Sustainability
Consumers care about sustainability – so why have companies stopped talking about it?
he word
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‘ sustainability’ was first used in 1972. A group of 30 scientists published‘ Blueprint for Surviva’ in The Ecologist magazine, recommending we revert to living in small, de-industrialised communities.
Since then, the word has become a daily feature of life. The data shows that, in the last four years alone, Google searches for sustainability have doubled. So why has sustainability messaging by corporations fallen off a cliff?
We’ ve compiled data that shows an increase in‘ sustainability’ Google search volume, as well as a trend of consumer‘ green fatigue’. We think this indicates that consumer interest in sustainability has changed. People no longer want companies simply to pay lip service; they want to see action.
Companies appear to be responding. Since 2022, there has been a sharp drop-off in sustainability messaging in corporate filings.( See Fig. 3). In the consumer world, searches for“ sustainability” were hovering at a similar level since 2004 – until the pandemic. At the start of 2022 the volume of searches shoots up and continues to rise steadily to the current level.
As of March 2025, see Fig. 2 for the Google monthly search volume for“ sustainability”, broken down by region.
The corporate world shows a very different trend. In 2022, just as Google searches for sustainability rose dramatically,
Fig 1. Sustainability Google searches have skyrocketed since 2022
Fig 3. Sustainability mentions in corporate filings
Fig 2.
Country
Monthly search volume-‘ sustainability’
USA 67,500 Germany 27, 100
UK 24,800 Australia 10,000 France 8,900 Canada 8,700 Spain 8,700 UAE 8,000 Italy 7,100
Singapore 4,400
mentions of the word in corporate filings plummeted.( See Fig. 3)
Why the sudden drop? Perhaps companies are responding to reports that consumers are growing tired of companies constantly talking about sustainability without backing it up.
For instance, consumer research platform GWI found that in 2023 a fifth of Americans were experiencing‘ green fatigue’, sick of hearing about sustainability and the climate crisis altogether.
Clearly, the sustainability topic isn’ t going away. Wherever consumer attention goes, markets follow. From looking at the data, though, we believe sustainability messaging has to be tackled with more caution than before. Consumers are wary of empty promises. The companies that succeed moving forward will be those with concise messaging about actions they’ re taking that put them ahead of the curve.
30 Issue 2 2025 www. exhibitionworld. co. uk