Consumers Care About Firms’ Green Behaviors

Economic headwinds, environmental science backlash, and increased political polarization — including around climate change — are slowing the dynamics of the green transition. However, despite this context, the green segmentation has remained largely unchanged between 2024 and 2025. Overall, long-term trends are reshaping consumer behaviors and attitudes when it comes to environmental sustainability.

There is no single green consumer persona for brands to tap into. Some consumers seek out information on green products and prefer to buy them; others continue to prioritize value and convenience over sustainability. We base our segmentation of consumers on their answers to three questions:

Do you regularly seek out information before buying green products and want to understand what you can do to be greener?
Do you purchase green products even when it is less convenient to do so?
Do you see the environment as a secondary factor after price or convenience in your purchasing decision process?

Using this lens to deepen your understanding of customers, the four distinct green segments emerge:

Active Greens seek out and choose environmentally friendly options when shopping. This cohort is the most engaged with sustainability issues, actively paying attention to companies’ impact on the environment. They show concern about the impact of climate change on society, and their tendency to opt for eco-friendly products over low-cost or convenient items reflects that. They regularly purchase natural and organic products and are disappointed if product packaging isn’t recyclable or compostable. While this group represents less than one in five online adults in Australia (14%), the US (13%), it reaches 21% in Italy. You can engage them by embedding environmental sustainability into your company strategy.
Convenient Greens value convenience over the environment. This group cares about the environment, with 65% reporting that they would feel disappointed to learn that product packaging isn’t recyclable or compostable – but 58% say that cutting their environmental impact is too much work. Convenient Greens want to do right by the planet, but convenience and affordability usually carry more weight at the checkout.
Dormant Greens don’t factor environmental impact into their purchase decisions. Dormant greens represent the largest segment accounting for roughly two in five online adults in Europe-5, Australia, and the US. Although only 33% in Europe-5 and 25% in the US are disappointed when they find out product packaging isn’t recyclable or compostable, and few actively look for environmental information, they are likely to be persuaded when they become aware.
Environmental impact isn’t a priority for Non‑Greens. This group represents 9% of the online population in Italy but more than 20% in the US, Canada, and Australia but also – and counterintuitively – in the UK and in Germany. Compared to other segments, Non-Greens value low-cost and convenient products the most — and they’re the least concerned about the impact of climate change on society. Only a tiny share of Non‑Greens say they’re willing to pay more for sustainable products.

2026 Will Weed Out Performative Sustainability Programs From Authentic Ones

Its time to get serious in how you apply the green segmentation to differentiate your approach to sustainability. The first thing that organizations need to do is educate their teams and secure internal alignment on their green goals. Start with Forrester’s five-part framework about education, alignment, and activation. Once you’re internally aligned, you’ll need to thoroughly communicate your environmental initiatives to your increasingly discerning customers. Segmenting your customer base enables your company to:

Measure customers’ propensity to buy sustainable products and pay a green premium. There’s a big “knowing doing” gap in the green shopper space, even among Active Greens. You should design experiences for emotions like feeling confident or respected.

Prioritize environmental actions and differentiate itself from its competitors. The higher the percentage of Convenient Greens and Active Greens among your current and prospective customers, the more you should integrate environmental sustainability into your company strategy. For instance, 20% of Europe-5 online adults who have purchased from IKEA in the past three months are Active Greens, and 38% are Convenient Greens. In response, IKEA is actively trying to make its products more circular.
Know — and get ahead of — the specific risks associated with greenwashing. According to Forrester’s Q1 2025 CMO Pulse Survey, 75% US B2C marketing executives would like to communicate more about their green initiatives but fear their actions being perceived as greenwashing.

Clients who want to better understand consumers’ green behaviors and attitudes can read Forrester’s Green Consumer Segmentation For 2026 report and schedule a conversation with me to go into the details of what it means for them for their particular industry or country.

This blog post was co-written with Maeve O’Keeffe.