Study explores the interest of Costa Ricans in green products, those with the least ecological impact

The studio “Really That Sustainable? Exploring Costa Ricans' Green Product Involvement” (Really so sustainable? Exploring the interest of Costa Ricans for green products) carried out by the Dr. Francisco Conejo, INCAE Associate Professor of Marketing, along with co-authors Wilson Rojas, Ana Zamora, and Clifford Young, was recently published in the Journal of Macromarketing. This academic journal, ranked internationally as an A, covers, among others, topics related to marketing, society, and the environment. 

The study used a large sample, N=1.036, representative of the country's adult population. Among the results obtained, it was found that the consumers most related to green products are women, Generation Z, with a university education, and of a medium-high socioeconomic level. One of the most surprising results is that interest in green products among Millennials and the upper class is only average. It should be noted that general interest at the national level was also surprisingly low, only 44%. 

Costa Rica has come to enjoy an international reputation for its sustainability. That image is widely exploited by government and business narratives. However, green products, and by extension sustainable consumption, hardly interest Costa Ricans. Behind the idyllic image that the country projects there is a not so rosy reality. 

On the one hand, there is the excessive use of resources, reflected by the consumption footprint of the tico. According to him Global Footprint Network, already by 2018 Costa Rica required 1.55 planets Earth to maintain your lifestyle. Although better than the staggering 5.13 planets required by the United States, Costa Rica's ecological deficit is similar to that of Central America (1.45 planets), Latin America/Caribbean (1.56), and the world (1.75). For a country that boasts of being a beacon of sustainability, its ecological footprint is nothing special. It is also worrisome that Costa Rica's ecological deficit has been worsening for nearly half a century, with little being done about it. Rather, Costa Rica is increasingly becoming a consumer society, with very serious implications for society and the environment.

On the other hand, there is the garbage that the excessive consumption of the country generates. Illustrative of this is the amount of plastic that Costa Ricans consume and then discard. The country generates about 550 tons of plastic garbage daily. Only 9% is recycled and 11% sent to official dumps. The remaining 80%, 440 tons per day, is dumped in streets, lots, and streams, much of which eventually ends up in the oceans (Grajales 2018). Rather than being sustainable, Costa Rica rather has one of the most polluted watersheds in Central America, the Tárcoles basin. In addition to plastics, the river evacuates all kinds of garbage from the Greater Metropolitan Area, where most of the people and industries reside. From bottles to tires, the river conveniently washes it all away.
 

Excessive consumption of the tico is problematic, both because of the resources it requires and the waste it generates. These prevent the country from being truly sustainable. As Dr. Conejo points out, “National parks by themselves do not make a country sustainable. It is the people of the country, through their daily attitudes and behaviors, that really make a country sustainable. Unfortunately, Costa Ricans' lack of interest in responsible consumption not only undermines the country's ecological achievements. From the country-brand perspective, the inconsistency between the idyllic image that Costa Rica projects and the unsustainable behavior of its consumers is undermining the credibility and attractiveness of the country. This is worrying since tourism, one of our most important industries, depends heavily on this idealized image.” 

The study concludes that the level and manner of consumption of Ticos is the most serious environmental threat facing Costa Rica. It is urgent to devise, but above all to implement, truly sustainable development models. Some that decouple economic growth from unbridled consumption and socio-environmental degradation. The study ends by giving several recommendations in this regard. Although its implementation remains the biggest challenge. Especially for a country like Costa Rica, given its limited resources and its high vulnerability to vested interests, both national and foreign. 

For more information about the findings of this research, you can visit the publication of the study. HERE.

For more information on this topic, you can contact trinidad.alvarez@incae.edu.