Insight 1:

The Uncomfortable Truth

“Sustainable living isn’t exactly easy – it takes planning, research, and often involves going out of your way to find the right products. In 2024, slightly more consumers stated that they have not adopted a more sustainable lifestyle in the past year because it is too inconvenient (from 40% in 2023, to 43% in 2024), or too complicated (from 39% in 2023, to 42% in 2024). Think about it – when you’re rushing home from work, stressed about deadlines, and need to grab something quick, are you really going to drive to three different stores to find the perfect sustainable option? Most people won’t. Almost half (45%) of consumers rely on businesses to offer sustainable products or services as standard, rather than on them having to change their consumption habits to make more sustainable choices. We want companies to make the sustainable choice the easy choice, but that’s not happening fast enough. But when it comes to reducing consumption, the barrier quickly shifts to convenience. For example, convenience is why many consumers struggle to have fewer packages delivered to their home, reduce their water use and food waste, and switch to lower-emission transportation.

Here’s the uncomfortable truth that’s making people give up: Some 47% believe adopting a more sustainable lifestyle makes no difference (up from 45% last year). When you see massive corporations polluting on an industrial scale while asking you to use paper straws, it feels like a joke. Consumers realise that their individual contributions can only do so much. They’re tuning out messages that place the burden on their behaviour. Instead, they want organisations to step up and show proof of their eco pledges. People are realizing that their personal carbon footprint is a drop in the ocean compared to what big businesses and governments could achieve. They know their eco-friendly choices help to an extent, but real change needs to be a collective effort. So, consumers are pushing the responsibility back on businesses. All organisations must take ownership of their carbon footprint and prove their positive impact. When your recycling gets shipped overseas or your electric car is charged with coal-powered electricity, the whole system starts to feel broken.

Being truly sustainable requires becoming an expert in about fifty different areas – carbon footprints, supply chains, certifications, ingredients, packaging materials, and more. It’s exhausting. 29% of consumers feel overwhelmed by the amount of greenwashing in the marketplace. 45% of consumers feel it is difficult to find trustworthy information about a company’s environmental impact. Every product has multiple claims, certifications, and labels that might mean nothing at all. Organic, natural, eco-friendly, sustainable, carbon-neutral – these terms get thrown around so much they’ve lost all meaning. But, these terms are not always meaningful and unfortunately, most of these so-called green claims are not much more than marketing jargon. People don’t have time to research every single purchase they make, and frankly, they shouldn’t have to. The cognitive load of making “perfect” consumer choices is breaking people down, so they’re choosing to just… not choose. It’s easier to go back to buying whatever’s available than to spend hours researching whether your toilet paper is destroying the rainforest.

Companies love making big announcements about their sustainability goals, but following through? That’s another story. The analysis found that 30% of last year’s offenders continued to mislead consumers with their environmental claims this year. As per the report, the overall severity of greenwashing cases has increased globally by 30% year-over-year, with high-severity cases involving intentional and systematic ESG violations that lead to environmental harm or corporate penalties. People have watched too many companies announce “net-zero by 2050” goals only to see them quietly abandoned or watered down. The fossil fuel industry claiming to go green while expanding drilling operations, fashion brands talking about sustainability while producing more clothes than ever – the hypocrisy is exhausting. McDonald’s moves are seen as superficial, Shell’s renewable investments are insufficient in offsetting its fossil fuel impact, and Volkswagen’s emission deceit casts long-lasting doubts. Consumers and regulators must critically assess corporate claims to ensure that true environmental progress is being made and not lost in greenwashing efforts. When the companies you’re supposed to trust keep breaking their promises, it becomes easier to just ignore all sustainability claims entirely.

Economic uncertainty has a funny way of changing priorities. Higher food, fuel, and utility costs mean less money for savings and less for discretionary spending. To compensate, consumers buy less, switch to cheaper substitutes, look harder for bargains, or put off major purchases. Sustainability becomes a “nice to have” rather than a necessity when you’re struggling to make ends meet. “    ….ClimateCosmos.com

Much of change in this world comes from necessity. Humans adapt and change when we are forced to do so. When we are in “tough times” we are forced to make changes by adapting new habits in order to survive and make ends meet - “Survival and restoring the balance”. Tough times are perceived as a negative in our condition because the current expectation for quality of life is to have more, not less, and convenience, not effort. The uncomfortable truth and reality is that this reduction of material reliance, including in new technologies, the adaption to having less material consumption due to tough financial times, is not an easy sacrifice initially, but is a positive adaption and step forward for us through necessity towards a more sustainable way of living and simultaneously preserving our valuable life-supporting natural resources.

Consuming less is more for sustainability, more for simplicity, and more for overall wellbeing. We have been drawn towards excess consumerism as the primary driver for personal happiness and fulfilment, but now being forced towards self-sufficiency and experiential engagement to fulfil our inner happiness needs is a natural and unconscious evolution towards our regenerative and restorative balance as an individual and as a population. 

Being forced to and learning to consume less is a vital part of transforming our modern world around us of excess material consumption towards our optimal fulfilment being achieved. Fuelling our inner happiness through experiential engagement and simple wellbeing is a return to the essential life-force fulfilment we all have in us.

An increasing number of people are rediscovering through initial necessity conscious personal fulfilment without material consumerism leads to rediscovering our authentic self.

Whilst the focus can still be on this forced reduction as a loss and therefore stress by many, the shift in those that discover the power of letting go of our material needs and moving towards conscious engagement with people and place, the here and now, becomes the perpetual energy for your positive world wellbeing, life flow, and balance being restored.

HG_PA_Building Sustainability_16 /06/2025