Over the past two decades the connection among information, consumer behavior and the environment has received significant attention. There is a growing interest in the role that information has in the encouragement of environmentally-preferable products and its impact on the environment. Nevertheless, its implications are by no means yet fully understood, and the ultimate objective of promoting sustainable patter of consumption remains to be seen. The particular case of corporate environmental messages has a history of mixed results, and concerns are mounting around the possibility of information overload and the quality and accurateness of the content. In this research I look at the complexities associated with environmental information and its subsequent communication, and explore the relationship of information complexity and credibility as key constructs that influence environmental communication performance. Recent emphasis on Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) information is presented as holding some promise by which improved communication effectiveness of environmental/sustainable claims may materialize.

To accomplish this, two experiments have been conducted. The first one looks in a business-to-consumer (B2C) setting the mechanisms that consumers employ to process messages and a framework is proposed by which complexity and credibility mediate the effect of attitudinal and behavioral intention variables. Using hair shampoo as the product category, and the bio-degradability capacity of its bottle as the environmental attribute, several regression analyses and a Latent Variable Structural Equation Model (LVSEM) were developed based on a sample of about 3,000 subjects. Results from this experiment indicate that although the likelihood that more complex communications in an advertising context makes for poor advertising; the credibility gained through more explicit environmental disclosures, favorably influences the perceptions toward the company and the brand.

A second experiment expands these ideas by focusing on an environment where the need for cognition, and thus the complexity threshold, is thought to be quite high and where environmental performance is known to be of importance to the purchaser. In a business-to-business (B2B) context, both functional product information and non-functional product information are examined. This experiment brings some insight to the role of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) information in B2B marketing communication, where business buyers (as opposed to end consumers) typically have more product knowledge and information processing opportunity. This experimental setting focuses on about 1,000 architects who are members of the U.S. Green Building Council. Environmental performance messages, which are typically considered ancillary in nature, are explored in conjunction with the central (functional) product performance message, and not in isolation, as has been often the case. Respondents evaluated one of eight different advertisements of an insulation product where functional product information was presented along with non-functional (environmental) information. Environmental performance information test groups were further elaborated upon through the use of LCA information disclosures. The main findings from this study indicate that, for this audience, advertisements with environmental messages are more effective than those presenting functional product benefits alone, but only when the messages are substantiated with quantitative and disaggregated information [resulting from LCA studies].