Sustainable Consumption and the Fair Trade Idea Versus the Consumption Behavior of Young Singles in Poland

Abstract

Purpose: The article is a research paper. The aim of this study is to provide some insight into the consumption behavior of young Polish singles that conform to the idea of sustainable consumption and the fair trade movement. Design/methodology: The methodological part synthetically discusses the conceptualization of research and selection of the research sample. The empirical part, based on the research conducted by the author, examines young Polish singles’ pro-environmental behaviors that can be defined as sustainable consumption and are aligned with the fair trade idea. The analysis is based on a survey questionnaire administered from 1 October to 30 March 2022 in a sample of 2587 young singles who made independent decisions in the market. Findings: The methodological part synthetically discusses the conceptualization of research and selection of the research sample. The empirical part, based on the research conducted by the author, examines young Polish singles’ pro-environmental behaviors that can be defined as sustainable consumption and are aligned with the fair trade idea. The analysis is based on a survey questionnaire administered from 1 October to 30 March 2022 in a sample of 2587 young singles who made independent decisions in the market. The information from the survey shows that young Polish singles implement the idea of fully sustainable consumption to a small extent and that some of them interpret the essence of sustainable consumption incorrectly. The proportion of young respondents who declared that they acted in line with the idea of sustainable consumption was much higher among women than men as well as among university graduates, those earning a monthly income of more than PLN 4000.00, and mostly living in large urban agglomerations. Furthermore, the information obtained reveals that sustainable consumption is not fully understood by the respondents, as evidenced by the fact that nearly half of young singles indicated financial costs as the main barrier to sustainable consumption. In turn, for those with the highest income, the main obstacle in this respect was a lack of time. The results of the survey have confirmed that young singles have poor knowledge of labels referring to eco-friendliness, the environment and fair trade, showing that the sample surveyed is characterized by low awareness of eco-labeling, that is the idea of placing green labels on products that are least harmful to the environment. Research limitations/ implication: Given the limited financial capacity, the study of sustainable consumption and fair trade in the consumption behavior of young singles was confined to an online survey. This affected the research sample (N = 2587). Thus, the conclusions should not be treated as representative of the population of young Polish singles. They only provide some insight into their actual consumption behaviors as part of sustainable consumption and fair trade. Originality/value: Despite the indicated limitations, the obtained results allowed for partially filling the gap ensuing from the lack of primary research on sustainable behavior of young Polish singles.