Research in Progress: Promoting ethical consumerism through sustainability influencers

By Hyosun Kim, Indiana State University

Sustainability influencers are social media influencers who self-describe as activists advocating for environmental protection, ranging from zero waste to recycling and reducing one’s carbon footprint. They share tips for living a sustainable and eco-friendly lifestyle on Instagram and YouTube. They create content on subjects like sustainable food, zero waste life, conscious choice, and green cosmetics to encourage the public to practice sustainable living.

Venntia La Manna, for example, who has 169,000 followers on Instagram and identifies herself as an activist influencer, uses the platform to advocate for recycling and reuse initiatives in the fashion industry. She wound up making a successful partnership with The Body Shop to promote the brand’s sustainable business practices of using recycled plastics and allowing the return of empty bottles by customers.

Sustainability influencers may not have millions of followers or the same commercial power as mega influencers, but they do boast competitive advantages as activist influencers and have a reputation for creating community with like-minded people based on their strong relationships with their followers.

People tend to adopt the influencers’ sustainable behavior because they desire to mimic the influencers. Unlike traditional celebrity endorsers, the public views influencers as relatable and approachable figures. In other words, the realness in an influencer’s narrative makes the message more trustworthy and motivates people to emulate their lifestyle.

Sustainability influencers thereby have potential for effectively promoting corporations’ sustainable business practices. Moreover, collaborating with sustainability influencers who have a natural affinity with the organization’s sustainable initiatives enhances the altruistic appeal of the message, which helps viewers build a strong relationship with both the influencer and the firm. Despite the great potential of influencer marketing tactics in corporations’ strategic sustainable communication, research into this area is scant.

Therefore, this research project seeks to gain an empirical understanding of how influencers can help promote organizations’ sustainable efforts in an ethical and accountable manner to build trustworthy relationships with their publics.

Specifically, this study focuses on influencers’ narratives that resemble testimonial ads and how-to videos to understand how narrative type can help enhance the authenticity of messages and encourage audiences to adopt a sustainable lifestyle taught by influencers.

In order to contribute the Page Center’s mission to communicate with the public in a transparent and accountable manner, this research seeks to propose strategic partnerships with sustainability influencers who advocate for green initiatives and promote eco-friendly lifestyles on their Instagram to promote corporations’ sustainable efforts.

The purpose of this research is to contribute to sustainable communication scholarship by advancing our knowledges of how to better promote sustainability in a transparent manner as well as to provide practical insight on how to effectively utilize influencer marketing tactics to communicate sustainability.

For more information about this study, email Hyosun Kim at hyosun.kim@indstate.edu. Findings of this study will be shared next year. This study is a part of the Center’s 2022 Page/Johnson Legacy Scholar Grant call for research proposals focusing on sustainability communication.