Why sustainability slipped down marketing’s priority list in 2025

In late 2025, the environmental conditions across India have presented an undeniable challenge. Delhi’s Air Quality Index (AQI) consistently exceeded the 450–500 range, while Mumbai registered its poorest November air quality in six years. Northern cities such as Ghaziabad and Gurugram remained in the 'severe' air quality category for prolonged periods. Furthermore, heatwaves intensified, with the India Meteorological Department (IMD) reporting over 120 heatwave days across central and eastern India — a record high in recent decades. The simultaneous occurrence of severe floods and water scarcity in various regions underscored the escalating instability of India’s climate situation.

However, within high-rise offices and air-conditioned boardrooms, this sense of urgency appeared to diminish. While the external environment faced toxicity, internally at corporate headquarters, sustainability largely remained an issue of perception rather than a pressing priority.

Marketing possesses the capacity to influence consumer behaviour and enhance awareness regarding environmental concerns. In a nation contending with significant environmental degradation, brands ought to naturally serve as partners in fostering consciousness about sustainability. However, 2025 revealed a concerning disparity between professed intention and tangible impact.

Looking back at 2025, Manisha Kapoor, Secretary-General & CEO, ASCI, says, “The performative act of appearing sustainable is overshadowing substantive sustainability action.”

This year, while sustainability talk increased, sustainable thinking did not catch up. Although a majority of brands addressed sustainability, only a limited number incorporated it into their core strategy or product development rationale.

Rumjhum Gupta, Founder & CEO, EcoMedia Solutions, says that while awareness for sustainability among brands has grown rapidly, the shift from intent to measurable action is still catching up. She adds, “For many brands, it tended to sit at the periphery of campaigns - an add-on rather than a core part of how the business operates.”

However, not all endeavours were in vain; some brands distinguished themselves with genuine initiatives amidst the clamour.

The HDFC Mutual Fund 5.0 Nurture Nature: Plastic to Purpose campaign stood out by linking everyday consumer actions to environmental impact. Launched around World Environment Day 2025, the campaign aligned with the UN's theme of ending plastic pollution. For every new digitally registered SIP between June 5-12, 2025, HDFC contributed ₹100 toward school bags made from recycled plastic waste for children in need.

Britannia's ‘Nature Shapes Britannia’ campaign took a different but equally compelling approach. Instead of cutting trees to improve billboard visibility, a common industry practice, the brand deliberately designed billboards that bent around trees. 

Yet, these were just a few exceptions and not the norm. Most 2025 marketing remained cautious. ASCI processed 211 green claims in FY 2024-25, showing how often brands leaned on sustainability claims without full clarity or backing. Many of these claims required correction or additional proof.

Narayan Devanathan, President & Chief Strategy Officer, South Asia, dentsu, says that sustainability felt superficial because it lived under marketing instead of being treated as a business-critical function. He adds, “Marketing should leverage its core superpower – creating behaviour change – in the service of sustainability. Instead, it mostly toms-toms self-aggrandising headlines based on limited actions by an organisation.”

What did they hope to see?

The consensus among experts favours system-level initiatives over mere symbolic marketing efforts. They wanted the communication to go beyond symbols. They felt the core strategy was lacking. 

Shashwat Das, Founder - Almond Branding, says, “The gap is not a lack of intent, but a lack of courage to redesign the system itself. The big learning for Indian brands is that sustainability works when it becomes part of the product logic — not just the packaging copy. Consumers may be inspired by stories, but they trust systems.”

Das expressed the hope that sustainability would be intrinsic to the brand's core identity rather than merely superficial.

Experts also perceived a reluctance among brands to articulate authentic narratives, such as the arduous transitions, the operational adjustments driven by ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) principles, or the inherent difficulties in minimising material consumption or restructuring supply chains. In contrast, their communication often prioritised product advantages or superficial demonstrations.

Talking about the work she saw at Goafest, Gupta says, “A few entries leaned more on ‘green’ cues than evidence-backed change, highlighting the need for greater transparency, sustainable production practices, and more data-driven storytelling in India.” 

The review conducted by ASCI unequivocally demonstrated that without rigorous enforcement, unsubstantiated claims persist unabated. Kapoor says, “Effective regulation, transparency, empowered consumers and strong accountability mechanisms will ensure that the pursuit of a greener future is not undermined by a mere veneer of sustainability."

Beyond A&M, how did sustainability show up in ‘25?

Sustainability has largely entered the mainstream, particularly in rhetoric. For instance, Deloitte's 2025 CxO Sustainability Report revealed that three-quarters of global leaders now consider sustainability central to their agenda. However, the report also highlighted a significant gap: fewer than 20% of these leaders have actually integrated sustainability into essential business functions like supply chains, sourcing, or product development.

The year was characterised by a fundamental dichotomy: while sustainability was widely discussed, visible, and often used in marketing, it had yet to become a deeply integrated practice.

Rumjhum Gupta describes this phase as a shift in mindset but not yet a shift in method. She also notes that only a few brands ventured into deeper work, such as rethinking supply chains, conducting carbon accounting, or adopting true lifecycle-based decision-making.

She says, “India is very much in a transition phase: awareness is strong, conversations have begun, but the real leap now lies in moving from intention to measurable action and from isolated efforts to sustainability embedded into everyday choices.”

The approach companies took toward sustainability in 2025 was limited by the overly narrow definition of the term. Narayan Devanathan observed that brands primarily equated sustainability with environmental responsibility.

He adds, “The planet urgently needs saving (from humans), but humans themselves create inequalities and inequities in many forms, and companies only need to look as far as the UN’s SDGs to find so many more canvases to enable sustainability.”

This selective understanding meant that while climate-focused messaging increased, the deeper, more holistic pillars of sustainability stayed underexplored.

What needs to change 

On one hand, consumer demand for eco-responsible brands soared with recent data suggesting that over 70% of consumers preferred brands that demonstrated environmental responsibility, and a majority said sustainability influenced their purchase decisions. On the other hand, trust was fragile, with only about 20% of consumers believing that brands’ sustainability claims are accurate.

This gap between high consumer expectations and low trust is why the industry argues that 2026 must bring structural change. 

Experts suggest that the industry must measure sustainability from a realistic POV and not just budgets. Rumjhum Gupta says, “sustainability can’t be treated as an afterthought anymore; it has to be part of how organisations work, communicate and grow.”

She adds, “As India’s advertising and activation industry continues to grow, sustainability is becoming an important factor in how brands choose partners and plan campaigns. Yet, there are no standard tools that accurately measure the environmental impact of a campaign.” 

She points out that most current tools for eco-tracking rely on rough, budget-based estimates, not actual on-ground data, and suggests that this needs to change. 

Das recommends that brands start with environmental goals in the briefs. He says that briefs should not be just visual devices, but begin with ‘environmental goals’. He argues measurement must also broaden to include carbon emissions, material efficiency, lifecycle impact, not just traditional ad metrics like reach or recall.

He adds, “Regulators, manufacturers, and marketers need to co-create the future.” 

Experts also believe that for sustainability to be more than a marketing badge, it needs its own leadership and expertise. Narayan Devanathan says companies shouldn't expect part-time executives or CSR-heads to carry this forward.

He says, “Sustainability needs to become a specialised, business-critical function in all companies, with a CXO empowered to act in powerful ways, the way the CEO or CFO might.”

He also stresses the need for a trained talent pool and for common metrics and audit mechanisms that go beyond regulatory compliance. 

To create a different reality in 2026, brands must shift from using sustainability merely as a marketing tool to embedding it deeply within their products, processes, leadership, and performance metrics. The industry possesses the necessary talent, tools, and urgency. Now, the collective will is required to translate these elements into genuine impact.