Green Investing Seeing Slow Growth Among Consumers

85% of Consumers in Southeast Asia feel that their individual actions can collectively create a significant impact on the environment yet only 1 in 10 are investing in green sectors.

Ahead of Earth Day 2023, Southeast Asian consumer research company Milieu Insight conducted a survey to understand consumer and investor interests towards green financing and investments. The survey was conducted with 4800 respondents living across Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam in March and April 2023.

In summarizing the findings, 85% of respondents believe that the choices of individual consumers can collectively create a significant impact on the environment. However, only 54% have chosen to adopt more environment-friendly lifestyles such as reducing the use of plastics or recycling.

On the green finance side, 11% of respondents in Southeast Asia are actively making green investments. Among the countries surveyed, Malaysia is at the forefront of the green finance movement with the highest proportion of green investors at 17%, while Thailand had the lowest at only 6%. 70% of respondents who have backed green investments have increased their allocation in the last 2 years, indicating an optimistic outlook towards contributing to a more sustainable future.

67% of respondents started investing in the environment because of concerns about protecting the environment for future generations, 48% want to allocate some of their investment portfolio to purposeful projects, and 43% were influenced by friends or family.

What are people investing in?

• Top 3 sectors for green investments: Waste management (eg. recycling facilities) (57%), Renewable energy (eg. solar energy) (54%), Green transportation (eg. electric vehicles) (50%).
• Renewable energy was the top investment sector in Thailand (74%) and Singapore (62%), with investors in also attracted to green transportation (61%).

Investors cited top motivators that would influence their decisions to allocate more funds towards green projects: positive environmental impact (76%), improved market stability (48%), regulations on green reporting, higher financial returns and government incentives (39% each).

While the world becomes increasingly aware of the need to tackle climate change, more than half (53%) who have yet to invest are willing to do so in the future, and 41% remain uncertain about investing in the green sector.

Ed.  Photo by Towfiqu Barbhuiya on Unsplash. Milieu Insight is a consumer research and data analytics company tha operates in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam known for its expertise in providing brands and businesses with valuable insights and market research data.