How Your Political Ideology Shapes Your Environmental Choices
Have you ever noticed that your friend who’s a staunch supporter of one political party is devoted to recycling, while another friend from a different political background has no remorse over the climate warming up due to his fossil-fueled car? It might seem like a coincidence, but a growing body of research suggests that our political ideologies can shape our perspectives on sustainability. From the groceries we buy to the policies our leaders enact, politics plays a huge role in shaping our green habits.
It Starts with You: The Politics of Your Shopping Cart
The scientific consensus increasingly indicates that an individual’s political inclination predicts their sustainable behaviours. A study by Baldwin and Lammers (2016) found that self-identified conservatives are less likely to adopt sustainable consumption habits. Conservatives are individuals who are aligned with the right end of the political spectrum, inclined to maintain the status-quo, seeking stability and avoiding uncertainty. Thus conservatives because of their deep-rooted values are often less receptive to messages about sustainable living. On the other hand, another study by Casper, McCullough, and Smith (2021) on sports fans found that self-identified Democrats tend to have higher pro-environmental values and norms. Democrats are more liberal on the political ideological scale and are more receptive to changes and uncertainty.
So, the next time you’re in the supermarket, take a moment to think about the choices you make. Are you drawn to the organic, locally-sourced produce, or do you prioritize convenience and price above all else? Your political identity might be influencing your decisions more than you realize.
The View from the Top: CEOs and Corporate Green Initiatives
It’s not just individuals whose green habits are tied to their politics. The person in the corner office also makes a difference. Research on large manufacturing firms by Heubeck and Ahrens (2025) shows that companies with liberal CEOs tend to have better Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) performance, especially when it comes to social and governance issues. Liberals are individuals with a political ideology that is more receptive to change and uncertainty and often emphasize communal values, such as human rights, environmental protection, and egalitarianism. These leaders, influenced by values like human rights and environmental protection, are more likely to steer their companies towards sustainable practices.
Interestingly, the same study found that having an Ivy League education might actually make CEOs less likely to prioritize ESG. Ivy League education refers to the educational experience gained from one of eight prestigious institutions in the United States: Princeton, Harvard, Yale, University of Pennsylvania, Brown, Columbia, Cornell, and Dartmouth. These institutions are widely recognized for their academic excellence and social prestige. This surprising twist that CEOs with an educational background from Ivy League Institutions are less likely to prioritise ESG suggests that elite education might instill a different set of priorities, like focus on traditional business goals of financial metrics over ESG reminding us that the path to corporate sustainability is not always straightforward.
The Big Picture: Governments and the Green-Tech Race
When we zoom out to the national level, the link between politics and sustainability gets even more complex. Research conducted by Tawiah and Zakari (2024) investigated the relationship between government political ideology and green innovation in OECD countries. The study highlighted a surprising trend. Left-leaning governments are associated with lower levels of green innovation which was measured by the number of patents for environmental technologies. The left-leaning ideology is characterised by welfare of the working class and high employment. The researchers suggest that the lower patents in green innovation in left-leaning countries might be because these governments are often concerned that new technologies could lead to job losses, a core concern for their working-class base. In contrast, right-leaning governments that prioritise individual liberty might support economic policies that may be more inclined to promote technological advancement to benefit capitalists.
This doesn’t necessarily mean that one side is “better” for the environment than the other. Left-leaning parties often have strong pro-environmental policies like market regulation for stricter environmental norms, allocation of budget to encourage green innovation, etc. Thus, this also shows that the relationship between political ideology and environmental action is more nuanced than what we might think.
Conclusion
Hence it is evident that be it an individual’s consumption behaviour like choosing between organic or conventional, decisions taken by CEOs of multinational companies to the policies framed by our national leaders, political identity often acts as an invisible force guiding these actions.
So, what does all of this mean? The next time you see a company’s green advertisement or hear a politician’s environmental promise, you can look at it with a more critical eye. Is it a reflection of deeply held values, a strategic business move, or something else entirely? The answer, maybe, is written in our political stars.
References
- Casper, J.M.; McCullough, B.P.; Smith, D.M.K. Pro-Environmental Sustainability and Political Affiliation: AnExamination of USA College Sport Sustainability Efforts. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2021, 18, 5840. https://doi.org/10.3390/ ijerph18115840
- Heubeck, T., & Ahrens, A. (2025). Sustainable by Ideology? The Influence of CEO Political Ideology and Ivy League Education on ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) Performance. Business Strategy and the Environment. https://doi.org/10.1002/bse.4212
- Tawiah, Vincent & Zakari, Abdulrasheed. (2024). Government political ideology and green innovation: evidence from OECD countries. Economic Change and Restructuring. 57. 10.1007/s10644-024-09712-y.
- Mathur, A.; Moschis, G.P. DoPersonal Values and Political Ideology Affect Sustainable Consumption? Sustainability 2022, 14, 15512. https://doi.org/10.3390/ su142315512
- M. Baldwin, & J. Lammers, Past-focused environmental comparisons promote proenvironmental outcomes for conservatives, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113 (52) 14953-14957, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1610834113 (2016).
Disclaimer: The views expressed here in the article belong to the author only.
Suggested Citation for this article
Pullopilly, J. (2025) Is green a political colour?, Center for Research and Implementation of Sustainable Practices. Available at: https://crispglobal.org/is-green-a-political-colour
Jini Biju Pullopilly is currently pursuing her Master’s in Sustainable Development and Management from Nalanda University, and holds a Bachelor’s degree in Life Sciences from St. Xavier’s College, Mumbai. Her key interest areas include integrating sustainability into business strategies, ESG practices, and circular economy planning.
