An overwhelming 97 percent of Chinese consumers care about the environment; and almost as many would boycott products made by companies which are insensitive to pollution.

These are the findings of a recent survey among 9,000 consumers from nine major countries that included the United States, Russia and Australia.

Global market intelligence solutions provider Global Market Insite Inc (GMI), found that the figure for consumers avoiding goods made by polluting companies 96 per cent in China to be the highest among the countries in the survey.

Only those with access to the Internet were polled and the majority of the 1,000 people surveyed in China were from four big cities: Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, said Benny Huang, GMI's director of marketing for Asia Pacific.

The Chinese interviewees included civil servants, university students, company employees and other well-educated people, Huang said, adding that the results could not be extrapolated to those living in rural areas or those who do not use the Internet.

The results were released to coincide with the upcoming International Earth Day on March 20.

Chinese consumers also ranked first in saving electricity and gas, as well as water 73 per cent and 78 per cent.

In the past year, Chinese consumers also performed the following environmentally-friendly acts:

99 per cent used low-energy-consuming light bulbs at home;

More than 94 per cent avoided buying products whose packaging causes potential environment hazards;

93 per cent did not buy a particular product because of excessive packaging;

More than 92 per cent bought toilet paper or kitchen towels made from recycled paper.

(China Daily 03/17/2006 page1)