Consumers in the United Kingdom who celebrate Christmas desire a less wasteful and ecologically friendly holiday season. Consumers believe firms should do more around sustainability, especially during the Christmas season, which is often considered as a time of over-indulgence and excessive waste.

According to CIM research, 53% of Americans want a “greener” Christmas, with 45% preferring to spend extra money on environmentally friendly holiday items. If these expectations aren’t satisfied, 64 percent of the 2,000 study respondents expect companies and marketing teams to be more upfront about the environmental effect of Christmas products and services, and they’ll hunt for alternatives.

According to CIM, many consumers are already taking action and are not waiting for brands to catch up, seeking out more sustainable festive options for themselves, with 41% reusing Christmas decorations rather than buying new ones, 22% buying from local businesses, and 26% choosing a plastic reusable Christmas tree over a real tree. Other popular alternatives include renting party attire rather than buying new ones, using environmentally friendly gift wrapping, and sending e-cards instead of Christmas cards.

Excessive Christmas packaging

CIM has been doing research on customers’ perceptions of how much packaging firms use for the past three years. According to their findings, the great majority of UK residents (82%) believe corporations use too much while shipping or selling in-store items. Furthermore, 78 percent want to see major corporations do more to promote sustainable packaging, up 16 percentage points from the previous year.

Consumers’ shopping habits appear to be influenced by the issue of over-packaging as well: 30% said receiving an online order with excessive packaging has discouraged them from ordering from the same company again, while 34% prefer click-and-collect services to avoid the carbon emissions associated with home deliveries.

Green New Year Resolutions

According to the WWF, 71% of adults want to adopt green New Year resolutions in 2022 to be more ecologically friendly.