestingly, Gen Z Vietnamese are less likely to recycle and pay more for eco-friendly products overall, even though they assume more personal responsibility for environmental protection.

This means that this group of consumers is interested in saving the environment, but sometimes lacks the means (money, efforts) to do so. As such, brands should make adopting environmentally friendly products less costly and more convenient for Gen Z Vietnamese consumers.

Vietnamese believe there are still room for corporate actions in terms of environmental protection

While only 11% of Vietnamese think that corporations should be chiefly responsible for environmental issues, close to two-thirds of Vietnamese think that corporations can do more to protect the environment in Vietnam.

Interestingly, Gen Z appears to have a more favorable view of corporate environmental responsibility than other age groups. Only 67% of Gen Z agree that corporations should do more to protect the environment, compared to 79% in other age groups. Corporations should continue to promote eco-friendly initiatives to Gen Z consumers to further amplify this group of consumers' favorable views.

Vietnamese consumers care about environmental issues and think corporations must do more to protect the environment. These are sound bases for brands to start organizing more eco-friendly campaigns. In doing so, brands should also be sensitive to the age differences in consumer sentiment of environment issues outlined in this article.

Source: Decision Lab