India's confidence in green products is highest in global index: Study

DuPont, a leader in market-driven science and innovation, commissioned this nationwide survey with an objective to better understand awareness and attitudes of Indian consumers toward green and biobased products.

The survey was the third such study by the company with the first in North America (U.S. and Canada) and the second in China. The research took place in 12 major Indian cities with 1,270 respondents giving face-to-face interviews.

“Green and biobased solutions are not only essential to address the challenges of India’s growing population, but also an expectation of a younger generation and rising middle class. We are particularly encouraged that there is broad awareness of green products across the country with India’s younger generation leading the way,” commented Vikram Prabhu, regional business director, Asia Pacific, DuPont Industrial Biosciences.

“The potential for green and biobased products in India is apparent from this survey,” said Dr. Renu Swarup, MD, Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) and senior advisor, Department of Biotechnology, Ministry of Science & Technology.  “We must work together to bridge consumer demands and the ability of new technology innovations to meet their demands, if we were to realise India’s seventh millennium development goal of ensuring environmental sustainability.”

In the survey, more than 63 percent of consumers are familiar with green products and of those, 85 percent have confidence that they are better for the environment. 
These consumers believe biobased ingredients not only make a product green, but also provide better performance, critical to long-term adoption.

It is interesting to note that India’s confidence in green products being better for the environment (85 percent) is higher than other countries surveyed by DuPont in previous years.  Previous studies showed China with 70 percent confidence, Canada with 65 percent and the United States with 60 percent.

However, Canada (78 percent) and the United States (76 percent) lead in overall familiarity with green products over India (63 percent) and China (43 percent).

Regionally, familiarity of green products was found to be highest in South (83 percent) and East  (68 percent), followed by West (42 percent) and North (53 percent). Consumers from South India also are most confident (95 percent) that green products are better for the environment.

Awareness of green products is high across the country, with younger consumers below age 30 showing the highest level of familiarity (69 percent) followed by ages 51+ (60 percent) and ages 31-50 (58 percent).   Since nearly 50 percent of India’s current population is below the age of 25, there is strong potential for green product adoption and demand growth. Currently, more than two-thirds (67 percent) of consumers are likely to purchase apparel, personal care, hygiene and household products made from biobased ingredients that offer environmental benefits.

“Science is at the heart of everything we do at DuPont. We are working collaboratively to find sustainable, innovative, market-driven solutions for the Indian market. The Green Living Survey confirms that India’s population is increasingly becoming environmentally conscious and demonstrates their growing preference for more sustainable products.  We see great opportunity for biobased solutions in India, and our new biosciences laboratories at the DuPont Knowledge Centre in Hyderabad are specifically focused on meeting the green aspirations of Indian consumers,” said Balvinder Singh Kalsi, president, South Asia and ASEAN, DuPont.