It’s time to make sustainability more human

Despite efforts to connect people with sustainable consumption, it’s still not mainstream. Recent research from Accenture Song’s Sustainability Studio identifies a Relevancy Gap between the way that organizations and people approach sustainability.

The disconnect is so severe that most people – 3 in 5 – don’t strongly relate to the idea of living sustainably*. Meanwhile, the climate crisis intensifies, revealing the need for a fundamental reinvention of consumption. This report draws on anthropological research with people living in eight different countries to offer a framework for how we can reinvent consumption by making sustainability more human.

*Accenture Research and Accenture Song Sustainability Studio, Our Human Moment Sustainability survey, September to November 2022 (n=8,000). 59% of people don’t strongly relate to the idea of living sustainably where strongly relate NET is defined as six and seven on a seven-point scale.