November 10th, 2023, Lesley Simeon
Beyond headlines that talk about valuations, layoffs and innovations, tech companies around the world often are in the news for another reason - their worrying carbon footprint. In this piece, we look at what consumers make of tech companies’ efforts to reduce their environmental impact.
In a recent YouGov survey, consumers across 17 international markets were asked which industries they think are doing enough to minimize their environmental impact. Previously published pieces zeroed in on health services and financial services. Here, we focus on tech companies.
Less than a quarter (21%) of consumers across all our markets say tech companies are doing enough to cut back their impact on the environment. More than half (51%) of all consumers say tech companies aren’t doing enough while over a quarter (28%) don’t know.
YouGov’s demographic data shows men are more likely than women (24% vs. 18%) to say that tech companies are doing enough to minimize their environmental impact. But men and women are at a consensus (51%) when it comes to opining that tech companies’ environmentally conscious efforts are not enough.
Women are more likely than men (31% vs. 25%) to say they don’t know whether tech companies are doing enough or not.
Greater proportions of consumers across all our markets say that tech companies are not doing enough to reduce their environmental impact
Consumers, by country, who say tech companies are doing enough
With the exception of Singapore, consumers from all our Asian markets are more likely than those from our European markets to say tech companies are doing enough to minimize their impact on the environment.
Consumers in the UAE are most likely to say so across all our markets (44%), followed by urban India (40%) and Hong Kong (38%).
In Europe, Italy and Germany lead (20% each) while Great Britain (10%) accounts for the lowest share of consumers in this region (and across all our markets) who say who say tech companies are doing enough to minimize their environmental impact. Denmark (11%) accounts for a similar proportion of consumers who are of the same opinion.
Consumers who say tech companies are not doing enough
As for consumers who say tech companies are not doing enough, France leads (64%), followed by Indonesia (61%) and Spain (60%). Notably, the EU will ban all-encompassing environmental claims like “climate neutral” or “eco” by 2026, unless companies making such claims can back them with proof.
On the other hand, consumers in the UAE (40%), Denmark (42%) and Australia (43%) are among those who are least likely to say tech companies aren’t doing enough to minimize their impact on the environment.
In the US, 45% of consumers say tech companies aren’t doing enough, while fewer than two in five (38%) consumers don’t know if enough is being done or not.
Nearly half of all Danes (47%) say they don’t know whether tech companies are doing enough or not to cut back on their environmental impact. On the other hand, consumers in Mexico and Indonesia (12% each) are least likely to say they don’t know whether tech companies are doing enough or not to reduce their environmental impact.
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Methodology: YouGov Surveys: Serviced provide quick survey results from nationally representative or targeted audiences in multiple markets. The data is based on surveys of adults aged 18+ years in 17 markets with sample sizes varying between 509 and 2003 for each market. All surveys were conducted online in July 2023. Data from each market uses a nationally representative sample apart from Mexico and India, which use urban representative samples, and Indonesia and Hong Kong, which use online representative samples. Learn more about YouGov Surveys: Serviced.
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