A new study reveals how environmental values shape consumer responses to sustainability claims about product composition and packaging.
Companies increasingly market environmentally friendly products, but it remains unclear whether highlighting multiple sustainability benefits improves consumer evaluations. A new study examined responses to sustainability claims across three studies in Japan. Consumers with stronger green consumption values evaluated products more favorably when both composition and packaging were highlighted, whereas those with weaker values preferred a single focus. The findings suggest that sustainability communication may be more effective when tailored to consumers’ environmental values.
Sustainability has become an increasingly visible feature of consumer-packaged goods (CPGs), from the ingredients used in household products to the materials and design of their packaging. For companies marketing sustainable products, however, an important question remains: does communicating more environmental benefits necessarily improve how consumers evaluate a product? Although highlighting several sustainability features may provide a more complete picture, consumers may not respond to all this information in the same way.
This question prompted Professor Miyuri Shirai of the Faculty of Business and Commerce at Keio University, Japan, to investigate how consumers evaluate products when sustainability is communicated through product composition, packaging, or both. The study, available online on 29 September 2026 and will be published in Volume 115 of the Journal of Environmental Psychology on 01 November 2026, examines whether consumers’ green consumption values (GCVs) influence their responses to these different messages. Reflecting on her motivation, Prof. Shirai explains, “My interest in this research began when I read articles about the embedding effect, which suggest that adding more positive information does not always make an option seem better. I became curious about whether communicating multiple sustainability benefits might sometimes be less effective than highlighting just one, depending on the consumer.”
The research comprised three studies in Japan, involving laundry detergent, organic granola, and body wash. The studies included 626, 600, and 503 participants, respectively, for a combined sample of 1,729 people. Participants viewed advertisements for fictional products that communicated sustainability through composition alone, packaging alone, or both. They then evaluated the products, allowing the researcher to examine how responses differed according to GCVs—the importance individuals place on environmentally responsible consumption.
Across all three studies, GCVs influenced how participants responded to the sustainability messages. Those with higher GCVs evaluated products more favorably when sustainability was highlighted through both composition and packaging than when it was communicated through either attribute alone. Participants with lower GCVs showed the opposite pattern, responding more favorably to messages focused on a single attribute.
These findings suggest that communicating multiple sustainability benefits does not produce the same response across consumer groups. For people who place greater importance on green consumption, information about both the product and its packaging may provide complementary cues when judging sustainability. For those who place less importance on green consumption, combining the two types of information may be less effective. The results are consistent with the embedding-effect perspective, which proposes that adding positive information does not always improve an overall evaluation.
The third study also examined how the perceived usefulness of sustainability information and perceived product sustainability related to participants’ attitudes. The analysis identified conditional indirect effects involving these factors, offering possible insight into how sustainability messages relate to product evaluations. However, it did not establish a definitive causal sequence among them.
For companies marketing sustainable consumer goods, the findings highlight the importance of considering the intended audience when communicating environmental attributes. As Prof. Shirai notes, “Emphasizing sustainability in both the product and its packaging may not always be the most effective strategy.” Rather than assuming that more sustainability claims will appeal to everyone, companies may benefit from considering how their target consumers value environmentally responsible consumption.
The findings should be interpreted in light of the study design. The research examined responses to advertisements for fictional products in Japan, rather than actual purchasing behavior. Additionally, the combined composition-and-packaging condition contained four sustainability-related statements, compared with two in each single-focus condition. Because the number of claims differed alongside the message focus, the observed responses cannot be attributed solely to whether sustainability was communicated through one or two product attributes. Further research using other products, consumer populations, and more closely matched advertisements is needed to determine how broadly these patterns apply.
Overall, the study provides evidence that GCVs can shape responses to the sustainability messages examined. Whether tailoring these messages leads to actual purchases or measurable environmental benefits remains an important question for future research.
Title: How Green Values Shape Consumer Responses to Sustainable Products?
Caption: A new study examines how consumers evaluate sustainable products when environmental benefits are highlighted in product composition, packaging, or both. Across three studies in Japan involving laundry detergent, organic granola, and body wash, consumers with stronger green consumption values responded more favorably to messages highlighting both attributes, while those with weaker values preferred a single focus. The findings highlight the importance of tailoring sustainability communication to consumers’ environmental values.
Credit: Prof. Miyuri Shirai from Keio University, Japan
License type: Original content
Usage restrictions: Cannot be reused without permission.
About Professor Miyuri Shirai from Keio University, Japan
Miyuri Shirai is a Professor at the Faculty of Business and Commerce, Keio University. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of Tokyo. Her research focuses on elucidating the psychological mechanisms underlying consumer judgment and decision-making. Her recent scholarship seeks to advance sustainable consumption by examining the psychological drivers of favorable consumer responses to sustainable products and the spillover effects of pro-environmental behaviors on other environmentally responsible consumption practices. Her work aims to deepen theoretical understanding of consumer behavior while informing the development of effective strategies for fostering environmentally responsible consumption.
Funding information
This work was supported by JSPS KAKENHI Grant Numbers JP22K01768.
Reference
Journal： Journal of Environmental Psychology
DOI： 10.1016/j.jenvp.2026.103219
Article Title： Consumers’ evaluations of products with sustainable composition and packaging: The moderating role of green consumption values