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While most consumers have been pushing retailers to be more sustainable, it seems not all of them are ready to accept how that might impact a product’s price or look, at least according to top retail executives at a recent Reuters conference.
“There is a gap between what people say they want and what they actually do at the purchasing point—this is a difficulty for us,” Kimberly-Clark EMEA sustainability transformation leader Oriol Margo said at the Reuters Impact conference in London. “It feels like our consumers are asking for sustainability but they are not looking to compromise on price or quality.”
By the end of 2022, the maker of Kleenex and Huggies had reduced its Scope 1 and Scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by a whopping 42%, and has also worked on introducing more recycled or “environmentally preferred” fibers into its products. But the company said some customers see the “sustainable” products as inferior.
Lip service: The report corresponds with a recent Morning Consult survey on sustainability in retail in which shoppers were asked about their concerns around how the fashion industry impacts the environment.
Surprisingly, Gen Z, the putative champions of sustainability, seemed to be the least concerned. Only 48% of Gen Z adults were bothered by fast fashion’s impact on the environment, compared to 52% of Gen Xers and 56% of millennials.
“Some people might call Gen Z hypocritical in that sense, but I don’t necessarily think that’s the case,” Claire Tassin, retail and e-commerce analyst at Morning Consult, previously told Retail Brew. “They’re more concerned about larger, industry-level production issues…they’re less concerned about their individual behaviors as having an impact.”