Our presentation at SXSW Eco is upon us! Monday, Austin, TX.
Label Networks presents their 3rd Annual Sustainability and Youth Culture Study 2014, expanding from the years before featuring greater depth of consumer insights on youth trends towards sustainability, eco-friendly fashion and footwear buying habits, sustainability preferences, trends and actions towards sustainability, feelings about the environment, eco and sustainable shopping patterns, greatest influences, top brands, and how they feel about various sustainability issues effecting their lifestyles. The Study also comes with an entire section on Humanitarian Issues, volunteerism, key non-profits, and their concerns about the future.
Based on the unique findings of this Study, Label Networks has been selected by SXSW Eco to present highlights at the upcoming conference on October 6, 2014, in Austin, TX. This will be the 3rd time that Label Networks has been selected to present at a sustainability conference based on their results and analysis, with previous presentations at Sustainable Brands and Sustainatopia in 2013. A book about the subject written by Label Networks’ President Tom Wallace, and Senior Vice President, Kathleen Gasperini, called #TheSustainables: Youth Culture’s Roadmap to a Future Market Reality, is currently under contract with Island Press and scheduled for release in Fall, 2015.
About the Study: While today’s youth culture of 13-25-year-olds is undoubtedly the most tech-savvy generation in the world, they also represent a new generation of hope that grew-up with recycling and a broader awareness about the environment, global warming, nuclear threats, and humanitarian issues affecting their world. This demographic also offers a fresh set of eyes, attitudes, and opportunities to roadmap key solutions on creating engaging sustainability strategies for their future.
“Brands are just beginning to realize the importance of understanding sustainability through the eyes of youth culture,” says Tom Wallace, President of Label Networks. “Our findings provide them with the insights needed about how a new generation thinks and acts. It’s a wake-up call about the changes that are already shaping a very different market reality—one that is defined by finite resources and sweeping global climate change.”
However there has been very little data released about how youth culture feels, thinks, and acts when it comes to sustainability issues and how such insights can help brands better align with this new generation. For these reasons, Label Networks has turned to tracking a series of questions posed to America’s youth demographic ages 13-25-years-old for the past several years. These questions provide opportunities for young people to share their concerns about the environment, humanitarian issues, greenwashing, brand transparency, volunteerism, thrift/vintage fashion buying habits, footwear, brands they consider most sustainable, and sections on what their DIY generation is already doing to change their world. What’s evident from the results is that this marketplace is very concerned, but yet strongly believe it’s up to themselves, and their own skills, to make the difference.
But there’s more: Today’s youth marketplace is not only concerned, but they have already been actively changing their lifestyles to reflect how they feel and creating change for a better life and planet. Brands, non-profits, and industry leaders need to understand how this new generation thinks and acts on such topics in order to create relevant and viable sustainability plans for their future.
Some important revelations from the Study have come to the forefront that’s made sustainability even more important today. For example, there’s now a new demographic of young people that has gone through their entire teens within this economic period of recession, resulting in the shadows of a new savings culture. This is redefining spending patterns, creating new forms of upcycling, significant changes in transportation habits, an increase in technology and new forms of communication, and more relevant sustainability practices.
The Study contains results by Topline, Gender, and Age groups to provide more specific information about how each demographic thinks and why. The analysis by Label Networks comes from comparing the results to previous results (if questions were asked in earlier Studies) with forecasting provided within each Macro Trend section at the beginning of each question.
Overall, this Study provides an important tool for brands, organizations, and industries looking to gain greater insights about a marketplace that should be realized as the most important when it comes to creating future sustainability strategies. After all, it is this next generation that will be the stewards and leaders of our world tomorrow.
Key topics include:
• The Latest, Most Important Eco-friendly or Sustainable Products Purchased
• Brands They Consider Leaders in Eco-friendly Practices and Sustainability
• Influences and Main Factors that Inspire Purchasing Eco-friendly or Sustainable Products
• Trends from What is Considered Eco-friendly or Sustainable
• Spending Patterns and Growth on Eco-friendly and Sustainable Shopping Patterns, Fashion, Footwear among Youth Culture
• What Steps the Marketplace is Taking to Change their Lifestyles
• Ratings Important Future Factors, Concerns
• Humanitarian, Charity and Social Good Popularity
• Non-profits and Volunteerism Preferences
• Greenwashing vs. Brand Transparency in Advertising and Marketing
• How Young People Communicate Sustainability Issues
• Thrift, ReUse, Upcycle Fashion and Footwear Trends and Buying Patterns
• Wearable Technology in the Face of Sustainability
• How Young People Buy, Act, and Care
• Importance of Made in America
To subscribe to this Study or request a presentation about the 3rd Annual “Sustainability and the State of the Future Youth Culture Study” please contact Label Networks at info@labelnetworks.com; (323) 630-4000.
