LOOKING BACK TO SPRING AHEAD SERIES 4. DOING THE RIGHT THING

In our Looking Back to Spring Ahead series, our last series explored tangibility and the growing desire for tactility and control.

This week, we’re turning our attention to consumers’ evolving relationship with sustainability. 

From Performative Virtue 

Sustainability and conscious consumption have become a part of how people expressed their values. 

To Quiet Integrity 

Under political pressure and economic strain, virtue is living in the gray. Consumers are no longer idealistic purists but rather pragmatic realists. While there is still a desire to do good, they are forced to make value-driven tradeoffs. As such consumers might buy less, buy less often or trade down, i.e., switching non-organic for organic. For years Patagonia has encouraged this notion of buying less. Long known for sustainability, they’ve normalized buy less behavior (“Don’t Buy This Jacket”) and encourage repair/reuse through Worn Wear.

Consumers’ growing awareness of fast fashion’s environmental impact has fueled a resurgence in thrift shopping, with platforms like Poshmark and Depop making secondhand style accessible and convenient. Meanwhile, the Facebook group Buy Nothing has evolved into a full-fledged movement, encouraging people to quite literally find treasure in others’ trash.

As consumers grow more pragmatic, prioritizing transparency, trade-offs, and resourcefulness, brands must respond by embedding ethics into their operations and not just their messaging. Increasingly, honesty is valued over perfection.

What role does sustainability play in delivering value today?