Many firms are fairly happy with their ESG experiences. Every year from April to June, the LinkedIn feeds of sustainability professionals fill with posts from associates, colleagues and connections sharing these delights of disclosure, saying that their firm’s report is prepared for the world.

As somebody who is aware of firsthand the Herculean course of of making these experiences, their completion definitely feels worthy of celebration. And whereas experiences are efficient instruments for disclosing sustainability info to buyers, ranking companies and different data-hungry stakeholders, few folks even discover them.

No one has bothered to gather information on how few folks really learn ESG experiences (Spoiler: It’s few, only a few.), however we do know that 96 p.c of the S&P 500 and 81 p.c of Russell 1000 firms are publishing them. That is super progress, contemplating that virtually a decade in the past, solely 20 p.c of those firms have been reporting, in response to the Governance & Accountability Institute. And with rules mandating local weather disclosure coming in sizzling from the U.S. Securities and Trade Fee, the remaining holdouts will quickly be part of the reporting fray.

Extra high quality reporting on company sustainability efficiency is an effective factor. However in the case of speaking sustainability, reporting merely isn’t sufficient. Most enterprise leaders agree. In line with a brand new survey of senior degree executives in the USA, 96 p.c of respondents say it is necessary to share such tales, and practically half (45 p.c) consider their firms aren’t speaking sufficient about these initiatives.

Corporations can and should transcend their reporting to inform a sustainability story that sticks.

An ESG report is barely a place to begin

For a lot of firms, an ESG report is the one substantial communication they put out round their social and setting impression. And, as investor curiosity in ESG reporting will increase, so does the scrutiny the C-suite members and different senior leaders deal with their creation. 

Corporations dedicate many months out of the yr to growing the technique, content material and design for these paperwork. With many sustainability groups being not more than a few folks at greatest — and a single particular person at worst — generally a lot time and a focus is paid to reporting that there’s little else left for different types of sustainability communication.

In a perfect world, your company communication technique would successfully be your sustainability communication technique.

However an ESG report will not be the end-all-be-all of sustainability communication; it’s a place to begin. Consider the report as your single supply of reality towards which all your sustainability communications factors.

Unite company communications and ESG groups

Company sustainability professionals usually lack communications experience, simply as communications professionals are inclined to lack sustainability know-how. Whereas a rising variety of roles deal with sustainability communication, firms sometimes should make do with out. And since sustainability and communications groups usually are siloed, telling an enticing and genuine sustainability story turns into troublesome. 

As I wrote lately, firms danger what I name “greenbumbling” — making a sustainability declare that’s truthful however boring. In a quickly altering ESG ecosystem, what it means to be a frontrunner is continually in flux. Fifteen years in the past, if your organization was issuing sustainability experiences, it might need been seen as main the pack. At the moment, it’s business-as-usual. Likewise, even just some years in the past saying web zero commitments would have been seen as spectacular — as we speak, with no less than 900 firms setting such objectives, it wouldn’t flip many heads. The subsequent frontier of company sustainability management lies with these firms that dare to align their enterprise and sustainability technique, stand as much as the anti-ESG bullies and make local weather motion their high authorities relations precedence.   

But too many firms proceed to tout easy sustainability actions as novel — resembling, you guessed it, issuing an ESG report. Typically, this happens resulting from a lack of know-how of the broader sustainability ecosystem by which an organization operates, or underestimating the sophistication of specific audiences. What intrigues one viewers might bore one other. 

To keep away from greenbumbling, organizations should be sure that their sustainability and communications groups are working collectively to establish and ship genuine, related tales that follow audiences. Many sustainability professionals lack robust communications experience, whereas company communications practitioners don’t normally have sustainability know-how.

For a lot of firms, an ESG report is the one substantial communication they put out round their social and setting impression.

Bridging this experience hole, both by way of inside hires or exterior consultants, can guarantee your organization is telling the proper tales, in the proper method on the proper time. Some firms are beginning to create roles with “sustainability communications” within the title. Mars, for instance, has a director of sustainability communications & engagement (at present crammed by my good friend Daniel Strechay) who works on speaking its Sustainable in a Era Plan to the general public and stakeholders. Likewise, firms would possibly rent a advisor resembling myself to function the “translator” between inside ESG and communications groups.

Create a sustainability communication technique

Technique is about selections, and a sustainability communication technique requires selecting what you’ll say to whom, when and the way usually. In a perfect world, your company communication technique would successfully be your sustainability communication technique. Patagonia has famously completed this by claiming that Earth is its solely shareholder — granted, that is a lot simpler for a privately held firm to do. 

But when your organization isn’t but able to align enterprise and sustainability technique, function is an effective place to begin. Function is the place the place company and sustainability communications intersect. Connecting your sustainability communication technique to your company function will make it simpler to your communication groups to develop and ship genuine and interesting tales that take advantage of sense to your model. Ben & Jerry’s, for instance, does an excellent job of speaking its values and function of “utilizing ice cream to alter the world.”

Having a powerful technique additionally will help you know when and when to not converse out on necessary social and environmental points as they come up. This can enable you to keep away from greenwashing and make the tales you do inform rather more compelling.

Repetition to retention 

One of many greatest issues with ESG experiences is that they normally solely come out yearly. With sustainability storytelling, repetition is the most effective path to retention. The extra constant you might be along with your messaging — each by way of content material and cadence — the extra probably your stakeholders will keep in mind the knowledge you are attempting to convey. 

Whereas not all firms have massive budgets to spend on fancy sustainability promoting campaigns, most ought to have the ability to put out common weblog content material, social media posts, newsletters and extra. If all else fails, you may break up the knowledge contained in your ESG report and switch it into bite-sized tales focused to the stakeholders that care most a couple of specific matter. 

As reporting turns into more and more extra mainstream — and ultimately mandated — it would change into extra necessary for firms to seek out methods to interrupt by way of the noise to inform efficient sustainability tales that spur stakeholders into motion. Corporations that put within the work now to create a strong sustainability communication technique and start placing out complete and constant content material will reap the advantages tomorrow.