Navigating change: Inside sustainability communications

Bladonmore’s David Willans discusses the changing nature of sustainability communications with Sara Neame. Sara leads sustainability communications globally for Givaudan, one of the world’s leading fragrance, beauty, taste & wellbeing businesses. Sara is responsible for sustainability communications across internal and external communications globally.

Thanks for talking, so what’s your job like?

I’m very fortunate to be operating within an organization where sustainability is genuinely at the heart of the business, so my job acknowledges the importance (and responsibility!) of getting the message right and making sure it lands in an evidence-based, authentic way. Clarity, and simplicity, are therefore key. It’s my job to ensure our communications deliver that. As we know, this isn’t always easy when we’re dealing with inherently complex topics and concepts!

Where do you focus to create the most value in your role?

Concreteness and connections. It’s vital that our message is rooted in the concrete – e.g. measurable progress, milestones, facts, examples – and that we connect this to the audience. This is equally important in internal and external communications landscapes. There is no one-size-fits-all if we want our work to resonate. For example, our colleagues in the business don’t just want to know what ambition we’ve set around climate and where we want to be in ten years’ time, they want to know what we’re doing today, how it connects to their day-to-day and the role they have to play personally.

Sustainability communications sits in the middle of sustainability, communications, corporate affairs and change management. How does this balance work for you?

My role sits within the Corporate Communications function with a ‘dotted line’ to the sustainability team, so I consider myself to be part of both teams, which is a great position to be in.

I’m part of our Sustainability Leadership Team representing communications, which helps ensure that we can connect the dots between the work happening across the whole sustainability team’s remit and the work happening in communications across the business, including through our two business divisions, business functions and our reporting team.

What’s the balance between internal and external communications for sustainability? How has that changed recently? And how do you see it changing in the future?

Internal and external communications are of equal importance in my role. It’s really important that whatever we’re sharing with the outside world is communicated equally clearly to our colleague audience.

If anything, the internal audience is becoming even more vital as we move further into our journey on key sustainability ambitions, where colleague engagement and participation is vital, and where we need to go beyond awareness and really activate our teams. I’m very fortunate to work with extremely engaged colleagues. I think in the future, there’s going to be a growth in advocacy from within as a result.

We already have a large ‘Green Team’ network within Givaudan, for example. Here, more than 500 colleagues are spearheading their own sustainability initiatives and engaging colleagues across their own sites all over the world. Tapping into such a passionate network is a communicator’s dream because they can inspire others and catalyze action.

In terms of sustainability messaging, how have you seen it change?

If I think about messaging from an overall perspective, for me it goes back to the point about concreteness and it’s therefore vital that messaging is rooted in progress and proof. Sustainability communications as a discipline hasn’t always been this way though. Historically, many organizations have focused on talking solely about long-term ambitions and future visions without necessarily backing this up with proof that progress is taking place in the here and now.

As what were once faraway targets draw nearer and scrutiny on business increases, it’s vital that organizations talk about what they’re delivering right now and how that connects to long-term ambitions, not simply on the end state they hope to achieve in 20 years’ time.

Where do narratives – one of the tools of our trade – fit in that?

They’re absolutely essential! In a large organization, with a large communications network, tackling so many different topics and speaking to many different audiences, narratives are vital to ensuring that we stay aligned on key topics and retain clarity of message. Add to this the complexity of the topics we’re dealing with, and narratives become even more important to ensure we stay clear, consistent, avoid confusion and steer clear of any risk of greenwash.

The landscape is changing fast. Practically, how do you navigate it, and where do you see it going?

The move towards increasing regulation is undoubtedly leading to increased complexity and pressure on sustainability teams, which naturally trickles down to communications. However, the flip side of this is the opportunity that a landscape of increased transparency presents both in terms of real sustainability progress and for communicators to be able to tell an authentic story.

The same is true of the increased focus on weeding out greenwash, which is a positive for enlightened businesses and communicators, and again sets the scene for a landscape based on authenticity, where not just the opportunities but also the challenges associated with the sustainability journey of a business are clearly communicated.

If you’d like help communicating your sustainability work and position, please get in touch.