Women are instinctively leading the green revolution both at work and home, confirmed a new report. Their shopping choices often determine the consumption patterns of each household, and at work they are demonstrating prominent leadership in driving the sustainability/CSR agenda.
The report carried out by JD.com and the APEC Women Leadership Forum, fostering women’s economic empowerment among the 21 economies of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), examines the role of women as both producers and consumers in advancing sustainability.
The APEC report entitled Observation of Women’s Value in Sustainable Consumption and Production, revealed that women weigh “environmentally friendly” as a much higher consideration than men when considering products. In fact, it is the only factor on which they outscored men, whereas the latter showed comparatively more concerns for other factors such as brand, culture and price.
PROMOTING SUSTAINABLE CONSUMPTION
Interestingly, when being asked about the concept and their understanding of sustainable consumption, female respondents gave themselves more moderate ratings than males did, with only 49.8% choosing “understand very well” and “understand,” while 31.2% opted for “not sure.” However, their feedback on actual shopping choices unveiled a stronger tendency towards energy-saving, trade-in, replaceable and recyclable products, especially in the categories of home appliances, furnishing and decorations, office supplies, car accessories, footwear, health products and more. These results demonstrate that women may have a deeper understanding about the concept of sustainable consumption than they give themselves credit for, as they are more likely to choose sustainable products instinctively.
When asked, “Which player is more important in promoting sustainable consumption?” 44% of female respondents chose “consumers” over “product makers” (30%), and circulators (27%). Female respondents also showed higher approval of producers for behaviour categories including offering job opportunities, supporting disadvantaged groups, proper waste handling and more.
SHE POWER SHAPING SUSTAINABLE PRODUCERS
With more and more enterprises setting up the dedicated function of sustainability/CSR, the role to implement these initiatives is mainly led by women, accounting for over 60% in surveyed companies that have set up such dedicated departments, and 82% in other companies that have relevant positions, revealed the report.
According to the surveys, on which the report is based, women leaders demonstrate a stronger focus on long-term value and innovation for sustainable solutions, with respondents expressing that they started formulating relevant thinking 6 to 10 years ago (30%). The majority are driven by factors of enterprise development need (76%), inspired by global trends (73%), and guided by domestic policies (73%).
The report also noted that it is urgent for the whole society to enhance awareness of responsible consumption and production amid global uncertainties in order to continue making progress towards the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). Meanwhile, knowing how to strike a balance between organisaton goals and return on investment, and the lack of unified ESG standards, talents and corporate capacities, all pose a threat to progress.
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