Delving into what pet parents think about sustainability claims

No longer just a buzzword, ‘sustainability’ has become part of daily life for businesses and consumers across the globe. Recent research by Euromonitor provides insights into the environmentally conscious purchasing choices of pet parents around the world. These findings can help companies in the pet care industry better align their product offerings with owners’ demands.

Regional differences in attitudes

When looking at the impact of the sustainability trend in the pet care sector, emerging regions show particular potential. The Middle East and Africa have the biggest share of pet owners committed to the environment.

According to Euromonitor’s 2024 data, 74.4% of pet owners in that region agree or strongly agree that they have a positive impact on the environment through their everyday actions. In second and third place are pet owners in Asia Pacific (68.3%) and South America (66.8%), respectively.

At a country level, the scores from pet parents in emerging markets like India, China, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Brazil range between 70 and 80%. This correlates with data showing that pet industry markets including Brazil, China, Mexico and Thailand have some of the highest absolute growth forecasts up to 2029.

Pet parents in mature regions such as North America (62.3%) and Europe (58.3%) show less strong attitudes towards the topic of sustainability. In countries including Belgium, Sweden and Denmark, only around 50% of pet owners say they try to have a positive impact on the environment.

Pet owners vs non-pet owners

So to what extent do the attitudes of pet owners translate into active involvement in green behavior, and how does this compare with non-pet owners? In the case of reduced meat consumption, 27.3% of pet owners are adopting this habit compared with 23.2% of non-pet owners.

A similar difference is apparent between pet owners and non-pet owners when it comes to buying sustainably produced items or using sustainable packaging.

The biggest sustainability-related concern for consumers around the world is the use of plastics. Here once again, slightly more pet owners express a willingness to reduce plastic usage compared with non-pet owners.

The term ‘natural’ is widely used by companies across multiple industries to catch the attention of consumers trying to avoid artificial ingredients or industrial production methods, and pet food companies are no exception. However, there can be significant variations in what consumers understand the term to mean.

According to Euromonitor’s survey data, pet owners associate it mostly with the absence of chemicals (44.5% of respondents), artificial additives (39.6%) or GMOs (30.8%). Just under a third of respondents regard ‘natural’ as also meaning ‘organic’, even though the terms have very different definitions.

Effect of sustainability claims

The percentage of pet owners taking sustainability related claims into account when purchasing products peaked in 2021. This coincided with the COVID pandemic period, which was key in pushing pet product sales globally.

Due to spending more time at home with their pets, consumers not only spent a bigger share of wallet on them, but also took more interest in higher quality and more sustainable products.

When various price increases happened throughout 2022, consumers had to budget more carefully and down-trade when purchasing pet products. Attention to sustainability-related claims decreased, and this trend continued in 2023.

What does the 2024 data say?

This year’s data shows a clear uptick for interest in such claims, in line with a less tense inflationary scenario and consumers being more open to looking for extra added value in their purchases.

This is especially remarkable in the case of products labeled as ‘organic’, with 24.3% of consumers now regarding this as an influential claim – putting it practically at the same level as ‘environmentally friendly’.

Another clear finding from the data is that the more generic the term is, the easier it is for manufacturers to succeed in attracting consumers’ attention. After all, ‘natural’ is more open to interpretation than claims such as ‘organic’ or ‘locally sourced’. Moreover, specific claims such as these will mostly require products to undergo certain checks or certifications.