Time is of the essence. With our world rapidly changing due to environmental factors, sustainability has become more important than ever. Through social media, influencers have made a conscious effort to make individuals aware of how crucial sustainability is. In the past decade Gen Z’s behavior towards sustainability has been affected by social media and influencers.

Whether we think about it or not, our carbon footprint has a huge impact on our environment. A carbon footprint is the total amount of greenhouse gases that is emitted into the atmosphere. This is caused by using cars, electricity, contributing to fast fashion, and eating certain types of food. Even though we all leave a carbon footprint, there are ways to combat it. Recently, the best form of communication for promoting sustainability is through social media and influencers. Influencers promoting sustainability on social media have played a key role in changing Gen Z’s behavior toward sustainable practices.

When influencers constantly talk about their sustainable lifestyle on social media, individuals will start to pick up on it since the message of sustainability becomes consistent in their everyday lives (Chwialkowska, 2019). According to Chwialkowska (2019), “consumers not only passively acquire knowledge from the content posted by social agents, but also adopt the propagated behaviors and play an important role in spreading the message through peer communication” (p.40).

By reinforcing the message of sustainability, Gen Z has become more aware of their carbon footprint. They’ve started to use alternative transportation such as walking or biking to short destinations, recycling, and turning off lights. As for shopping sustainably, 73% of Gen Z says they’re willing to pay more for sustainable products (Furbee, 2020).

The future of the environment is in the hands of Gen Z. With the power of social media and influencers, Gen Z’s behavior will continually change. And hopefully, Gen Z’s carbon footprint will lessen as they adopt more sustainable practices.

From here, Gen Z has to be the change they want to see in the world.

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