In the recent past, especially since 2024, “greenhushing” has been hitting the headlines. Large corporations have either been dialing back on their climate pledges, or continuing the work but keeping quiet about it, citing political pressure. But for the impact ecosystem – businesses whose core products or services are designed to solve social or environmental problems – the issue is not a question of whether to communicate sustainability, but how to do so in a manner that resonates with customers.
For climate and social impact businesses, sustainability is not an additional commitment alongside business as usual, but central to the business itself. Most impact companies are created to solve pressing societal challenges and do not have the convenience of opting out of climate communication.
At the same time, effective communication must translate into customer action. And the fact remains that customers—whether in B2B or B2C—say that they want to make sustainable choices but their buying patterns don’t reflect that. Commonly known as the ‘say-do’ gap, customers express concerns about the climate crisis and environmental and social issues, but their purchasing decisions don’t always align with that.
In 2025, the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) and YouGov conducted a study in the UK that showed that out of even the more aware and concerned customer segment, only 7% were considering sustainability as a top factor while making buying decisions, ranking it below cost and quality.
Effective marketing begins with understanding why customers buy, and then positioning the business accordingly. In impact businesses, customers don’t always purchase for sustainability. They buy to fulfil a goal – sometimes, that goal itself is social or environmental, and other times it is a business or personal goal, where the solution may or may not be sustainable.
Positioning must therefore reflect what customers seek. The shortest route to a purchase lies in meeting customers at the point of decision-making, whether sustainability is a factor or not.
This becomes particularly evident when sustainability is not the primary driver of customer choice.
Jiwya is a plant-based luxury fashion brand that launched with the goal of creating a clean supply chain in an otherwise opaque and polluting industry. Every part of the clothing – the fiber, threads, buttons, embellishments, and even the dyes – was made from plant-based materials, making the products completely biodegradable.
From a sustainability standpoint, the model was highly effective. However, a clear mismatch emerged: the eco-conscious customer purchased infrequently, while the luxury buyers did not prioritize sustainability. These customers were after uniqueness and opulence, while the brand emphasized sustainability.
This misalignment resulted in negligible sales. The solution was to flip the narrative: the business repositioned plant-based materials as a marker of luxury, aligning with the motivations of its target customers.
A common reaction to changing the key positioning to suit the customer, instead of the business, is “but this is not who we are.” And that’s a valid contention – the business has been built for a purpose, not simply to sell just another product. It reflects a commitment to solving a problem that affects both people and the planet.
Changing the positioning does not mean moving away from the core of the business. It simply means that the business reaches customers where they are most likely to buy. And when they make the purchase, they are automatically choosing the better option for the planet.
The same principle applies in B2B businesses, where positioning must align even more closely with operational priorities and performance metrics. In 2025, Crusoe Energy, once a relatively unknown startup, took over the news cycle as the company building the Stargate Project and the world’s largest cluster of AI data centers.
Crusoe is a vertically integrated AI infrastructure provider, with capabilities in energy procurement, hardware manufacturing, and GPU virtualization. The first thing you read on their website is “Build AI faster with Crusoe Cloud.” However, this is not how – or why – Crusoe began.
Back in 2018, Chase Lochmiller (CEO) and Cully Cavness (COO) started Crusoe to solve the problem of gas “flaring.” Flaring is a harmful industry practice of burning excess natural gas emitted in the oil drilling process, releasing massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, contributing to nearly 2% of GHG emissions. This practice has significant environmental consequences. Lochmiller and Cavness recognized the potential of natural gas as an energy source and developed a technology to capture this natural gas and convert it into usable energy.
As Crusoe grew, the founders identified the potential of AI data centers, and their immense energy usage. When entering the AI ecosystem in 2024, the company repositioned itself around scale and speed, while maintaining its emphasis on energy efficiency. It addressed a key need of the industry – the hyperscaling of data centers – without compromising its core value of energy efficiency.
This repositioning ultimately led to its selection for the Stargate Project. What a company delivers through its product is as important as what customers think about that product. That’s the key to positioning.
In other contexts, sustainability itself becomes the primary driver of demand.
Europe has been making significant progress toward becoming the “first carbon-neutral continent,” supported by the European Green Deal, which has substantial implications for the fashion and apparel industry. The EU Strategy for Sustainable and Circular Textiles is working towards revamping the entire textiles industry – from sourcing and production to end-of-life of apparel and footwear.
A part of this initiative is the application of Digital Product Passports (DPP) to apparel and textile brands selling in the EU. These passports are intended to create product-level digital records showing an apparel’s environmental performance. In response to this regulatory need, companies such as Carbonfact, Renoon, and Green Story are providing DPP solutions tailored for EU fashion and textiles, helping brands comply with the new regulations.
In this context, fashion and apparel brands actively seek solutions centered on sustainability and environmental impact. The principle of positioning remains the same: alignment with the criteria that drive purchasing decisions. Here, sustainability is not secondary – it is the basis of demand and therefore central to how these solutions are being positioned.
Beyond regulatory pressure, and despite the say-do gap, customers have been willing to pay a premium for products that are kinder on the planet. In the B2C sector, Oatly stands out as a success where consumers actively sought sustainability as a core purchase driver, propelling the company from a niche Swedish producer to a global powerhouse with a market cap of $339.7M, and reporting its first full year of profitability in 2025.
Oatly launched in 1994 but did not achieve significant scale for many years. In 2012, Toni Petersson joined as the CEO, and repositioned the brand towards its key buyer group – younger, more trend-conscious consumers seeking products aligned with both personal and environmental values. With a quirky, self-aware tone in its communication, a product designed to replace milk in tea and coffee, strategic partnerships with baristas, and a clear emphasis on sustainable production, Oatly gave its audience what they desired.
This returns to the central question: how is customer buying behavior influenced?
The answer lies in positioning, ensuring that a product or service becomes the most compelling choice within a particular context for consumers. Whether impact is incidental to the customer’s decision or the primary motivation, effective positioning must meet customers where they make their buying decisions. When alignment is achieved, the most compelling choice for the customer is also the more sustainable one.
© IE Insights.
