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Learn how sustainability is impacting purchase decisions among U.S. consumers.

Divya Shroff

October 26, 2021 | 5 min read

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Here’s one good thing that came out of the last year: sustainability went mainstream. After a year of extreme weather events and mounting evidence of climate change, consumers are taking the environment—and the role they play in maintaining it—seriously. 

According to our March 2021 study¹, 44% of consumers say they care about environmental issues much more today than they did a year ago. In addition, they are taking concrete steps to make a difference. Two in five consumers say they are reducing their use of single-use plastics, and one in five are regularly composting food waste. 

This newly “woke” marketplace has helped to launch consumer brands into action. Leading companies have pivoted to show their commitment to sustainability and have taken real steps to develop products and packaging that support the environment.

According to the Consumer Brands Association, the 25 largest consumer goods companies have made a commitment to increase recyclable content, minimize packaging, or reuse material. In fact, 80% of those companies are working toward fully recyclable packaging for all of their products by 2030, if not sooner.

While consumers may say they care, the real challenge for brands is determining whether that awareness drives purchase habits. Will consumers seek out and pay a premium for sustainable products? And, what demographics are willing to change their purchase habits over sustainability? 

In our March study, four out of five consumers said they had made purchase decisions based on their values in the past year. In addition, over three-quarters of consumers said it’s worth it to pay more for environmentally friendly products, and 72% are willing to pay more for food that is sustainably produced.

Over three-quarters of consumers say it's worth it to pay more for environmentally friendly products.

But in a separate study² launched in June 2021, we discovered that sustainability and brand transparency rank near the bottom of all purchase drivers. A full 71% of consumers ranked product quality as the No. 1 purchase driver, with sustainability coming in at No. 6 (24%). Affordability was the No. 2 driver with over half of all consumers ranking it as important.

However, the importance of purchase drivers varied significantly by generation. Millennials ranked sustainability as 4th on the list of purchase drivers, with 30% ranking it as important compared to 20% for GenX and Boomers. 

For GenZ, product quality matters less while affordability, sustainability, and brand authenticity matter more compared to the general population. Almost a third of GenZ said brand authenticity was a purchase driver compared to 21% of Boomers.

But younger generations aren’t the only ones voting for their values with their purchase power. When asked if they had ever boycotted a brand because of its social or political views, 50% of Boomers said they had, compared to 36% of GenZ and 40% of Millennials.

Some brands, like Allbirds and Burt's Bees, have baked sustainability into their DNA. These brands have the luxury of investing in or even creating new trends based on the known preferences of their customer set.

For other brands, determining the value of shifting to a more sustainable message, product, or packaging requires insights. For example, established brands may uncover opportunities to attract a new audience with an environmentally based package, as Procter and Gamble did with Old Spice and Secret, its well-entrenched deodorant brands.

Brands have access to agile solutions that can help them test sustainability initiatives before going to market. We conducted our own studies to find out how three different sustainability initiatives would play in the market. Here’s what we learned:

Sustainable messages and packaging have become increasingly complex. Consumers are confused by the many packaging options, which can include recyclable, reusable, compostable, or made from recycled products. For brands competing against quickly changing narratives, incorporating the most meaningful sustainability message can give products a competitive edge.

We ran a study using Momentive Message Testing to collect insights on how consumers would respond to sustainability claims with regards to packaging. Below is a scorecard of the results, which we collected in a matter of hours. Brands can further analyze these results against hundreds of demographic combinations to quickly see which messages each demographic segment preferred.

Today’s sustainability packaging options are not only a visual update; they represent a cultural shift. In many cases brands are testing the waters on revolutionary packaging materials that will impact the look, functionality, storage, and merchandising opportunities for their products.

We ran a study using Momentive Package Testing of a recently announced package for Johnnie Walker Black scotch whiskey. The new bottle is the world’s first 100% plastic-free, paper-based spirits bottle, made entirely from sustainably-sourced wood.

In our test, the new packaging performed better than existing packaging, but was on par for purchase intent. This could represent that while the new package may not drive more sales, it also will likely not hurt existing sales while improving brand perceptions on “innovative”.

One of the best ways to evaluate your sustainability initiatives is to track its impact, over time. To do that, brands can incorporate sustainability as an attribute of their brand tracking activities.

By tracking sustainability, brands can not only see how their brand performance is impacted, they can also determine how sustainability is trending in the marketplace. In addition, brand tracking allows companies to see the impact of campaign-level activities as well as more long-term sustainable efforts.

As consumer purchase decisions are increasingly influenced by a brand's sustainability values, it's important to create an ongoing framework for tracking your brand to stay on top of consumer trends. Learn more about  Momentive market research solutions, including  Package Testing, Message Testing, and Brand Tracking.

Divya Shroff is a senior product marketing manager at Momentive.

¹Methodology: This study was conducted using Momentive Market Research Solutions in March 2021 to collect a sample of 1,097 adults in the U.S. The sample was balanced for age, gender and U.S. Region according to the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey.

²Methodology: This Momentive study was conducted between June 15-22, 2021 among a national sample of 5,934 adults. Data were weighted for age, race, sex, education, and geography using the Census Bureau’s American Community Survey to reflect the demographic composition of the U.S.