On National Day, we launched the "Study of the 4 Romanias"

05 DEC 2023

On National Day, we launched the "Study of the 4 Romanias" together with our partners from Cult Research and in partnership with EfdeN.

In 2023, together with our strategic partners from Cult Research and in partnership with EfdeN, we conducted and launched the Barometer of Responsible Romania, BARES, referred to by our researchers (Romanian, not British!) as "The Study of the 4 Romanias".

We'll tell you why below, please bear with us as there are some more technical explanations to follow:

The Barometer of Responsible Romania - BARES - is a Research & Development initiative created in 2022. In 2023, EFdeN joined us with energy (there is a pun there because EFdeN is an NGO leader in promoting green energy and prosumership in our country).

But back to our study - we used an online methodology and a nationally relevant sample, with a margin of error of 3.3%. We used the LOHAS (Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability) segmentation method for the first time in Romania.

The study investigates six key dimensions: three focused on the individual's attitude towards their own life and well-being: Physical Health, Mental Balance, and Emotional Balance. The next three are focused on the individual's attitude towards the environment and community: Spirituality, Societal consciousness, and Ecology.

Some conclusions about Romanians as a whole: as an area of interest, Ecology (average 7.27) is in second place, surpassed only by Emotional Balance (7.70), but being ranked higher than the areas of Physical Health (7.25), Mental Balance (6.94), Societal consciousness (6.53), Spirituality (5.94).

Regarding the interest in ecology - the highest ranked is the expectation of Romanians that large companies will truly engage in environmental responsibility by creating sustainable and affordable products and services (average 8.39)

At the opposite pole is the interest of Romanians for their own purchasing decisions to be based on the environmental impact of products (6,50).

And now here's why researchers say we have "4 Romanias": the BARES segmentation identified 4 segments based on the significant differences in reporting by respondents to the 6 dimensions investigated:

1. Sustainability vanguards. They are satisfied with their lifestyle, are interested in ecology and have a developed social behavior. They are the only category concerned with societal and ecological well-being - they represent 36% of the total population.

2. Self-centered. They are satisfied with their current lifestyle, take care of their health (physical and emotional), but emphasize individualism. They are not interested in spirituality, ecology, or societal consciousness – 22%

3. Social spectators. They have an average satisfaction with their lifestyle, do not want to get involved civically or make changes. This segment has average to low ratings on all dimensions analyzed  - 26%

4. Socially disconnected. They are not satisfied with aspects related to diet, mental and emotional health, or spirituality. They are not interested in ecology or civic involvement and societal consciousness – 16%

 

Why we made BARES:

Because this study offers a fresh perspective on our self-knowledge, as Romanians and citizens – at a much finer resolution and scientifically verified. In addition, it comes with a much more applied approach and is a very useful contribution for institutional partners (state authorities, academia, NGO) as well as for business partners - in terms of education, promotion of ESG standards and promotion of products and services that benefit the environment and the community.

Moreover, to conduct an extensive testing and demonstrate the application of "The Study of the 4 Romanias,", we investigated the attitudes and behaviors of Romanians towards responsible energy and green energy-based equipment from the BARES perspective. Thus, we investigated the segment of prosumers and potential prosumers (those who want to become prosumers). We found that among the current Romanian prosumers (we are happy to have reached 100,000 prosumers), 44% are sustainability vanguards, 22% self-centered, 23% social spectators and 13% socially disconnected. The main motivators are financial savings, energy independence, and interest in reducing carbon footprint.

Another interesting "green" behavior investigated was the intention to purchase electric vehicles. 25% of Romanians declared that they want to purchase electric vehicles, and the distribution of these from a BARES perspective is as follows: 33% of Sustainability vanguards, 28% of Self-Centered, 23% of Social Spectators and 15% of Socially Disconnected - would like an electric car.

What we will do next with BARES - correlations with the previous year and we hope wholeheartedly with the future ones. Correlations and comparisons with other countries that have implemented the LOHAS methodology and we want educational and commercial partnerships.

paul.kasprovschi@grf.plus