Covid-19 Pandemic Impacted 9 in 10 Surveyed Consumers’ Views on Sustainability
The COVID-19 pandemic has elevated consumers’ focus on sustainability and willingness to pay out of their own pockets – or even take a pay cut – for a sustainable future, according to a new IBM Institute for Business Value (IBV) survey of over 14,000 consumers in nine countries.
Nine in 10 consumers surveyed reported the COVID-19 pandemic affected their views on environmental sustainability, and COVID-19 was the top factor cited in influencing their view.
According to the survey, many consumers are increasingly willing to change how they shop, travel, choose an employer and even where they make personal investments due to environmental sustainability factors.
Half of the consumers surveyed globally agreed that climate change exposure of a company, impacts investor’s financial risk. At 70%, Indian consumers have the highest levels of association of climate risk with financial risk.
According to the survey, 85 percent of Indian respondents say that environmentally sustainable companies are more attractive employers.
Further, 93% of Indian respondents believe that their personal travel habits contribute to climate change at least a little. This is the highest across all countries surveyed. In addition, 95% of Indian respondents are actively looking to use more environmental friendly modes of transportation at least a little- also highest across all countries surveyed.
Moreover, 78% of consumers in India are most willing to change their purchasing behavior to reduce a negative impact on the environment – highest across all countries surveyed. Interestingly, 42% of Indian respondents relied on word-of-mouth to get this information. According to the survey, 63% of the respondentsin India research on personal health and wellbeing benefits information of products before purchase.
Continuous Virtual Meetings can Make You Stressed, Take Mini Breaks in Between
A new Microsoft research has concluded that continuous video calls without breaks can reduce focus and even trigger stress.
For the study, the researchers at Microsoft asked 14 people to take part in video calls over two days. These people were made to wear electroencephalogram (EEG) equipment – a cap that is able to monitor brain wave activity.
As for the experiment, the 14 people conducted four half-hour meetings, one after the other, on one day. On the next day, they were made to take 10-minute breaks between the same amount of meetings. During the break, the participants were made to use the meditation app Headspace.
The recordings from the EEG during both days confirmed that back-to-back virtual meetings could make one stressed. No breaks in between the meetings led to a spike in stress levels. This spike was even more noticeable just when the participants were shifting from one meeting to another.
On the contrary, the day the participants were made to take short breaks between the meetings, they were found to be more relaxed and focused. Breaks between the meetings let them reset their brains and hence engage in the next activity with renewed focus.
Based on the study, Microsoft launched a new Outlook feature recently that sets shorter meetings on the service by default. In addition to the limited duration, the new feature also encourages users to take breaks between each of the meetings.
The default settings on Microsoft Teams now have been updated to start meetings five minutes after the hour. This would give people a 5-minute window for a breather before any meeting conducted through the service.
