The Demand Revolution: How Consumers Are Redefining Sustainability and Transforming the Future of Business

The authors of this book—von der Gathen, Nicolai Broby Eckert, and Caroline Kastbjerg—are all C-suite executives at Simon-Kucher, a German-based global strategy consulting firm. They take a nuanced look at demand for environmentally sustainable products from the consumer’s perspective and disprove a commonly held view that demand for these products is minimal. They studied 8,000 consumers (representing eight archetypes) in Europe and North America to better understand how each archetype made sustainability-related decisions. Their findings show that businesses frequently interpreted consumers’ unwillingness to pay a premium for sustainable products as a lack of interest. In reality, however, consumers actually have a varying range of priorities that impact their purchasing behavior, and sustainability is far from being similar to other business-related trends. Some terms are used repeatedly at the beginning of the book but not defined until later chapters, which may confuse some readers. Plus, many readers may disagree with the authors’ assertion that Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and Tesla founder Elon Musk are examples of business leaders to emulate.