Green Consumerism in Young Adults: Attitudes and Awareness in University Students in Johannesburg, South Africa

Unsustainable resource consumption is one factor that inhibits the achievement of the 12th Sustainable Development Goal on sustainable consumption and production patterns [1,2,3,4]. Both developed and developing countries are involved in unsustainable use of resources for economic growth purposes to improve their populations’ quality of life [5]. However, unsustainable consumption harms the environment, exhausts natural resources, and makes it more difficult for the future generation to meet their basic needs [6]. As a result, global sustainable development is compromised; thus, there is a need for practical solutions. Green consumerism is one of the most crucial solutions to unsustainable consumption [7,8]. According to [9], green consumerism and sustainable consumption are often interchanged as similar terms. However, sustainable consumption focuses on using products that have a less negative impact on the environment. In contrast, green consumerism involves products and services, such as recycling, that have less environmental impact.

Green consumerism awareness and concern have significantly increased over the past three decades, particularly in countries with more developed economies like the United States of America and Western Europe [10,11]. Green consumerism is choosing goods and services that have minimal damage to people, animals, and the environment [12]. It involves environmentally friendly production and packaging, energy conservation, waste minimization, recycling, and social conduct [13].

Customers’ behavior has altered over the past few decades due to growing environmental concerns to the extent that consumers are encouraged to change their purchasing behavior by using environmentally friendly alternatives [14,15]. Due to this, more and more consumers are searching for green products and are willing to pay more for them [16]. Customers who consume green products are called green consumers [17]. Green consumers strongly believe that buying and using products directly impacts protecting the environment; hence, they advocate for goods that are less likely to jeopardize human health or harm the environment [18]. Consumers’ growing ecological concern has resulted in a dramatic rise in the demand for environmentally friendly goods worldwide [19,20]. This has, therefore, created a global green economy [21]. The green economy is defined as a type that considerably reduces negative environmental impacts and resource scarcity while improving people’s quality of life and social equality [22]. It is rooted in a low-carbon economic system that seeks to reduce pollution levels, energy usage, and efficiency while enhancing human life [23]. The green economy is recognized in many countries over the world, such as Vietnam [3], Bangladesh [8], the United States [9], Germany [13], South Korea and China [24], Ghana [25], and South Africa [26]. Young consumers play a huge role in contributing to the green economy and have the potential to grow this type of economy because they are more aware of sustainable living [27,28]. They are also a significant aspect of green consumerism because they have purchasing power, to the extent that in 2023, they contributed US$480 billion to the economy [29]. This shows that they have exceptional purchasing power. Therefore, their attitude toward green consumerism is significant. This study focuses on the awareness and attitudes of students towards green consumerism. Despite their importance in contributing to the green economy, research has minimally considered customers’ shifting attitudes and behavior towards green consumerism [30,31]. This study contributes to the existing literature on the awareness and attitudes of young consumers regarding green consumerism. Studies such as [32] focus on specific aspects of green consumerism, such as recycling. However, this study focuses on green consumerism and the factors influencing its awareness. Moreover, the study contributes to the existing literature on the factors that influence the purchasing behavior of young consumers. It comprises various sections such as theoretical framework, materials and methods, results, discussion, and conclusion.