4 Sustainability Messaging Blunders To Avoid At All Costs

Sustainability isn’t just a nice topic to pay lip service to, but a focused project that requires real dedication. To get behind such an important outcome (quite literally saving the environment for us all), it’s important to be clear about the measures your business is taking. To do that, we need not only a careful plan (our site can help you with this), but the ability to promote it.

After all, sustainability is always a work in progress. This means you don’t have to provide the finished program to your customers, but sell them on your campaign, and include them in the journey. This allows you to achieve better results.

As such, learning how to nail the message and importance of sustainability is an essential place to start. In this post, we’ll discuss a few measures you can use to achieve that:

Keeping It Complex

The truth is many customers and consumers are tired of empty sustainability messaging. After all, if there’s a message to be sold, then some companies are going to twist it, and not entirely in good faith. That’s why you must ensure your own business is different. Keep the message simple and target-based. Be specific about what you’ll do and the effect you’re having.

Maybe each year, you donate 20% of your profits to sustainability charities to offset some of your operational strain. Maybe you could vet and promote suppliers that only bring you materials from sustainable sources. Having an area on your website where those interested can easily view all of your focuses is key. But don’t forget to share frequent updates on social media, and make the messaging clear. Keep it evidence-based. Make sure it has substance. It will help you stand head and shoulders above all those other services looking for quick, simple wins.

Downplaying Product & Operational Impact

The truth is that no business is going to be 100% environmentally friendly at all times forever. After all, you will likely need to drive cars. You may need to use products that aren’t as perfectly sustainable as others you use. You might need dispose of waste that cannot be recycled perfectly.

For this reason, ignoring these facts in your updates can seem like a lack of transparency. If you’re clear about what you hope to improve, where the mistakes lay, and how you corrected them, you curate a proven track record of your approach. It will also show that you’re not using this messaging for quick wins to seem like a forward-thinking business. You will be clear that your approach is a work in progress, and if customers choose you over another firm, you could do so much more.

Failing To Relate Sustainability To Communities

For some people who know that sustainability is important but don’t base their entire life around it (that may be unlikely to be you given you’re reading our website), buying from sustainable sources may be preferable, but not necessary at the cost of much higher prices.

These people may need more to go off than just an abstract idea of the good you’re doing. For that reason, a smart way to communicate is to show how your environmental efforts are actually helping their community, their city, and their area. If your team loves environmental care, maybe you could convince them to spend your team-building days litter-picking or working on local community gardens.

Maybe donating to local initiatives instead of larger charities can have a more precise impact. Put simply - don’t fail to relate sustainability to the communities you’re trying to sell to. Connect them. It will make your goals understandable and even ideal.

Overly Moralizing

It’s pretty obvious that living in a sustainable society that cares for the environment is the morally obvious choice. But the truth is that you shouldn’t have to talk down to people or make them feel lesser for caring about it less than you. Sure, you might be on the right side of the argument, but dismissing individuals who might have other priorities is hardly a good way to ingratiate yourself.

For that reason, ignore those who disparage your efforts on social media, they’re just trolls who don’t really count. Moreover, with solid security attachements like 2FA and the best VPN service, you can prevent your acocunts from being taken over. Don’t use negative marketing mocking your competition for not going to the efforts you are. Don’t guilt trip people into trusting your sustainability measures. None of that helps. Instead, make positivity and hope the core consideration in your message. 

With this advice, you’re sure to nail that sustainability messaging.