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4. Ethical concerns
Related to the ‘back to nature’ theme but
separate is another value shift influencing a
growing proportion of consumer decisions and
social behaviour. These can broadly be described
as ethical concerns. They include issues such as
social justice, human rights, environment and fair
trade. Deepening anxiety about climate change
has focused attention on the consumer’s impact
on the wider world. These are not new issues for
a small and growing minority since the 1970s.
What has changed with growing affluence,
greater consumer sophistication and more
education is our ability to apply principles
to more and more purchases.
Research suggests that whereas home buying is
not a typical purchase decision because of the
size, significance and investment value, ethical
concerns are increasingly influencing how people
weigh up the factors when buying a home. Onethird
of all potential purchasers already claim
that green features make a home more attractive
and 5% would pay “substantially more” for them.
Implication 4: Irrespective of government plans
for CO2 emissions, every new scheme should now
be looking how to connect to sustainable energy
suppliers, as well as building in energy-saving
devices and storage for recycling. Water saving
and reuse features will have increased appeal,
not least to the gardener, while environmentally
conscious construction should be pursued and
marketed as part of the specification.
5. Essential time release
The most inescapable facet of modern life is the
growing sense of pressure on time. Two-thirds
of us feel that there is never enough time in the
day. This is most acute among families with
dependent children (dubbed ‘Britain’s hard
working families’ by successive politicians) the
majority of whom now have two working parents
and a time famine in their daily lives as they
struggle to balance the demands of work,
domestic labour and their desire to participate
as fully as possible in the lives of their children.
There is renewed debate about improving the
work-life balance among both women and men,
as women spend more time at work and men
are expected to engage emotionally with their
children and participate more in family life.
The statistics show that men spend nearly twice
as much time with children today compared with
the 1960s. For both men and women, the desire
to reclaim a sense of control over time and
increase ‘personal time’ is a growing aspiration.
Implication 5: 9% of the working population now
work from home on a part-time basis, growing
to 16% in the next 10 years. So there is a need
for flexible space to allow for home working.
Labour-saving devices will also be popular, along
with plans that allow parents to get on with tasks
while keeping an eye on children (multitasking
carers). Convenience and time-saving are key,
along with spaces in which to relax and enjoy any
precious time recaptured from busy schedules.
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