How to get consumers to make choices that are better for the environment?
How to get consumers to make choices that are better for the environment? Through nudging.
Nudging is one way of influencing people and their choices through subtle modifications of their decision context. To nudge someone is to deliberately affect their surrounding choice architecture, meaning the way choices are presented, framed and structured. (Schubert, 2017.)
In thinking, how do we get consumers choose reuse instead of new items, we decided to look into green nudging theory (Schubert, 2017) and connect its suggestions with the previously made consumer research (Joro et. al., 2024). The green nudge theory divides nudges into three groups: 1) simplifying and headlining green information, e.g., through eco-labelling, 2) following the herd, e.g., imitating green behavior of peers and conveying social norms, 3) green nudges as default, e.g., exploiting the behavioral effects of purposefully set defaults (Schubert, 2017).
We used the three consumer personas made earlier during this project and identified the data from the consumer interviews (Joro et. al., 2024), that could be connected to each nudge. Later we combined each consumer persona with the most apparent nudges suitable for them. You can see the results in the table below.
| CONSUMER PERSONA | NUDGES | |
| Style individualist | Normalisation | Sustainability information |
| Normalising and encouraging reuse via social media | Comfort, durability and traceability | |
| “– making it (reuse) more acceptable — like if celebrities would talk about buying second-hand in social media.” | “Usually I check if the material is — thin like a fabric that would tear immediately.” | |
| Comfort seeker | Social encouragement | Accessibility |
| Societal and social pressure | Accessibility of a store or product and price | |
| “then a friend of mine linked to a 2nd hand store–. — it was so convenient–.” | “–I often go when I’m on a run and then simultaneously go through the selection--.“ “– annoying that if you find something nice, then it is not your own size.” | |
| Classic dresser | Familiarity | Easy and attractive |
| Familiarity of the concept or brand | Reliable, appealing and organised | |
| “Sometimes yes, I’ve just gotten used to the idea that I might buy it new, even though I know it would be good.” | “I feel that it (new) is certainly of a higher quality. I find it somehow more reliable.” | |
As stated, the nudges can be useful in persuading people to choose a certain service or product. Therefore, these nudges were presented to the companies participating in prototyping this Autumn. Each of their concepts were connected with a potential nudge for them to use during prototyping. We first identified their possible customer group and then offered some insights on what kind of nudges could be effective. It remains to be seen how the companies participating in the prototyping phase of the project will continue and utilise these nudges.
Sources:
Eerika Heinonen
Turku UAS
These materials were created in the Baltic2Hand project which is an Interreg Central Baltic Programme 2021–2027 project that is co-funded by the European Union. Read more about the Baltic2Hand project.