By: Melinda Knuth, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Horticultural Science at NC State University

Happy Earth Month! This is a significant sustainability holiday in U.S. history. Celebrated in April, Earth Day was created in 1970 to invigorate environmental protection into the national political agenda. This push was in-part due to Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring, a significant oil spill that happened off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, and general consumer concern over pollution. We have this push to thank for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As a result, Earth Day is a natural anniversary of the modern environmental movement and is celebrated as a month-long event. In fact, now more than 140 countries celebrate with the U.S., making it a global event.

Introduction

Environmental sustainability has become a central issue in floriculture, particularly in floriculture systems characterized by inputs of water, energy, fertilizers, and pesticides. At the same time, consumer expectations for sustainable products have increased, with purchasing decisions increasingly influenced by environmental attributes.

Despite this shift, a disconnect remains between production practices and consumer understanding. Growers often implement best management practices (BMPs) such as water conservation, integrated pest management (IPM), and energy-efficient greenhouse systems, yet struggle to communicate these effectively. This has been a reported mismatch for over 10 years, so it is not a new issue. Fear not!

With Earth Month upon us and awareness of sustainability building, how can you communicate your efforts with the end-consumer effectively? Below are a few science-backed strategies.

Strategy 1. Translate Production Practices into Consumer Benefits

Horticultural production systems often rely on technically complex sustainability practices, including nutrient management, water recycling, and biological pest control. However, environmental communication research consistently shows that consumers respond more strongly to outcome-based framing rather than technical descriptions.

What does this mean in more simplistic terms? What do consumers get out of you doing better nutrient management, recycling, or other practices? These don’t have to be first-person benefits; they can broader societal benefits that affect the consumer. This aligns with findings that perceived environmental benefit, rather than technical accuracy alone, drives willingness to pay.

Practical Translation:

What You Are Doing	How To Say It As A Benefit
Closed-loop irrigation system	Protects local water resources by using less water to grow plants to a high quality
Biological pest control	Grown with fewer pesticides

If you are looking for a concise list of environmental benefits, Grace Cotting, Charlie Hall, and I are writing a series of articles, the Environmental Benefits of Plants, hosted on the Journal of Environmental Horticulture website, translating science-based environmental benefits into laymen’s terms that you can use to communicate with.

Strategy 2. Transparency, Trust and Credibility

Trust is a foundational component of sustainability communication. In fact, you can think of trust as the foundation of consumer loyalty. In horticultural markets, consumers often lack detailed knowledge of production systems. As a result, there’s been an increasing reliance on credence attributes. The consumer must recognize the credential to give it full credence. What they don’t understand, many times they ignore. Highly sophisticated consumers seek out information like credentials.

Avoid vague claims. In fact, using more specific terminology and claims to describe a practice that you are using (in a few words, if possible!) can lead to higher willingness to pay for sustainability products rather than more generalized wording. For example, instead of “sustainable pots,” (vague) try “industrial compostable pots” (specific).

Evidence from Literature:

• Certification and labeling improve consumer trust and willingness to purchase (Yue et al., 2010)
• Transparency reduces skepticism and perceived greenwashing (Delmas & Burbano, 2011)

Practical Strategies:

• Provide verifiable claims (e.g., water savings, reduced pesticide use)
• Use third-party certifications to help back claims
• Offer traceability (e.g., origin, production methods)

Strategy 3. Framing Sustainability as Value, Not Trade-Off

Communicating how sustainable practices contribute to value within floriculture businesses can positively influence consumer perceptions. These benefits may include enhanced longevity (e.g., “longer lasting flowers”), improved or maintained quality with fewer inputs, and reduced waste.

Value framing is a communication strategy that presents information in terms of its benefits, relevance, or utility to the audience, rather than focusing solely on technical features or production attributes. In sustainability communication, particularly within floriculture, this involves linking environmentally responsible practices to outcomes that consumers care about, such as product quality, longevity, cost-effectiveness, and alignment with personal values.

Framing sustainability in this way aligns with behavioral economics research, which demonstrates that consumers are more likely to adopt sustainable products when benefits are emphasized over costs.

Historically, sustainability has often been perceived as increasing costs or compromising product quality. However, horticultural research indicates that many sustainable practices can enhance both production efficiency and product performance. For example, energy-efficient greenhouse technologies can reduce input costs and lower emissions, while water-efficient irrigation systems improve plant quality and reduce water and fertilizer losses. If you’re implementing one or more of these practices, tell your consumers about its value.

Strategy 4. Storytelling and Narrative-Based Communication

Scientific information alone is often insufficient to influence consumer behavior, particularly in retail environments where decisions are made quickly and with information limited to what is available during that decision. (Did you know you make a purchase decision in about 10 seconds?!) Instead, narrative-based communication, which is grounded in storytelling, has been shown to improve engagement, message recall, and emotional connection with audiences , 2014). This approach is especially well-suited to floriculture, where products are inherently tied to emotional experiences such as celebrations, sympathy, and personal expression.

Within this context, storytelling provides an effective mechanism for communicating sustainability. Rather than presenting practices as abstract concepts, you can illustrate your efforts through tangible, people-centered narratives. For example, sharing the story of how you installed a greenhouse water recycling systems or adopted biological pest control can make sustainability more relatable and credible to consumers. Visuals further strengthens this connection: short videos demonstrating sustainability practices, accompanied by narration or interviews with staff, allow consumers to see and hear firsthand how environmental stewardship is implemented in production.

These narrative approaches also create opportunities to link individual practices to broader environmental outcomes, such as protecting water quality or reducing waste. Supporting these stories with visuals or real-world examples reinforces authenticity and helps consumers better understand the impact of their purchasing decisions. In this way, storytelling transforms sustainability from a technical attribute into a meaningful and memorable component of the floriculture product experience and shows the human side of plant management.

Strategy 5. Segmenting Consumers Based on Environmental Attitudes

Not all consumers think of sustainability equally. This is okay! Segmentation allows us to home in on our strategies and rely on specific marketing tools in our toolbox instead of broadcasting everything everywhere. Consumer research in horticulture consistently demonstrates that environmental preferences are not uniform, but instead vary across segments of the market.

Some consumers are highly environmentally engaged and actively seek out sustainability attributes when making purchasing decisions. Others show moderate interest, responding most positively when sustainability is paired with clear indicators of value, such as quality or longevity. In contrast, a substantial portion of consumers remains primarily price-sensitive, prioritizing cost and product performance over environmental considerations. There have been shifts away from price-sensitivity, but it still is a segment.

Recognizing this heterogeneity is critical for effective communication. Know your current audience through learning about your existing consumer base. Secondly, consider if this is who you want to target, or if you want to draw in a new segment that will have different priorities and needs. Messaging strategies should be tailored to align with varying levels of consumer engagement and interest. Consistency is key here! Don’t just share a message once and expect instant results. Communication is an ongoing dialogue and will help you understand your customers’ interest over time.

In practice, this means adapting communication across retail contexts and platforms. Simple, highly visible cues, such as concise labels or point-of-sale messaging, can effectively reach consumers making quick decisions, while more detailed information can be provided through digital platforms for those seeking deeper engagement.

Importantly, avoiding overly technical or dense explanations for less engaged consumers helps prevent message fatigue and maintains clarity. By aligning communication strategies with consumer segmentation, floriculture businesses can more effectively convey sustainability in ways that are both accessible and impactful.

Potential Segments to Target:

• Highly environmentally engaged: prioritize sustainability attributes
• Moderately engaged: respond to combined value + sustainability messaging
• Price-sensitive consumers: prioritize cost and quality

Practical Strategies:

• Adjust messaging across retail environments
• Use tiered communication (simple labels + detailed online info)
• Avoid overloading low-engagement consumers with technical detail

Strategy 6. Communicating Continuous Improvement

Sustainability in horticulture is inherently iterative, requiring ongoing adaptation to environmental, economic, and technological factors. We know that consumers are more receptive to transparent progress than to perfection claims. Sharing the mid-product instead of the end-product can be uncomfortable for some people to share because we want to appear perfect and that there are no problems ever. It’s unrealistic, but that is how some business’s profiles are curated.

I would encourage you to consider sharing the process, especially on social media platforms. Is there a goal you are trying to reach that is slowly coming along? Are you trying to achieve a credential and are actively working towards making that happen? Sharing little bite-sized pieces of this progress can be entertaining and helpful for consumers to see the measurable achievements. This approach builds credibility.

Examples:

• “Reduced water use by 25% over five years”
• “Transitioning to biodegradable packaging”

Strategy 7. Integrating Sustainability into Brand Identity

Research shows that sustainability messaging is most effective when it is integrated into the broader brand narrative rather than presented as an isolated or secondary attribute. When sustainability is treated as a standalone claim, such as a single label or tagline, it can appear superficial or disconnected from the overall product experience. In contrast, embedding sustainability within the brand story (of the business) reinforces authenticity, builds trust and ensures that environmental practices are perceived as a core component of how the business operates rather than an added marketing feature.

In floriculture, this integration is particularly important because consumers often make rapid, visually driven decisions. A cohesive brand narrative allows sustainability to be communicated implicitly and repeatedly across multiple touchpoints, strengthening recognition and credibility over time. For example, a brand that consistently emphasizes responsible water use, reduced inputs and thoughtful packaging across its messaging will create a more durable impression than one that highlights sustainability only in a single context.

For the business, this requires aligning sustainability communication across all aspects of the customer experience. Product descriptions should incorporate sustainability attributes alongside quality and performance characteristics, rather than listing them separately. Marketing channels including in-store signage, product tags, websites, and social media should reinforce the same core messages using consistent language and visual identity. Equally important is ensuring that claims are supported by actual practices; inconsistencies between what is communicated and what is implemented can quickly erode consumer trust and lead to them disconnecting. Your employees should be aware of the practices you do, and the reasons why, so they can support and communicate your messages effectively as well.

Ultimately, integrating sustainability into the brand narrative positions it as an inherent part of product value and business identity. This approach not only enhances message effectiveness but also supports long-term brand differentiation in increasingly sustainability-conscious floriculture markets.

Practical Strategies:

• Incorporate sustainability into product descriptions
• Align messaging across marketing channels
• Reinforce consistency between claims and practices

Conclusion

Effective communication of environmental sustainability in floriculture requires bridging the gap between science-based production practices and consumer understanding. Communicating your sustainability efforts doesn’t have to be difficult or intricate. You can communicate through:

1. Translating technical practices into consumer benefits,
2. Prioritizing transparency and credibility,
3. Framing sustainability as value,
4. Using storytelling to enhance engagement,
5. Segmenting audiences for targeted messaging,
6. Communicating progress over perfection, and
7. Incorporating sustainability into overall brand strategy.

These strategies not only improve consumer understanding but also enhance market competitiveness and support the long-term sustainability of the floriculture industry.

Our mission at Sustainabloom is to educate and empower the floral community by providing comprehensive, research-driven, accessible resources tailored to support all segments and business sizes. Sustainabloom is an initiative created by the American Floral Endowment (AFE) to advance floriculture sustainability.

References:

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Dahlstrom, M. F. (2014). Using narratives and storytelling to communicate science. PNAS, 111(Supplement 4), 13614–13620.

Delmas, M. A., & Burbano, V. C. (2011). The drivers of greenwashing. California Management Review, 54(1), 64–87.

Etheredge, C. L., Waliczek, T. M., & DelPrince, J. (2024). United States consumers’ perceptions and willingness to pay for sustainable environmental practices in a retail floral provider’s business model. HortTechnology, 34(1), 20-26.

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Yue, C., Hall, C. R., Behe, B. K., & Campbell, B. L. (2010). Consumer preferences for sustainable attributes in plants. HortScience, 45(9), 1–7.