Why Your Sustainability Comms Probably Suck (and How to Fix Them).
5 minute read
If I can’t tell whether you’re promising me a sustainable product or trying to sell me Bitcoin, you have a problem.
Every brand is doing sustainability now. It’s an expectation, and they know it. Often, the bigger the company, the bigger and more impressive-sounding the promise. But who wants a promise about the planet from someone who sounds like they’d describe themselves as a “digital evangelist and growth acceleration guru” in their LinkedIn bio?
Let’s play a little game.
Based on the statements below, which of these companies do you believe has the greatest commitment to the planet?
We are investing in low-carbon energy solutions and advanced technologies, such as those that increase energy efficiency and reduce emissions.
We see the opportunity to use creativity and knowledge to scale ideas, collaborate on challenges and to be a partner for positive change.
We use our unique capabilities, assets and expertise to deliver progress toward the global net zero ambitions of the Paris agreement.
We unify our practices, partnerships, and products around a single mission — to foster sustainability at scale.
Can’t tell the difference? Exactly.
I’ll tell you at the end who said what.
Why the sudden interest in sustainability?
Well, it’s not that sudden, but the interest is getting stronger by the minute, for the same reason people tend to get really interested in anything - money.
Sustainable investment has increased tenfold since 2004, and now tops $30 trillion globally. That’s going to buy you a lot of tacos.
Why the fire hose of funds?
Well, consulting giant McKinsey says that in addition to increasing public scrutiny of corporate behaviour (Enron! Chevron! Volkswagen!) it’s a vote with the wallet by “investors and executives who realize that a strong ESG proposition can safeguard a company’s long-term success,” lowering downside risk and increasing return on equity.
Once more in English? Ethical companies are safer investment bets and make more money.
Consumers aren’t buying it
The problem is, the people aren’t convinced. Only 20% of consumers trust brand sustainability claims, and that’s not overly surprising. It’s also not good news for brands.
The majority of consumers will go out of their way to purchase a sustainable product - a big deal in our convenience-obsessed world. 75% of millennials would take a pay cut to work for a company with strong ethics - another big deal when there’s a global talent shortage.
It’s a huge advantage to companies to have an authentic, believable sustainability proposition. So why are they getting it so wrong?
Smells like bullshit to me, Charlie
I’ve spent a long time trying to figure out why brands talk about sustainability like they’re trying to get a job at an investment bank. Really, I have, because I want to be able to give you an answer. But the only thing I can come up with is that a lot of them aren’t actually doing much at all, and they feel awkward about telling you that. Here’s what I mean.
“Over the next 12 months, we will further develop our approach to managing these issues and will adopt targets and metrics appropriate to our sector and our impact.”
Translation: We’re working on working on it.
“We will advance thinking about how we can reform the structures of the economy”.
Translation: We might get the intern to write a white paper.
“We are committed to leveraging synergies as we progress toward net zero emissions across our value chain.”
Translation: ?????
When you stop to think about it, each of these sentences has zero meaning whatsoever. None. Are the companies banking on the idea that we won’t stop to think about it? Or have they just forgotten how to talk to humans?
Either way, it sets off the bullshit radar.
Image by Sincerely Media
Too many gunners
My grandfather, a WW2 vet, had a name for people who talked a big game but didn’t actually do anything: “Gunner”. As in, gunner do this, gunner do that.
So many brands make big, fancy-sounding promises about what they’re going to do. They’re especially excited about doing things with their value chains, it seems. But they tend to gloss over what they’re doing right now, this minute, to make a positive impact.
They certainly don’t acknowledge that sustainability is, in fact, really quite hard and that there will be stumbles along the way.
It’s like your friend who keeps saying they’re going to move to California and develop an app. They’ve been talking about it for years and no one really believes it will happen, and they definitely don’t understand what the app is meant to do.
Here’s a little secret. If you want people to believe you, you have to do what you say you’re going to do.
There are some really great exceptions to this. Jones Snowboards has a transparent, simple and, quite frankly charming sustainability promise. It’s clear what they’re doing now and what’s genuinely important to them.
Picture Organic has a beautiful, detailed sustainability microsite that tells you exactly how they’re producing sustainable outdoor clothing and why that’s different from what others do.
Canadian apparel company, Free Label, communicates clearly and honestly with its customers. For example, when demand for a product exceeded supply recently, the company turned to social media to talk about the ethical implications of scaling up production, and how hard to balance doing the right thing for their customers, and the right thing for the environment. It was vulnerable and honest and, above all, their commitment to the planet was believable.
No more seedlings
As a writer, I care about the words you use. But words are never the full story. The images you select to accompany the things you say about sustainability give powerful hints about how important the topic is to you.
So many brands fail to put even a teeny tiny bit of thought into their image selection.
Want to talk about growth? Here’s someone holding a seedling!
Want to talk about renewables? Oh look, a wind farm!
Want to talk about climate change? A stock icon of a thermometer will do.
Humans process images in 13 milliseconds. A cliched image has the same effect as a cliched phrase: it extracts meaning, rather than adding to it.
No one wants to chew through content that’s as grey and bland as a 3 day old airport sandwich.
The upshot
Christopher Hitchens famously said that the one unforgivable sin is to be boring. In the end, this is perhaps what it comes down to. The meaningless jargon, the empty promises, the cheap stock imagery, it’s all so… boring.
Companies know they need to talk about sustainability. Lots of them prepare their content for investors - hence all the talk about value chains and leveraging synergies (gag). They hire the same expensive consultants to write the same beige content and consider the box ticked. But the things you truly care about are never beige. They shine.
If I can’t feel your passion for sustainability, if it doesn’t illuminate your words and light me up as I read them, then how can I possibly believe that it actually matters to YOU?
If I can’t feel your passion for sustainability, if it doesn’t illuminate your words and light me up as I read them, then how can I possibly believe that it actually matters to YOU?
Oh, and those quotes at the beginning? 2 and 4 were from known sustainability leaders, Ikea and Google.
1 and 3 were from Shell and Chevron. Turns out differentiation is a thing.
Alex MacLean/GlobalPost