5 tips to refocus your sustainability communications

If your organization isn’t changing its environmental, social and governance strategy, it’s one of the few.

Eight out of 10 companies are revising their ESG strategy in response to the Trump administration, according to a survey of sustainability executives released last month by The Conference Board.

More than half of those execs say their companies are reframing communications, the business research group found. Those resets include moving away from the label “ESG,” the business think tank says, confirming a trend we described nearly two years ago.

Changing labels is important in this partisan time. But such a change will be insufficient if not accompanied by a fundamental shift in the way that organizations talk to their customers, employees and shareholders.

Corporate boasting and bragging about sustainability have fueled criticism from both ends of the political spectrum. Grandiose claims about environmental efforts, for example, sparked charges of greenwashing on the left. Meanwhile, vague proclamations about social benefits have let loose protests that corporations are sacrificing profits.

The Conference Board sees signs that a change is underway.

“Many firms are experimenting with creative approaches to sustainability storytelling, going beyond traditional data-heavy reporting,” according to a companion report to the survey released last month.

Feel caught in the crossfire?  Rather than retreat, refocus your communications.

Every story should show how your efforts are closely tied to the financial success of the business. That’ll dispel notions that your efforts are merely to bring the company in line with certain moral standards and policy goals.

Financial impact is one thing that originally made ESG different from previous investment movements, such as corporate social responsibility and ethical investing.

We’ll look at what that new approach should look like, with five tips on how to tell stories about the E in ESG.

1. Make every day Earth Day. Your environmental efforts should be a regular part of your editorial calendar. Those efforts are too important to be buried in a 79-annual report that few people will read.

Start with one story, then another. Score with your audience by stringing together a bunch of hits, like in baseball. Your annual report should be a summation of a year’s worth of reporting and writing, complemented with fresh data.

2. Use your data. Some people in your organization are just waiting for someone to ask about the information they collect about sustainability. Ask them.

Data can give structure to a story and make it newsy.

“Data and story, however, need not be at odds,” a former director of communications and marketing for the nonprofit Rainforest Alliance said in 2021. “In fact, when properly woven together, they lend credibility to strong ESG reporting and serve to reinforce a company’s purpose, mission and aspirations.”

3. Find people. Human beings naturally connect to stories about people. Highlight the employees who are doing the environmental work and the people who are benefiting from it.

Every story should have a central character, a person whom the audience will care about. If the audience cares about that person, they’ll care about and remember the story.

4. Admit setbacks. If your organization has come up short on its goals, acknowledge the misses and explain why. Don’t hide the disappointments.

That’s the approach that one snack and beverage company is taking, as described by The Wall Street Journal in a story with the headline, “PepsiCo Is Pushing Back its Climate Goals. The Company Wants to Talk About it.”

Candor will earn credibility with your audiences, especially now that the Securities and Exchange Commission has dropped proposed climate-change disclosure regulations.

5. Fact check. Give your environmental content a hard look, the way a reporter would.

“Companies are eager to showcase their green credentials,” journalist Lyudmil Karavasilev wrote for the Reynolds Center for Business Journalism at Arizona State University. “But when examined closely, many of these claims don’t hold up.”

He recently offered advice to reporters on how to verify corporate environmental claims, including supply chains.

Moving forward
Even with these tips, communicating isn’t easy.

Among U.S. adults, 48% say global warming will be a serious threat in their lifetime, up from 44% in 2024, Gallup said in April. That’s the highest level since the survey company began asking the question in 1997.

Yet 51% say climate change won’t be a serious threat. Democrats and independents are more likely than Republicans to say that global warming will be a threat and say the effects have already begun.

That means setting the right tone is crucial.

“Global warming, that’s one that everybody yells at you about,” comedian Nate Bargatze said during his 2019 special.

“I did some research. And I was like, ‘Let me look at the other planets. Let’s see how good they’re doing,’” he said. “It’s unbelievable. They’re nowhere right now. Some of them have too many moons….  So let’s calm down.”