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The Year in Sustainability Communications: 2024 Market Trends & Insights
3BL's Year-End Report
Sustainability News Continues to Draw Audiences In
As 2024 comes to a close, one trend is clear: audiences remain deeply engaged with brands’ sustainability initiatives. In our end-of-year analysis, we reviewed 6,198 pieces of content published on the 3BL platform, uncovering key insights such as where audience interest peaked, which industries took the lead, the sentiment shaping sustainability conversations, and the value of sharing stories of progress.
How Audiences Respond to Sustainability Messaging
Learn more about how 3BL can help you.
16,459,052
89,938,022
Total impressions
+ 2,336
+ 6,505,280
+ 28,864,074
Content Published
Trackable Page Views
Trackable Impressions
What is sentiment?
Sentiment is a metric that provides insights into how audiences perceive and feel about a brand, especially on social media and in news media.
Words Associated with Positive Sentiment
Communities
World
Program
Community
Customers
47%
45%
42%
42%
36%
Here are the top five most mentioned words and their positive sentiment percentages.
These words were not only the most mentioned in sustainability content but also generated the highest positive sentiment.
The Value of Impact
How to Maximize the ROI of Your Impact Comms in 2025
By identifying the content categories that resonate most, the industries generating the most attention, and shifts in sentiment, brands can better tailor their content strategy to drive greater impact and return on investment. These insights enable brands to refine their approach, ensuring their messaging remains relevant, resonates with audiences, and effectively showcases their sustainability and social impact efforts.
Lead the Conversation
If you're looking to take your sustainability communications to the next level with data-driven insights, we encourage you to explore 3BL's solutions, designed to help you make a greater impact.
Top Content Categories and Industries Capturing Audience Attention
When crafting an impact communication strategy, understanding which content resonates most with audiences is crucial. We’ve identified the top five categories that generated the highest page views on our platform.
These content categories have remained in the top five throughout 2024.
Highest Growth and Continued Leader: Philanthropy & Cause Initiatives maintained its leadership in 2024, while also achieving the highest growth rate of 66.3%, indicating a continued focus on social impact and community-driven efforts.
Overall Increase in Engagement: Each category experienced significant growth, ranging from 59.11% to 66.3%, showing consistent engagement throughout the year.
Philanthropy & Cause Initiative
Diversity & Inclusion
Responsible Business & Employee Engagement
Awards, Ratings & Rankings
Environment
2,084,484
1,253,444
1,161,629
1,879,714
1,564,679
968,754
1,411,314
887,023
1,256,145
766,746
First half of 2024
Full-year of 2024 (Jan 1 to Dec 2)
While there is no single explanation for why audiences gravitate toward certain industries over others in consuming news, manufacturing led the way with the highest page views of published content from brands. As the climate crisis remains a central concern, the manufacturing industry’s direct connection to key sustainability issues—such as supply chain transparency and the circular economy—may help explain the increased audience attention it received.
Manufacturing
4,287,068
Finance
1,768,977
Retail
1,389,941
Non-profits/NGOs
1,213,316
Energy, Utilities & Waste
1,090,857
The industries that captured the most attention.
This data highlights the growth in published content, along with trackable page views and impressions, from the first half of 2024 (January 1 to June 30) through the full-year period ending November 9, 2024.
The Flux of AVE Throughout The Year
January
227,094,711
February
356,473,666
March
365,063,611
April
185,308,615
May
268,465,471
June
266,400,740
July
309,884,484
August
323,896,873
September
330,382,453
October
233,428,346
The variations in AVE for different months can be attributed to different factors:
Volume of Content:
The volume and significance of content around key dates impact AVE, with high-visibility content, driving surges. We see this in March with an AVE of $365,063,611 tied to sustainability reporting season.
Media Coverage and Public Interest:
The amount of media coverage and public interest during key events directly impacts AVE. Events like NYC Climate Week in September generate significant media attention within sustainability circles.
Relevance of the Date:
The relevance of certain dates aligned with key sustainability or social responsibility issues, such as February's Black History Month and March's International Women's Day, often generates more media coverage and audience attention, leading to higher AVE.
Sustainability Reporting: How Private Companies Can Leapfrog Their Listed Competitors
Solutions-Oriented News to Maximize Your Impact
From TriplePundit
We’ve tracked the most frequently mentioned terms in sustainability content and analyzed their sentiment to gauge audience response.
Understand your impact with data
The data in this report is from January 1 to December 2, 2024.
By leveraging 3BL Yield and AVE, businesses can analyze their content's reach and engagement to gain a comprehensive understanding of its effectiveness.
Perfect your messaging
Understanding sentiment and how your brand is perceived amongst key stakeholders is imperative to impact communications success.
3BL offers solutions like the TriplePundit Editorial Blueprint, Stakeholder Perception Survey Report, and Sustainability Disclosure Score to help brands fine-tune their strategies and content.
Use trends to maintain relevance
With 3BL's strategic support, it's never been easier to stay ahead of the market.
Customers enjoy access to a team of experts and custom insights designed to amplify their sustainability communications, enhance audience engagement, and drive measurable impact.
Millions are engaging with sustainability news through 3BL's platform—explore the numbers and see the impact firsthand.
Total page views
Our mid-year analysis, Sustainability Communications in 2024, So Far: Trends, Numbers & Narratives examined the content and trends from the first half of the year. As we look at the full year, 5,849 pieces of content have been published on the 3BL platform, with audience views continuing to surge into the millions, demonstrating sustained and growing engagement.
Tracking the Growth of Sustainability Content
$3.01
Billion USD
$5.14
Million USD
The amount 3BL clients generated in AVE.
What is Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE)?
AVE is an estimate of the potential value of media coverage based on impressions
The amount 3BL clients generated in 3BL Yield.
What is 3BL Yield?
3BL Yield is our proprietary measurement system that calculates media value based on page views across our premium platforms.
Measure your story's ROI through AVE and 3BL Yield for a complete view of impact.
6,198