Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

For example, a third of US consumers say they are making changes to their lifestyle to benefit the environment and only one in 10 say it is too much of a hassle to be green, according to Mintel’s Natural and Organic Personal Care US 2015 report. A similar picture emerges in Europe, where a quarter of French, Italian and German consumers and one in five Spanish and Polish consumers claimed to be paying more attention in Q1 2016 to the environmental impact of the products they buy.

Of course, it is one thing to claim you are environmentally friendly, and quite another to act on it — meaning consumers tend to overstate their “goodness”. Nevertheless, as environmental issues become more real to consumers and become more ubiquitous in the news cycle, behaviours will change. Consumers also expect businesses to be sustainable on their behalf.

Some brewers have already recognised this need and attempted to integrate sustainability more closely into their business. The trend has been particularly visible in the craft beer segment, where many pioneering breweries have touted since the 1980s and ‘90s the same community and environmental concerns that are now increasingly valued. These efforts will become a priority in the wider industry as the global population grows and demand for beer rises, with water security likely to be a particular focus given its importance to the industry’s long-term viability....