Some quarters predicted that concern for ethical issues would be a flash in the pan, a blip on the consumption agenda. Not so.

The numbers say it all – 80 per cent of respondents plan to buy food with less packaging in the next year, 71 per cent will buy more locally produced goods, 66 per cent will seek out food that guarantees a better deal for farmers and producers and 64 per cent will be looking for healthier food.

This time last year we found large numbers saying that they would shop at a particular supermarket chain on the basis of its action on these issues. Similarly large numbers registered similar opinions on the same issues this year, saying that these issues would influence them in the year to come.

It is increasingly clear which issues are important for supermarkets and for other sectors – those that relate to particular impact of that business and those that are cause for real social or environmental concern.

The focus of the public spotlight shifts from issue to issue, pushing different factors to centre stage at any given time, but the underlying areas of importance are constant.

What companies need to do is clear. They must actively address the major issues that their sectors face and effectively communicate their efforts to do so. Consumers will be receptive.

We see this with the supermarkets. Consumers want to use the big chains - there is no broad shift to smaller alternatives - but they want the chains to make it ethically easier for them. Marks & Spencer provides a casebook example. Its comprehensive programme of social and environmental action, Plan A, tackles all the major issues in a publicly demonstrable way. Consumers’ scoring of its overall behaviour sits at 65 per cent, on a par with the Coop, a niche, ethically focused player.

The time for tinkering on the edges is long gone. This is about real change on real issues. For supermarkets and for everyone else. Now, next year and beyond.

Giles Gibbons is the managing director of Good Business www.goodbusiness.co.uk