Communicating Sustainability with Change By Degrees

"Systemic change is a deeply personal endeavour. Changing the system starts with self. What is in your gift? Be clear on why it is that sustainability matters to you.” Dr. Tara Shine.

On March 1st 2022, following the launch of the latest IPCC report, Dr Tara Shine and Madeleine Murray joined us from Change by Degrees to discuss how we can all get better at communicating sustainability.

This event was hosted as a response to findings that emerged from the recent Purpose Disruptors Ireland survey, to help fill the knowledge gaps and build the industry’s skillset in climate and sustainability arenas.

KEY TAKEAWAYS
”You won’t be an advertising agency in 2030 if you don’t have a position on sustainability.” -Jamie Henn, Fossil Free Media

Conversation Barriers

To kick off the session we invited more than 50 attendees to reflect on how they rarely/never refer to climate change when working with clients - 17% say that it is not a priority in their organisation.

Behaviour change starts with capacity building with knowledge and info, then comes motivation with values and inspiration, and finally opportunity with infrastructure and leadership.

Linking to happiness

There are three facets to sustainability that need to be incorporated into our work and approach: Environmental; Social and Economic. Sustainability means a happy society, healthy planet and thriving economy. Pointing to statistics that indicate 2021 will have a huge uplift. in GHG emissions (the 6.3% reduction due to the pandemic was recovered as economies reopened), it was highlighted that we need more people involved in the climate conversation, across all sectors.

Exploring Motivators

Everyone has different motivators. We need to think about these motivators when approaching our communications. Effective messaging with regard to sustainability often involves engaging with peoples ‘what’s in it for me?’ thinking. In general, people don’t think about carbon - they want to be happy, healthy and safe. This is a great place to start.

Referencing research from the World Resources Institute, Change By Degrees reinforced how you can double your chances of having a positive influence by using terms that 1) reinforce being part of a broader/bigger effort (‘join a movement of people’) and 2) highlight the difference an action can make (‘small changes can make a big difference’).

“A good sense check for those in the comms industry unsure about working for clients is asking yourself ‘would you be happy for the work you’re doing for them to be on your website?’ ”

Radical collaboration
Partnership and radical collaboration are crucial as we address the intention and action gap. As service providers working in agencies, and clients working with agencies, we are primed to seek out good partners.
We need to keep challenging ourselves and the organisations we work for and with more showing and less telling.

QUESTIONS TO POWER CLIENT CONVERSATIONS

A big challenge with sustainability literacy in the communications industry is that many people don’t know if a client is telling them the truth about claims.

The session concluded with real, challenging questions that we/our clients need to think about, talk about and act on - Because “if we only worked with angels we wouldn’t change the world.”"

1. Are they actually changing the business or is it window dressing? (eg. Keep cups vs fleets)
2. Are they jumping or defaulting to offsetting (i.e. buying your way out)?
3. How much of capital expenditure is going to the solutions/work we are being asked to promote?
4. What are they doing about Scope 3* emissions? (Scope 3 = 83% of average business emissions)