David Willans, sustainability director at Bladonmore, looks at why sustainability issues are causing headaches for corporate communicators and how to navigate this new, complex, high-risk and reward environment.

Communicators’ jobs have become much harder in recent years. The issues communicators need to be on top of have multiplied. Stakeholders want to see action and information on ESG issues to inform their purchase, procurement, investment, employment and litigation decisions. Others want to see the opposite and are legislating and lobbying to stop company action on everything from climate to DEI.

Back in 1975, 85% of valuation was based on tangible assets like factories, machinery and real estate – according to research by Intellectual Property consultancy Ocean Tomo. Now, over 80% of a company’s valuation is based on intangibles, like audiences, R&D, patents, reputations and relationships – all of which are shaped by perception. Now that anyone can broadcast their experience of a company to the world for others to amplify, companies no longer control the narrative and therefore their external perception. For communicators, the stakes have never been higher.

More costly consequences

When climate impacts were first highlighted, the predicted date of those impacts was decades away – 2040, 2050. Now everyone on the planet is experiencing climate issues firsthand and social media gives a louder platform for the voices of disgruntled employees, customers and communities alike.

These issues are proving to be ever more expensive for businesses across the globe. Whether its customers boycotting United Airlines for poor customer service and DEI policies; anti-ESG investors pulling back from BlackRock because of its climate change strategies; employees at giant firms like Amazon, Google and Microsoft demanding more climate action; or Boohoo’s £1.5bn loss in value following reports of exploration and poor labor practices.

In a world of increasingly loud, polarised stakeholders, companies can’t please everyone. Criticism is inevitable. Communicators need to make sure the organisation’s point of view has a strong, evidence-based, rational foundation that gives leaders the confidence to stand up in the face of visceral, vocal criticism. This defence should come from the materiality work that informs every good sustainability strategy. If it’s not there, CSRD, the new EU regulation, will force larger companies to build it. But bear in mind what’s material from a sustainability perspective is still too broad from a communicator’s perspective. There’s an intelligent job to do honing the issues down.

Messaging has moved on

As the issues have become real and costly, so the messaging from those at the cutting edge has changed, too. In many cases, because they’ve been forced to do so. Specificity, realism and maturity are replacing the big picture, visionary, aspirational and naively positive. 

BlackRock has weathered some of the most critical blows. Analysis of CEO Larry Fink’s letters show how their messaging has moved. Back in 2020, when business was preparing to make a big impact at COP26 for the first time, mentions of ‘ESG’ and ‘sustainability’ or ‘sustainable’ hit 100 in his 2,000-word letter. More specific concepts like decarbonisation and the energy transition were mentioned just five times. In 2024, following the rise of the anti-ESG movement, ‘ESG’ and ‘sustainability’ or ‘sustainable’ were written just ten times. The more specific phrases of ‘decarbonisation’ were mentioned nine times and ‘energy transition’ twelve. The specific phrases are where the money is to be made for investors. 

Specificity and maturity. No big broad statements of the kind people who don’t really know what they’re talking about use. Just the kind of thing someone who’s really thought through an issue and their resulting course of action. BlackRock’s messages are supported by hard evidence that provide the rationale for the focus.

A compelling picture of the context is painted that makes its focus and actions under them clearly justifiable.

Media pressure

The media business model and changes in media consumption are driving more criticism and challenge.

News is regularly consumed through social, instead of traditional, media. That means less scrutiny applied to what’s produced. Social and purely online media business models are all about getting attention to sell ads and the algorithms have found that rage sells best. With lower scrutiny comes more misinformation to stoke the fires of rage that fuel ad revenue growth, while online personalities and politicians grow their own followings by feeding that fire to reach new heights.

One of the most recent examples of this potency is Tractor Supply Company, valued at nearly $30bn and employing 50,000 people. It recently ditched its DEI and climate targets, alongside successful programs, thanks to conversative activist Robert Starbuck’s campaign. In an interview, he said ‘we definitely proved a model’ of blitzing a company with a primarily conservative customer base. A single target and concentrated, regular drumbeat of criticism was key to his campaign’s success.

If you’ve got flesh on the material bones of your story, and your leaders believe in it, the next step is engaging partners and supporters with your story so that they lean in when you face criticism. This can be seen working in The Walt Disney Company’s defense against activist investor Nelson Peltz. The defence campaign saw industry names like George Lucas and Jamie Dimon come out in support of Disney, helping them win the vote.

At the same time, it’s wise to scrutinise your company’s media spend to make sure your marketing budgets aren’t buying ads on the very platforms that promote the kind of criticism that takes millions, or billions off your valuation – that’s something that the Stop Funding Hate campaign and Conscious Advertising Network have been working on for years. 

Lot more to it

Being a good corporate communicator in today’s world means having a strong skeleton of materiality, so you can justify the issues you’re focused on. Those bones need to be held together by your performance on those issues, your values and your ethics, and you need to communicate your progress to important stakeholders, so they’re ready when you need them. Each issue and audience need to be treated differently and their own set of messages that are incorporated into your existing plans – something we’ll be talking more about in the months to come.