Population pays more attention to electricity consumption and buys more organic products

In 2015, 95 percent of the population rated the environmental quality in their living environment as very good or rather good. With regard to the environmental quality in Switzerland as a whole, 92 percent held this opinion. These assessments are roughly in line with those from 2011.

The quality of the environment worldwide, on the other hand, was rated less positively than four years ago: Whereas 23 percent of the population rated it as very good or rather good at that time, 20 percent were of this opinion in 2015. In both survey years, around three quarters of the population stated that the environmental quality at their place of residence had a very strong or rather strong influence on their personal quality of life.

More mindfulness about electricity consumption - especially among young people
When buying smaller electrical appliances or light bulbs, the population paid more attention to their power consumption in 2015: 42 percent said they always paid attention, compared with 35 percent in 2011. 15- to 24-year-olds in particular changed their behavior: While only 9 percent of this age group always paid attention in 2011, 19 percent did so in 2015. The question of whether the heating is turned down if the apartment is empty for at least two days was answered by 44 percent with "always" and by 20 percent of the population with "never".

When it comes to the consumption of organically produced food, another environmentally relevant behavior in everyday life, 7 percent of the population said they exclusively buy such products, while the same number never do so.

Every fourth person disturbed by traffic noise, every fifth by air pollution
In 2015, 24 percent of the population felt very strongly or rather strongly disturbed by traffic noise at home with the windows open, 19 percent by air pollution around the house and 10 percent with regard to radiation emitted by power lines or mobile phone antennas. These figures are in the same order of magnitude as those of 2011. It is striking that women felt more disturbed by air pollution than men (22% vs. 16%). The same applies to Italian-speaking Switzerland (32%) compared to German-speaking Switzerland (18%) or French-speaking Switzerland (20%).

93 percent of the population was very satisfied or somewhat satisfied with the landscape in the residential environment. The proportion of people who were very satisfied with the landscape in their living environment fell between 2011 and 2015 from 56 to 49 percent.
declined.

Nuclear power plants are perceived as the greatest danger
In 2015, 40 percent of the population considered nuclear power plants to be very dangerous for people and the environment. In 2011, 47 percent still held this opinion. However, it should be noted that the nuclear reactor accident in Fukushima had occurred one and a half months before the start of the survey at that time. The assessment of men in particular has changed since then (42 percent in 2011 versus 33 percent in 2015). At 36 percent, the loss of diversity in animal and plant species was named second most frequently as very dangerous for people and the environment, followed by the increase in global temperature due to climate change at 34 percent, and genetic engineering for the
Production of foodstuffs with 32 percent.

Overall, 39 percent of the population thought that environmental pollution was a very big or rather big problem for Switzerland. Particularly in the Italian- and French-speaking parts of the country (49% and 48% respectively), by women (45%) and by people with
Swiss nationality (43%), environmental pollution was perceived as problematic.