An empirical examination of the gap between the environmental claims cafés advertise and the sustainability practices they actually operate — assessed through the 8Ps green marketing mix, the Seven Sins of Greenwashing, and consumer trust across Western Misamis Oriental.
Cafés have evolved into influential social spaces where sustainability is increasingly performed — biodegradable cups, reusable container programs, ethical sourcing stories, and waste-reduction campaigns. Yet as even microenterprises adopt eco-friendly messaging to attract conscious consumers, the consistency between what cafés say and what cafés do remains largely unexplored in Northern Mindanao.
Prior research examined what drives small businesses to adopt sustainability — finances, manager commitment, consumer awareness. Little work measures whether environmental marketing messages match operational implementation in the café industry.
The Western District of Misamis Oriental hosts a fast-expanding food-and-beverage microenterprise scene and a green coffee market valued at USD 1.3 billion, driven by urban café culture, e-commerce coffee sales, health awareness, and specialty coffee demand (Rebecca, 2026).
Results form the basis of an action plan and policy recommendations for transparent, evidence-based sustainability marketing — supporting municipal policy, business support programs, and UN SDG 11 sustainable urban development in the region.
Click any node to inspect its role in the framework.
The extended green marketing mix as applied to coffee businesses — each dimension with café-specific indicators.
TerraChoice's (2010) systematic taxonomy of misleading environmental claims — applied to real café scenarios. Select a sin to inspect the café case and mitigation.
The Western District — ten municipalities and cities with a dense concentration of food-and-beverage microenterprises, growing tourism, and rising demand for eco-friendly goods and services.
Mixed-methods: quantitative descriptive-correlational design describing current green initiatives and testing links between drivers, practices, and perceptions.
Purposive (cafés ≥3 years open, ≥1 eco-practice, Western Misamis Oriental) plus opportunistic customer recruitment. n = 100 for data saturation.
Four-section structured questionnaire: demographics, sustainability drivers, green marketing practices, and consumer perceptions — 5-point Likert, expert-validated and pilot-tested.
Frequency, percentage, mean, SD; Pearson r or Spearman rho for relationships; multiple regression for impact — all at α = 0.05.
Balanced sampling for claim–practice alignment comparison
Statements per section across Consumers (21), Owners (23), & Workers (16)
Three structured instruments — consumers, café owners & managers, and workers & baristas. Each follows the proposal's four-section format on a 5-point Likert scale (1 = Strongly Disagree → 5 = Strongly Agree). Answer interactively, then copy the responses or print the instrument.
Organizations adopt responsible environmental practices to create shared value across customers, employees, suppliers, regulators, and communities. Café sustainability initiatives answer stakeholder demands for environmental accountability.
Certifications, eco-labels, and promotional messages communicate sustainability, shaping consumer trust and purchasing decisions by reducing information asymmetry between cafés and their patrons.
Attitudes, subjective norms, and perceived behavioral control shape consumers' intentions to engage in environmentally responsible purchasing behavior.
Toggle the sustainability claims your café actually operates. Get a live authenticity score, greenwashing risk level, and tailored recommendations.
The complete Master's thesis proposal as submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the Department of Environmental Science, School of Interdisciplinary Studies, MSU-IIT.