The Sustainability Disconnect
How much do consumers actually care about sustainable products and practices? The answer: more than you think.
Today we are diving into the reasons why brands aren’t willing to be more aggressive in the journey towards sustainable products. The design process determines 90% of a product’s environmental impact, so let’s start by analyzing the decision making process of trying a new sustainable technology. The switch to sustainable materials and production in our industry repeatedly falls into a frustrating cycle:
Consumers want a more sustainable product.
Sustainable practices are limited and, therefore, more expensive and complicated for manufacturers.
Brands do not believe their consumers will pay more for sustainable products, and therefore refuse to make the switch.
The industry continues using the same harmful and cheap materials and processes that they have been using for decades.
REPEAT.
As a sustainable material science company, we are all too familiar with this process. Why would a brand disrupt their supply chain, use an unfamiliar material, and potentially spend more money just to decrease their environmental footprint? Because that is exactly what the consumer wants.
A recent consumer report by First Insight and the Baker Retailing Center at the Wharton School found that consumers are much more willing to pay for sustainable products than retailers expect. This study also discovered that consumers value the environmental impact of a product over its brand name.
So, yes, it turns out that consumers don’t mind dropping a few extra bucks for a sustainably manufactured product. The funny (frustrating) paradox is: if more companies used sustainable practices and materials, the cost of sustainable products would drop. If the production of water-borne coatings and bio-based textiles expanded, the manufacturing costs would be greatly lowered.
The problem, then, is that nobody wants to be first. Nobody wants to be the guinea pig that is spending more money than everybody else in the name of sustainable development. However, this is exactly what a company might need to set itself apart. In the words of Yvon Chouinard and Vincent Stanley in their book The Responsible Company, “The strongest thing your company can do is something no one else will do, or do well.”
As much as we can hope that brand executives will read this article and suddenly choose to invest in sustainable materials, the truth is that the pressure will need to come from stakeholders. As a consumer, as an employee, as an environmental activist- you will be the ones to spark change.
Dive into the specs and materials section of your next purchase, and use that knowledge to make an informed decision of who you buy from. Look deeper than the front-page sustainability claims. Examine what is being used in the product right now, not how many trees will be planted by the year 2050. Sustainable solutions are out there and available, so let’s support the brands that are taking that leap.
What is your company doing that you are proud of? What brands do you admire? What is a sustainability issue that you think is being left behind?