Emma Sjöström

In this chapter, we explore the motivations of sustainability-oriented investors for directing capital towards sustainable production and consumption practices. Whereas in public communication it is often framed in financial terms, i.e. that a focus on sustainability is a way to generate long-term shareholder value, some investors may also be motivated by “doing good” and by an urge to contribute to a sustainable future. These two rationales build on different logics, and may produce different strategies on part of the investors, and have different outcomes. The financial logic has a theoretical or mind-to-world direction of fit, and it requires investors to adopt a reactive and hypothetical stance towards sustainability issues. The moral logic, on the other hand, has a practical or world-to-mind direction of fit, and it requires investors to adopt a proactive and categorical stance to sustainability issues. In this chapter we reflect on what this might entail for sustainable production and consumption.

The 2020 COVID-19 pandemic and social and economic responses are amplifying social inequalities and hampering strategic, long-term investments into sustainability by firms and governments. Researchers affiliated with Misum (Mistra Center for Sustainable Markets) discuss how the global response to the pandemic has slowed progress toward the Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in 2015. The article emphasizes that low-income groups are most affected by the economic consequences of the coronavirus crisis, that the pandemic is reducing the ability and willingness of firms to make strategic investments, and that companies and governments need to deploy resources that ensure a sustainable recovery from the crisis.

This paper revolves around Swedish consumers’ perceptions of a TV marketing campaign informing about the certification of Chiquita bananas by the non-profit organization Rainforest Alliance. The certification means that Chiquita bananas have become more environmentally friendly, though not as friendly as to be marketed as ecological in Sweden, making this an interesting case to study. Through interviewing and surveying banana purchasers in the store, it was found that awareness of the campaign had a positive influence on the chain of advertising effects, but that more ecologically aware consumers, as well as consumers more sceptical to advertising, were less inclined to purchase, and had a more negative attitude to, the Chiquita brand. However, there was no relation between ecological awareness and ad scepticism in this sample. Implications for the marketing of (more or less) green products are discussed.