Annuska Toebast

Recently, one of the members of our Sustainable Behaviour Special Interest Group, Annuska Toebast, got promoted upon completing her PhD
on Sustainable Fashion. This is what she shared about her experience researching this topic.

What triggered your interest in researching sustainable fashion?
My interest grew out of my background in the fashion industry. I experienced firsthand how difficult it is for sustainable fashion to gain visibility and traction. Sustainable retailers compete with fast fashion brands that offer low prices and have large marketing budgets, while they themselves often face higher production costs and limited marketing resources. I wanted to contribute by generating insights that could actually help sustainable fashion retailers reach and engage consumers more effectively.

One of your recommendations is to increase focus on emotional engagement over rational appeals: how can brands tell compelling stories without greenwashing?
Cognitive appeals such as certifications, product facts, or environmental claims, are important but insufficient on their own. Consumers primarily interpret fashion through emotions, aesthetics, and symbolic meaning. To activate these dimensions without greenwashing, brands can focus on authentic storytelling. Rather than simply stating that a garment is made from organic cotton, they can narrate its journey from farmer to maker to wearer, highlighting creativity, craftsmanship, and human involvement. Sustainable fashion can also be framed as stylish, aspirational, and pleasurable, emphasizing self expression and enjoyment rather than moral obligation.

What opportunities for social influence have you identified to broaden awareness and adoption of sustainable fashion?
Across my studies, social influence consistently emerged as a powerful driver of awareness and symbolic value in sustainable fashion consumption. However, it is less decisive in directly triggering purchase decisions, both within and beyond consumers’ social networks. For
retailers, this highlights both the power and the limits of social influence. Within close social networks, referrals and peer-to-peer sharing already function as identity signals, reinforcing sustainable fashion choices among like-minded consumers. Retailers can strengthen this by making it easy and rewarding for customers to share recommendations within trusted networks, for example through personalized referral links, exclusive sharing perks, or campaigns that highlight real customers as role models and value carriers. At the same time, relying solely on peer influence risks staying within the same social circles. To reach new consumers and stimulate purchasing beyond existing networks, social influence should be combined with economic incentives, such as discounts or collaborations with influencers that appeal to more mainstream audiences.

Beyond the findings, what was most challenging, meaningful and/or surprising about researching sustainable fashion at a PhD level?
One of the biggest challenges for me was resisting the urge to study too many things at once. The topic and my personal motivation often pushed me to explore broader questions, but the PhD process taught me the value of focus. Staying close to a clear research question, a consistent methodology, and disciplined interpretation ultimately led to much deeper and more meaningful insights.

What main takeaway would you like to provide to the community of the Special Interest Group on Sustainable Behaviour?
My main takeaway would be to keep sharing knowledge: about methods, findings, and practical implications of sustainable behaviour research. In particular, there is still so much potential in research on social norms and social influence. This is an area where deeper collaboration and knowledge exchange can make a real difference.

What are your next steps, and how may your PhD experience contribute to the rest of your career?
Conducting research has truly captured my interest, and I would like to continue working at the intersection of research and practice. I aim to use my research skills to develop and test retailer focused interventions, translating academic insights into practical tools that support sustainable consumer behaviour.