SDG awareness exceeds 90%, nearly 90% view SDGs positively

Dentsu Inc. (President & CEO: Norihiro Kuretani; Head Office: Tokyo), today announced that it has conducted its sixth Consumer Survey on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs¹; hereinafter, "the survey," conducted from February 7 to 10, 2023), which was carried out by Dentsu Team SDGs, a working group across Dentsu Group companies in Japan tasked with promoting projects related to the SDGs. The survey gathered data from 1,400 male and female respondents between their 10s and 70s across Japan. The survey compares metrics including SDG awareness rates and information channels with past survey results, as well as analyzing the impact of corporate SDG initiatives on consumers. The Key findings of the survey are detailed below.

Key Findings
1. The SDG awareness rate is 91.6%. Compared with the first survey (February 2018), respondents indicating they are "aware, and understand the details, of the SDGs" increased more than 11-fold to 40.4%.
2. Ranked by prevalence, SDG information channels are television (63.5%), online news, information websites, social media, and apps (37.6%), and newspapers (23.8%). Social media (12.7%) ranks highest among males between their 10s and 20s.
3. 87.3% of respondents view the SDGs positively.
4. Among the 15 Sustainability-related themes,² awareness is highest for food loss (92.6%), gender equality (90.2%), and renewable energy (90.1%). Understanding is highest for food loss (35.9%), renewable energy (24.1%), and gender equality (22.8%).
5. 79.3% of respondents indicate they have a stronger positive impression of and are more favorably disposed to companies proactively engaged in SDG initiatives.

* The composition ratios in this release are rounded to the nearest unit. Consequently, some totals differ from the sum of the components shown.

Notes:
1. The goals were adopted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Summit in September 2015. The 193 member states of the UN General Assembly set the goals, hoping to achieve them between 2016 and 2030. All UN member states agreed on the 17 goals and 169 specific targets, with the objective of solving major global issues and building sustainable societies.
2. Fifteen Sustainability-related themes selected by Dentsu Team SDGs.


Details of Findings
1. The SDG awareness rate is 91.6%. Compared with the first survey (February 2018), respondents indicating they are "aware, and understand the details, of the SDGs" increased more than 11-fold to 40.4%.

• Awareness of the SDGs (sum of "I am aware, and understand the details, of the SDGs" and "I've heard the term") is 91.6%, an increase of more than five percentage points from 86.0% in the fifth survey (January 2022). The number of respondents indicating that they are "aware, and understand the details, of the SDGs" has increased to 40.4%, more than 11 times the 3.6 percentage points in the first survey (February 2018). [Charts 1 and 2]
• By gender and age, the number of respondents indicating they are "aware, and understand the details, of the SDGs" is highest among females and males in their 10s (72.4% and 58.5%, respectively). It is presumed that this age group's understanding of the content of the SDGs has been enhanced by the new school curriculum that reflects the concept of Education for Sustainable Development. The program was rolled out in elementary schools in April 2020, junior high schools in April 2021, and senior high schools in April 2022. [Chart 3]

Chart 1. Awareness of the SDGs
Answers by all 1,400 respondents to the question, "Are you familiar with the term 'SDGs'?"

Chart 2. Awareness of the SDGs (in chronological order, by survey)

Chart 3. Awareness of SDGs (by gender and age)

2. Ranked by prevalence, SDG information channels are television (63.5%), online news, information websites, social media, and apps (37.6%), and newspapers (23.8%). Social media (12.7%) ranks highest among males between their 10s and 20s.

• SDG information channels are television (63.5%), online news, information websites, social media, and apps (37.6%), and newspapers (23.8%), all of which continue to trend higher, as in the previous survey. [Chart 4]
• Regarding information channels, by gender and age, among respondents who indicated social media (12.7%), males in their 10s (33.1%) and 20s (34.0%) were over 20 percentage points more numerous than the overall number of respondents (12.7%). [Chart 5]

Chart 4. Pathways to awareness
The 1,283 respondents who indicated they "know or have heard of the SDGs" were asked where they usually see or hear about the SDGs, and to select multiple answers as appropriate.


Chart 5. Breakdown by gender and age of 163 respondents giving "social media" as their information channel

3. 87.3% of respondents view the SDGs positively.

• Among those aware of the SDGs, 87.3% responded positively, indicating that they have a good impression of the SDGs (sum of "very good impression," "good impression," and "somewhat good impression"). By gender and age, women in their 70s were the most numerous respondents at 96.5%. [Chart 6]

Chart 6. Impression of the SDGs
The 1,283 respondents indicating they "know or have heard of the SDGs" were asked about their impression of the SDGs.

4. Among the 15 Sustainability-related themes, awareness is highest for food loss (92.6%), gender equality (90.2%), and renewable energy (90.1%). Understanding is highest for food loss (35.9%), renewable energy (24.1%), and gender equality (22.8%).

• Regarding the 15 Sustainability-related themes, awareness (sum of "know enough to explain the content in detail," "know enough to explain the basic content," "know the content somewhat, but not enough to explain it," and "have only heard of the content") is highest for food loss (92.6%), gender equality (90.2%), and renewable energy (90.1%). Understanding (sum of "know enough to explain the content in detail" and "know enough to explain the basic content") is highest for food loss (35.9%), renewable energy (24.1%), and gender equality (22.8%). Improving overall levels of understanding and expanding awareness of themes that are not well known are issues to be addressed in the future. [Chart 7]

Chart 7. Awareness and understanding of SDG-related themes by all 1,400 respondents

5. 79.3% of respondents indicated they have a stronger positive impression and are more favorably disposed to companies proactively engaged in SDG initiatives.

• 79.3% of respondents indicated they have a stronger positive impression and are more favorably disposed to companies that proactively allocate budgets and personnel to address the SDGs (sum of respondents indicating "very impactful" or "somewhat impactful" for any of the items in Chart 9). Specific items that rank highly include, "Strengthens my positive impression of the company" (59.1%), "Increases my favorable impression of the company/Makes me want to support the company" (56.5%), and "Increases my trust in the company" (55.9%). These results suggest that communicating SDG initiatives to consumers helps improve the company's reputation. [Charts 8 and 9]
• Among the respondents indicating they have a more positive impression of companies that proactively allocate budgets and personnel to address the SDGs, the themes they most want companies to actively promote are food loss (63.2%), renewable energy (58.6%), and climate change initiatives (46.5%). [Chart 10]

Chart 8. Impact of corporate SDG initiatives on all 1,400 respondents

Chart 9. Impact of corporate SDG initiatives on all 1,400 respondents
What impact do you think companies' proactive allocation of budgets and personnel to SDG initiatives have on each of the following items? Please choose responses that are closest to your opinions.

Chart 10. Themes that the 827 respondents choosing "Strengthens my positive impression of the company" want companies to actively promote
Please select any of the following 15 themes that you would like to see actively promoted, especially by companies in Japan.

Comment by Mr. Maher Nasser
Director of Outreach Division, Department of Global Communications, United Nations

At the halfway point to achieve the SDGs in 2030, when SDG implementation is not on track and even facing additional challenges in many parts of the world, it is heartwarming to note the continued rise in awareness and recognition of the SDGs in Japan, and more so, the fact that over 87% of respondents view the SDGs positively. Awareness and positive sentiments around the SDGs in Japan provide a firm ground for a transformational shift in implementation in all sectors. When almost 80% of the respondents state that they have a strong positive impression of and are more favorably disposed to companies that are proactively engaged in SDG-initiatives, it will be important to ensure that engagement in SDG-initiatives is substantive and authentic, in Japan and beyond.

Survey Overview




References
The first survey was released on April 4, 2018 (conducted from February 6 to 7, 2018)
https://www.dentsu.co.jp/news/release/2018/0404-009518.html (Japanese only)

The second survey was released on April 22, 2019 (conducted from February 7 to 18, 2019)
https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/2019/0422-009821.html (English)

The third survey was released on April 27, 2020 (conducted from January 18 to 19, 2020)
https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/2020/0427-010046.html (English)

The fourth survey was released on April 26, 2021 (conducted from January 22 to 25, 2021)
https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/2021/0426-010368.html (English)

The fifth survey was released on April 27, 2022 (conducted from January 17 to 21, 2022)
https://www.dentsu.co.jp/en/news/release/2022/0427-010519.html(English)

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