Consumer activism and conscious consumerism are on the rise, with consumers expected to spend upwards of $150 billion on sustainable products by 2021 in the U.S. alone. Though consumers are willing to pay a premium for environmentally friendly products, they are also becoming more critical and leveraging their purchasing power to express their views, beliefs and lifestyles. As the consumer base becomes more educated and knowledgeable, they are not only preoptimizing price, product and convenience, but also evaluating how brands and products align with their core values. Both government regulators and consumers themselves are taking action against businesses that overstate the ethical or environmental attributes of a product, service or brand. At the same time, environmental and consumer rights groups are stepping in to unmask misleading claims.

Ethical behavior is becoming increasingly vital as consumers become more skeptical of corporate conduct and demand heightened transparency from brands. According to the Edelman Trust Barometer, people’s trust of a business is based on two distinctive features – competence (delivering on promises) and ethical behavior. While businesses rank highest in competence (when compared to government, NGOs and media), consumers nonetheless do not rank businesses high in terms of ethics. In fact, none of the four institutions tracked by Edelman ranked as both competent and ethical. According to Edelman, ethical drivers such as integrity, dependability and purpose drive 76% of the trust capital of business.