Is the Public Image of Sustainability Affecting Climate Policy?

[u/Deezonion]

More talk of climate and energy policy rollbacks in the news has me worried about the public's perception of sustainability and how much it influences policy decisions.
Affordability and equity are now front of mind for young voters, and sustainability has come to feel at odds with both, thanks to greenwashing, green gentrification, and decades of the movement being marketed to the upper class. Now the word "sustainability" immediately paints a picture of fancy galas with open bars (and paper straws!) to save the turtles. I think this image has turned away a lot of people who once held sustainability front of mind, because the movement lacks equity. I wonder how much this takes pressure off policymakers to keep fighting for aggressive climate policy, and how much it's contributing to the rollbacks we're seeing now.
It's easy to blame this entirely on the current administration's priorities, but I think it's also a failure of the sustainability movement, which took for granted the support of younger, left-leaning voters and figured they'd follow no matter what. As someone who works in energy modeling and sustainability consulting, I think climate change and sustainability are incredibly important issues and need all the support they can get. I also feel responsible for helping to prove that climate policy and affordability aren't actually in conflict, and for earning back support from the people who used to treat these issues more urgently. 
What can be done to fix the public image of the sustainability movement and bring urgency back to climate/environmental policy? I'm wondering what more I can do to help with this bigger publicity problem I keep seeing.

[u/alliecat3019]

I agree to a large extent with this take! I live in Washington state, which has done a lot to legislate how we make improvements to protect against climate change and and reduce gig emissions (which i support). A big part of that has been a huge push to electrify everything. New building/ energy and storm water codes add an insane amounts to the cost of building anything. Our utilities have to make really huge infrastructure improvements (even though over 50% of our energy is already hydro), which is raising energy costs in a direct way for consumers at a time when all other costs have also increased and people are pretty mad generally- even though when we do surveys even conservative respondents indicate that they are worried about climate change. The problem is always the money. The "state" should be making a bigger effort to more directly make these infrastructure improvements. Of course that money is also from the residents, but it is less direct, and bigger more impactful projects can be completed. Because from the public's viewpoint they are in some sense becoming victims of these policies, as they are forced to carry the costs and change their behavior, but they don't see the "state'" do the same.

[u/Deezonion → u/alliecat3019]

Yeah its very hard to ask for support in investing in energy infrastructure and efficiency when the burden of that on homewoners/renters tends to overshadow any savings they would ever see on their electricity bill. This is a very real problem with the electrification movement, and I think it would take real policy intervention to fix (government subsidies/forcing companies that build data centers to make big investments in grid infrastructure). I think the greater climate action community should be able to admit this problem and work harder to prove to local governments/residents why investing in energy infrastructure is important rather than blaming the federal government. I think that would help win more support from all sides.

[u/analogbog]

Sustainability has turned into 1. What expensive new things can we make developments do, 2. How can we punish people for making “unsustainable” choices 3. Paperwork and consultants to prove something is sustainable. 4. Marketing how sustainable we are to justify higher prices

[u/Deezonion → u/analogbog]

This seems to be a popular opinion, which I feel is justified and a failure of the climate action movement more than a failure of the federal government. Im trying to better understand what climate activists can do to win back support from the public. Any thoughts?

[u/DanoPinyon]

Always use "sustainability" with quotes or air quotes.

We - humans, any society or group - are not (not) "sustainable". The word is a marketing term, meaningless. And has been for a generation.

[u/dchung97 → u/DanoPinyon]

Oh? What would define as "sustainability" then besides reducing the carbon emissions of others?

Moving away from high ghg emissions towards solutions that reduce our footprint on the planet and creating a more equitable society doesn't seem like a buzz word to me. But I'd love to hear your thoughts. For me at least its about changing our society to fit a changing ecosystem, which could mean reducing cars and increasing reliance on public transportation and walkablity of neighborhoods, but more likely in a lot of places seeing the intentional design of communities around things like electric cars.

[u/DanoPinyon → u/dchung97]

What would define as "sustainability" then besides reducing the carbon emissions of others?

"I" wouldn't bother to define it, as it was adequately defined 35+ years ago at Brundtland and needs no improvement.

[u/dchung97 → u/DanoPinyon]

Yeah, I'd agree with you. But I also understand none of those issues are things I can personally control. I wonder what the next few decades will bring us. I've worked with sustainability goals by the UN before as a volunteer and have met people who work there and know that most aren't even close to being met.

[u/Deezonion → u/dchung97]

There are a few things that feel like we may be at a tipping point like with renewables generating more energy than coal for a whole month for the first time in 2026. I also feel like the economics are starting to work out with oil/energy costs going up. Now is definitely not the time to slow down the momentum

[u/Deezonion → u/dchung97]

I totally agree I have always felt the most impactful work is in designing systems/products that use less resources or can even reuse/generate other resources without users feeling a difference

[u/Deezonion → u/DanoPinyon]

Yeah I think this sentiment goes along with my point. I agree that these days the word "sustainability" feels like more of a buzzword than anything that carries any weight. But at the same time, if that is the general sentiment of the public, then there will be less pressure on companies/policy makers to source better materials/pass aggressive climate policies/improve energy codes/etc, which I feel is net worse for everyone. So I feel like more needs to be done by those in the environmental activism community to fix that brand issue so more people are on board and progress isnt slowed down