Green matters - communicating sustainability

“The road to hell is paved with good intentions”.

And so the road to authentic sustainability is fraught with many dangers. And not least the much-vaunted accusation of “green washing” - the offence of proclaiming green virtuosity but without much substance to back it up.

With so much at stake, our clients are understandably cautious about the way they talk about sustainability, and how those messages are perceived by their clients, employees and industry peers.

Several years ago “sustainability” would be a subject tucked away in the “About Us” or “Our Values” pages of a website, but today clients are now coming to us asking for this subject to have more prominence with its own page.

Marketing a business's ESG values is now essential, not an optional consideration

The arguments around climate change, global warming and carbon footprints are exhaustively documented, and now sit within the mainstream of our cultural consciousness.

Look no further than the Financial Times, the benchmark for business industry journalism, which now has an exhaustively updated Sustainability page out-doing, arguably what is widely regarded as the natural home for issues with a conscience, The Guardian.

Make no mistake - sustainability is now bang at the top of the agenda for many companies. But talking about it correctly, and to the right audience, at the right time, is how we can make a difference.

So how do we translate green intention into authentic communications?

The first part of the answer to this comes from some open and honest conversations with our clients about what they’re actually doing to be greener and more sustainable.

“If it’s measurable, then it’s mentionable”.

A loosely formed set of ideals, with no empirical evidence, leaves us struggling to make it sound real. It might be an aspiration - in which case we need to tell the story about how a client is getting from where they are now, to where they want to be.

Aside from the challenges of articulating unsubstantiated environmental claims, there are now strict UK and EU regulations around so-called “green washing”. The Competition Markets Authority (CMA) in 2021 published The Green Claims Code, which provides specific guidance to help companies comply with regulations around what they’re saying in terms of sustainability. In the words of CMA Chief Executive Andrea Comiscelli:

“More people than ever are considering the environmental impact of a product before parting with their hard-earned money. We’re concerned that too many businesses are falsely taking credit for being green, while genuine eco-friendly firms don’t get the recognition they deserve.

The Green Claims Code has been written for all businesses - from fashion giants and supermarket chains to local shops.

Any business that fails to comply with the law risks damaging its reputation with customers and could face action from the CMA.”

How can businesses create a genuine sustainable story?

The first part of the job is for our clients to evidence that they practice what they preach. In this instance, actions really are louder than words.

Typically, what we’re looking to see is some of the following intentions:

• A clear mission and strategy towards long-term sustainability

• Milestones that show how they’re getting from where they are now, to where they want to be

• Evidence of measures to reduce their carbon footprint and move towards renewable energy - LED lighting, electrical vehicles, solar powered energy, moves towards paperless documentation

• Evidence of wanting to help their clients and suppliers achieve their sustainability goals through eco-friendly products and services

• Genuine measures to oversee the full life cycle of a particular product

• In manufacturing, sourcing plant-based materials in place of oil or solvent-based derivatives

• A company-wide recycling/repurposing programme

• Awareness around environmentally conscious travel - more trains fewer planes

• A clear and transparent measurement system

How a commitment to sustainability can start to make a real difference to your business.

It’s all about getting the right balance. Talking about your green credentials and values should be an intrinsic part of your wider communications strategy, and while it deserves prominence and significance, it should feel natural and authentic.

It certainly needs to be at every touch point in your communications - website, social media, business proposals and, in some cases, be designed into your brand identity toolkit.

Our job is to make judgement calls on all this. But the key trick is to be consistent. Your audience, whoever it is, should come to see your sustainability ambitions as a natural part of what you do rather than a stand-alone feature that has the spotlight shone on it when you want to draw attention to it.

Effective sustainability communications - our current work in progress.

Pearce Signs - helping them evidence their company-wide ambitions to enable their own clients to be more sustainable through case studies, specific sustainability web pages, thought leadership blogs and social posts. We also produced their entry submission for the “Sustainability in Signage” category at the 2024 Sign & Wrap Awards - which they won.

Hillfoot Steel - we’re now playing a key role activating their ESG communications strategy and have also devised a new green sub-brand to give their sustainability ambitions a distinct visual identity and statement of intent. “Hillfoot Forward. Present about our Future” is now the centrepiece of a clear vision and strategy to deliver tangible sustainable outcomes for both the business and their clients.

Sherwin-Williams - as a global leader in paints and coatings, we’ve been helping them articulate their moves towards more sustainable product lines for both coatings and flooring, with new landing pages that show their various green product innovations.

Aquaspersions - one of the leading names in the formulation of aqueous dispersions for manufacturers and formulators, we’re helping them tell a story around how their biopolymers and bio-based coatings are enabling food manufacturers to devise compostable packaging solutions.

Martin Edwards Reclamation - “Rediscovered. Repurposed. Revived”. Our redevelopment of their website gave us a great opportunity to reposition this business as a leading player in the circular economy of reclaimed architectural building products.

Looking to tell your sustainability story? If so, we’d love to hear from you. Get in touch.

Email hello@applieddigital.co.uk

Or call us on 01484 302010