Five guardrails for communicating sustainability

WHITEPAPER

Jan 13

Written By SB+CO

Is creative sustainability communication still possible in an age of regulation and risk?

Download our new paper, developed in collaboration with law firm Clyde & Co, to find out more about the pitfalls of sustainability communications, and five guardrails to help you navigate the challenges ahead.

With the number of greenwashing cases rising exponentially in the last 5 years, and new regulations set to place even greater scrutiny on green claims, businesses are facing new challenges in how to communicate their sustainability efforts.

Recognising a growing sense of apprehension amongst clients, SB+CO has collaborated with law firm Clyde & Co to develop a set of guardrails to help practitioners communicate their sustainability efforts.

These guardrails are based on research into more than 30 examples of greenwashing that have resulted in legal cases, NGO campaigns and media criticism. While all cases are unique, the pitfalls and criticisms faced – and how to avoid them – share commonalities that serve as a helpful check list for marketeers, communicators, sustainability practitioners and their legal teams.

Guardrails for sustainability communications

Understand the detail
Be transparent – substantiate everything
Show, don’t tell
Be honest and humble
Be a convener and collaborator

These guardrails are intended to keep you on track, but they’re by no means easy to implement.

More details, together with the common pitfalls that they’ll help you to avoid, can be found in our paper.

Download the paper

Please complete the form below to download the paper.

Continue your journey

Sustainability regulation, reporting and communications are on a transition journey creating the need to strengthen knowhow across organisations and change ways of working. SB+CO and Clyde & Co support clients to operate within these guardrails.

Please get in touch if you’d like to find out more about communicating sustainability in an era of regulation and risk.