The recession, rising costs of fuel and food as well as the cost of living has seen people re-evaluate their lifestyle and outgoings. These factors, alongside initiatives such as the government-backed car scrappage incentive scheme, B&Q’s lightbulb amnesty and the Department of Health’s ‘keep warm, keep well’ campaign are all encouraging behaviours that reduce the impact of modern living on the environment.

This report explores people’s attitudes towards the environment and establishes how green people say they are compared to how green their lifestyles actually are. To what extent are people prepared to pay extra or compromise convenience in order to benefit the environment? What green behaviours are people most likely to adopt and why? We also examine the impact of the recession on people’s lifestyles and whether this has had a positive or negative impact on concern for the environment.

To what extent is there a social pressure on people to be green? In what ways are people most comfortable being green and is concern for the environment their genuine motivation? Mintel explores how concerned people really are with the environment and what environmental concerns trouble them the most.

Mintel conducted online consumer research in April 2011 on a sample of 2,000 internet users aged 16+.

For further information about our methodology please the following link: http://oxygen.mintel.com/sinatra/oxygen/how_uk/