The Fifth China Branding Roundtable has taken place in Beijing on the 18th and 19th of this month.

As we were there to get and share insights on the changing nature of Chinese consumers we have also happened to listen to interesting findings regarding the attitude Chinese consumers have towards the environment.

Apparently, “going green” is becoming a growing trend in China and actually a much stronger one comparing to Europe or the US. In fact, a research conducted jointly by WPP agencies Landor Associates, Cohn & Wolfe and Penn, Schoen & Berland Associates has revealed that 31% of Chinese consumers rank a healthy environment as a higher priority than a healthy economy. This compares with only 17% of consumers in the U.S. and 28% in Great Britain.

It might be also worth noticing that some of the top green product categories are housecleaning products, cosmetics and groceries – in short products that might affect directly consumers’ health. This could suggest that personal safety is one of the main drivers behind this rising interest towards the environment, which makes particularly sense in light of the recent milk powder crisis.

So China is not only ready but also expecting an offering in green products. Contrarily to what many may have argued, there is a big - and as we speak probably growing – market in China for environment friendly products. The real question now is: how fast can your brand address consumer needs in this sense?