Chapter 8. Consumer understanding of sustainability in Iceland

In Iceland, it was not possible to recruit a similar sample in terms of size and representativeness criteria as the other Nordic-Baltic countries. Selected main results from Iceland are presented in this chapter, however, caution should be taken to the limitations in terms of comparability of these results with the broader context of the other countries presented in the previous chapters due to the concerns about sample size and especially representativeness criteria.

The demographic characteristics of the Icelandic sample comprising of 109 participants can be seen in Table 20. These show that the sample was less balanced than in the other countries, therefore not close to being representative.

In Iceland, the environment, own production and reuse and recycling were among the most mentioned aspects in relation to sustainability in general. Table 21 provides an overview of example aspects covered under the main codes. 

The majority of respondents in Iceland associated sustainability in general with ‘achieving the circular green transition and innovating new technologies’, but this was closely followed by ‘fair share of resources between us, other people, and the people after us’. The pair of words ‘environmentally-friendly, healthy’ is the most commonly thought of as reflecting sustainability, however, ‘circular, innovative’ was also seen as closely linked to sustainability (Table 22). Thus, circularity and innovation are aspects that people associate with sustainability in addition to share of resources and environmental aspects. In addition, future generations are considered as reflecting sustainability by many respondents as well.

When it comes to sustainability within food, the most important dimensions for respondents in Iceland were ‘pollution reduction’ and ‘nature preservation’, whereas ‘culture’ or ‘economic growth’ were least important (Table 23).

The most common aspects associated with sustainability in the food domain by respondents in Iceland were ‘less food waste’, ‘minimising carbon emissions when producing goods’, ‘less energy used to transport products’ and ‘recyclable packaging’ (Table 24).

Table 24. Issues associated with food sustainability understanding in Iceland

As in the other countries, respondents in Iceland tended to see some level of conflict between ‘economic growth’ and ‘sustainable development goals’. On the other hand, ‘healthy eating’ and ‘sustainable eating’ are seen as supporting each other (Table 25).

In terms of perceptions of sustainability at the product category level, the attributes relevant for choosing a sustainable product in the various product categories differed (Table 26). In the meat and the dairy categories, ‘animal welfare’ and ‘antibiotics use’ are among the most important considerations, as well as ‘country of origin’ in meat and ‘organic production method’ in dairy. ‘Country of origin’ and ‘organic production method’ were among the top considerations for fresh fruits and vegetables as well, together with ‘pesticides use’. This shows that aspects of relevance to specific categories play an important role for respondents, such as animal welfare in animal-based products and pesticides use in plant-based products. The most notable differences were between sweet and savoury snacks and the other categories. In the case of sweet and savoury snacks, ‘nutrition or health-related information’, ‘type of packaging (recyclable or not)’ and ‘climate impact (CO2 emissions)’ were among the aspects prioritised by respondents in Iceland.

Respondents had difficulties comparing different products in terms of how sustainable they are. Even though respondents understand to some extent what sustainability refers to, they have different aspects that they look for in the different product categories and they have a hard time to assess sustainability at the product level. There was a tendency to perceive ‘potatoes’ as more sustainable than ‘rice’, but the remaining comparisons were less clear cut in their outcome (Table 27).

Respondents in Iceland are generally interested in sustainability and sustainability labelling in food, however, as in the other countries they believe that they do not know a lot about sustainability labelling. When it comes to a hypothetical common sustainability labelling scheme for food in the EU, respondents in Iceland hold positive attitudes towards such a labelling scheme and are willing to use it when choosing food (Table 28).

Table 28. Attitudes and knowledge of sustainability labelling in food Iceland