To explore the question of how information provision about the carbon footprint of goods influences consumption decisions, it is worth taking a look at the following paper.
It reports the results of a field experiment investigating how attributes of carbon footprint information affect consumer choice in a large dining facility. Manipulating the measurement units and visualizations of carbon footprint information on food labels, they quantify effects on consumers’ food choices. Treated consumers choose less carbon-intensive dishes, reducing their food-related carbon footprint by up to 9.2%, depending on the treatment. Effects are strongest for carbon footprint information expressed in monetary units (“environmental costs”) and color-coded in the familiar traffic-light scheme. A post-experimental survey shows that these effects obtain although few respondents self-report concern for the environmental footprint of their meal choices. The study contributes to the accounting literature by using an information-processing framework to shed light on the information usage and decision-making processes of an increasingly important user group of accounting information: consumers.