2024 Consumer Priorities in Sustainability: Key Shifts in Climate, Labour, and Ethics

The share of Swedish consumers who think companies should prioritise the area. 

The Changing Landscape of Consumer Priorities in Sustainability: A 2024 Perspective

As we now are in the second half of 2024, approaching 2025, we thought it would be a good idea to revisit some of the key insights from Sustainable Brand Index 2024. First, we focus on the key sustainability priorities for companies according to consumers in Sweden.

The expectations of consumers are changing along with the expanding global conversation on sustainability. A comparison of consumer priorities for 2023 and 2024 reflects areas in which people feel companies must concentrate their sustainability initiatives. This indicates a growing awareness and concern for particular issues that are now taking precedence in the minds of consumers.

Labour Conditions: An Increasing Focus

Again, one of the most noteworthy changes is the increased importance of labour conditions, be it at home or abroad. In 2024, 28% of consumers feel that companies should give top priority to improving labour conditions at home, up from 23% seen in 2023. Similarly, regarding concerns about labour conditions abroad, the jump was sharp, with 27% of consumers noting it was a key concern, up from 21% the previous year.

This implies that, increasingly over time, a growing number of consumers are becoming aware of the human face of sustainability. As global supply chains come under more scrutiny, consumers are increasingly aware of the working conditions that people manufacturing the goods they consume face, which drives demand for more ethical practices in international and local operations. This is also a concern that tends to increase among people when the economy is worse.

Climate Change: The Ever-Present Concern

The climate is a big concern for consumers. Twenty-eight percent of respondents thought this was a critical area that companies need to act on in 2024, compared to 24% in 2023. The jump shows the growing urgency in the wake of more intense weather events, sea-level rise, and other visible signs of environmental impact.

A much greater concern about climate change has enacted a reason for companies to not only reduce their carbon footprints but also be proactive in lowering the effects of climate. With the adoption of renewable energy sources, better energy efficiency, and investments in clean innovations, companies are expected to take a leading role in the fight against climate change.

Fighting Corruption: A Booming Consumer Demand

Another area that has sharply spiked is the war against corruption. In 2024, as much as 17% of the consumers believed organizations needed to wage a war against corruption, as against a mere 13% in 2023. This concern could be with the other issues prevailing in society, such as transparency, governance, and ethics in business.

Consumers are becoming more demanding of what companies will do to hold them accountable for the promotion of integrity and fairness in their own operations, as well as in the broader society. This implies that consumers look at not just environmental factors in sustainability but also social and governance issues.

Biodiversity and Technological Innovation: Emerging Focus Areas

While these two issues tended to show a lesser degree of variation compared to labour conditions and climate change, two other issues showed a lessening but gained marginally in importance: biodiversity grew from 12% to 14%; technological innovation also increased by 1%, putting it at 13% in 2024.

Now, these growth rates might appear to be indicative of the fact that consumers are becoming aware of the connectivity of different ecosystems and how that provides a huge platform for technology to initiate sustainable practices. Businesses investing in biodiversity preservation and innovative technologies to leverage sustainability-related challenges could potentially find them more likely to be compatible with consumers' expectations.

Conclusion: Adapting to the Changing Consumer Landscape

New or strengthened priorities regarding working conditions and anti-corruption activities imply that, for companies, sustainability no longer entails only green initiatives but also concerns the practice of acting ethically, transparently, and responsibly in its operations. Doing this helps them resonate with a growing consumer base that is more informed and demanding than ever.

This post focused specifically on Sweden, but the trend is very similar, and in some cases identical, in the other Nordic countries.