The French are ever more vigilant about the impact of their consumption.

DATE DE PUBLICATION 12/06/2023

Responsible and socially committed consumption

An Odoxa survey for France Active and Réseau Entreprendre®

The French are ever more vigilant about the impact of their consumption.

France Active and Réseau Entreprendre® join forces to boost the socially committed enterprises support in order to help them better meet expectations of the French.

The French has been polled about their consumption habits by Odoxa on behalf of France Active and Réseau Entreprendre®. Do they pay more attention to the impact of their purchases? Does the explosion in prices curb the desire for a responsible consumption? Do they trust companies with ethical commitments?

Although the French are now consumers who are sensitive to the impact of their purchases, many still consider it complicated to consume in a responsible and socially committed way. It’s against this backdrop that France Active and Réseau Entreprendre® have decided to join forces to support more and more committed socially entrepreneurs and help them better meet the expectations of the French.

More than 3 out of 4 French pay attention to the origin of their purchases

Societal and environmental concerns are now at the heart of the shopping baskets of the French: 77% of them say they are careful to ensure that their purchases are made in France or in their region, the criterion most cited ahead of environmental impact (63%) and societal impact (57%), which are nonetheless very important criteria for the population.

Nota bene: the need to consume “locally” is a strong trend in the French consumption evolution (+7 points since 2018).

When it comes to responsible consumption, food is the sector in which the French are most vigilant (69% of the French, and even 81% of those aged 65 and over), far ahead of hygiene and beauty products (33%) and clothing & accessories (24%).

Regarding services, they pay particular attention to the social and environmental impact of their holidays (35% of those aged between 18-24 years old, 43% of those aged between 25-30 years old), ahead of leisure activities (28%) and the bars & restaurants they go to (26%).

While the French declare themselves to be very attentive to the responsible and socially committed side of their purchases, more than 1 in 2 (53%) don’t check how the brands of their favorite products really behave in terms of societal and environmental impact.

Nevertheless, 75% of French people find responsible consumption difficult to achieve

3 out 4 French consider it complicated to consume in a responsible and socially committed way.

2 main reasons:

The French have strong doubts about the enterprises’ sincerity regarding social commitment (69%). Besides, a large majority of them (82%) trust more the small enterprises to produce responsibly.
They find the responsible products too expensive. In a period of high inflation, the “price” factor is important, even more so for the socio-economic group classification – (58%, versus 43% for the socio-economic group classification +).

Against this backdrop, almost 63% consider it’s up to the enterprises to lower their prices, although 36% declare themselves ready to pay more for responsible products even if it means to consume less. This intention is strong among young people (47% of those age between 18-24 years old and 49% of those aged between 25-34 years old).

8 out 10 French people would like to see more emphasis placed on responsible and socially committed companies. 81% say that we should raise awareness about social economy.

France Active and Réseau Entreprendre® join forces to develop their mutual support to impact enterprises and solidarity-based enterprises

Given that enterpreneurship should be a lever for the transformation of the society by addressing the social and environmental challenges, France Active and Réseau Entreprendre® build a partnership to increase their support to the entrepreneurs.

Both networks want to answer together to the expectations of French people who identify small enterprises as the first to be able to offer concrete solutions on social and environmental issues.

By joining forces and pooling their numerous points of contact throughout France (135 for Réseau Entreprendre® and 140 for France Active), the two networks are sharing their specific features to increase the impact and social commitment of entrepreneurs by :

Financing more impact entrepreneurs
Strengthening their support so that they can:
o help them grow and create jobs locally;
o better meet the expectations of the French, particularly in terms of responsible consumption, as demonstrated by this study.

Rémy Bourdier

Chairman of Réseau Entreprendre®

We are a community of socially committed entrepreneurs. As such, we’ve decided to do our part to meet the societal and environmental challenges of a world that’s changing faster and faster. This study, carried out with France Active, is a way of keeping abreast of the situation and ensuring that our local action, through the creation, takeover and development of socially committed businesses in the territories, meet the expectations of the French people.

Pierre-René Lemas

Chairman de France Active

This partnership will enable us to support and finance even more entrepreneurs. The 35 regional associations in our network will be able to advise and guide entrepreneurs around the 5 pillars of commitment that structure our entire approach. These are job creation, strengthening social ties, regional development, ecology, and governance. With Réseau Entreprendre®, we are convinced of the decisive role that these companies can play in transforming our society.