🍑 Why Sustainability Isn't Sexy Anymore

Let's explore why it lost its spark and how marketing can make people care about the planet again - with 5 brand ideas. The good news: This isn’t the end of sustainability but a sign of growth.

Hi 👋 I’m Florian Schleicher. This is the FutureStrategies newsletter. Thank you so much for reading along 💚

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I am a marketing strategist. And my heart beats for sustainability.

But that beating drum feels a little bit broken right now.

And I am not alone in that.

The generation with the most at stake in a sustainable future feels a real lack of agency to shape it.

© FastCompany

My own sustainability journey started back when I worked at McDonald’s and questioned some of the approaches when it came to “doing good”.

Then I worked for Greenpeace and thought “we are fu€#ed” just being overwhelmed by seeing so many things that are going the wrong direction.

Then I started my dream job of being Head of Marketing of the food-saving app Too Good To Go. For 2.5 years I felt like actually having an impact of changing things for the better.

It also was a good time for sustainability.

2019 was the peak of the green movement.

Greta was spearheading a global movement of student protests, we all went out to huge street protests, the EU Green Deal was introduced, the wave for electric cars was changing the automotive industry and producing solar energy got cheaper than fossil fuels.

Then came Covid.

Then the war in Ukraine.

The conflicts in the Middle East.

Inflation of everyday goods.

And by the time AI amazed all of us, no one was talking about sustainability anymore.

A recent study by BBMG reveals this significant shift: The number of Gen Zs globally who feel “indifferent” about sustainability has increased from 22% to 31% since 2021, while climate “enthusiasts” have declined from 30% to 21%.

And it’s not just Gen Z that’s reportedly feeling less engaged in the planet. The number of people who say helping the environment is important to them has been declining worldwide, a downward trend that’s reflected among Gen Alphas as well.

Now it feels like the sustainability movement has entered a deep sleep phase.

Yes, some companies - especially big ones - still keep pushing their sustainability agenda. But many also stopped communicating about it, because of fear of backlash - leading to Greenhushing.

So when your heart beats for sustainability, it can feel like… no one cares anymore.

Now, I am still a marketing strategist.

I am still an optimist and thus I think there is a way out of this.

So this time I want to dive deeper on:

🦖 WHY Sustainability Communications has such a hard time right now

🧩 WHAT could help us to revive it

🍉 HOW strategic Marketing can help us getting there

🍑 Making sustainability sexy again

I aim to arrive at some newfound clarity, new perspectives and maybe even some optimism.

Ready? Let’s go.

🦖 WHY is Sustainability Communications in trouble?

There are three big issues I see here:

PROBLEM 1: Sustainability is not an intrinsic need.

Or at least not for 99% of the population.