A Better Way to Market Sustainable Products: Insights from NYU Stern and PwC

Overview

While many consumers express a preference for sustainable products, companies often face challenges in effectively marketing these goods to realize their full market potential. Key hurdles include proving growth prospects, balancing sustainability with other product features, and crafting trustworthy messages amid a crowded landscape of claims and certifications.

Research Highlights

A collaboration between NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business (CSB) and PwC offers actionable guidance for marketers in the consumer packaged goods (CPG) sector. Their findings are based on 12 years of US sales data (covering 40% of the CPG market, excluding alcohol and tobacco) and extensive consumer surveys conducted through 2024. – Sales Growth: Products marketed on sustainability attributes grew at 12.3% annually from 2019–2024, outperforming conventional products by over double.

• Market Share: By 2024, sustainability-marketed items accounted for nearly 24% of overall sales in covered categories.
• Price Premium: Consumers surveyed by PwC expressed willingness to pay an average premium of 9.7% for sustainable products. Actual market data reveals that these products command a 26.6% average price premium, reaching over 100% for some paper goods and around 50% for coffee, cereal, and chocolate.

Strategic Marketing Recommendations

1. Recognize Target Customer Groups

• Sustainability-marketed products see higher purchase rates among millennials, college-educated shoppers, urban dwellers, and high-income consumers.
• Some categories, like dairy, show large sustainable product sales across all age groups.

Action: Identify and focus on demographic segments most inclined to buy sustainable products in your market.

2. Amplify Product Appeal by Combining Core and Sustainability Messages

• Effective marketing centers on the product’s core appeal (e.g., taste, cleanliness).
• Layering one or two relevant sustainability claims onto the core attributes boosts product appeal by roughly 30 percentage points.
• This combined messaging strategy resonates across diverse customer groups.

Action: Integrate sustainability attributes closely linked to what consumers value in that product category (e.g., "formulated with sustainable ingredients that are good for your skin" for skincare).

3. Advance Consumer-Trusted and Precise Claims

• Top appealing claims focus on direct consumer benefits: protecting health, saving money, supporting local farms, aiding future generations, and animal health.
• Less effective are ambiguous claims around scientific properties (e.g., biodegradable), traceability, packaging (except all-recycled content), and certifications without clear messaging.
• Ambiguous or generic claims like “clean” or “natural” are vulnerable to legal challenges, especially for products used by children or applied to skin.
• Regulatory trends, particularly in the EU (e.g., Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, Green Claims Directive), will require rigorous substantiation of environmental claims.

Action: Make precise, evidence-backed sustainability claims and monitor evolving regulations to ensure compliance and credibility.

Conclusion

Sustainable products present a lucrative growth opportunity. By strategically clarifying the business case, honing marketing messages to combine product excellence with targeted sustainability benefits, and making trustworthy claims grounded in consumer priorities and regulatory standards, companies can successfully capture the benefits of the green consumer market.

Authors:

• Tensie Whelan, Distinguished Professor of Practice, NYU Stern and Founding Director, NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business
• David Linich, Principal at PwC US, specializing in decarbonization and sustainable operations

Source: NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business and PwC research, May 21, 2025

Design Delight Studio curates high-impact, authoritative insights into sustainable and organic product trends, helping conscious consumers and innovative brands stay ahead in a fast-evolving green economy.