Center for Sustainable Business | Sustainable Market Share Index™

Sustainable Market Share Index™

The Sustainable Market Share Index is an annual analysis of the latest national purchasing data for consumer packaged good (CPG) products marketed as sustainable. NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB) partners with Circana (formerly IRI), who generously donated the purchasing data of products marketed with sustainability attributes in 36 CPG categories (excluding alcohol and tobacco), comprising ~40% of the total CPG market in sales from 2013-2022. CSB uses this data to report on the market share for sustainable products and what factors are contributing to its continued growth. Pioneered by Senior Scholar Randi Kronthal-Sacco, each year's report builds on previous analysis and addresses new research questions based on current trends. Click here to read the full 2022 report, and see below of key findings for this year and previous reports.

The 2022 Sustainable Market Share Index™ finds that products marketed as sustainable are responsible for nearly a third of the growth in consumer packaged goods (CPGs) from 2013 to 2022, and market share growth continues year over year.

Sustainability-marketed products continue to grow despite high inflation.

• Products marketed as sustainable now hold a 17.3% market share, up +0.3 percentage points versus 2021, continuing to grow in the face of high inflationary environment.
• Products marketed as sustainable grew ~2x faster than products not marketed as sustainable and achieved a 5-YR CAGR of 9.43% vs. 4.98% for its conventional counterparts.
• The market share continues to grow despite significant growth of private label store brands.

The price premium of products marketed as sustainable continued to shrink relative to 2018, to a price premium of 27.6%* vs. their conventional counterparts.
*weighted by sustainable dollars

• Sustainability-marketed products have a price premium of 27.6% vs. their conventionally marketed branded counterparts, but the differential has decreased since 2018.**
• Given recent inflationary pressures, conventionally marketed products experienced higher price increases (17.8%) than sustainability marketed products (9.9%).**

**excluding private label

“Our annual research definitively shows that sustainable products survived inflation,” said Randi Kronthal-Sacco, Senior Scholar at the NYU Stern Center for Sustainable Business (CSB), who pioneers the research initiative. "In a clear nod to changing consumer preferences, we are encouraged to see that several large legacy brands have also begun to adopt sustainable benefits in their product lineup."
 

Despite the fact that sustainability-marketed products are less than one-fifth of the market, they delivered nearly one-third of the CPG market growth (2013-2022).

Sustainability-marketed products grew approximately twice as as fast as conventionally marketed products and the CPG market.