Commercial marketing oriented toward sustainability is not compatible with degrowth, even when it promotes consuming less. That is the conclusion of a study by ICTA-UAB and the London School of Economics and Political Science.
The research, published in PLOS Sustainability and Transformation, argues that regulations should target not only advertising for high-emission goods and activities — such as meat or air travel — but also subtler campaigns that encourage what is seen as "better" or "more responsible" forms of consumption. To achieve this, the authors propose communication strategies led by non-commercial actors that empower communities, rather than focusing solely on individual consumer behavior.
Degrowth proposes an equitable and democratic reduction of production and consumption in the world's wealthiest countries of the Global North, with the aim of improving collective well-being and promoting global justice within planetary boundaries. In contrast, green growth seeks to reconcile economic growth with environmental sustainability through technological innovation and efficiency. Although academic debate around both agendas has grown considerably, little was known about how to communicate them effectively at the individual level and which actors are best suited to do so.
During the research, led by Dallas O'Dell together with Frédéric Basso and Ganga Shreedhar, the team conducted two online experiments with millennial participants in the United Kingdom. In the first, researchers tested marketing messages from a sustainable bath-products brand, comparing a green-growth approach — offering more sustainable choices without limiting consumption — with a degrowth approach — consuming less in order to live better. In the second, a non-commercial organization presented the same frameworks in a citizenship context, exploring support for environmental policies and values related to economic growth.
The results point to a clear tension between what sounds persuasive in theory and what actually works in practice. In the commercial setting, the sufficiency-oriented marketing messages did not meaningfully distinguish degrowth from green growth in terms of purchase intentions, willingness to donate time, or broader consumption-related outcomes, suggesting that advertising itself may activate consumer schemas that work against messages about limits. Rather than encouraging a genuine shift toward sufficiency, the commercial frame appeared to reproduce the logic of buying, even when the message itself pointed toward consuming less.
By contrast, the non-commercial, citizenship-based framing produced a more nuanced pattern. Degrowth messaging was more likely to shift participants toward positions that question economic growth, while green-growth framing tended to generate higher support for environmental policies overall. This suggests that degrowth may be more effective at shaping values and worldviews, whereas green growth may still be better at securing short-term policy support. At the same time, the findings indicate that framing degrowth through system-level problems and reduction-based solutions can also reduce people's sense of personal agency, potentially weakening their willingness to engage in more active forms of collective change.
Taken together, the study suggests that communication about degrowth should not rely on commercial marketing logics. Instead, the authors argue for messages led by non-commercial institutions that speak to citizens rather than consumers and that connect with deeper values and shared visions of social change. They also emphasize the need for broader policy tools — including tighter regulation of advertising — so that the responsibility for reducing consumption does not rest on individuals alone. Other structural measures, such as shorter working hours and limits on fossil fuels, are also necessary if self-limitation is to become socially and politically feasible.
The authors further point to an important research question for future studies: whether framing environmental problems as a matter of system failure may unintentionally discourage more active political engagement, such as activism, information-seeking, or advocacy for policy change. Exploring that possibility, they suggest, would help clarify how to communicate degrowth without turning a critique of the system into a sense of helplessness.
Artículo de referencia: O'Dell, D., Basso, F., y Shreedhar, G. (2026). «Translating system-level change to individuals: Experimental evidence on avenues to communicate about degrowth and green growth». PLOS Sustainability and Transformation. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pstr.0000245
