From sustainable Christmas wrapping paper to COP26: do our individual actions really count?

British clothing brand Fat Face came up with a brilliant idea on how to re-use their shopping bags as Christmas wrapping paper. They launched a short video to show to their customers how to craft this beautiful Xmas wrapping from their paper bags. Setting the trend so that shortly after other retailers, such as Primark followed suit.

Also, in the light of the COP26 agenda that brought up the topic of individual impact that each of us can have on the planet, we want to understand if people truly feel empowered in their ability to change the world for the better and if the little things like reusable wrapping paper are believed to build into the greater impact that really counts?

So we decided to ask British people what they think about this idea and COP26 in general.

What did we test? Fat Face mindful wrapping paper short movie

Who did we target? National representative sample of Brits between 18 and 65 y.o.

How was it tested? We used the Concept Test solution on the Fastuna platform. Online panel respondents were sent a survey link to their email. After watching a short video, they answered our survey questions. We also added bespoke questions about what they personally do to support the sustainability agenda and also if they believe that their actions really make a difference regarding building a better world and whether they can influence decisions that are made during the COP26 summit.

Majority of Brits loved the idea. The overall perception score was 79 out of 100, which is good according to Fastuna standardised norms. Other important KPIs such as clarity, overall appeal, believability, relevance and purchase intent are all in the 'green' zone. Knowing how much the Brits love Christamas wrapping, we are not surprised to see those high scores! Many saw it as a win-win: one saves the environment and gets beautiful Christmas wrapping paper for free.

We are living in a rather environmentally conscious society today already, where awareness of all the different ways one can live a more sustainable lifestyle is high thanks to all of the green communication strategies out there. Majority of Brits recycle and reuse items in their household as part of their contribution to a more sustainable way of life (86%). This is followed by saving energy at home (74%), saving water (68%) and donating items (64%) to those in need, in order to reduce overall consumption. A surprising 22% of green fingered participants grow their own produce!

So, on a broader scale of things and in light of COP26, do those individual actions count?

First of all, we could see quite low engagement with the COP26 agenda. While the majority have heard about the COP26 summit which has taken place this November in Glasgow 43% know very little about it. 33% of customers followed news about the summit from time to time, while only 13% were strongly invested.

So, when asked about the impact they feel they could have on the decisions that are being made within the COP26 summit, respondents were split in their views. About the same amount felt that they could have some sort of influence over what is happening there as those who felt that they couldn’t have any influence whatsoever.

Now, back to sustainable wrapping paper. People absolutely loved the idea of reusing a paper bag to wrap their presents for Christmas as on top of all the fun they can have with it, they are helping the environment. Well done FatFace for coming up with this clever idea! And kudos to the majority of Brits who take action towards sustainability. But do they feel their actions count on a bigger scale to the extent they can impact the decisions that are made in the COP26 summit? Unfortunately not —there is still a big gap between us, the average consumers and them, leaders and decision makers at the summit. How to close this gap? We are sure that the agenda and the decisions made within the summit will start to trickle down to the average consumer very soon via media, social media and regulatory bodies for businesses. However communication needs to be a two way street and leaders need to have a channel for feedback in order to stay in touch with the average consumer.