Consumers are demanding more from the brands they buy –and increasingly are rewarding companies whose services and products are both good for them and good for society.

In its 2015 Nielsen Global Corporate Sustainability Report, Nielson found that “66% of global consumers say they’re willing to pay more for sustainable brands–up 55% from 2014.” It also found that 73% of global Millennials are willing to pay extra for sustainable offerings–up from 50% in 2014.

Businesses must adapt to the times as consumers are voting with their wallets and Millennials, in particular, are demanding that companies put their money where their mouth is.

Millennials make up the fastest growing force in the marketplace. Numbering more than 80 million strong, Millennials already account for an estimated $1 trillion of U.S. current consumer spending. This sum will continue to grow exponentially as more Millennials reach peak buying power.

Millennials represent the consumer market of the future, and it behooves corporations to read the tea leaves.

In a study by Horizon Media’s Finger on the Pulse, “81 percent of Millennials expect companies to make a public commitment to good corporate citizenship.”

By almost any measure, Millennials place a premium on corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts.

According to findings from the 2015 Cone Communications Millennial CSR Study, “More than nine-in-10 Millennials would switch brands to one associated with a cause (91% vs. 85% U.S. average), and two-thirds use social media to engage around CSR (66% vs. 53% U.S. average).”

The study also finds that “Millennials say they are prepared to make personal sacrifices to make an impact on issues they care about, whether that’s paying more for a product (70 percent vs. 66 percent US average), sharing products rather than buying (66 percent vs. 56 percent) or taking a pay cut to work for a responsible company (62 percent vs. 56 percent).”

Traditional advertising won’t work with Millennials.

Conveying CSR efforts to Millennials requires authenticity, and a unique approach as Millennials grew up with the Internet and want their voices heard. They expect a two-way, open dialogue with companies and their brands.

Brands can bring their CSR efforts to life through authentic storytelling. Millennials want to know what companies are doing to make the world a better place.

CSR can build brand loyalty, raise awareness, and strengthen reputations, or it can have the opposite effect.

Honesty is key.

Inherently skeptical, Millennials will punish companies on social media not deemed to be fully transparent as well as those that pay lip service to CSR and causes important to them.

The bottom line is that the corporate world cannot ignore the demands and expectations of Millennials, who are devout in their desire to associate with companies aligned with their values.

By Ryan Rudominer, follow him on www.twitter.com/rrudominer

Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) investing is on the rise, driven in large part by millennials who want to make a difference. Millennials agree with financial advisors, such as Thomas Van Dyck, senior VP, RBC Wealth Management who says that “investment is the economic expression of our thoughts and values.”

In fact, a recent survey conducted by Morgan Stanley found that millennials are twice as likely to both invest in companies or funds that target specific social / environmental outcomes and divest because of objectionable corporate activity. A US Trust survey of 680 high-net-worth and ultra-high-net-worth adults found that 67% of millennials view their investment decisions as a way to express their social, political and environmental values, and 73% believe that it is possible to achieve market-rate returns investing in companies based on their social or environmental impact.

At the same time, a growing number of asset managers have teams dedicated to evaluating and building ESG portfolios. According to the Forum for Sustainable and Responsible Investment (USSIF), ESG investments under professional management in the U.S. grew from $3.74 trillion at in 2011 to $6.57 trillion in 2013. Blackrock Impact, Goldman Sachs, Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase all have ESG initiatives; and ESG mutual funds have also skyrocketed in recent years.

Factoring personal values into financial investments is hardly a new phenomenon. But it has gained significant traction with millennials, especially since the 2008 financial crisis and the demand for financial services organizations to have greater transparency.

Banks are responding to millennials who are impressively relentless with their demands for transparency and accountability in most aspects of their lives. According to recent surveys by PwC and Deloitte among many others, millennials are very discriminating about the jobs they choose, the products they buy, where they shop and how they invest.

USSIF, The United Nations, NASDAQ, asset managers, investment are all working toward defining criteria and principles for ESG so that asset managers can ensure that their investments include companies that are truly responsible, such as reducing carbon emissions and supporting corporate diversity.

In an effort to achieve transparency and accountability, a number of investment banks and other institutions, such as the Global Impact Investing Network, have developed tools and standards. Principles for Responsible Investment also has more than 1,300 signatories supporting its criteria for ESG. Most of the leading investment banks also post criteria and methodologies they use to choose and verify the authenticity and impact of their ESG investments.

While these new initiatives are valuable, they are still in very early stages. Millennial investors committed to ESG may need to do their own due diligence and pressure their financial advisors to perpetually refine and improve transparency and accountability.

In a recent interview in Forbes, Michael Muyot, founder of CRD Analytics, a provider of independent sustainability investment analytics, said, “The more clarity we can bring to our expectations, the sooner we can expect companies to deliver… Imagine what it would look like if the entire country was united to invest in our physical infrastructure, a tech-based educational system, an innovative clean energy network and a cutting edge IT-based commerce system built to last for the next 100 years.”