Transforming New Middle Class Carbon Consumption Patterns

December 2017

Members of the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) Philippines’ The Sustainable Diner: A Key Ingredient for Sustainable Tourism project team met with Dr. Babette Never, a Senior Research Fellow from the German Development Institute, last December 12, 2017 at the WWF-Philippines Headquarters in Quezon City. Dr. Never and the team shared insights, learnings, and plans for their respective projects - both of which focus on transforming consumption patterns to help middle-income specific industries emit less carbon. Dr. Never’s project, “Sustainable Middle Classes in Middle Income Countries: Transforming Carbon Consumption Pattern”, aims to test concrete interventions on individual consumer behavior and the impact of consumer groups among the middle classes in Ghana, Peru, and the Philippines when it comes to changing consumption patterns towards more sustainable lifestyles in the most carbon intensive sectors.

The team shared with Dr. Never initial results of their consumer market research activities, specific to the dining and restaurant consumption behaviors and patterns of Filipinos, most of which come from the middle class. Marketing and communications best practices were also discussed since both projects deal with the concept of sustainability in terms of retail consumption. According to Dr. Never’s project primer, understanding why the middle class consumers choose a certain product and/or use it in a certain way will shed light on current and future developments in consumption patterns, and that knowing the 'why' will help make the 'how' of consumption more sustainable.

The Sustainable Diner team is looking forward to collaborating with Dr. Never’s team throughout the three-year duration of the sustainable consumption and production project!

The Sustainable Diner project, under WWF-Philippines’ Sustainable Consumption and Production, is part of the International Climate Initiative (IKI). The Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Building and Nuclear Safety (BMUB) supports this initiative on the basis of a decision adopted by the German Bundestag.​