The other day, someone asked me a really interesting question. A question I haven’t stopped thinking about since. The question was: “Do you think sustainability is important to Gen Z?” No need to explain that this person was obviously not part of Gen Z themselves. I, on the other hand, am. And I answered immediately: No. The reaction from the person sitting opposite me? Shock. Confusion. Disbelief. “Isn’t sustainability super important right now?” Hell yeah, it’s important. Yet even so, even if it sounds harsh, Gen Z doesn’t really care anymore.
I mean, they do care. But no one is willing to spend the extra money on sustainable products. No one is willing to actively engage with the topic, refuse to support brands that have been proven unsustainable, or give up flying and imported food. Don’t get me wrong. In the eyes of Gen Z, there should absolutely be a sustainability label on products, and if a brand doesn’t address sustainability in any way, that’s wrong too. But that’s about it.
So how did we get here? Wasn’t Gen Z the generation that marched through the streets with Fridays for Future before COVID? Wasn’t Gen Z the generation that went vegan, obsessed over second-hand shopping and political correctness? And isn’t Gen Z exactly one of the generations that will have to live with the consequences of climate change? When marketing strategies and brand identities are discussed behind closed doors, isn’t sustainability one of the first words that ends up on the mood board whenever Gen Z is the target audience?
Well, yeah. But to understand what happened to our generation, we have to look at exactly one of the words I just mentioned. Maybe you can already guess it: COVID happened. And before you start rolling your eyes, yeah, COVID had a damn big influence on all of our lives. I’m tired of hearing about it too. But the numbers unfortunately show what happened: While the biggest Fridays for Future protest in Germany attracted around 1.4 million people in 2019, the biggest one in 2025 drew only around 130,000. So let me explain.
First, we have to do some simple maths. People who belong to Gen Z were born roughly between 1995 and 2010. That means that in 2020, Gen Z was somewhere between 10 and 25 years old. In other words, these were exactly the people who were still in school, studying, or just entering the workforce. That means Gen Z grew up with online schooling. Failed exams because it’s much easier to ignore a video call than a teacher standing at the front of the classroom. I remember that back then I wasn’t even allowed to enter my school building anymore. Students reported each other for breaking lockdown rules. Some were excluded from exams because of it. Others were suddenly barred from classes just before taking their A-levels.
At the same time, young adults who had just moved away to study suddenly found themselves attending university seminars online. Stuck alone in a tiny flat in a completely new city, with no one around. For months. Maybe that doesn’t sound so terrible to you. But whenever I meet someone who says, “Yeah, I studied during COVID,” everyone around them just nods knowingly with this almost pitiful look on their face.
But what happens in the past stays in the past, right? No. Never. Because what happened next? Gen Z forced itself through online university only to enter a job market where there were suddenly no jobs waiting. Either because the economy is in terrible shape and companies aren’t hiring, or because AI has already made many entry-level positions obsolete. Everything they had been taught about building a responsible, stable life suddenly stopped being true.
Now, in 2026, Gen Z feels lost. It feels betrayed. And it feels left in the lurch. Because at the end of the day, governments around the world seem more willing to spend money on weapons than on sustainability. They spend more time debating mandatory military service than talking about the struggles of midwives, psychology graduates, young engineers or disaster managers.
At the same time, the internet, social media and the 24-hour news cycle bombard us with facts, crises and catastrophes so relentlessly that with every month since COVID, it feels as if the world has been sliding a little further downhill.
Just to give you a few examples of what that does to people: According to the DAK Health Report 2025, Gen Z employees are particularly affected by burnout, and around 37% of 18- to 24-year-olds report depressive symptoms. Also, surveys and analyses by organisations including Pronova BKK, the Institute for Generational Research and the Federal Institute for Population Research found that lockdowns, school closures and reduced access to internships and apprenticeships disrupted educational pathways. At the same time, job losses and reduced working hours caused financial hardship for around one in three young people.
So, who can really blame Gen Z for developing a certain kind of fatigue? A fatigue when it comes to the problems of the world. When it comes to protesting. Donating. Sustainability. Because when it feels like the world is falling apart, you have to look after yourself first. As long as that isn’t sorted, there’s simply no room left for the big issues. Otherwise, you’ll drown. And who wants to drown when the people who actually try to make a difference are treated like they’re in the middle of a medieval witch hunt? Just have a quick look at the comments under Greta Thunberg’s posts. Under one of her posts from yesterday, people wrote:
“Greta Thunfisch”
“Hopefully you got arrested too.”
“Go to hospital and get treatment. You are in desperate need of it.”
So, instead of taking the hard road and trying to change things, Gen Z has become pretty comfortable with leaving a like on a Fridays for Future Instagram post and pushing everything else aside. Preferably, everyone is kind of pretending it’s the ’90s or early 2000s again. Back when there was no internet. No Merz. No war. No AI.
And while everyone is trying to look like a young, rough Kate Moss, plenty of Gen Zers are shopping at ASOS, H&M, Zara, Cider, Primark or wherever else they can find the perfect trendy outfit. Personally, I still think second-hand is the better choice. But to be fair, it’s difficult to be responsibly trendy when trends barely last two weeks. And where is the money supposed to come from to buy sustainably and fairly produced clothes? Certainly not from the abundance of job opportunities Gen Z is being offered.
Because of all this, fast fashion is still a rapidly growing industry. Current forecasts estimate annual growth rates of up to 10.7% through 2034. That means that while the global fast fashion market is currently worth somewhere between 132.8 and 163.8 billion US dollars, it could grow to around 436.5 billion dollars by 2035.
When I asked one of my closest friends about all of this today, her answer was exactly what I expected: “I can’t be bothered anymore. Our generation has already been so loud. But as long as the people at the top aren’t doing anything, nothing is going to change. So honestly, it just feels like the case is lost anyway.” And yeah, she’s Gen Z too. So, point proven, I guess.
But here’s the problem: climate change isn’t going anywhere. And anyone who claims otherwise is simply ignorant. You don’t even have to look very far to see it. In 2026, Berlin recorded the hottest day in its history. Torrential rain seems to appear out of nowhere. Droughts are becoming more frequent. Extreme weather is slowly becoming the new normal. And that’s only the beginning.
Because climate models project increasing water scarcity in many regions as rising evaporation and more uneven rainfall patterns reduce water availability. At the same time, many scenarios also predict a sharp increase in the number of days with dangerous heat in tropical and subtropical regions. Some studies estimate that by the middle of the century (!), certain areas could experience more than 20 days a year with temperatures exceeding the limits of human tolerance. And by the way, at around 2°C of global warming, more than one billion people could be forced to leave their homes because of climate-related impacts.
And that’s not even close to the whole picture. We’re not even talking about the diseases that will spread as ecosystems continue to change. Or about entirely new waves of climate migration. We haven’t even begun to consider the thawing of permafrost, which will inevitably release the methane trapped within it, further accelerating global warming.
Now that we’ve established that Gen Z’s heartfelt concern for climate change is fake, or at best, fading we have to ask the obvious question: how do we motivate Gen Z to care again? Maybe we need to spend more time talking about the good things that are actually happening. Take The Ocean Cleanup, for example. It has developed systems of floating barriers that collect plastic from rivers before it can spread into the oceans. Or take the European Union. From 27 September 2026 onwards, environmental claims such as “climate neutral” and “sustainable” will be subject to much stricter regulation. The aim is to crack down on misleading green marketing and make genuine environmental action easier to recognise. And in the end, Fridays for Future’s German Instagram account still has more than 500,000 followers. That has to count for something. I get it. Everyone’s tired. I’m tired too. But ignorance has never been the solution.