The Overload

More facts ≠ More Sustainable Choices

Let’s imagine a complicated scientific topic outside our own expertise, something that still affects our everyday lives. To make sense of it, we need a basic explanation that is simple enough to guide our decisions and actions. But if we don’t understand the core principles, or aren´t interested in the topic, adding more details won’t make it better. In fact, too much detail often creates confusion and pushes us away. Instead of feeling informed, we may feel overwhelmed, incapable, or annoyed. And when that happens, we rather stop caring, stop believing, or stop trusting the messenger.

Yet there seems to be a firm belief that giving consumers more data will change their behavior when it comes to fashion.

Given the nature of fashion, the range of attributes involved in a purchase decision is wide. In addition to personal needs, preferences, and budget, consumers are now also expected to understand the ecological and ethical impacts of a global and highly complex value chain. To say the least, that is a lot to ask.

Not that long ago one could make a “green choice” by purchasing a product with a very modest share of organic cotton. Sustainability today is far more complicated. As awareness of the scale and the complexity of fashion’s environmental and social challenges grows, it becomes increasingly difficult to master the sustainability aspect that comes on top of the already complex decision. It’s easy to understand why consumers feel exhausted. 

There is no denying the importance of data in internal sustainability strategies and follow-up, nor should its relevance to different stakeholders be underestimated.

However, I would like to emphasize that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, just as there rarely is in fashion. As the conversation becomes increasingly focused on data and disclosures, it is easy to assume that consumer behavior can be changed using the same tools.

In doing so, we risk asking consumers to work harder than they are willing to and ultimately creating barriers rather than pathways to more sustainable choices.

Instead of prioritizing information, we should aim to create understanding.

People like feeling confident in their decisions. That confidence is not built through an overload of details, but through understanding the sustainability claims and what they are based on. 

Rather than getting carried away by a purely data-driven discussion, we should ask ourselves:

What information does a consumer actually need to choose our brand and our product?

And how can we deliver that information in a way that genuinely supports their decision-making?