The perspective of environmental sustainability from Finnish consumers viewpoint on eco-friendliness and corporate governance

Abstract

This study aims to form a general understanding of sustainability, its building blocks, and corporate governance of environmental matters. Also, with the help of the empirical part, the opinions, and points of view of Finnish consumers are studied and analyzed since there has not been research on the topic limited to Finland. The goal is to conclude that taking environmental sustainability into account in business creates additional value for companies’ stakeholders and how companies could improve their corporate governance of environmental matters, especially in terms of the parts that are visible to the consumers as well. Quantitative research was conducted by collecting answers to a survey that consisted of different multiple-choice questions regarding the topic. The data collected was analyzed and presented with different graphs and values to draw conclusions based on the survey results. Overall, according to the research, consumers in Finland are aware of environmental matters when they are buying products and services. Most of them are also, at least sometimes, actively searching for environmentally friendly alternatives when shopping, but only a few of them are willing to pay a noticeably higher price for eco-friendly products. However, most consumers still expect companies to take environmental concerns into account in their strategic planning and think it gives a positive picture of the company.