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Sustainable consumer behaviour is critical to achieving global sustainability goals. In this direction, the role of brands and their positioning in the target markets as sustainable undoubtedly plays a big role. However, for consumer behaviour to be defined as sustainable, at least two conditions are needed. The first one is that the Sustainable Development Goals are perceived as important and significant by the consumers themselves. The second one is for consumers to perceive their behavior as a factor in achieving these goals. Only in the presence of these two conditions can it be argued that the behavior is sustainable. This is because the real sustainable behavior is motivated by the desire to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals and not by other factors.
This paper aims to explore the relationship between the brand's green initiatives on sustainable consumer actions. To achieve this goal, an empirical study in two waves is designed and conducted. Within the framework of the study, an online survey is used to collect empirical data. Data collection for the first wave is carried out in April 2023 and for the second in April 2024. The first wave included 136 students from the University of Economics – Varna, and the second one – 115 from the same university. To take into account changes in respondents' attitudes and actions, the data is collected using the same research tool.
In this research, two scales are designed. The first one is measuring the importance of the university's green initiatives. The second one is collected data on respondents' conviction that their actions are influencing the achievement of sustainability goals.
The results of the study conducted in the two waves outline two main differences. The first one is related to the differences in the assessments of the significance of the University's sustainable actions. If for respondents in the first wave, the degree of significance of these actions is less, then for respondents in the second wave these actions are defined as significant to a greater extent. The second difference relates to the perception of the degree of influence that respondents demonstrate in terms of achieving sustainability objectives with their behaviour.
While in the first wave, respondents demonstrate a higher sense of control over the achievement of sustainability goals, in the second this feeling is expressed to a lesser extent.
The conclusions of this study are based on a study of students' subjective assessments, but the results show the importance of brand behavior and the possible impacts that these actions can have in shaping sustainable consumer behavior. Moreover, the study also tested the role of corporate communications on consumer assessments related to their sustainable behavior.
