PR Start-up: How to prevent greenwashing

There is no doubt that climate change is here and we all feel the urgency to act as we see its effects daily. Those that had the foresight to understand the consequences of a lack of action on climate change would be justified in saying: “I told you so”, but they have thus far shown restraint, content that it tops the international agenda.  And whilst it should remain agenda topping, it places demands on organisations and their communications practitioners to demonstrate what they are doing to make a difference as we see the ‘E’ in Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) becoming dominant.

Our role as practitioners is to help define sustainability messaging for our organisations that map the progress towards achieving zero emissions.  In so doing, there is a significant danger that we can overestimate the effects of the positive measures without fully understanding the business’ total impact on the environment.  Our messaging and communications must be balanced and informed to prevent the risk of ‘greenwashing’.

Forthcoming legal action against major corporates will underscore the importance of ensuring that when communicating the facts, they are accurately represented showing a true picture of the organisation. 

As a new business intent on becoming carbon neutral, with authentic and transparent communications, here at Herdwick, we struggled to understand the breadth of our impact which undermined our sustainability communications. Discussing the issue with other companies, it became apparent that this was a shared view.  To communicate our position on sustainability, we created a model that would simplify the complexity of the issue and validate our messaging. 

Using the model, combined with the knowledge of how we run our business, has allowed us to challenge every aspect from business development to administration including product delivery and product decommissioning. The model allows us to make a comparison against our industry peers and identify what steps we need to take to improve our current position.

Whilst this is not a model to audit ESG, it enables us to score each component of how we run our business and classify the impact on the environment with the end goal of ensuring the completeness of our communications. 

Moreover, our model encourages debate and dialogue and, through increased awareness, effects change in corporate behaviour. It helps identify tangible messages and strategic opportunities. It becomes clear where the business has sustainable differentiators, where the company is on par with the industry and where risk exists. 

Prior to applying the model to our business, we thought our communications accurately reflected that we were doing enough, but the results make it clear where we need to do more and our communications need to mirror that. Understanding how the business operates and its impact on its consumers and suppliers allow communications practitioners to develop accurate and balanced messaging that steers away from greenwashing.

There will inevitably become a point where regulators will set the disclosure requirements for their respective industries requiring measurable road maps that deliver targets to arrest climate change. As practitioners, we can help set the benchmark and contribute to a measurable framework safe in the knowledge that our communications are authentic.

Unquestionably, sustainability has to remain a critical component of communications. We applied this model to several different sectors, which produced results that allow for the creation of an effective communications strategy, with sustainability at its core. Whether preparing for your annual results announcement, participating in COP27 and COP28 or developing your corporate strategy or messaging, this model is a thought-provoking and effective tool. 

Mike Evans and Elizabeth Maclean are Co-Managing Directors at Herdwick Communications.

Read more about Mike and Elizabeth’s PR Start-up experiences in ‘Preparing and honing the path’ and ‘Marketing your business’.

Image by FlashMovie on iStock