August 4, 2008

The Media’s Key Role in ‘Greenwashing Washout’

With corporations on the sustainability bandwagon, the media has hitched along for the ride. Influential newscasts celebrate breakthroughs in eco-friendly buildings and major publications devote cover stories to sustainability topics, just to name a few examples. Moving from niche to mainstream, environmental news has become a constant in today’s society. The insatiable LOHAS consumers, the portion of the population that is most interested in sustainability and the earliest adopters of sustainable products, tend to express more media saturation and distrust than the general population.

In fact, four in ten LOHAS consumers say they cannot escape talk about the environment as opposed to one-third of the general population, according to research from the Natural Marketing Institute. An embedded nuance in this, though, is that for LOHAS consumers, the constant chatter may be a welcomed relief and a sign that we are making progress.  That said, LOHAS consumers express more distrust of the media, underscoring the importance of communicating only the most meaningful, memorable and relevant environmental news to have the best chance of regaining consumer trust.

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