Environmental Communication

I was listening to the Reith Lectures of Sir Frank Fraser Darling from 1969 the other day and in it he talked about ecology being an overused word that people were already sick of without actually knowing what it meant, and I thought how true that it is of the word environment today.

Environmentally friendly, green, sustainable, and eco have been so abused in recent years that the general public is becoming weary of them.

So if you really do want to change the culture of your organisation where do you begin?

This is a summary of our 10 point plan:

1. Don't be afraid or deterred by preconceptions. Believe you can succeed
2. Have a clear understanding of what you mean by 'the environment' and what your objectives are
3. Start by having a conversation in your organisation about what other people think of such words as environment and sustainability
4. Share your objectives. Be clear of what the business and moral case is
5. Ask others to help create a theme for your objectives that may or may not include such words as environment, sustainability and eco
6. Identify quick-wins that will help start the process of change
7. Seek out those people who are most engaged and ask them to be ambassadors to help communicate, motivate and build momentum
8. Launch your objectives under your chosen theme. Have a communication plan that starts big but reinforces the message, objectives and achievements regularly
9. Surprise everyone by awarding an individual, team or department for their efforts and make a splash of the award
10. Continue to communicate, celebrate and create new goals

The objective is to quickly avoid talking about the environment or sustainability and instead talk about corporate values, efficiencies, challenging the way you work, competitive difference and making yourself relevant to your customers. 

Many businesses agree that communicating messages with an environmental theme is difficult but we think this is mainly a concern about knowledge and lack of confidence, both of which can be overcome.

You don't necessarily need consultants to help with this but it may help to get advice in the first instance. Ask us about our workshop.