Think Inside the Box: The Role of Sustainable Packaging in Environmentally Conscientious Shopping
| dc.contributor.author | Tottman, Walker | |
| dc.contributor.supervisor | Peredo, Ana Maria | |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2024-01-05T23:47:23Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2024-01-05T23:47:23Z | |
| dc.date.copyright | 2023 | en_US |
| dc.date.issued | 2024-01-05 | |
| dc.degree.department | School of Environmental Studies | en_US |
| dc.degree.level | Master of Science M.Sc. | en_US |
| dc.description.abstract | Based on public opinion, addressing plastic pollution is as imperative as solving climate change and biodiversity loss. One emerging market trend to solve plastic pollution is the shift towards plastic-free ‘sustainable packaging.’ However, pro-environmental solutions are not without risk of negative consequences. Previous research highlights how waste-reduction mechanisms – which sustainable packaging ostensibly represents – can alter consumer behaviours, reduce guilt, and increase overall consumption. Similarly, research suggests that sustainable packaging erroneously influences perceptions of a product’s and brand’s attributes favourably. While these data allude to a risk of compromising consumers' conscientiousness, the relation between sustainable packaging and environmentally conscientious shopping remains unknown. In this research, we ask: What is the relation between sustainable packaging and purchase intent, package and product evaluations, and pro-environmental behaviours? And second: What are the implications of sustainable packaging on the environmental conscientiousness of consumer habits? Using a mixed-method qualitative and quantitative survey from a sample of 156 Canadians, the results suggest: 1. A package's perceived level of sustainability positively influenced perceptions of the product's sustainability; 2. The footprint of a sustainable package was viewed disproportionately more favourable when it is on a conventional product; 3. Products with sustainable packaging received a higher purchase intent, regardless of whether the product itself is sustainable; 4. Sustainable packaging elicited more emotionally-positive, plastic-specific comments, without a concomitant increase in non-plastic-based environmental or negative comments; and 5. Consumers preferred pro-environmental behaviours that focus on plastic and packaging rather than product-focused pro-environmental behaviours. By influencing consumers’ perceptions and capitalizing on consumers’ focus on plastic packaging, we argue that sustainable packaging represents a new stage of greenwashing that corporations may co-opt as a market strategy. | en_US |
| dc.description.scholarlevel | Graduate | en_US |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/1828/15805 | |
| dc.language | English | eng |
| dc.language.iso | en | en_US |
| dc.rights | Available to the World Wide Web | en_US |
| dc.subject | Sustainable Packaging | en_US |
| dc.subject | Greenwashing | en_US |
| dc.subject | Plastic Pollution | en_US |
| dc.subject | Consumerism | en_US |
| dc.subject | Negative Spillover | en_US |
| dc.title | Think Inside the Box: The Role of Sustainable Packaging in Environmentally Conscientious Shopping | en_US |
| dc.type | Thesis | en_US |