There was uplifting energy in the room throughout the day, with honest conversations, practical learning and a shared sense of possibility for navigating this complex work more confidently in the current landscape.
Speakers included global communications strategist Suzy Giles, GoodSense Founder and Managing Director Kath Dewar, as well as associates Chantelle Conroy and Gabrielle Pritchard, SBN’s Fiona Stephenson, Maeghan Pratt-Rink and Phil Crawford, Jennifer Gunn from Ad Net Zero and Matt Headland from MediaWorks. Sessions spanned global and local perspectives on sustainability communications, greenwashing versus greenhushing, authentic storytelling, the carbon cost of digital communications, practical and ethical AI use, and media cut-through.
Across sessions, one idea kept resurfacing: effective sustainability communication is first and foremost relational - built on trust, relationships and a real understanding of the people we are trying to reach.
Here are a few of the strongest themes and practical takeaways from the day:
Trust is part of the work, not just the outcome
We are communicating in a moment shaped by climate change, political volatility, changing regulations, international conflict and a much wider information crisis. This has created an unprecedented level of uncertainty and distrust, especially around sustainability and environmental topics. Several speakers touched on this from different angles, but the message was consistent: trust is not just one outcome of good communication; it is the core of the practice we need to build.
This makes sustainability communications both harder and more important. In a landscape where misinformation, disinformation and polarisation are shaping how people understand the world, communications professionals have a real responsibility and opportunity. As GoodSense put it: The more impact each of us has as communicators, the greater good we will create together in the world.
Across the day, speakers showed that building trust is less about polished claims and more about how we communicate: through transparency, audience understanding, purposeful storytelling and strong relationships that can hold the complexity of this work.
Sustainability communication is relational
Discussions on trust kept coming back to relationships: the importance of understanding who you are speaking with, what matters to them, what language they use and what place and community your communication is grounded in.
Whakawhanaungatanga (building and maintaining relationships) was framed not as a nice-to-have, but as central to building trust and telling sustainability stories well. Much of sustainability communications globally is still shaped by a Western lens, but when communications are not grounded in the people, places and worldviews they are meant to speak to, they are less likely to resonate, build trust or have the intended impact. Rather than positioning people as victims of environmental impacts, the call was to foreground agency, dignity, local expert knowledge and community insight.
This also came through in the language used. Communication grounded in what we are moving towards, rather than away from, can be energising and often resonates more strongly. Focusing on what is possible helps support the mauri (life force, energy) of the kaupapa (initiative, work), instead of shrinking it through deficit language.
For communicators in Aotearoa New Zealand, good communication also means asking honest questions about whose perspectives are represented, what narratives are reinforced and whether our feet are actually grounded in the whenua (land) we are speaking from.
Silence does more harm than showing up imperfectly
The rise of greenhushing was a major theme of the day. For many organisations, staying quiet about sustainability work can feel like the safer option, especially in an environment of legal risk, fear of backlash, political uncertainty and limited capacity. These barriers came through strongly in the table discussions and felt very familiar to many people in the room.
However, one of the clearest takeaways was that greenhushing carries its own risks, often greater than the risks of speaking up. When organisations stay quiet, people tend to assume they are not doing the work or are trying to hide something. Silence also makes it harder for others to learn, collaborate, feel encouraged or see what progress can look like in practice.
The message across sessions was clear: communicate progress over perfection. Bring people along on the journey, including the imperfect and hard parts, because transparency builds far more trust than polished silence ever could.
Be a lighthouse, not a Christmas tree
In a crowded and noisy communications environment, trying to say too many things at once often weakens the message. The better approach is to be a lighthouse: focused, clear, consistent and reliable. Work out what your organisation does best, where it can have the biggest impact and what really matters to communicate, then stay with it.
This was also linked to the importance of language and audience. Instead of speaking in your language, speak in theirs. Ground the story locally. Reframe long-term systemic work into something relevant and understandable to people now. People don't connect to abstract targets; they connect to stories, characters, journeys and a real sense of place. Instead of constantly generating new content, there was encouragement to go deeper: tell the process, tell the uncomfortable truths when needed and find variety through depth rather than noise. That is what gives communications both cut-through and integrity.
The tools we use matter, too
A good reminder from the day was that sustainability communications is not separate from the systems and tools it relies on. Digital communications have a footprint too, so they need to be part of the sustainability conversation. There are real opportunities to reduce impact by making more thoughtful choices around assets, channels, production and delivery.
The same was true of AI. The discussion here was practical and grounded, recognising the need for and opportunities of using AI, while highlighting the importance of using it critically and intentionally, and providing best practices and tools to guide organisations.
Start with the purpose and mauri of your kaupapa
One of the most important ideas I took away from the day was also one of the most grounded: what is your why for being a sustainability communicator? What is the mauri of your kaupapa?
Sustainability communication can easily become reactive, technical or shaped by fear, so coming back to purpose helps keep the work grounded. It reminds us that good communication is not just about polished messaging or visibility, but about building trust, helping people connect and creating the conditions for meaningful change.
The more grounded we are in why we do this work, the better we will be at communicating it in ways that matter.
So, what is your why for being a sustainability communicator?