Three Questions with Mary Mazzoni: Green Claims and Brand Value

Mary Mazzoni, TriplePundit (USA)

As companies around the world have made efforts to brand themselves as sustainable and eco-friendly, consumers have grown skeptical that not all these efforts are as genuine or effective as brands claim them to be. The proliferation of greenwashing has created obstacles for companies looking to credibly communicate their ESG (environmental, social, and governance) practices to consumers who care deeply about supporting sustainable brands.

Mary Mazzoni is the Executive Editor of TriplePundit, which covers responsible business news through the lens of solutions journalism. She is also on the executive team at TriplePundit’s parent company 3BL Media, the leading impact communications partner for companies, nonprofits, and NGOs.

Ms. Mazzoni will participate in a session entitled Green Claims and Brand Value: From Talk to Trust at the 2025 Annual Meeting on Sunday, May 18, 2:45 pm–3:30 pm. This session will explore the challenges brands encounter in turning sustainability commitments into genuine consumer trust and the best practices they can implement to achieve tangible results that enhance brand value and drive meaningful change.

In this interview with the INTA Bulletin, Ms. Mazzoni discusses why it’s important for brands to continue communicating about their ESG efforts in the current political climate, sheds light on how these efforts contribute to brand value, and provides her perspective on how brands are navigating the shifts in public sentiment surrounding ESG.

Why is ESG communication important for a brand?
As brand leaders, if you don’t tell your stakeholders what you’re doing, they won’t know about it—or worse, they’ll hear your story from someone else.

Both in the United States and globally, research continues to show that stakeholders care about ESG issues, whether they use that term or not. For example, more than 85 percent of U.S. consumers say corporate, social, and environmental responsibility are important, according to polling from 3BL, TriplePundit, and our research partners at Glow. Meanwhile, Deloitte’s annual “Gen Z and Millennials Survey” shows more than 40 percent of young workers have left a job or plan to because of sustainability concerns, and global investors continue to prioritize sustainable practices when deciding where to put their money.

Yet many business leaders feel pressure to downplay or pause their sustainability messaging given the current political climate, particularly in the United States. While their programming and practice has not changed, many brand leaders are becoming more risk averse in how they talk about it.

It’s understandable, but our research shows that going silent is not a winning strategy for driving public perception and can impact a brand’s ability to win sales and attract top talent. Our recent polling shows that more than two-thirds of U.S. consumers across the political aisle say companies should continue their sustainability efforts regardless of what happens in Washington.

Your company publishes research on consumer expectations and brand loyalty, such as “The 44 Billion Sustainability Opportunity for Brands” and “The 100 Best Corporate Citizens Beat the S&P 500, but the Message Doesn’t Always Reach Consumers.” This research indicates that companies are missing out on significant opportunities for revenue and growth when they don’t communicate their ESG commitments effectively. How do you present the case to the C-suite that ESG communication is important to a company’s brand value?
This moment demands that we consistently reinforce the business value for sustainability and social impact work. When you present this to the C‑suite, lead with hard numbers and risk analysis. Frame ESG and sustainability communication as a quantifiable growth lever and a hedge against market headwinds.

The good news is there is plenty of data to back this up. As you mentioned, we see the firms in 3BL’s “100 Best Corporate Citizens”—which ranks the largest publicly traded U.S. companies based on sustainability disclosure and performance—beat the S&P 500 over the past two years. Morningstar reported that its Global Markets Sustainability Index similarly outperformed its broad market-cap-weighted index between January and April of this year. This indicates that stakeholder‑driven companies aren’t sacrificing returns—they’re driving them, even as the broader market faces volatility.

Make the point to executives that going quiet about ESG commitments cedes the narrative to competitors and leaves brand reputation to chance. Particularly as our 2024 research identified US $44 billion in sales revenue up for grabs in the U.S. alone as consumers switch from brands they perceive as less sustainable to brands they perceive as more sustainable, staying mum risks leaving money on the table.

ESG has recently been in the spotlight as a topic of fierce debate. Please tell us how your team navigates the conflict between the need to act on ESG issues and communicate about these initiatives, the growing anti-ESG sentiment, and the complicated new regulations on the issue. Do you see more hesitation and caution on the side of your brand customers or is the commitment to ESG initiatives unbroken?
Based on what I’m hearing, the hesitation is real, but in the vast majority of cases, the commitment is still solid. Companies, their executives, and their comms and legal teams still believe ESG issues matter to their stakeholders and their businesses. But as the work faces more scrutiny, people are less and less sure how to talk about it.

For those who want to continue communicating but are conscious of risk, my top piece of advice is to go back to the business case. In each piece of comms you produce, use impact data and examples to tell a clear and compelling story about why the issue matters for your business, what you’re doing about it, and the measurable impact you’ve created (for your business and for society) as a result. Demonstrating direct evidence of the value and efficacy of your sustainability work not only helps to ward off would-be critics—both internally and externally—but it also reduces the risk of being labeled a greenwasher by regulators and builds trust with the stakeholders we know care about sustainability.

Learn more and register for the 2025 Annual Meeting.

Although every effort has been made to verify the accuracy of this article, readers are urged to check independently on matters of specific concern or interest.

© 2025 International Trademark Association