In recent years, low-carbon products have gained increasing favor, yet the phenomenon of being "praised but not purchased" persists. The root cause lies in insufficient consumer trust in green products, which stems from both an imperfect market environment and subpar real-world user experiences. The market is flooded with numerous, often non-authoritative, green certification standards, making it difficult for consumers to verify authenticity and track genuine environmental performance. Some companies even engage in misleading advertising that exaggerates environmental benefits. Furthermore, shortcomings in supporting services—such as uneven charging network distribution and inefficient recycling systems—increase hidden costs and usage barriers for consumers. Therefore, to shift green consumption from being "policy-driven" to "self-motivated," it is essential to systematically build a foundation of trust by focusing on the following coordinated efforts.

First, strengthen the standard certification system and leverage digital intelligence to resolve information asymmetry. Providing independent, impartial, and credible green evaluation information is fundamental to building trust and confidence. Drawing on international best practices—such as the EU Battery Regulation’s mandatory carbon footprint declarations and established eco-labeling systems like the Nordic Swan—China should accelerate the improvement and unification of green product standards, expand certification coverage systematically, and extend certification from individual products to entire supply chains. The goal is to establish a comprehensive, internationally aligned evaluation mechanism covering all product categories and lifecycle stages. Concurrently, priority should be given to building a unified national platform for carbon footprint and traceability management of green products, utilizing technologies like blockchain, big data, and artificial intelligence to collect and immutably record key data on energy consumption, emissions, and materials. To enhance transparency, a "scan-to-know-green" system should be widely adopted, allowing consumers to access full lifecycle environmental data—from raw materials and production to logistics and recycling—via a simple scan. Retailers and e-commerce platforms should also be encouraged to use digital labels and virtual assistants to efficiently and intuitively communicate certification information, while strengthening consumer education on green consumption.

In practice, existing industrial internet infrastructure can be utilized to gradually implement data-on-chain for key sectors such as steel, cement, new energy vehicles, and power batteries. Core data on energy use, emissions, materials, transportation, and recycling would be collected to generate a unique, tamper-proof "digital green ID." Market regulators should impose severe penalties, including industry bans, on certification bodies that issue false carbon footprint reports. Such violations should be recorded in real-time within credit supervision platforms and linked to financial, procurement, and bidding systems, creating a closed-loop punitive mechanism where one instance of fraud leads to restrictions across multiple domains.

Second, create a service ecosystem that enhances the consumer experience through full-chain efforts. Green consumption relies on a complete service chain. A lifecycle approach must be adopted, integrating green principles across production, distribution, consumption, and recycling, while driving satisfaction through systematic service innovation. At the purchase stage, big data can be used to profile consumer green preferences, improve sales networks, and encourage immersive, interactive experiences, as well as innovative service models like leasing and sharing. During usage, addressing "inconvenience" is critical. For new energy vehicles, accelerating the development of charging/swapping networks and smart grids is essential to improve coverage and convenience. For green appliances and eco-friendly building materials, full-chain after-sales services—including installation, debugging, and maintenance—must be enhanced. To bridge urban-rural gaps, express logistics, charging facilities, and repair networks in counties and townships should be rapidly expanded to remove infrastructure barriers. In the recycling phase, the focus should be on unclogging "circulation bottlenecks" by promoting reverse logistics, establishing standardized waste recovery networks, and boosting R&D in recycling technologies to improve resource utilization and form a closed loop of "consumption-recycling-reuse."

Concretely, increasing the proportion of public charging/swapping spots in counties and achieving full fast-charger coverage in highway service areas are key steps. Streamlining the approval process for residential charging pile installations through one-stop filing can reduce delays. Offering integrated "purchase-and-installation" service packages for green appliances and building materials, along with mandatory lifecycle maintenance lists from manufacturers and timely after-sales support, should be implemented. Service satisfaction could be included as a weighting factor in government procurement evaluations. Environmental authorities should issue guidelines for reverse logistics of used products and promote recycling functionality coverage across all express delivery outlets.

Third, establish incentive and constraint mechanisms to regulate market order by addressing both symptoms and root causes. Regulatory constraints serve as a stabilizer, while proactive policy incentives act as a catalyst. A balanced approach combining incentives and constraints is needed to foster a clear, fair, and competitive market environment. On the incentive side, fiscal, tax, financial, and government procurement tools should be comprehensively deployed to provide substantive support for companies developing green products and building green supply chains. For instance, tax reductions or targeted subsidies could be explored for products achieving high-level certifications, and minimum quotas for government green procurement could be set to lower costs for businesses and barriers for consumers. On the constraint side, regular monitoring of green product pricing and advertising must be established, with strict and swift penalties for false environmental claims, fraudulent certifications, and price gouging. Simultaneously, improving corporate environmental credit evaluation systems and "blacklist" mechanisms is urgent, ensuring that evaluation outcomes are linked to government procurement, financial credit, and tax incentives. A joint punishment system for violations should be strengthened, with timely public disclosure to weed out "bad apples" and protect "good ones."

Specific measures could include consumption tax reductions for products with a "digital green ID" and carbon footprints significantly better than industry averages. Local governments might offer moderate subsidies for green building materials and energy-efficient appliances, supported by central government special transfer payments. Financial regulators should encourage insurers to develop green product quality guarantee insurance, with fiscal support for premiums. Gradually increasing the proportion of government green procurement and including green technology as a scoring factor in major project tenders can reduce transaction costs for green enterprises.

Fourth, improve multi-stakeholder governance structures to foster consumer confidence through societal co-governance. Cultivating trust in green consumption is a systematic project requiring collaboration among government, businesses, industry associations, and consumers. The government should focus on top-level design and coordination. Enterprises must uphold their primary responsibility by internalizing environmental requirements across all operations. Industry bodies, such as trade associations and consumer councils, should develop self-regulatory codes, issue consumption alerts, engage in public interest litigation, and provide third-party evaluations to complement regulation and self-discipline. Crucially, empowering consumer participation is vital. Channels for voicing demands and filing complaints should be streamlined, with opportunities for input—via hearings and public consultations—during policy formulation. Additionally, mechanisms like consumer reviews and experience feedback can pressure companies to improve products and services, transforming consumers into active co-builders, co-managers, and beneficiaries of the green consumption ecosystem.

In implementation, a inter-ministerial joint meeting mechanism for green consumption could be established to unify standards, data, and penalties, avoiding fragmented governance. State-owned enterprises’ environmental, social, and governance (ESG) evaluations should incorporate green supply chain management metrics. For listed private companies, stock exchanges could gradually mandate full-chain carbon footprint disclosures subject to public oversight. Consumer associations, in collaboration with social organizations, might launch a "Genuine Green Self-Discipline Pact," regularly publishing rankings and risk warnings, and initiating public interest lawsuits against repeat or severe violators of environmental laws. Convenient mini-programs, such as "Green Consumption Snap & Report," could allow consumers to upload evidence of greenwashing, with modest rewards for verified reports. Finally, environmental authorities could organize annual public review panels to participate in updating green standards, ensuring that end-users help shape the rules in a spirit of shared construction, governance, and benefit.