Indians world’s greenest consumers: Study

“This first-of-its-kind study reveals surprising differences between consumers in developed and developing countries in terms of environmentally friendly actions,” NatGeo said.

The survey was conducted online earlier this year among 14,000 consumers in Australia, Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Great Britain, Hungary, India, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Spain and the United States.

However, while Indian consumers (along with Brazilians) outranked others on the ‘Greendex’ survey of environmentally sustainable behaviour, they came in last on a short quiz of environmental knowledge, correctly answering on average only two of the six questions posed.

Indian and Brazilian consumers topped the 14-country index, and have the highest Greendex score for environmentally sustainable consumption at 60 points each, because of their relatively lower environmental impact from housing and above-average performance on transportation and food.

They are followed by consumers in China (56.1), Mexico (54.3), Hungary (53.2) and Russia (52.4).

Among consumers in wealthy countries, those in Great Britain, Germany and Australia each have a Greendex score of 50.2, those in Spain register a score of 50.0 and Japanese respondents, 49.1.