Sustainability and the Consumer

SUMMARY

Sales of sustainably marketed products are growing 2.7 times faster than conventional products. They’re also propelling a third of overall CPG growth, despite their premium pricing in today’s inflationary environment.

Research by IRI and the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB) features new survey data on consumer perceptions and leverages CSB’s Sustainable Market Share Index™ to examine how sustainability drives consumer CPG product choices. Read it to learn the sustainability attributes that matter most today and the packaging, marketing, signage and innovation tactics that can help brands and retailers capitalize on them effectively.

Highlights

1. 77% of consumers believe sustainability is important when selecting products to buy, up from 69% in 2021.

2. The top reason consumers say they buy sustainable products is for their environmental impact (44% of those surveyed), followed by the availability of more sustainable options (40%).

3. Sustainably marketed products can command price premiums over their conventional counterparts that can range from 8% to 130%.

4. 93% of consumers have maintained or increased their sustainable purchase habits over the past year.

5. Roughly 50% of all new products in 2021 were sustainable, up 20 percentage points from 2017.

6. 27% of shoppers — and 32% of Gen Z and millennials — seek out retailers that carry sustainable products, indicating a shopper preference that is likely to endure and increase over time.