According to surveys recently carried out in Spain and Italy (respectively by WWF-España and DNV-Det Norske Veritas), more and more consumers seem to consider the production methods and environmental respect of the products they buy.

In detail, it seems that 2 Italian out of 3 aim at an ecosustainable food shopping: 70% of the Italian consumers surveyed pay attention to ethical and social matters, 65% to environmental aspects and as much as 83% of them value productions low in CO2 emissions.
DNV’s study in Italy also examined industry companies, 83% of which are convinced that the attention to environmental and social-ethical issues will increase in following years. Even 41% of them revealed that they have already planned concrete initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of their products, as this is a matter that will increasingly influnce consumers' purchasing choices.

In Spain, the Spanish edition of the Deeper Luxury market survey - carried out by WWF-España and presented in Madrid at the recent IED Moda Lab - analyzes the economical, social and environmental context of the leading brands in the fashion industry. According to this, Ecoalimenta specialized web magazine reported, over half of Spanish consumers take into consideration the environmental sustainability of the products they choose. Even 9 consumers out of 10 say they never buy those brands that are known as not being ethical and responsible. The study also highlights the benefits of “sustainability luxury” in fashion.

However, according to another market survey carried out by Nielsen last year, only 13% of Spanish consumers buy this kind of products (4 percentage points below the European average), while 2 out of 3 think that their price is too high”.

But Jem Bendell, consultant and author of the study, claims that the fashion luxury industry is one of the “few that are not suffering from the economic crisis: some companies in this sectos reached a profit improvement by 11% in the first three months 2009”.

“Sustainable luxury could help Spain getting out of the economic downturn”, since consumers are looking for “a social and environmental added value”.