Can indulgence have a role in an age of eco-anxiety?

Sustainable Futures is one of the most challenging and important areas for innovation. How is this showing up for Advisory clients?

Nia: Today’s brands are facing a complex challenge. They’re transforming products to meet urgent sustainability demands while simultaneously addressing a consumption landscape that is increasingly emotional and complex. With complicated feelings tied to their purchasing behaviours, consumers are seeking brands’ help in navigating through this tumultuous time. We’re being approached by companies that want us to identify how they can thoughtfully integrate sustainability into product design and messaging while also making joy – and/or enjoyment – the primary proposition. The most forward-thinking brands are creating new value propositions that speak to both practical and emotional needs.

Our Advisory team are experts at producing bespoke trends intelligence that drives strategic decision-making and business growth. Among other challenges, businesses continue to rely on our expertise to help determine how they can integrate sustainability into their business models and product propositions. Recently, we’ve been tracking a shift in companies’ sustainability positioning – highlighting to consumers that indulgence is permissible when it’s underpinned by sustainable qualities too. Purchases ultimately serve as ways of feeling pleasure and joy, that momentarily free consumers from life’s constraints while fulfilling deeper emotional needs for comfort, identity and sensory satisfaction.

Our team has been working with personal care brands that feel particularly caught in this crosscurrent. Clients are asking us to investigate whether sustainability is becoming secondary given the increasingly immediate pressures of cost, time and convenience on purchasing decisions. But our research indicates that personal wellness and planetary health remain intrinsically connected in consumers' minds, generating genuine guilt when choices diverge.

What’s driving this shift towards efficient indulgence?

Nia: A number of converging macro environmental, social and economic factors are at play. Eco anxiety is already a problem. Research conducted by the American Psychiatric Association found that 57% of US adults say climate change makes them anxious and impacts their mental health. And this will be even worse for future generations. Generation Beta (born from this year onwards) will grow up in a world grappling with climate change. Their parents, grandparents and caregivers already know this: 37% of American adults already predict climate change will be a defining and disruptive force in Generation Beta’s lives.

Climate anxiety will increase as climate disasters become more frequent and the impacts of climate change become more tangible for more people. Here in Australia, where I live, we already know that environmental disasters bring long-term mental health challenges. Even 12-18 months after the 2019-20 bushfires, researchers from the Australian Psychological Society were finding “extremely high” rates of depression, anxiety, stress and PTSD among those affected.

Brands are asking us exactly how climate worries are influencing purchasing habits. We’ve uncovered that they’re impacting everything from everyday purchases to sizeable ones, like holidays and property. For example, noting increasing climate anxiety, in late 2024 US-based property platform Zillow launched its climate risk map, showing if property listings are at risk of wildfires, flooding, extreme temperatures, high winds or poor air quality.

So where does joy come into this?

Nia: Ultimately, we all want joy, escapism and indulgence to help us forget our worries. We can only achieve this in everyday consumption if, when brands step up their eco-conscious approaches, it’s in line with expanded understanding of how smaller micro shifts are making people feel.

Eco-anxiety is exacerbating a need for self-care. Ulta Beauty’s Joy Study found that 93% of teens and adults believe that they, personally, deserve to experience joy and happiness in their life. The sustainability say-do gap, where barriers to behaviour (cost, convenience) remain, means that they expect brands to make it easier – and more fun – for their daily routines to be eco-friendly.

In your global trends tracking, how are you seeing this tension between joy and responsibility show up?

Nia: There are a number of examples emerging that allow consumers to embrace moments of pleasure without the weight of ecological guilt. Combining indulgence with resourcefulness, the Bathhouse space in Manhattan is heated by Bitcoin mining computers. The heat generated from their activity is extracted via pipes, and powers the Bathhouse’s heated pools and marble stones. It’s an interesting example of transforming the act of consumption from a source of anxiety into an expression of conscious values and authentic joy.

Similarly, today's shoppers want protection and safety engineered into their products without constant, anxiety-inducing reminders of the threats they face. While tangible impacts of climate change ring planetary health alarms, brands need to also acknowledge that consumers are feeling their personal safety threatened too. Consumers are looking for internal resilience – benefits such as immunity boosts – but with an element of fun rather than tiresome (or terrifying!) practicality. Take US brand Barrière, which blends self-care with self-expression through plant-based temporary tattoos infused with vitamins and immune-boosting ingredients.

Are there any industries that should be paying particular attention to this?

Nia: Beyond personal care, beauty and wellness, this trend has far-reaching implications. For example, in luxury travel, hotels are offering responsible experiences that don’t scrimp on indulgence. And in food, a recent TV show by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Eat The Invaders, saw scientists, land carers, an artist and a chef attempt to turn “unwanted ecological trash” – invasive plants and animals brought here by colonial ancestors – into “desirable culinary gold”, in a provocative attempt to turn pest species into sustainable food sources. Our Stylus reporting has been tracking overpopulated ingredients for years: for example, in our 2022 report Planet-First Ingredients, we highlight the underused and unexpected edible sources primed to create flavourful and sustainable products.

What’s the key takeaway for brands?

Nia: Businesses are operating in an increasingly complex landscape, no matter the industry they’re in. Consumer demand will continue to heighten this tension between safety (both personal and planetary) and self-care. Efficient indulgence will require innovation in products that enable me-time moments to be fun, yet safe and sustainable.

We’re working in strategic partnership with businesses on this very topic, equipping them with the foresight needed to future-proof their product and engagement strategies, and to enhance their connections with their consumers.