In graduate school, I took a course called “Interpersonal Dynamics,” where I was tasked with emailing my closest family and friends to ask what I should be focusing on and what my greatest areas of improvement are. My dad responded with the following:

“Sometimes too judgmental.

Capable of holding a grudge.

Feet too dirty.” 

So clearly, my dad DID NOT appreciate my decisions to take daily showering recommendations as “optional” and certainly did not embrace my hippy, environmental side. Despite this, I truly think he’s appreciated my take on sustainability and climate change and we’ve had fascinating (often lively) conversations about what to do about climate change for the past several years. Not to pay myself on the back, but as someone with a pretty large carbon footprint, I’d like to think I’m responsible for putting environmental responsibility on my dad’s radar in the first place.

With Father’s Day coming up, I’ve been thinking a lot more about the eco gender gap and what the research actually says about dads and climate. 

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THE ECO GENDER GAP IS REAL

71% of women try to live more ethically and sustainability, compared to only 59% of men. That 12-point gap is called the eco gender gap and it shows up consistently across categories. Women recycle more, compost more, buy fewer fast fashion items, and are more likely to push friends and family to make more sustainable choices. But the gap goes beyond attitudes and shows up in emissions data. A 2025 study from the London School of Economics analyzed the food and transport habits of 15,000 people in France and found that men's carbon footprint in those two categories alone is 26% higher than women's. Men averaged 5.3 tonnes of CO2 equivalent annually versus women's 3.9 tonnes. The two culprits were red meat and cars — both, the researchers noted, "often associated with male identity." A separate Swedish study found that even when men and women spend similar amounts of money overall, men's purchases generate 16% more emissions, because they disproportionately spend on high-emitting categories like gasoline.

Men, on the other hand, tend to consume more meat, drive longer distances, and leave a larger carbon footprint on average. This isn’t just about habits, but identity. Studies have found that men sometimes resist sustainable behaviors because they associate it with femininity. So toxic masculinity is real, huh? 

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The Green-Feminine Stereotype

Here's the part that's genuinely wild: research published in the Journal of Consumer Research found that both men and women associate green behaviors with femininity. When study participants saw someone carrying a reusable canvas bag, they were more likely to describe that person as "gentle" and "sensitive" — and less likely to call them "macho." And it's not just how we see others: when men were asked to recall a recent eco-friendly choice they'd made, they actually rated themselves as more feminine afterward.

The researchers call this the "Green-Feminine Stereotype," and it has real consequences. When men's sense of masculinity was threatened in the experiments, they became more likely to make environmentally damaging choices — essentially reasserting their identity through consumption. One study even found that men shown a "gender threat" gift card were more likely to choose non-green products than men shown a neutral one.

The research spans more than 2,000 participants across the US and China, and a more recent study found that the pattern holds: men who identify strongly with traditional masculinity show the widest gap in climate concern compared to women. The gender gap in environmentalism, in other words, isn't really a "men vs. women" story — it's largely driven by men who feel they have the most to lose by going green.

But wait! There’s some good news. The same research shows the effect can be reversed. When men's masculinity was affirmed before making a purchase decision, they were just as likely as women to choose the eco-friendly option. In one experiment, men who received feedback affirming their masculinity showed significantly more interest in buying an eco-friendly cleaning product. Make someone feel secure in who they are, and the defensiveness drops away.

Having kids doesn’t necessarily change things, even when we suddenly have a very personal stake in what the planet looks like in 30 years. Multiple longitudinal studies have found little to no evidence that becoming a parent meaningfully changes environmental attitudes or behaviors for either moms or dads.Some research does suggest that becoming a first-time parent may slightly increase a person’s belief that climate change is real, but that’s about as far as the effect goes. 

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Here’s The Plot Twist

While parents don’t necessarily change much directly after having kids, kids (especially daughters) can change their parents; especially their dads, and we talk about this a bit in our recent newsletter. Intergenerational learning is one of the more beautiful findings in climate communication research. It turns out that a teenager saying, “dad, did you know…” at the dinner table might be more persuasive than a documentary, or someone’s carefully worded newsletter (Rude, but okay). 

So, how do we talk about sustainability?

The takeaway here isn’t that men are hopeless or that women need to drag them along, it’s that the way we message sustainability has a reach problem that's often self-inflicted. 

Sustainability marketing has historically skewed toward an aesthetic and a sensibility that resonates more with women than men: soft packaging, wellness language, ethical consumption framing. Not inherently wrong, but it means we’re leaving a huge audience on the table, and one that responds to entirely different entry points. 

The LSE researchers put it directly: brands should consider "reframing plant-based alternatives as compatible with strength and performance." BMW actually tested this in China — running two versions of the same car ad, identical except that "eco-friendly" was swapped for a more masculine Chinese word meaning "protection." Men evaluated the protection version significantly more positively, even though the car was the same. Same product, different door.

We need to rebrand sustainable products and behaviors in terms of performance, technology, efficiency or economic value. An EV isn’t a planet-saving choice, it’s a faster, cheaper-to-run, high-tech machine that happens to be better for the environment. A heat pump isn’t a sacrifice but an upgrade. 

And for the dads in your life who are still skeptical: maybe don’t forward this to them. Send it to their daughter. 

Until everyone else gets there with better marketing, here are some of our favorite products the men in your life would love: 

Caraway Cast Iron Pan

Wooden Swiss Army Knife

JackFir Toiletries