Gen Z and sustainability

How do young people think about sustainability and how does this shape their consumption decisions? These questions underpin new exploratory research by Brand Legacy in collaboration with CUSP researchers Anastasia Loukianov and Kate Burningham.

Blog by Kate Burningham and Anastasia Loukianov

Brand Legacy—Abi Bray and Lucy Richardson—is a brand strategy agency with a strong commitment to building sustainable brands. They are CUSP fellows who we’ve enjoyed working with over the years. As academics interested in sustainable consumption, this collaboration gives us up to the minute understanding of consumers’ and brands’ perspectives, while Brand Legacy value the chance to reflect on their work in the light of contemporary academic debates. 

Self-administered participant videos and focus groups were used to explore issues of sustainability and consumption with lower-middle class young people aged 23-25 living in and around Manchester.

Much focus on young people and sustainability is on their role as active campaigners (Prendergast et al 2021). But there are significant constraints to their agency to be sustainable consumers as they face significant financial pressures and often have limited responsibility for household consumption as increasing numbers continue to live with their parents. Understanding how they interpret and navigate sustainable consumption in this context is important.

The project was fast and the sample was very small (just 8 participants), but it’s a perfect example of the value of exploratory qualitative research for providing tantalising insights that spark ideas for further research. 

Brand Legacy have developed a series of blogs which present key findings from Project Vista—you can see them all on the Brand Legacy website. Perhaps the one which best links to our research interests and is providing most food for thought for us is this one here: Connected Generations: The reverberation effect.  

While it’s common to see conflicts between Gen Z and baby boomers highlighted, the project suggests that rather than having a ‘them versus us’ mentality, young participants felt that all generations were ‘in it together’ and share responsibility for sustainability. Participants who were still living with their parents talked about the many experiences they were sharing with their parent(s), for example watching TV, cooking meals, sharing lifts, going to the gym, shopping online together. All of these mini-interactions are where discussions and negotiations over sustainable choices happen—should you buy second hand or new clothes, should you eat less meat, should you switch to eco energy?  

Our previous research has highlighted the importance of understanding consumption within households as relational, with decisions about what to do often being shaped by the needs and priorities of others (Burningham and Venn 2020; 2025). We’ve also explored how young people conceptualise sustainability (Loukianov 2020). But we haven’t explored how everyday sustainability is navigated by both parents and their young adult children in households where they continue to live together.

In a context where around 42% of young people aged 18 to 34 still live with their parents as they can’t afford to move out (Statista 2025) this feels like an important area to develop research. We hope to design a project with Brand Legacy to explore this further. Stay tuned for updates.

References

Burningham, K. and Venn, S., 2020. Are lifecourse transitions opportunities for moving to more sustainable consumption?. Journal of Consumer Culture, 20(1), pp.102-121.

Burningham, K. and Venn, S., 2025. Caring consumption and sustainability: Insights from household provisioning in the first ten years of motherhood. Environmental innovation and societal transitions, 54, p.100932.

Loukianov, A., Burningham, K. and Jackson, T., 2020. Young people, good life narratives, and sustainable futures: the case of Instagram. Sustainable Earth, 3(1), p.11.

Prendergast, K., Hayward, B., Aoyagi, M., Burningham, K., Hasan, M.M., Jackson, T., Jha, V., Kuroki, L., Loukianov, A., Mattar, H. and Schudel, I., 2021. Youth attitudes and participation in climate protest: an international cities comparison frontiers in political science special issue: youth activism in environmental politics. Frontiers in Political Science, 3, p.696105.

Statista (2025)  https://www.statista.com/statistics/285339/percentage-of-young-adults-living-with-parents-uk/#:~:text=Approximately%2042%20percent%20of%20young,increase%20on%20the%20previous%20year

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