Communications
Communicating Sustainability

Emotion Is Currency: A Five-Point Plan for Effective Sustainability Communications

Burgess COMMENTARY
The comment posted to the LinkedIn Group

I like Ben Maxwell's essay, but would probably think about things a little differently.

The five points in Ben Maxwell's essay, that is (1) Don't focus on sustainability; (2) Find a purpose; (3) Be useful; (4) Embrace emotion and (5) Be remarkable, are very very sound and really have been around for a very long time, albeit in slightly different forms.

My own version of this would be slightly different reflecting my own history and experience. For me, purpose is the core driver of everything and therefore at the top of the list. Purpose has two parts.

(1) Purpose One. The purpose of what I am doing is to improve quality of life and leave the world a better place. My work on 'sustainability' is part of this!

(2) Purpose Two is the purpose of the 'target'. Getting to grips with the purpose of the target serves to flush out the underlying modus operandi and goals of their economic activity.

(3) Messaging. In my version, being useful, using emotion and being remarkable are all part of getting an effective communication activity whose purpose is to get the attention of the target and get some relevant action.

(4) Metrics. Economic activity without metrics is like playing sports without keeping score, but the metrics have to make sense and be meaningful. There is keeping score and there are performance data. My idea of metrics goes beyond the terrible trio of (1) money profit for business; (2) stock prices for investors; and (3) GDP growth for politicians and pundits to include ALL the impacts of the so called externalities that get ignored by the terrible trio. I call this TrueValueMetrics value accountancy to differentiate it from money profit accounting.

(5) I also see the need for something else. It is organization, responsibility and accountability. These go together because they are needed to make anything function, but they need not be in the form that has dominated society and the economy since the early days of the industrial revolution and more recently encouraged by education at business schools.

Peter

I like the piece very much. My own view has a lot in common with this, but comes from a rather different perspective as follows.

The five points in the essay, that is (1) Don't focus on sustainability; (2) Find a purpose; (3) Be useful; (4) Embrace emotion and (5) Be remarkable, are very very sound and really have been around for a very long time.

My own version of this is slightly different reflecting my own history and experience. For me, purpose is the core driver of everything and therefore at the top of the list. Purpose has two parts.

Purpose One. The purpose of what I am doing is to improve quality of life and leave the world a better place. My work on 'sustainability' is part of this!

Purpose Two is the purpose of the 'target'. Getting to grips with the purpose of the target serves to flush out the underlying modus operandi and goals of their economic activity.

Messaging. In my version,being useful, using emotion and being remarkable are all part of getting an effective communication activity whose purpose is to get the attention of the target and get some relevant action.

Metrics. Economic activity without metrics is like playing sports without keeping score, but the metrics have to make sense and be meaningful. There is keeping score and there are performance data. My idea of metrics goes beyond the terrible trio of (1) money profit for business; (2) stock prices for investors; and (3) GDP growth for politicians and pundits to include ALL the impacts of the so called externalities that get ignored by the terrible trio. I call this TrueValueMetrics value accountancy to differentiate it from money profit accounting.

I also see the need for something else. It is organization, responsibility and accountability. These go together because they are needed to make anything function, but they need not be in the form that has dominated society and the economy since the early days of the industrial revolution and more recently encouraged by education at business schools.

My passion is the metrics. My belief is that almost any activity will be at its best when the metrics right, and in society and the economy today, the terrible trio are about as wrong as they can be. For me, this explains everything!

Peter Burgess

Emotion Is Currency: A Five-Point Plan for Effective Sustainability Communications
The Rainforest Alliance's 'Follow the Frog' video has over 1,150,000 views on YouTube | Image credit: Rainforest Alliance

'How will it deliver value?' is a commonly heard response to a proposal for a new sustainability communications campaign.

Behind this innocent little phrase is a dangerous assumption that sustainability communications is a separate strand of activity with a message aimed at a hypothetical audience segment of 'greens.'

The result? 'Rinse and repeat' sustainability communications: anodyne images of families cycling through fields of sunflowers or wind turbines rotating dreamily on the horizon, which can never deliver value for the brand because they're too technical or too specialised to appeal to everybody.

To make sustainability communications work for brands we need to break away from the segmentation mindset. We need to ditch the assumption that there is a distinct group waiting for green messages and a larger mass who are uninterested. Instead we need to think about what both groups have in common. Sustainability communications will only deliver value to the brand if they are based on brand strategy and integrated with mainstream communication activity.

Here's my five-point plan on how to create sustainability communications that deliver value by broadening appeal.

1. Don't focus on sustainability. It's boring and technical. In the words of legendary graphic designer Alan Fletcher: Look sideways. A Smarter Planet is an aspirational battle cry for IBM and far more interesting than talking about sustainable supply chains and efficiency.
2. Find a purpose. Don't just tell us about incremental sustainability improvements. Aim for something big, fly a massive banner about it and create ways for people to get involved. Levi's has a purpose — saving water — and are doing something about it, from developing Water
3. Be useful. Utility is the new black, so use your comms dollars to make something people can use. When Nike open-sourced their Material Sustainability Index and allowed designers and hackers to use years of data, they created a tool that got people creating and talking in ways that traditional communications could never do.
4. Embrace emotion. In a time where hairspray can give us attitude and insurance can make us laugh surely we can make people feel about the future of the planet?! Emotion is the currency of communication. Advertisers know that, but for some reason sustainability communications shy away from it. Some brands are showing the way — who didn't have a little tear well up when they first watched Chipotle's 'Back to the Start' video?
5. Be remarkable. Launch a pre-emptive strike on 'so what' by creating something unique that gets people talking. Our expectations are set by commercial communications, but you don't need a stellar budget or launch someone into space to do a great job. A snappy script and tight editing meant The Rainforest Alliance's 'Follow the Frog' short film had me laughing out loud. H&M caught my eye by having Vanessa Paradis model their new sustainable collection.

For more examples of how brands can effectively share their values with consumers through #Communications, check out our Issue in Focus: Communicating Sustainability.

Published on Sep 16, 2012

You don't have to go to the ends of the Earth to save the rainforest. Just Follow the Frog! Shop for Rainforest Alliance Certified products here: http://ow.ly/dKlao.

The Rainforest Alliance is a nonprofit conservation organization that holds Charity Navigator's highest rating of Four Stars: http://ow.ly/ekYUy.

What's behind the green frog seal? Only farms that meet rigorous sustainability criteria earn the right to use the Rainforest Alliance Certified seal. These criteria address all of the three pillars of sustainability -- environmental protection, social equity and economic viability -- and farms are evaluated by independent, third-party auditors. Learn more about Rainforest Alliance Certification and its impacts here: http://ow.ly/ekYOW.

This film was written and directed by our talented friend Max Joseph. You can follow him at http://www.facebook.com/mjosephfilm

Produced by Aaron Weber from Wander: http://www.wanderfilms.com