Shifting the Market Through Carbon Literacy, Transparency, and Desirability: Reflections from the Carbon Newbie Summit

I had the incredible opportunity to speak at the Carbon Newbie Summit in New York during Climate Week, where I joined a panel of visionary leaders dedicated to redefining the role of consumer brands in addressing the climate crisis. Together with Tola St. Matthew-Daniel and Aileen Lerch , Head of Sustainability at Allbirds , we explored the pressing need for consumer brands to actively promote carbon literacy and transparency as essential tools for making tangible progress toward decarbonization.

The Unsustainable Rate of Consumer Consumption

As we consider the environmental challenges of today, it’s impossible to ignore the unsustainable rate of consumer consumption that has surged in recent years. Compared to the 20th century, people today are consuming resources at an unprecedented pace. Studies indicate that global material consumption has more than tripled since 1970, with nearly 100 billion tons of raw materials used annually—an unsustainable figure if we hope to preserve the planet for future generations.

For brands like ours, which focus on driving behavior change, the challenge goes beyond merely educating the market on our sustainable products. We face a larger responsibility: to educate consumers on adopting more sustainable consumption patterns altogether. By encouraging conscious decision-making, we aim to reduce carbon emissions and mitigate the devastating effects of climate change. Educating consumers is no longer just about promoting eco-friendly products; it’s about reshaping consumer habits in a way that aligns with a more sustainable and circular economy.

Why Carbon Literacy and Transparency Matter

In today’s landscape, sustainability is no longer just an ideal but a critical need. Consumer brands have an immense responsibility—and opportunity—to educate their customers on the carbon footprint of their choices. By fostering carbon literacy, we can empower consumers to make more educated, conscious purchasing decisions, thereby reducing carbon emissions on an individual and collective level. Transparency in carbon impact not only builds trust but also enables consumers to engage meaningfully in the journey toward a more sustainable future.

Aileen brought an insightful case study from Allbirds that underscored the power of transparency, sharing how the brand has embraced open reporting on the carbon footprint of its products. This transparency allows consumers to see exactly what goes into making the products they buy, making environmental impact a shared responsibility and a visible part of the shopping experience.

Desirability is Key: Sustainability Alone Isn’t Enough

One key theme that resonated throughout the discussion was that for sustainable products to truly drive market change, they need to be as desirable as they are responsible. While sustainability is essential, it alone isn’t enough to drive a widespread shift toward more conscious consumption. Products must also stand out as aspirational and innovative, capturing consumers’ interest not only because they’re eco-friendly but because they’re high-quality, stylish, and functional.

Without this combination of sustainability and desirability, consumer behavior will remain largely unchanged, as eco-friendly products risk becoming niche rather than the norm. We need to appeal to both the ethical and the aesthetic sides of the consumer to foster a broader market shift.

Introducing Circularity as the New Sustainability

During the panel, I also had the chance to present the Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute methodology, along with its groundbreaking certification focused on product circularity. In my view, circularity is the new sustainability. To drive meaningful change, we must look beyond traditional recycling and consider the full lifecycle of a product—from raw material selection and design to durability, use, and end-of-life. Only by embedding circular principles into every stage can we reduce consumption and minimize environmental impact on a market-wide scale.

When we design products for a circular economy, we address sustainability in a way that fundamentally reshapes production and consumption patterns. Circularity isn’t just about minimizing waste; it’s about rethinking the entire system. For brands to make a real difference, we must innovate at every level to close the loop and foster a true circular economy.

Incentivizing Real Change with the True Cost of Waste

I firmly believe that without clear incentives that account for the REAL costs of waste, consumers will struggle to make more sustainable choices. Currently, when we buy products, this cost of waste is not integrated into the value chain, making waste an uncontrollable societal burden. No single entity wants to take full responsibility: consumers, governments, and companies all shift the burden, resulting in a gap that allows waste—and its environmental consequences—to escalate. In the future, I believe we’ll need to incorporate these “hidden” costs into product pricing to reflect the true environmental impact of our consumption.

By integrating waste disposal costs into the lifecycle value of products, we create a structure that aligns market incentives with sustainability. For instance, sustainable packaging might become more cost-effective if plastic packaging included the disposal costs and the health and environmental concerns associated with microplastics. Including end-of-life environmental costs into pricing and product value is the transformative shift we need to truly align consumer behavior, corporate responsibility, and environmental stewardship for a sustainable future.

Final Thoughts

The Carbon Newbie Summit reinforced that to truly tackle climate challenges, consumer brands must go beyond sustainability buzzwords. Carbon literacy, transparency, and a commitment to circularity are essential. As leaders in our respective industries, we have an obligation to make sustainability an integral, desirable part of the consumer experience and to innovate toward a future where environmentally responsible products are the standard—not the exception. Only then can we create a market shift toward more conscious and sustainable consumption.

#ClimateWeek2024 #CarbonNewbieSummit #Sustainability #CircularEconomy #CarbonLiteracy #Transparency #ZeroWaste