Communicating sustainability in the food industry

: the impact of carbon labels on the willingness to pay for food products

Abstract

This thesis aims to investigate the impact of carbon labels on the willingness to pay in thecontext of the food industry. Thereby, the study is intended to pursue the overall objective ofpromoting sustainable consumption. While exploring this research field, a carbon neutral labeland a newly carbon footprint and traffic light code label were developed and tested. Additionally, the study examines whether trust, social identity and environmental concern contribute to explain the results. For this purpose, an experimental online survey was conducted to compare four in a between subjects approach. Therefore, the willingness to pay, trust, social identity, environmental concern, and demographic characteristics were measured. The participants were exposed to 10 different food products to test their willingness to pay. These were manipulated with none, one, or a combination of two or all carbon labels. In total, data from 121 participants were collected, processed, and analyzed. The results showed two significant effects among the labels, namely the carbon footprint label and an interaction effect of the traffic light code and carbon foot printlabel on the willingness to pay for food products. This research validates a significantly higher willingness to pay for the carbon footprint label from The Carbon Trust and an interaction effect of the traffic light code and carbon foot printlabel for food products.

Date of Award	28 Jan 2022
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Cláudia Simão (Supervisor)