Knowledge and understanding of sustainability labels in Brazil

Abstract

The introduction of sustainability labels on packaging demands large efforts from companies that expect economic or moral rewards when labelling their products. However, consumers still struggle to incorporate sustainability labels into purchasing decisions. Therefore, we focus on investigating the relationship between sustainable behaviour and the level of knowledge and understanding consumers have about different types of labels and claims. We visited 408 households in different Brazilian regions. Participants were able to manually inspect four products and point out the sustainability labels they found on packaging and their meanings. Factor analysis followed by a two-stage cluster analysis identified the existence of three clusters. Consumers have little knowledge and understanding of labels, but more sustainable consumers have a higher level of knowledge and understanding. Their main mistakes were the misunderstanding of labels' meaning and confusion between claims and sustainability labels. Implications for policymakers and companies are presented.