Whether you call it environmental marketing, eco-marketing, or just plain doing the right thing, modern customers are voting with their values. According to PwC’s 2024 Voice of the Consumer survey, shoppers are still willing to pay a 9.7% premium for sustainable products, even as inflation and cost-of-living pressures weigh heavy. That’s real purchasing power driven by principles.
At the height of the pandemic, WWF dubbed this shift the “eco-awakening.” But customer trust is in short supply. According to a recent survey, only one in five consumers believe brands’ claims about their green efforts.
Ahead, you’ll learn what green marketing means, why it matters more than ever, and how to stay on the right side of the growing “green trust gap.”
What is green marketing?
Green marketing refers to the practice of promoting products, services, or business practices based on their environmental benefits. The practice spans everything from how a product is made to how it’s packaged, shipped, and even disposed of.
Some green marketing strategies include:
- Developing eco-friendly products
- Using eco-friendly product packaging made from recycled materials
- Lowering emissions in manufacturing and supply chains
- Adopting sustainable business practices
- Communicating clearly about a product’s environmental impact
- Reinvesting profits in renewable energy or carbon offsetting
Building a business around sustainability often requires more upfront investment—greener materials, cleaner processes, and slower production. Green marketing helps make those investments visible. It also gives brands a chance to be transparent about the trade-offs they’re making. That kind of honesty is what today’s customers are looking for.
“A lot of the brands are selling 10 products to one person, whereas I think the beauty companies should focus more on how do we sell one product to 10 people,” says Liah Yoo, founder of KraveBeauty, a multimillion-dollar skin care brand built on the principle of launching fewer products, more slowly. ”Our marketing narrative and marketing communication and education is largely around, ’You don’t need this,’ you know—less is more. It kind of goes against the entire capitalistic model.”
That kind of honesty builds trust and loyalty. And consumers want this transparency: interest in the term “eco-friendly” hit its highest level ever in June 2025—the highest point in five years, according to Google Trends.
Green marketing vs. sustainable marketing
Sustainability is a balancing act between planet, profit, and people. Think of it as a three-legged stool that covers environmental health, social equity, and long-term economic viability. If one leg’s shaky (or missing entirely), the whole thing tips over.
Green marketing is laser-focused on the environmental leg.
Here’s how they compare at a glance:
Green marketing | Sustainable marketing |
---|---|
Zooms in on what you sell: eco-packaging, recycled materials, low-waste formulas. | Zooms out to how you operate: ethics, equity, emissions, and end-of-life planning. |
Campaign-level effort: “This product is plastic-free.” | Brand-level strategy: “Every product meets our zero-waste manufacturing standards.” |
Often limited to individual product lines or moments. | Demands consistency and commitment across product lines and supply chains. |
All sustainable products are green, but not all green products are sustainable.
So, a bamboo t-shirt might be made from a renewable resource. That’s green.
However, if it’s manufactured in a facility powered by coal, shipped halfway around the world in diesel-burning cargo ships, and produced by workers earning poverty wages, that’s not sustainable.
Green marketing and LOHAS consumers
LOHAS stands for “Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability,” a term coined in the late 1990s to describe people who care about the planet, their health, social justice, and personal growth.
Once a fringe demographic, LOHAS has officially gone mainstream. It even has an entry in the Cambridge Dictionary: “[LOHAS is] used to refer to people who are interested in healthy living and social and environmental issues, and who buy products related to this.”
As of 2022, the US LOHAS market was valued at $472.51 billion—and it’s still growing. Big brands are taking notice. In April 2025, Unilever acquired Wild, an all-natural, refillable deodorant brand, for a reported $300 million.
A key driver of Wild’s success was its positioning as “the water bottle of the bathroom”: low-waste, high-impact, and proudly values-first.
Understanding the $472 billion LOHAS market
The 2025 State of Sustainability America, published by the Natural Marketing Institute, found that LOHAS customers are the “heaviest” purchasers of green products.
LOHAS consumers are shaping what “normal” looks like for everyone else. They’re often early adopters of eco-conscious brands, spend more on ethically sourced products, and have an outsized influence on broader consumer trends through content, reviews, and community.
Take a closer look at the kinds of business decisions in the past decade that once felt radical, but now feel inevitable:
- Chipotle went 100% GMO-free in 2020.
- CVS pulled cigarettes off its shelves and walked away from $2 billion in annual revenue in 2014.
- Diet Pepsi reformulated its flagship product to drop aspartame entirely in 2015.
Different industries, same throughline: a shift toward customers who care about what they consume, and how it’s made.
LOHAS consumers want brands that walk the talk. Messaging that shows receipts. And platforms that make it easy to research, compare, and choose what aligns.
The 4 Ps of green marketing strategy
The bones of your marketing strategy haven’t changed. But in 2025 and beyond, the expectations around each “P” of marketing absolutely have. Green marketing demands a rethink of how you build, price, ship, and sell.
Green product: Designing with sustainability
You can’t practice green marketing without a green product.
Take Fairphone, for example. Every device is designed for longevity, with modular parts that users can easily replace themselves. They’ve even added features like dual SIM to boost resale value and support a thriving secondhand market.
Fairphone also runs a Reuse and Recycle Program, helping collect e-waste in Ghana and responsibly recycling old phones in Europe.
Here’s how you can design with sustainable practices in mind:
- Swap plastic for plants: Use packaging made from mushroom mycelium or algae-based bioplastics via suppliers like Ecovative or Notpla.
- Add a repair kit: Ship spare buttons, extra screws, or an Allen key with your product. Link to repair tutorials via QR code, or host them on YouTube.
- Design flat: Flat-pack or modular designs reduce shipping volume by up to 40%.
- Skip the extras: Ditch the single-use freebies—plastic tags, manuals, redundant zip bags. Offer digital inserts instead.
- Certify what counts: Go for credible third-party certifications like Cradle to Cradle, FSC, Fair Trade, or OEKO-TEX.
Green price: Premium positioning strategies
Green pricing is about positioning your product as the smarter, longer-lasting, and more responsible choice, even if it costs more upfront.
PDI Technologies’ 2024 survey revealed yet again that customers are willing to pay more for products that follow eco-friendly practices. They found that when comparing two similar products priced at $10 or less, “71% of consumers would select the one that follows sustainable practices.”
Here’s how to position your products as worth the “green premium”:
- Show the breakdown: Include a pricing explainer—how much goes toward sustainable materials, carbon offsets, or local production.
- Anchor price to use, not just purchase: Compare cost-per-use or cost-per-year to fast-fashion or throwaway alternatives. For example, “This $80 backpack costs 6¢ per use over 3 years. That $30 one falls apart after 4 months.”
- Reframe the language: Swap “premium” for “responsible,” “value-first,” “future-friendly.” You’re selling peace of mind.
- Reward low-impact behavior: Offer small discounts when customers make planet-friendly choices, like:
- Choosing carbon-neutral or slower shipping
- Skipping returns
Sending back packaging or empty containers - Tell them where the extra dollars go: Spell it out. If customers know what their money supports—solar panels, plastic-free innovations—they’re likely to pay more.
Green place: Distribution and supply chain
How your product gets from factory to front door matters—and customers know it. If you’re shipping zero-waste shampoo bars in triple-layer bubble mailers, something’s not adding up.
Here’s how to rethink fulfillment as part of your green marketing strategy:
- Make shipping carbon-neutral: If you’re a Shopify merchant, install Shopify’s Planet app. In one click, activate carbon-neutral shipping options from the admin panel, either by covering costs or letting customers opt in. Planet also adds a customizable badge to your store and tracks analytics like CO₂ removed and percentage of offset orders.
- Ditch the box for local drops: For local deliveries, try reusable totes or returnable containers. Services like DeliverZero and Returnity enable packageless fulfillment at scale.
- Ship in waves: Batch orders once or twice a week instead of scrambling for daily fulfillment. Give it a name—Slow Fashion Friday or Conscious Ship Saturday—and customers will rally around the why.
- Let customers see the carbon trail: Tools like AfterShip let shoppers view the carbon footprint of their delivery. It’s a small touch, but it builds big trust.
Green promotion: Authentic messaging tactics
If your product walks the green walk, but your messaging talks in recycled clichés, you’re waving a red flag.
Green marketing initiatives need to check three boxes: be clear, credible, and consistent.
Here’s how to build trust with your environmentally conscious audience:
- Kill the buzzwords: “Eco-friendly” means nothing without context. Instead, try something like: “Made with 80% recycled aluminum, in a factory powered by wind.”
- Turn your About page into a mission page: Be upfront about what you’re doing well and where you’re still figuring it out. Honesty builds more trust than polished perfection.
- Let your customers do the talking: Highlight reviews that mention values: “I bought this because it’s plastic-free and actually works.”
- Use product pages as proof points: Call out sustainability features right where decisions happen: “Ships in 100% compostable mailer.” “Designed for disassembly and resale.”
When your green marketing is rooted in action, and not just aesthetics, you build real trust. And that trust comes with returns. So what does green marketing actually get you—besides a cleaner conscience? Let’s break down the business case.
Benefits of green marketing
Done right, green marketing makes your brand look good while making your business work better. Here’s what’s on the table.
Increased customer trust and brand loyalty
According to The Packer’s Sustainability Insights 2024 survey, more than 75% of consumers now factor sustainability into their buying decisions, up 4% from the year before.
That means your eco-efforts are a filter for brand trust. Do the work, show your proof, and customers will stick around.
Competitive differentiation in a saturated market
If you’re wondering about the ROI of going green, get this: NYU Stern’s Center for Sustainable Business found that products marketed as sustainable grew 2.7 times faster than conventional products between 2015 and 2021–2022.
That’s proof: When brands lead with sustainability, customers reward them with market share.
Stay ahead of environmental regulations
Starting in 2025, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) will require nearly 50,000 companies, including non-EU businesses with operations in Europe, to report detailed environmental data. That includes having a Paris-aligned net-zero plan by 2050.
Meanwhile, the US FTC is updating its Green Guides, tightening rules on how brands use terms like “recyclable,” “eco-friendly,” and “carbon neutral.”
Brands that invest in clarity and credibility now will be ready when regulators come knocking.
Environmental benefits
In 2024 alone, merchants using Shopify’s Planet app generated 23.6 million carbon-neutral orders, cutting more than 15,000 tons of shipping emissions by funding vetted carbon removal projects.
Shopify’s climate partners are making serious waves:
- Vaulted, backed by $6.4 million in purchases from Shopify, has removed over 12,000 tons of carbon since 2023.
- In 2024, Planetary issued the first-ever ocean alkalinity enhancement credits, with Shopify as its first customer.
- Meanwhile, Heirloom, another Planet partner, just raised $150 million in Series B funding to scale its carbon removal tech.
These aren’t moonshots, they’re real, operational climate wins, driven by consumer demand.
Green marketing examples with proven sales impact
These real-life examples of green marketing prove you don’t have to choose between doing good and making money.
1. Blueland
In July 2024, Blueland launched one of the sharpest green marketing plays of the year.
To mark Plastic Free July, Blueland teamed up with drag queen and environmental activist Pattie Gonia to launch the Pointless Plastics campaign, a social-first movement aimed at calling out the most unnecessary uses of single-use plastic. (Like wrapping a banana—nature already did the job.)
By mid-July 2024, the Pointless Plastics campaign had already raised around $15,000 and sparked participation from more than 4,500 people.
But that’s just part of the story.
Behind the scenes as a Shopify merchant, Blueland was an early adopter of Shop Campaigns, piloting the channel within 48 hours of launch. And it paid off: It’s Shop app sales grew 22 times in a year, AOV was 4% higher than on their site, and customer LTV rose by 7.5%.
They manage the whole channel in under 30 minutes a week now: a smart blend of culture, community, and commerce, powered by the right tools.
2. Allbirds
For Earth Day 2024, Allbirds launched a Greenwashed Collection: a one‑day‑only capsule of pre‑loved shoes in every shade of green, sold exclusively through Allbirds’ resale channel, ReRun.

The point was to call out the flood of vague, feel-good eco-marketing that shows up every April.
Allbirds backs every product with its carbon footprint label, calculated and verified by third parties. Its “Flight Plan” lays out real reduction goals across three pillars: regenerative agriculture, renewable materials, and responsible energy. And its “Flight Status” reports track progress toward slashing product carbon footprints in half by 2025—and to near-zero by 2030.
More importantly, co-founder Joey Zwillinger shared in a Shopify Masters podcast episode that sustainability doesn’t have to be at odds with profits: “If we can’t make a big sustainable business from a financial perspective, we’re not going to achieve our mission on the environmental side either.
“We are offering a beacon of hope for how you can have everything that you want from a consumption perspective, but not leave such a dent on the earth.”
Allbirds has been a B Corp since 2016, sources FSC-certified tree fibers and ZQ Merino wool, and publishes every win and vulnerability.
As of March 2025, Allbirds had $39.1 million in cash on hand and zero debt on its $50 million credit line—a strong position for scaling impact without financial strain.
3. Wild Cosmetics
We already touched on Wild when talking about LOHAS consumers, but it’s worth diving deeper into why Unilever dropped a cool $300 million to acquire the brand.
While most bathroom products are designed to be tossed, Wild built a product meant to last: an aluminum case paired with compostable refills and high-performance natural formulas. Every refill saves 30 grams of plastic from heading to a landfill.
It calls it the “water bottle of the bathroom.”

In a recent Guardian article, Fabian Garcia, Unilever’s personal care president, called Wild Cosmetics “an unmissably superior brand,” primarily because of their ethically driven, community-backed marketing.
Wild achieved £46.9 million in revenue in 2023, with 77% year-over-year growth, and its first pre-tax profit. They became the UK’s top-selling refillable deodorant across DTC and retail.
Green marketing implementation guide
No one flips a switch and becomes a green business overnight. The brands doing it right didn’t start with a 200-page sustainability report—they started by fixing one thing. Then another. Then telling people about it.
First, start with this:
Week 1: Use the EPA’s free calculator tocalculate your business’s carbon footprint. Pick your worst environmental habit. Fix that one thing first. Maybe it’s air freight. Maybe it’s single-use packaging. Maybe your office printer still thinks it’s 1998.
Month 1: Install Shopify Planet for instant carbon-neutral shipping. Add a sustainability page, even if it just says "We’re just getting started."
Month 2: Start a blog, a TikTok series, a raw Notion journal, whatever fits your tone. Tell people what you’re trying, what’s breaking, what you’re learning. Customers don’t need you to be perfect. They need you to be real.
Technology integration for sustainability
Here are tools to bake sustainability into your operations and make it visible to your customers:
- EcoCart: Offers carbon offset options at checkout—and shows the real-time impact of those choices. Feel-good copy not included (because it’s built-in).
- Sourcemap: Creates visual supply chain maps so your customers can see where every raw material came from. Ideal for brands claiming transparency and ethical sourcing.
- AfterShip: Go beyond tracking numbers. AfterShip can display the carbon footprint of deliveries, letting customers see the environmental cost.
- Normative/Sustain.Life: Automate your ESG and emissions reporting without chasing spreadsheets.
- Shopify Planet: Adds carbon-neutral shipping to every order. Flip a switch in your admin and let customers feel good about clicking Buy Now.
With Shopify Planet, your store becomes a low-effort climate hero. You’ve got two ways to fund carbon-neutral shipping:
- Let customers chip in 25¢ at checkout.
- Or cover it yourself—between 3.5¢ and 15¢ per order.
Either way, 100% of the funds go toward vetted carbon removal projects. Shopify backs the same companies for Planet as it does in its own carbon removal portfolio.
Measuring green marketing ROI
You can’t scale what you don’t track. These are the metrics that prove green pays off:
- Average order value (AOV): Track it from bundles, refillables, or low-waste products—helps you see whether eco-friendly upgrades are driving higher-value transactions.
- Repeat purchase rate from LOHAS customers or eco-segmented audiences: This will give you insight into whether your values are turning first-time buyers into loyalists.
- Opt-in rates for “green” choices at checkout: Options like slower shipping or offset programs show how many customers are willing to trade convenience for values.
- CO₂ savings per order(using Shopify Planet or a custom calculator): This quantifies the environmental benefits of your shipping model—great for both internal KPIs and customer-facing storytelling.
Let’s talk tradeoffs, because good intentions still need to make business sense.
Here’s how common eco-friendly investments compare to their traditional counterparts on cost, impact, and long-term return:
Investment type | Traditional marketing | Green marketing | Long-term ROI | Breakeven timeline |
---|---|---|---|---|
Shipping options | Standard rates, no offsets. | 3.5¢–15¢ per order via Shopify Planet. | Up to 20% conversion rate from opt-in shoppers. | 1–6 months |
Product packaging | 20¢–40¢ per unit (plastic). | 35¢–60¢ per unit (compostable, recycled). | 43% of shoppers are willing to pay extra for sustainable packaging. | 6–18 months |
Supply chain | Low-cost sourcing, opaque supply chains. | Ethical sourcing with impact tracking. | Reduces compliance risk, strengthens brand trust, and boosts long-term loyalty. | 18–36 months |
What is greenwashing?
Greenwashing is when a company exaggerates or misleads consumers about how environmentally friendly its products, services, or practices are.
These deceptive tactics fall under a framework defined by Planet Tracker, known as The Greenwashing Hydra. It identifies six slippery marketing maneuvers companies use to appear sustainable, without doing the real work:
- Greenhushing: Staying silent to avoid scrutiny, even when actions are weak.
- Greenrinsing: Regularly shifting sustainability targets before they’re met.
- Greenlabelling: Slapping vague eco terms or fake badges on products.
- Greenlighting: Spotlighting one green feature to distract from a dirty supply chain.
- Greenshifting: Blaming the consumer (“You should recycle more”) instead of fixing systemic issues.
- Greencrowding: Hiding behind group pledges that lack accountability.
But if you’re caught—and chances are, you will be—the consequences for your reputation and bottom line are severe.
In January 2025, P&G was sued over its Charmin toilet paper, accused of misleading consumers with strong environmental marketing. The lawsuit claims that Charmin’s “Protect‑Grow‑Restore” logo and forest-friendly statements were false.
The complaint reads: “The company must be held accountable for its egregious environmental destruction of the largest intact forest in the world and stop hiding behind their false and misleading claims of environmental stewardship."
A tough headline—for the environment and for the brand’s reputation.
How to avoid greenwashing risks
You don’t need to be perfect. You do, however, need to be honest.
Your “don’t do this list”:
- Vague language: Saying your product is “eco-friendly” without explaining how it just creates green noise.
- Hidden trade-offs: Don’t boast about using recycled packaging if your supply chain relies on emissions-heavy air freight. If you’re solving one problem while ignoring a bigger one, customers will catch on.
- Unverified labels: A leaf icon or green badge you made in Canva doesn’t mean anything. If it’s not certified by a credible third party, it’s just decoration, and it hurts trust.
- Lesser of evils: Claiming to be the “most sustainable fast fashion brand” is like being the healthiest cigarette. If your entire model is extractive or disposable, no amount of green gloss will cover it.
You “definitely do this list”:
- Say exactly what you’ve changed and why it matters: “This formulation cuts water usage by 40% compared to our 2020 baseline.” That’s credible. “Eco-smart” isn’t.
- Get certified: Earn real credentials from organizations like B Corp, Fair Trade, USDA Organic, or FSC. Let trusted third parties do the talking; it’s more powerful than any slogan.
- Show your work: Break down your process. Publish a lifecycle report. Explain your sourcing, materials, and carbon offset model in plain language. If customers can’t find it, they won’t believe it.
- Admit limitations: You don’t need to be perfect. Say: “We still use plastic pumps, but we’re testing aluminum options for 2026.” Honesty builds more loyalty than pretending you’ve got it all figured out.
- Focus on material impact: Prioritize your biggest footprint first—whether that’s emissions, water usage, or packaging waste. Tell customers what you’re fixing, how, and by when.

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The future of green marketing
The future of green marketing is more demanding and powered by people who care. Here are three trends that are surfacing:
- AI is rewriting the rules of marketing, from predictive segmentation to dynamic content creation to real-time personalization.
Forbes predicts that 2025 will mark a leap forward in enterprise AI, better customer journeys, and smarter campaigns.
But here’s the rub: AI isn’t impact-free. Training massive models takes serious energy and water, and sustainability-minded consumers are starting to ask tough questions. Green companies will need to balance automation with accountability.
- Policy-driven innovation is the new norm.
With CSRD in full swing and similar regulations expanding globally, compliance is becoming a competitive advantage. The brands that bake environmental accountability into operations will scale faster.
- Community-powered credibility is on the rise.
Your most valuable marketers in 2025 and beyond are your customers. A 2024 Harvard Business Review study, analyzing data from 41 million cashback app users, found that referred customers not only spend more, they also refer 30% to 57% more new customers than those acquired another way.
Referral works because it’s built on trust. And trust comes from transparency, consistency, and proof.
For sustainable brands, that same trust-driven behavior becomes a growth engine. When customers believe in what you’re doing, they don’t just buy—they advocate, refer, and create content that spreads your message further.
Expect to see more of this in 2025 and 2026—and plan to participate:
- UGC campaigns about sustainable swaps (backed or initiated by brands themselves).
- Referral programs tied to climate pledges.
- Reviews that weigh values as much as price or quality.
In 2025, green claims travel fastest by word of mouth—and your reputation rides on what people say after they buy. If your product delivers, your customers will help carry it further.
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Green marketing FAQ
What is meant by green marketing?
Green marketing is how brands promote products or practices based on environmental advantages—think recycled materials, low-waste packaging, carbon-neutral shipping, and ethical sourcing.
What are the benefits of green marketing?
Done right, it builds customer trust, boosts loyalty, differentiates your brand, and keeps you ahead of tightening environmental regulations. It also happens to be good for the planet.
What companies use green marketing?
From giants like Patagonia and Unilever to Shopify merchants like KraveBeauty and Wrightwood Furniture, green marketing is showing up in every category, not just in niche DTC.
What are the 4 Ps of green marketing?
- Product: Sustainable design and materials
- Price: Transparent, values-based pricing
- Place: Low-impact logistics and sourcing
- Promotion: Honest, proof-backed messaging
When did green marketing start?
Green marketing first emerged in the late 1980s, sparked by environmental concerns in Europe. Since then, it’s gone through three key phases:
- Ecological marketing: Focused on fixing environmental damage (late ’80s).
- Environmental marketing: Shifted toward clean tech and low-impact product design (early ’90s).
- Sustainable marketing: Today’s approach, which integrates environmental, social, and economic responsibility across the entire brand.