Six principles to nail your sustainability positioning and communication

Sustainability is more critical than ever.
But how do you turn it into a brand value driver?

 

With the new EU ESG reporting requirements, sustainability is more critical than ever. The latest leading cases on greenwashing show increasing consequences for companies that fail to manage their sustainability positioning and communication effectively.

The solution isn’t to stop communicating about sustainability – because, if you do you leave your narrative to others and lose control over how your company and your industry are perceived. Nor is the solution to cherry-pick the most ”interesting” stories from your ESG report and share these as stand-alone messages. This can make you seem narrow-minded and out of touch with real sustainability challenges. Ultimately, you can also end up giving consumers a false impression of your sustainability efforts leading to accusations of greenwashing, even if your initiatives are genuine.

Last year, Mercedes became the third company in Denmark reported to the authorities for greenwashing by the consumer ombudsman. The brand’s campaign claimed “From this year our factories run on 100% renewable energy” emphasising that new cars are produced at factories running on 100% renewable energy. However, they failed to explain how much of the car’s total climate and environmental footprint this made up. In reality, emissions from the Mercedes factory are a tiny proportion of the total lifecycle emissions of their cars. According to the consumer ombudsman, this made Mercedes cars appear more environmentally friendly than they actually were, violating marketing law.

If Mercedes had chosen a more holistic and structured approach to their sustainability communication, they could have delivered a similar message without being accused of greenwashing. They needed to present their renewable energy initiative as part of a broader long-term sustainability plan, rather than a stand-alone claim.

So, how do you master your sustainability positioning and communication?

I believe it requires a shift in mindset about sustainability across all the company’s communication channels. Here are six principles for implementing this change.

1. Focus on how you can contribute to solving the real sustainability challenges the world is facing

 

Many companies make the mistake of mostly communicating about their ”good” ESG initiatives instead of talking about how they can help solve the world’s actual sustainability issues.

 

2. Commit to a long-term sustainability ambition and show how you plan to achieve it

 

As the Mercedes example shows, you risk being accused of greenwashing if you communicate sustainability through sporadic, stand-alone messages. If, on the other hand, you develop a structured framework with a long-term sustainability ambition and complementary initiatives, it provides direction to your company and communication.

 

3. See sustainability as an integrated part of your business and commercial activities

 

For most companies, sustainability is not the main purpose; it is something that needs to be handled. However, that doesn’t mean that sustainability should be seen as something that only affects a single employee or department. It should be considered and communicated as an integral part of your company story and commercial offering.

 

4. Make your sustainability journey visible and involve your most important stakeholders

 

A company is perceived as more trustworthy if it acknowledges that sustainability is a journey and continuously communicates about where and how it plans to improve, instead of only mentioning the positive things it has achieved. Transparency also makes it easier to involve your employees.

 

5. Encourage collaboration to create systemic change in your industry

 

Sustainability that makes a difference requires collaboration. The crises we face are interconnected and need to be tackled and solved together. Your sustainability communication also needs to reflect this. You must acknowledge that you can’t fix everything on your own and proactively encourage your industry to partner to create systemic change.

 

6. Acknowledge you’re a part of the sustainability problem – and make it clear you’re also a part of the solution

 

The starting point for sustainability will differ across companies and industries. But what they all have in common is that sustainability positioning and communication is ultimately about acknowledging that you’re part of the problem. At the same time, you need to make it clear that you are a responsible company that is working proactively and strategically to become a part of the solution.

These six principles can be a guide for anyone who works with sustainability communication. It can help structure your company narrative so that management and other stakeholders gain a strong, credible perspective and a common foundation for sustainability discussions.

Sustainability is ultimately about taking action. To position yourself as a leader, set ambitious targets and back them with action. If your goals only meet legal requirements, they won’t set you apart. As the Greek philosopher, Aesop said: “After all is said and done, more is said than done.” That holds true for sustainability, too.

However, data increasingly shows that it pays to lead on sustainability and that it can help strengthen a company’s reputation among employees, customers, investors, and society.