28 Aug Pushing The Sustain Pedal: Advancing The Role Of Sustainability Communications.
By BravoEcho
Facing loud criticism from some quarters, business leaders are wondering if they should lower the volume or even stay silent about their sustainability efforts. We see sustainability communications as newly vital tools in building brand equity through trust and reputation.
Getting The Balance Right.
Before sustainability was a goal for survival on the planet it was an elusive goal in music. Relying on the length of a breath or a team of church workers pumping air through an organ pipe, sustaining a note was the musicians’ holy grail. Then, around 1700, the modern piano was invented – with a sustain pedal to allow the notes to ring out. Sustainability was suddenly for everyone. Yet the sustain pedal presented as many problems as it solved as only extremely precise and skillful use created beautiful music. Overdoing sustainability turned art into intolerable musical mud.
This century’s quest for environmental sustainability is at a near identical point. Today, it’s business leaders and their communications teams at the keyboard, seeking a balance between communicating sustainability aspirations and progress, and a perceived over-emphasis on such initiatives. Too much sustain can create political dissonance, cause worries about financial performance, and result in a reputation stuck in the mud.
Different Shades Of Green On Wall Street And Main Street
ESG initiatives and data disclosure have become lightning rods on Wall Street, and there is evidence that institutional investors are skittish about the trumpeting of environmental commitments. The Sustainable Investments Institute found significantly less support for shareholder proposals around climate-related questions, while Morningstar noted that investors are increasingly removing ESG identification and ESG mandates from their funds.
However, among the general public, the demand for companies to stay the course on environmental sustainability remains strong. The 2024 Axios Harris 100 Reputation Poll lists environmental efforts against climate change as a key issue where Americans believe companies should be making a positive difference. Meanwhile, IPSOS reports that people are more than twice as likely to agree than disagree that if businesses don’t act now to combat climate change, they will be failing their employees and customers; and that almost two-thirds say they try to buy products from brands that act responsibly even if it means spending more.
The question for sustainability and communications teams is how to thread the needle between Wall Street wanting to hear less about sustainable practices and Main Street wanting to hear more? How can they project that staying the course on sustainability is not radicalism, while also making clear that adjusting midcourse is not stopping the music altogether?
Sustainability In The Brand Context.
The obvious role for environmental sustainability communications is to highlight the steps a company is taking, and in so doing, drive consumer or investor behavior change. But Kantar analysis has revealed that brands with the most positive sustainability perceptions also see the greatest levels of overall brand value growth.
And IPSOS has found that ESG perceptions are positively correlated with brand desire. Sustainability perceptions bolster brand equity by building brand trust and enhancing brand reputation. Communicating openly about programs and progress in sustainable sourcing, environmentally-friendly and easy-to-recycle packaging, renewable energy use, and pollution reduction lead to perceptions of honesty, transparency, and shared values which positively impact trust and reputation. While price, performance, service, and emotional benefit are immediate primary purchase drivers, green communications play a powerful role in the pathways to brand choice.
Ikea is a strong example here. They use a broad range of comms channels from in-store to catalog, social, and advertising to build credibility around their “Re-shop and Re-use” program as they strive to be 100% circular by 2030 and build their reputation as a global green-conscious brand. A less positive example is Coca-Cola during the Paris Olympics, where images of Coke being poured by servers from plastic bottles into plastic cups undermined trust in the company’s claim to support Paris’ ambitions to reduce single-use plastics, and led to accusations of greenwashing.
Eight Sustaining Sustainability Communications Imperatives.
Based on our experience developing sustainability communications for internal, stakeholder, and consumer audiences, we see these actions as vital if a company is to shape its own narrative rather than play defense.
1. Understand your company’s sustainability perceptions compared to the competition in order to maximize strengths and counter weaknesses. Also, identify inconsistencies between your company’s sustainability actions, messaging, and perceptions.
2. Identify those sustainability activities and programs that have the greatest communications potential – those that align with company values, fit with the product/service and category, and are relevant and important to customers and stakeholders.
3. Craft narratives that communicate why a particular sustainability program fits with the brand, why it’s a priority, what action is being/was taken, and what impact it will/did have. Make clear the impact on customers, the family and communities they’re part of, and the wider world.
4. Spread sustainability messaging widely across media. Go beyond packaging, in-store and websites, and consider broad reach media and social channels in ways that feel authentic to the brand.
5. Use specific, measurable, and authenticated outcomes to move discussion beyond the moral and political to the impact on individuals, communities, and the planet. Also, be clear about the limits of any company action and where public policy changes are needed.
6. Integrate environmental beliefs and actions into company culture. The more there is employee buy-in and passion, the less actions will appear performative.
7. Build a community of likeminded influencers and stakeholders who can credibly advocate on your behalf.
8. Engage with skeptics internally and externally with constructive conversation and honest reporting. Be open to their input, and emphasize the universal importance of sustainable practices and the necessary collective nature of solutions.
Masters Of The Sustain Pedal.
At the risk of over-extending our piano metaphor, we believe it’s critical for communications leaders to keep the sustainability music playing. People want to know what positive environmental steps companies are taking, and careful and honest orchestration of messages, using a full range of instruments, can build brand equity while demonstrating genuine environmental bona fides.