US shoppers buy into sustainability

Republican politicians may have ESG ratings in their sights but US consumers of all political persuasions are interested in buying sustainable products. 

That’s according to research from the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB), which has found sustainability-marketed products are growing twice as fast as conventionally marketed products and are selling at an average premium of 28%.

Why sustainability messaging matters

There’s often a gap between what consumers say they will do and what they actually end up doing, but the Center for Sustainable Business has established action as well as intent. It has also found that certain sustainability messages will drive significant increases in purchase intent, across political parties, age, income level, and location.

Messaging that resonates 

CSB partnered with Edelman and nine brands to test messages across sectors on core product attributes as well as a range of environmental sustainability messages.

• Consumers responded most positively to claims that directly referenced personal benefits for themselves and their families (health, financial and their immediate world).
• Such claims worked best when aligned with core product attribute claims – a brand has to first deliver the category benefit.
• Adding two additional sustainability claims tied to a core attribute drove increased appeal by 24 and 33 percentage points to an average of 74% across the nine brands. 

Bridging the green gap

CSB partnered with Circana to review data on the purchasing of consumer packaged goods across all stores going back to 2013, including on-pack claims on 250,000 products in 36 CPG categories.

• Sustainability-marketed products made up only 17.3% of total sales but were responsible for 30% of the growth in the sector.
• Some categories (dairy, yogurt, toilet paper) have more than 60% of products sold with sustainable attributes. 
• A third of the categories studied are rated “highly developed”, with sustainability-marketed products claiming more than a 20% share.

Key quote

“Most Americans would like to purchase sustainable products that are healthier, drive savings (such as lower energy costs), protect their children’s future, improve animal welfare, support local farmers, and are 100% sustainably sourced. Consumers don’t see it as a political position, and our research finds that Americans are carrying through with that purchase intent” – Tensie Whelan & Randi Kronthal-Sacco of the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business.

Sourced from Fortune