Research on sustainable consumption for Z generation's intent on possessing sustainable packaging products

Ecological balance has begun to deteriorate and living beings began to be negatively affected due to reduction and ineffective use or resources in production and consumption. The rapidly increasing ecological problems have led consumers to be sensitive to environmental issues. The variety of products purchased daily is increasing day by day, and consumers have begun to consider the production processes of companies producing those products as well as daily consumption ones. As consumers became more aware about environmental issues, they started to show more careful and selective tendencies regarding packaging. The fast and uncontrolled consumption of non-renewable resources has started to become dangerous for all living beings, and many businesses along with consumers have begun to seek ways to ensure sustainability in the supply of resources, product life cycles and production processes. Sustainability means that an economic, social, and environmental integrity and continuity should be ensured so that future generations can benefit from these resources by giving importance to the continuity of resources, without forgetting that there are limited resources while meeting the needs. With sustainable packaging, it is aimed to minimize the use of resources and waste throughout the entire life cycle of the packaging, and to maximize the recovery of materials. This study was meant to examine the Z generation's intention to purchase products with sustainable packaging. Accordingly, the concept of sustainability was emphasized, the dimensions of sustainability, the factors affecting sustainability and the relationship between sustainability and marketing, green marketing issues were mentioned, generation concepts and classification were made, the concept of packaging, its functions, types and purchasing characteristics of the Z generation were included. In this study, a conceptual framework was created based on the factors affecting the intention of Z generation individuals to have sustainable packaged products. Based on demographic characteristics, questions about sustainable packaging were asked to Z generation individuals, sub-dimensions were created based on these questions, and the answers to the questions were analyzed in order to understand the effect of the sub-dimensions created for the study on the sustainable packaging attitude and the intention to purchase these products. The Cronbach alpha coefficient was examined to determine the reliability of the sub-dimensions of the sustainable consumption scale and the intention of the z generation used in the study to have sustainable packaged products. Since the Cronbach alpha coefficients of the developed sub-dimensions were greater than 0.6, it was seen that the sub-dimensions were reliable. For the research, the results of the questionnaire applied on 25.04.2020 / 05.06.2020 were obtained from 431 people. The questionnaire form was prepared on the internet. The collected data were analysed using SPSS (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences) version 21. Frequency analysis, descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, correlation analysis, independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance (Anova) and regression analysis were performed for the analysis of the collected data. Keywords: Sustainable Consumption, Sustainability, Sustainable Marketing, Generations, Generation Z