Sustainability Communication in Global Consumer Brands

In light of the alarming climate change situation, the focus of society on sustainability has been enhanced. The recent initiatives at national and international levels to significantly lower greenhouse gas emissions and to transition to carbon-neutrality have highlighted the urgency. For a more sustainably oriented society, an important shift is needed; hence, we need to invest in creating more knowledge about the importance of sustainability with different stakeholders, and appropriate marketing and communication strategies can make a big difference. Changes need to happen in all sectors of society. The wood furniture industry, textiles, and car industry all produce products that consumers need daily, namely, furniture, clothes, and vehicles. These industries also produce similar amounts of harmful emissions in their manufacturing processes, which considerably contribute to pollution. Our objective was to investigate and to understand how the chosen industries communicate about sustainability. The three-pillar paradigm of sustainability—economic, environmental, and social—was studied. We chose to compare these different industries as they are among those that contribute to greenhouse gas emissions, and they produce end-consumer products made from different materials. Furthermore, the representative companies are global brands with a strong brand name and presence. The wood furniture industry uses natural materials, while the textile and car industries are more limited in this regard, even if they use some natural materials, for example cotton. Communication about the sustainability of the selected companies in the mentioned sectors was analyzed by applying qualitative content analyses of existing online communication. The companies were selected based on previously defined criteria—the size of the company, geographical location, and brand value. An analysis of the online communication of these companies has demonstrated that the selected industries communicate mostly about environmental topics on their webpages, and less frequently on social and economic issues. The wood furniture industry, although utilizing renewable natural materials, communicates about sustainability similarly to the other two studied sectors. This gives rise to suggestions for improvements in this sector that could give them a leading role in the narrative on communication about environmental, social, and economic sustainability.