Sustainability Has to Be Irresistible

If you’ve ever tried to convince a friend to recycle their takeout container, you know the look: Sure, I’ll do it… if it’s easy. That’s the crux of the sustainability problem in 2025. People know the stakes. They’ve heard the urgency speeches. They’ve seen the floods, the fires, the smoggy sunsets. And still, action is hit-or-miss-because we’ve made sustainability feel like homework instead of a lifestyle.

This Climate Week, Julia Collins flipped the script. On stage at Planet Haus, she quoted Shane Claiborne’s The Irresistible Revolution: revolutions succeed when they’re beautiful, indulgent, and impossible not to join. That line hit me like a pile of regenerative wood. Because if sustainability is going to scale, it has to feel irresistible. Let’s unpack what that means.

From Urgent to Irresistible

For years, the call to action has been urgency: Act now, it’s almost too late! And sure, urgency got us in the room. But now? It makes people’s eyes glaze over. Folks are tired of the five o’clock fire-drill. We need to make sustainable living feel obvious, convenient, even fun. We need to make it something people want, not something they endure. This is where food and culture matter more than spreadsheets. The fastest way to shift habits is through appetite, design, and joy.

Chelsea Green’s Kitchen

Take Chelsea Green, author of My Regenerative Kitchen. Her whole thing isn’t about guilt. It’s about seduction. She tells you to buy a compost bin not because methane is bad (though it is), but because composting feels empowering. She nudges you to swap out your avocado oil for a regenerative version not with a wagging finger, but with a wink: it tastes better, it is better. Her Instagram isn’t doomscrolling - it’s delicious. Beautiful bowls, earthy tones, the kind of food you want to eat right now. That’s irresistible sustainability in action.

Spike Mendelsohn’s Playbook

Or look at Spike Mendelsohn. He’s been through the ringer (I think he’d agree) - chef, restauranteur, advocate, co-founder of Honest Tea and Just Ice Tea. Spike has always had a knack for making healthy, sustainable options look cooler than the mainstream. Just Ice Tea isn’t marketed as the saintly cousin of soda. It’s the refreshing, stylish alternative you want in your hand when you’re out with friends. Spike makes sustainable choices aspirational - not a downgrade, but an upgrade.

At Climate Week, Spike’s name kept floating around as an example of someone who marries chef-driven culture with climate responsibility. He’s not telling you to save the planet with every sip. He’s inviting you to join a vibe.

The Planet Haus Effect

Planet FWD’s first time Climate Week event, Planet Haus nailed this ethos. Walking into the space felt like being at a high-end gallery opening. Gorgeous interiors, great music, honest conversation. Nobody was shamed for wearing Zara (yes, that actually happened at another house - someone gasped when a guest admitted she was wearing fast fashion. Eye roll.) Instead of wagging fingers, Planet Haus offered open arms. Sustainability wasn’t an elite club. It was a party everyone wanted to be at. That’s what irresistible looks like.

Why Elitism Kills Movements

Let’s call it out: elitism has been the Achilles heel of sustainability. For too long, we’ve created spaces where the only acceptable choice was the most expensive, most curated, most perfectly sustainable option. But that’s not how change (or nature) works. Remember when people used to smoke indoors? Or when tossing McDonald’s wrappers out of car windows was normal? Or when toxic nonstick pans were in every kitchen? Those norms changed because the mainstream shifted, not because a handful of elites held the line. If sustainability stays exclusive, it stays small. If it becomes irresistible, it goes mainstream.

Behavioral science backs this up. People are more likely to stick with a new habit when it feels rewarding immediately, not when the payoff is decades away. Composting feels satisfying when you see scraps turn into soil. Regenerative avocado oil feels indulgent when it tastes better. Just Ice Tea feels cool when you carry it into a meeting. The climate payoff is long-term. The human payoff is now. That’s the lever.

Design Matters

Think about an enduring example: Apple. They didn’t convince us to buy iPhones by telling us we’d save time and be more efficient (though both are true). They made a beautiful device people craved. Sustainability needs the same design-driven approach. Products, spaces, and experiences should feel so well-designed that opting in is the path of least resistance. Planet Haus got this right. The room itself felt like an Instagram post. That matters. Because aesthetics are a gateway drug to adoption.

Here’s the bigger point: the goal isn’t perfection. It’s normalization. When sustainable products, practices, and stories are woven into daily life, they stop being “special.” They just are. And that’s when revolutions stick. Think back: seatbelts weren’t always normal. Neither were recycling bins. Neither were smoke-free bars. Now? Unthinkable not to have them. That’s where sustainability needs to go. From niche to normal. From urgent to irresistible.

So What?

Here’s what I took away. Urgency is dead. Nobody wants another fire-drill speech. Irresistibility is the play. Make it beautiful, delicious, stylish. Elitism kills movements. Mainstream is where the magic happens. Design, food, and culture are the real engines of adoption. The sustainable revolution will not be guilt-tripped. It’ll be stunningly irresistable.