Oostenbrink, Mark (2021) Relating Consumers’ Perceived utility of Water Footprints to Reducing Water Consumption. Bachelor thesis.
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Abstract
Water scarcity is presumed to be a growing problem in our world and questions arise whether it is possible to enjoy a secured food supply for much longer in the future. Tools to measure to what extent water is consumed are useful to calculate whether food supply and the environment are at risk. Water footprints calculate the entirety of water consumed for producing a single product, for production in a country, for the entire production cycle of a single crop among more. This study poses the question ‘To what extent does knowledge of water footprints increase the willingness of reducing consumption of water by consumers?’ to explore the utility of water footprints in having individuals make an effort of reducing their water consumption. By collecting quantitative data from individual consumers via a questionnaire, this research has been able to conduct a multiple linear regression. This analysis shows a significance of 0,000 on a positive relation between consumer’s willingness to reduce water consumption on one hand and consumer’s knowledge about water footprints and consumer’s awareness of water scarcity as a problem on the other hand with a correlation value of 0,522. Herewith, the research shows there is a sizeable contribution from using water footprints to countering water consumption. Nonetheless, water footprints may be very misinterpretable and might mislead consumers into thinking they are protecting environmental principles with their choices when in fact they aren’t. To elaborate on the main research question, this study attempts to answer the questions ‘How do consumers interpret a water footprint?’ and ‘To what extent do consumers think water scarcity is a problem?’. The utility consumers mostly relate to water footprints is that of measuring an individual’s water footprint.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Bachelor) |
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| Degree programme: | Human Geography and Planning |
| Supervisor: | Mallon, G. |
| Date Deposited: | 16 Feb 2021 10:50 |
| Last Modified: | 17 Feb 2021 10:52 |
| URI: | https://frw.studenttheses.ub.rug.nl/id/eprint/3435 |
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