Climate and sustainability are still key issues for people even amid the Covid-19 pandemic, with 81% of the global population expecting companies to be environmentally aware in all their advertising and communications.

In partnership with polling platform You Gov, Getty Images led a research for its creative insights platform Visual GPS shows that people responded to nearly all sustainability concerns with similar, if not higher, points from the survey taken before Covid-19.

Over 90% of respondents said they believe the way we treat our planet will have a large impact on the future, compared with 92% of those surveyed in July 2019. Similarly, 69% of surveyors believe they do everything they can to reduce their carbon footprint, an increase of 6% from July 2019.

“It is surprising and heartening that despite the huge change to people’s lifestyles and consumer behaviour brought about by COVID-19, the environment and sustainability remain as important to people as they ever were. As a comparison, while the interest in the environment waned in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis, the environment has become inextricably linked to wellness during the COVID-19 crisis,” says Dr Rebecca Swift, global head of creative insights at Getty Images.

The updated Visual GPS research also shows that people believe the best ways of making a positive impact on the planet are to recycle (70%), stop the use of single use plastics (60%), use environmentally friendly products (58%) and use renewable energy sources for home power (58%).

“Customer searches on our platform for “reusable water bottle” and “recycling” are up 152% and 148% respectively in the last year. This demonstrates just how powerful visual language can be in shaping people’s views on an issue, which makes it more important for brands and businesses to use visual content which shows their consumer how they can take action,” adds Dr Swift.

As a response to the Visual GPS research, Getty Images worked with Climate Visuals, the world’s only evidence-backed programme for climate change photography, to produce a set of Visualising Sustainability Guidelines, which give brands and business recommendations on how to find relevant visual content to community their sustainability commitment.