Melink Solar - Thought Leadership

Your Future Customers and Employees Want You to be Invested in Sustainability

Gen Z is reaching adulthood and joining the workforce – their needs and desires must matter to businesses.

As Generation Z enters adulthood, their influence over politics and consumerism is growing. Gen Z is the generation born roughly between 1997 and 2012, meaning that roughly all of Gen Z will be legal adults by 2030 and will make up a large portion of the consumer base and workforce.

Now is the time to start thinking about making your business attractive to your upcoming generation of customers – and incoming generation of employees. With their penchant for shopping, especially online, Gen Z is slated to become the largest consumer base in the US [1].

It’s already clear that Gen Z is highly concerned about climate change and the environment; in fact, a survey from Deloitte showed that climate change and protecting the environment is at the top of the generation’s list of concerns [2]. And this concern about the environment is already being reflected in their spending habits. Gen Z teens and young adults are putting pressure on businesses to uphold ethical and sustainable practices, putting many fast fashion brands at risk of bankruptcy [1]. And Gen Z is willing to pay the increased prices associated with sustainable products and business [1].

And Gen Z takes their sustainable consumerism seriously. Thought they might not yet know the ins and outs of what each company should be doing to protect the environment, they are shrewd and cautious of greenwashing. Greenwashing is when a company brands itself as eco-friendly without actually following through with real sustainable practices [3].

Gen Z’s commitment to ethics and environmentalism doesn’t stop at the companies they buy from. They also want the companies they work for to be committed to sustainability [4]. It’s vital to Gen Z that their workplace have morals that align with theirs [4]. In a Deloitte study, 1 in 6 Gen Zs said that they had already changed jobs because of concerns associated with climate change, and a further 25% reported planning to do so in the future [5].

The state of the economy and the state of the environment are intrinsically linked, and this generation of young adults is well aware of that. While Gen Z is willing to pay the higher prices for products that are more sustainable and ethically made, they are concerned that affording a more environmentally conscious lifestyle will be harder or even impossible if the economy does not improve significantly [5]. But making your product or service eco-friendlier and more affordable do actually go hand in hand. Sustainable business practices often lead to lower costs. For example, implementing solar or other methods of clean energy generation can significantly lower, or even completely offset, electric bills on an annual basis.

Even when green solutions don’t provide immediate savings, investing in sustainability early will help prevent expensive setbacks, such as carbon taxation, in the future [6]. Utilizing climate-conscious business practices has the potential to allow companies to achieve sustainability goals, adjust to more competitive pricing, and attract customers that value sustainability. Showing real action towards achieving a greener, cleaner business landscape and plans to continue investing in sustainability in the future has the potential to attract younger generations as both consumers and employees. Investments like on-site solar power generation are especially good at dissuading suspicions of greenwashing.

So how do you make your company more attractive to the up-and-coming generation of consumers and workers? Simple, don’t greenwash and invest in sustainability wherever and whenever you can.

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[1] https://sigearth.com/gen-z-makes-sustainability-important-for-all-businesses/
[2] https://www.deloitte.com/content/dam/assets-shared/legacy/docs/insights/2022/2021-deloitte-global-millennial-survey-report.pdf
[3] https://www.cnbc.com/2021/08/10/the-environment-is-gen-zs-no-1-concern-but-beware-of-greenwashing.html
[4] https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220225-how-climate-change-is-re-shaping-the-way-gen-z-works
[5] https://deloitte.wsj.com/sustainable-business/gen-zs-and-millennials-look-to-employers-to-address-climate-concerns-c1cddbe8
[6] https://www.bain.com/insights/lower-costs-faster-adoption-closing-the-sustainable-innovation-gap-ceo-sustainability-guide-2023/