According to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), a sustainable product is a commodity of goods/services that provides long-term benefits for the economy, society, and the environment.
Sustainable products are typically produced by companies with sound business governance, upholding worker rights, and employing environmentally friendly production processes.
In recent years, there has been a growing number of consumer packaged goods (CPGs) promoting sustainable concepts in the United States (US).
This is recorded in the Sustainable Market Share Index report released by New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business.
According to the report, of all new products launched in the US in 2017, approximately 28.06% were sustainable products.
In subsequent years, the presence of new products with sustainable attributes continued to increase, reaching 48.10% in 2021.
"In 2021, nearly 1 in 2 new products launched in the US had sustainable benefits," said the NYU Stern team in their report.
NYU Stern obtained this data from research on 32 categories of consumer packaged goods (CPGs) in the US.
Some examples of the product categories researched include bottled juice, soda, coffee, milk, cookies, cereal, cheese, soap, toothpaste, diapers, and skincare products.