As the UK media hones in on a new targeted demographic, dubbed net zero dad, it could give businesses a way to understand cultural and behavioural shifts.

I remember the TV ads from the early 1980s encouraging people to switch off the lights when leaving a room, to save money and energy.

Fast-forward just a short while and those commercials still spring to mind when I grump around the house asking who left all the lights on.

I’ve been reading over the past few weeks about the rise of a new audience segmentation phenomenon. the net zero dad.

Marketing and politics are littered with examples of groups of people to target who’ve been badged with catchy, stereotypical titles, but who can end up driving commercial or electrical success. Think of Essex man or Worcester woman. Typically, it’s not their demographic details, such as age, gender, salary, marital status or hobbies that mark them out, but their beliefs and behaviours.

Which is why net zero dad — a “middle-aged man with kids”, which isn’t particularly specific — seems to be creating such a fuss. It was triggered by this seminal article in The Economist a few weeks ago, which outlined that despite men typically caring less than women about climate change, “when it comes to adopting green measures, whether it be installing a heat pump, driving an electric vehicle or running the tumble dryer at 4am, it is middle-aged men who lead the way. The supposed villains of the climate transition are the heroes”.

Heat pumps are the prime example. It seems everyone has an opinion on them, but middle-aged dads who’ve had them installed suddenly become technical experts on them, ready and willing to opine to whoever wants to listen, and share the data on running costs and efficiencies (when they can drag themselves out of their sheds, presumably). Their soft power, through purchasing decisions and influence, is making a mark.

“Preparing for the climate transition can be only an older person’s game. The young might have more motivation. The old have the means,” it said.

It’s not just heat pumps of course. Net zero dads have apparently also become self-appointed exports on the environmental and economic virtues of electric vehicles, off-peak energy tariffs, food supply chains and urban development policy. The message is clear: companies are starting to target them precisely because of their geeky tendencies, desire to become an authority on a topic and ambition to be seen by peers as a pioneer, so that they can spearhead change and help to convert sceptics.

Since the Economist piece was penned, it has been widely shared on social media. The phrase net zero dad now seems to be holding sway over the previous iteration of “climate dad”, which has its own podcast but also seems to be more of a US phenomenon.

In Britain, the equivalent seems to be a slightly more introspective and trainspottery variant, but one that is on the march.

Why is this important, particularly at this moment in history? Beliefs and behaviour are crucial to the wider impact that any group can have. And given the extreme change and tensions in the world around us driven by an unprecedented geopolitical environment, we can only expect beliefs and behaviour to become even more prominent factors in changing attitudes and actions.

Companies will undoubtedly feel that the shocks delivered by daily headlines at the moment give them more than enough to keep up with. But net zero dad is a clear example of the value of them understanding cultural and behavioural shifts in their audiences too, which may become even more prominent given the times we live in.

I write this as my youngest leaves for school, having popped back upstairs to turn his bedroom light off.