Net zero narrative: Inside sustainability communications

Bladonmore’s David Willans sits down with corporate sustainability veteran and net zero expert Matteo Deidda to discuss the evolving challenge of communicating net zero.

Matteo has spent the last 15 years shaping sustainability strategies and management at Sainsbury’s, Vodafone, and Lloyds Banking Group. He also serves as an assessor for the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s Sustainable Real Estate course; he is also part of the Advisor Board at Planet Mark, EMEX and the Sustainable Business Consortium. Today, he is the Global Net Zero Lead at Tide, a global business management platform with over 1.6 million members across the UK, India, Germany and France.

You’ve been working in corporate sustainability since net zero first went mainstream. What frustrates you about the concept?

It’s been oversimplified. ‘Net zero’ is often used like a slogan, an all-encompassing two words banner, but behind it lies a complex system of investment, reductions, removals, offsets, and dependencies. There’s a huge amount of plumbing that needs to be built to make it all work.

What frustrates me is the sensationalization of net zero and how it’s used to make headlines, for good and for bad. But for me, net zero isn’t a headline banner, it’s the pipework. When guests come to your house, you don’t show off your pipes, but they’re grateful they work when they use the bathroom. Right now, we need to be building that unseen infrastructure, which isn’t glamorous. The challenge is explaining why it matters in ways people understand, and the net zero banner isn’t necessarily fit for purpose for that.

Do you think the recent regulatory pullback on corporate sustainability disclosures will make that harder?

It would have helped, but it’s not a disaster. For large, investor-led companies, voluntary disclosure is already de facto mandatory. You can’t just stop reporting after years of doing it and when your shareholders and investors are expecting it and peers are already doing it.

Where regulation like CSRD would have made a real difference is with those organizations that haven’t started yet. For me, regulation sets the floor level, so it’s meaningful to push organizations that are not disclosing or doing enough today.

What about the politicization of net zero?

The reality is that the risks in a pension fund or mortgage book don’t change because of what a government or a headline says. Politics is short-term, climate impact and climate risks are long-term.

That said, we should pay attention to the critics. They’re incredibly effective at rooting their arguments in everyday life. That’s something the net zero narrative needs to do better. Right now, it doesn’t connect deeply enough to people’s lived experience.

It goes back to my comment that the ‘net zero’ narrative doesn’t help explain why we do what we do. We need to get much better to link it to real life, actual problems – energy bills, public health, economic growth and so on.

Tell me more about what you mean by ‘the net zero narrative’.

Net zero is too abstract for most people. It lives at the global or UN level. But I live in Coventry, and it’s not my local council’s job to solve climate change or drive the net zero agenda. Their job is to improve green spaces, lower public energy bills, reduce local air pollution, and deliver things that make life better.

The common denominator of all those things is, in fact, net zero, but we rarely make that connection. The current narrative starts with net zero itself, something only sustainability geeks (in a good sense) like me really care about. We need to flip that: start with what people value and show how it connects upward to net zero.

How does Tide approach net zero?

Tide is a pragmatic organization, and our net zero plan reflects that. As a fast-growing company, it focuses on reducing emissions intensity rather than absolute emissions, cutting total emissions isn’t realistic at this stage.

Tide is also investing in carbon removals, which are essential for long-term net zero but still uncommon at this point on the journey to 2050. It’s an important signal of our commitment.

Our biggest opportunity lies with our 1.6 million members. By helping SMEs reduce their own emissions, through lower energy and supply chain costs, and access to new customers, we can make a much broader impact. For them, it’s about saving money and growing their business. For us, it’s that and net zero. That’s exactly how the net zero narrative needs to evolve, connecting climate goals to what matters most to people and organizations today.

If you’d like help communicating your sustainability work, goals or strategy, please get in touch.