Price matters when it comes to going green

Lower prices are key for consumers to shop sustainably,” trumpets the Asda press release. And I almost deleted it right there.

These missives are usually little more than thinly disguised ads, with the “news” usually amounting to little more than the issuer’s claim of having the lowest prices and the best products, usually with some more or less spurious “research” to back up the claim.

But for some reason, I read on, and to my surprise found this to be one of those rare occasions where a release like this has something useful to say.

Asda says it has conducted some polling before the Cop26 summit which found that customers cared about sustainability. Good-o.

More than half of its 3,000 strong sample (55 per cent) said they would be prepared to make significant lifestyle changes to reduce their carbon footprints. So perhaps the term good-ish would be more appropriate. All the more so when you consider that people seem quite willing to lie to pollsters, especially if they think it makes them look good. Saying you’re a sustainable shopper before Cop would do that.

But good-ish is still better than bad.

Here’s the thing: the people questioned were honest enough to admit that price was going to play a role in their sustainable choices. A big one. Roughly three-quarters of the sample (76 per cent) said lowering the price of sustainable products would encourage them to be nicer to the planet when they shop.

Going green doesn’t always cost more, it’s true. Steaks, for example, are the antithesis of sustainable because cows release a lot of methane into the atmosphere. They cost a fortune.

But it isn’t unusual to be asked to shell out extra for the “green option” and that will naturally act as an impediment to some consumers.

It doesn’t help that it isn’t always all that clear what the green option is. Is what you’re buying really sustainable? Or has it just been greenwashed for marketing purposes? This is a real issue at a time when greenwashing is more fashionable in corporate circles than a Saville Row suit.

Asda’s solution to this conundrum is “collaboration … between suppliers, manufacturers and retailers to remove the price barrier preventing shoppers from purchasing sustainable products”.

Which sounds very corporate and woolly. It is touting a “greener price promise” which is where the blatant self-promotion came in. It’s promising more green products (good). And it mentions labelling to help guide people, which is a fine idea but could get complicated given the government’s love of dodgy trade deals.

Still, the grocer isn’t wrong to raise the issue. Some people simply can’t afford to go sustainable. The government’s cuts to universal credit and increases in personal taxation via national insurance at a time of rapidly rising prices mean they can scarcely afford to think about it. Just getting fed is the priority.

Last week I covered a Resolution Foundation analysis that found that British people could very well end up poorer at the end of the current parliament in terms of their real inflation-adjusted disposable incomes, something that hasn’t happened since records started to be kept back in 1955.

This actually goes way beyond supermarkets. You’ll pay a premium for an electric car, for example. Solar panels can reduce your electricity bills. But they’re expensive and it can be years before the purchase price is paid off.

These choices are simply not open to people who don’t have the money to invest in them.

One way to assist with this is, obviously, to tailor the tax system so that it favours sustainable purchasing. Electric cars are a good example of this in action: they’re a lot cheaper to run, and to tax, so at least some of the premium eventually comes back.

There has been much discussion about green taxes and whether the public will wear them, but rather less about green incentives. Perhaps it’s time to change that.

The Earth matters. It really does. The cost to all of us will be brutal if it isn’t protected.

But while it’s possible to be cynical about Asda’s motives, the central thrust of its press release is spot on. Price matters too. The issue needs to be addressed.