Sustainability Culture Still Strong in Today’s Economy

By Laurie Demeritt


Products, services and consumer behavior linking to the word “sustainability” have been moving increasingly into mainstream American culture for decades. Organics is one such example of an influential component of the sustainability movement that has successfully moved deep into traditional retail channels and consumers’ lifestyles.

While organics, especially organic foods and beverages, are an important entry point to what consumers view as sustainable living, today, the sustainability trend reaches far beyond organics and includes a broad range of goods and services as well as diverse consumer beliefs and behaviors. For 20 years, the Hartman Group as has been studying this rise in consumer interest in sustainability—but what happens when the economy starts to unravel? Do consumers still care?

Sustainability: The Rise of Consumer Responsibility, Hartman’s latest report on this subject, was fielded in September 2008, right after the collapse of venerable Wall Street banking firms, and coincided with the unveiling of the federal financial rescue plan. To say the least, consumers at the time were just beginning to readjust to new economic realities, yet at the same time were still living out their lives, and interestingly enough, were effusive on all topics linking to the still murky concept of “sustainability.”

Consumers were still enthusiastic about the subject because, as many industry pundits have pointed out, some of the only bright lights in the otherwise gloomy economic realties of spring 2009 lie in those topics that intersect with sustainability (two examples common to consumers and industry alike: “saving energy” and “hope for a better world”). Also, many of the sustainability-related attitudes, practices and behaviors voiced by consumers have evolved from being commonly lumped under the aegis of “green” or “environmental,” to a more direct approach of individual as well as corporate responsibility.

Yet, the meaning of the word “sustainability” is still murky in the minds of many consumers. Consumer familiarity with the term was virtually identical in both 2008 and 2007. Slightly more than half (56 percent) of consumers indicated that they were familiar with the term in 2008 versus 54 percent in 2007 (Figure 1).

The Rise of Responsibility
Regardless of whether or not consumers are acquainted with “sustainability,” or can supply a formal definition for it, we find that they often point to words and phrases that reference the greater good. Recurring terms such as “responsibility” and “doing the right thing” emerge as ways described by consumers to achieve what they see as a greater good and connect to economic, social and environmental issues important to them.

Research from this study found that sustainability is reflected at the consumer level in a myriad of behaviors, from purchases and non-purchases, to voting and volunteerism. The notion of responsibility underscores the idea of connectedness, and addresses consumer beliefs that the right thing in one area has effects in other areas. Consumers say today that for something to be truly responsible in one way, it should not cause great detriment in another.

For today’s consumer, sustainability is not simply about living green and saving the earth. The sustainability mindset now involves a greater awareness of practices and products beyond green attributes, including those perceived to impact the greater social and economic good. As a value-laden ideal, “responsibility” provides a more meaningful call to action for all those in society—consumers, businesses, and governments alike—to participate in the greater good. Although consumers do not expect companies to be perfect, they expect businesses to at least do the things that they as average consumers are encouraged to do—recycle, cut back on waste, be active in their communities, and so on. Consumers concede that “doing the right thing,” although a wonderfully simplistic concept to grasp, is complex because of its varied and far-reaching implications. Responsibility therefore is aspirational and often a subjective decision to do the “better thing” in a context where there is no perfectly responsible solution.

Many theories of sustainable development reference the “triple bottom line,” which includes environmental, social and economic dimensions. Based on consumer-centric research, there is a fourth dimension that emerges: “personal benefit.” This is particularly helpful in explaining sustainability from the consumer viewpoint. Personal benefit may lead to a greater awareness of responsibility at the societal level, as consumers consider that what is good for them may also be good for others (Figure 2).

Living Sustainably During the Downturn
In the context of today’s economy, even the best intentioned, most committed sustainability consumers are not immune to changing financial conditions. In such cases, when consumers are forced to make tradeoffs, cutbacks are more likely to be made in product categories that consumers view as less essential. Some of the categories, such as food and personal care, typically remain consistently purchased as consumers perceive them to be most important to their quality of life.

Economizing behaviors that consumers associate with sustainability (e.g., going to thrift stores, repurposing goods and opting out of certain purchases) may increase since they dovetail with the zone of personal benefit in terms of economic interests. The simplicity trend, for example, entails the choice to generate less waste through less consumption, which not only has implications for the greater good, but is also economically empowering.
In addition, those consumers most active in sustainability lifestyles (those in the “Core” of the World of Sustainability, who represent 13 percent of Americans) showed a devotion to sustainable goods even in the face of the difficult economic conditions of late 2008. In fact, 13 percent of consumers said they were actually buying more sustainable products. Also, 34 percent of consumers inside the World of Sustainability (which represents 97 percent of shoppers) say that compared to a year ago, they are now more willing to pay a premium for sustainable products and services.

Foods, Beverages and Organics: Central to Consumer Perceptions of Sustainability
Among diverse categories of products, the food and beverage category is central to consumer perceptions of sustainability. Consumers view the food and beverage category as salient to all zones of sustainability (environmental, social, economic and personal benefit) and consider the category to be one of the most important sustainability issues.

From the sustainability perspective, the food and beverage category intersects with health and wellness concerns, as consumers are concerned about the harmful and beneficial impacts of certain products on their physical safety and vitality. Namely, consumers say that they are worried about the presence of certain “negatives” in their foods and beverages—pesticides, antibiotics, hormones, genetically modified ingredients and artificial ingredients—and the long-range impact it may have on their health. Conversely, foods and beverages that resonate as “fresh” (or organic or local) work naturally with the body to nourish and aid in vitality. Concerns about pesticides, hormones and others issues also intersect with environmental, social, and economic issues that consumers view as having repercussions beyond the self. Individuals allude to the idea of “living with the earth” as a principle that guides their philosophy about the way that foods should be produced and consumed. Large-scale, conventional farming is often referenced as the symbolic antithesis to the notion of “living with the earth” due to associations with use of pesticides, monocultures, hormones and GMOs.

While notions of freshness, local production, humanely-raised, and fair trade are also important to consumers when it comes to perceptions of sustainable foods; foods that are organically grown are generally seen as viable alternatives to the perceived negative environmental impacts of conventional farming. Although organic symbolizes many things to many consumers, in the context of sustainability it most commonly represents the opposite of conventional farming. In other words, organic signifies the way that foods should naturally be produced and signals an “absence of” the environmentally harmful practices associated with factory farming.

Responsibility as a Response to the Challenges of Today and Tomorrow
Among today’s consumers, a tremendous range of topics fall under the rubric of “sustainability.” While concepts like “local,” “fair trade,” “cruelty-free,” “organic” and “transparency” can now be said to be fully operating in the cultural domain, the consumer notion of doing the right thing for the common good is an even stronger guiding principle that establishes hope, even in what seem to be hard times.

Importantly, research has shown that 83 percent of Americans (within the World of Sustainability) seek out products, services and retail outlets that they feel represent forward-thinking, higher-domain experiences within which sustainability has profound connections at personal, social and global levels. For producers and marketers of organic products, it’s perhaps comforting to know that consumers look to you as a touchstone as they enter the World of Sustainability. The cues they seek are often a straightforward byproduct of organic standards themselves, and include a high level of interest in authentic stories of production and assurance of ethical standards and practices that relate to them at a personal and community level.

Laurie Demeritt is president and COO of The Hartman Group (www.hartman-group.com), a consulting and consumer insights firm. The Hartman Group specializes in the analysis and interpretation of consumer lifestyles and how these lifestyles affect the purchase and use of health and wellness products and services. The firm’s client base includes a number of Fortune 500 consumer packaged goods companies, pharmaceutical firms, and mass and natural food retailers. She can be reached at laurie@hartman-group.com.