Analysis of factors influencing consumers' proenvironmental behavior based on life cycle thinking. Part I: effect of environmental awareness and trust in environmental information on product choice

Although various efforts have been made to communicate with consumers by providing life cycle environmental information for products, there is uncertainty about the efficacy of such communication in promoting consumers' proenvironmental behavior. The goal of this study is to analyze what factors influence consumers' preferences for environmental information provided by ecolabeling to support better environmental communication based on life cycle thinking. Two factors that can affect consumers' preferences are considered, namely environmental awareness and trust in environmental information, and the effects of these factors on consumers' information preferences were examined using a web based survey conducted with Japanese adults. The respondents were divided into four groups according to the level of environmental awareness and the degree of trust, and variations in preferences between three types of ecolabeled products and a nonlabeled product were analyzed. In all four groups, a product with an ecolabel presenting a reduction rate of CO2 emissions were the largest, followed by a product with an ecolabel certified by a third-party organization, a product with an ecolabel by self declaration, and a nonlabeled product. However, differences in preference between ecolabeled products and a nonlabeled product decreased with a decrease in awareness and trust. This indicates that in order to promote consumers' behavioral change, it is important to improve consumers' acceptance of environmental information in terms of trust, as well as environmental awareness. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.