Sustainability Communications - why we need a practitioner’s guide

A couple of years ago I was advising communications professionals about what it meant to work in a communications role with increasing responsibility in sustainability. A few people were actually interested in taking a specific qualification (the UK-based Chartered Institute of PR’s Diploma in Sustainability Communications, for example). What I was looking for at the time was a resource I could point them to which covered the many different aspects of the work. But I couldn’t find one. I realised that a practical guide didn’t really exist. So began the idea of writing/editing: Sustainability Communications – A practitioner’s Guide, published by Routledge this month.

A strategic discipline

As sustainability as a business imperative has grown, so has the need for communications support which can produce appropriate content, advise leadership and manage reputational issues within this quite specific context. Sustainability communications covers a wide range of topics, from legal issues around environmental claims, to how to integrate sustainability into a brand narrative. Many organisations have now realised that it isn’t enough to bring the communications team in just when they want some good photographs for the sustainability report – what is written and the claims which are made are a reputational issue and the communications lead should be part of the process.

But communications professionals are also part of the promotional team which amplifies the need to operate sustainably, to highlight the great work being done to support global communities and to engage employees in what it means for them. It’s a strategic communications discipline which requires storytelling, crisis management, reporting, information integrity, behaviour change and cultural transformation.

A multi-disciplinary network

I’m fortunate to have worked with a global network of communications experts who work in the areas of sustainability and climate change communications as well as areas which sit alongside it – such as storytelling and AI. When it came to producing a practical guide, I wanted to have a variety of voices and experiences to bring to the reader. Together we cover topics as varied as reframing social value as a strategic asset, to communicating purpose across the global north and the global south. From storytellers who worked for the BBC to climate creatives who launched global UN climate campaigns.

We advise on how to build a sustainable brand to how not to greenwash.

I’m very pleased to also have a good amount of input from New Zealand based authors, including Richard Gordon and Nikki Wright of Wright Communications, Catherine Arrow of the PR Knowledge Hub and Fiona Stephenson of the Sustainable Business Network.

The book is aimed at communications and marketing professionals, as well as sustainability executives and business leaders. If you are in the business of sustainability, or want to learn more about it, then you should find something of interest.

Sustainability communications moves quickly, and there are more topics to tackle and talk about as we enter a period of ever more extreme climate events and challenging economic conditions. As communications professionals, it’s important that we keep on top of what is happening, so that we can be the strategic advisors our organisations and teams need.

Sustainability Communications: A Practitioner’s Guide - 1st Edition is on sale now

Suzy Giles is a sustainability communications consultant with a career built on working with environmental scientists, researchers and implementation professionals all working towards the energy transition.

She is the Chair of the UNDP/ICCO Climate Communications Task Force, which promotes equitable climate communications narratives and supports UNDP climate campaigns, globally. She is also Chair of the CIPR ESG Network which brings together communications professionals either working in or aspiring to do more in sustainability communications.

Originally from the UK, after nearly 10 years living and working in the Netherlands, Suzy now runs her own consultancy – Giles Global, from Nelson, New Zealand.

She is editor of Sustainability Communications: A Practitioner’s Guide (Routledge) and contributing author to The Palgrave Handbook on Responsible Communication for a Sustainable Future (SDG 18).