This week’s guest installment of The Clear Clean comes from our friends at The Climate Hub, Amelia Zimmerman and Meg Kendall.
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Like it or not, brands are the new face of climate education.
Sure, some children in the US learn about climate change in schools, but most adults get the majority of their climate education through social media and the news and — increasingly — the companies they purchase from.
How many weeks, exactly, have we been subjected to this headline?
MICROSOFT BUYS A BAJILLION CARBON CREDITS FROM [ ] IN LARGEST-EVER SALE
We climate folks may know what those credits are and why they’re being bought (after all, we created these images with AI…) but the fact that millions of Americans may hear about carbon credits for the first time in a headline about Microsoft seems… really, really important to recognize!
Americans look to brands as authorities on the present and the future, and this increasingly includes matters of the climate and environment. Consumers trust that brands tell the truth because their reputation depends on it, and brands know this.
This trust creates a big responsibility to educate honestly, a responsibility that most companies fail to live up to. Brands that take their role as climate educators too lightly are likely to engage in greenwashing by making misleading or superficial claims about their environmental impact. On the flip side, some brands are now so afraid of talking about their climate action that they’re missing opportunities for real impact.
Brands can do a lot of good with the attention and respect they command from their consumers, if only they’d own up to it.
Are you looking to communicate your brand’s climate action or help consumers understand the real stakes of taking action? Here are some tips to get it right.
Get specific. Please!
The leading cause of greenwashing (intentional or unintentional) is vagueness. Words and phrases like sustainable, eco-friendly, good for the planet, clean energy, climate-conscious, etc. — these are almost always greenwashing because they are open to a wide range of interpretations.
The key to communicating your climate action in a way that is honest and stands is getting specific with your language. Many brands shy away from specificity, believing that consumers prefer ‘simple’ messages and don’t want (or can’t process) more nuanced messages that may involve numbers or broader context to understand the full picture. Brands who assume this underestimate the general public’s appetite to know and understand — a basic trait of human nature.
Turn vague into specific. For example:
Sustainable → compostable
Eco-friendly → contains no microplastics
Carbon-neutral → for every ton of carbon generated in the making of this product, we’ve purchased equivalent carbon offsets through a community reforestation project in Indonesia
Clean energy → 100% solar-powered
These explanations may not always fit neatly on labels. Neither does climate science.
Context is a major 🔑
Another big contributor to greenwashing is a lack of context. Climate change is a massive, intangible problem, and most data points don’t mean much outside of context (even worse, they can be particularly misleading without the right context).
For example, a thousand tons of CO2 sounds like a lot, but is it really? That depends on what you’re talking about and what you’re trying to achieve. An airline claiming to offset a thousand tons of CO2 may fail to mention that this figure may only represent the emissions from a handful of flights — relatively meaningless in the broader context of the company’s operations.
Context matters not just for a company’s own impact, but also more broadly. For example, a consumer buying a biodegradable product needs to be informed that this biodegradability requires a certain circumstance (and that it will not do so in a landfill).
Kick weasel words to the curb
Weasel words are words you use when a clearer, plainer one will do. Corporates love weasel words. How many times have you seen phrases like these?
We are committed to carbon-neutral operations
We are transforming supply chains for a better future
We are harnessing the power of nature
We are driving positive climate outcomes
Weasel words are antithetical to clear, truthful climate communications. We recommend avoiding words like:
Sustainable, eco-friendly, climate-friendly, planet-friendly
Enhance, empower
Impact, outcomes (depends on context, there’s usually a better alternative)
Committed to, dedicated to, driven by
’People and planet’
A better future
Pivotal moment
Driving climate action
Groundbreaking, cutting-edge, state-of-the-art
Instead, choose clear, tangible, and specific language, like nouns and verbs. Some examples:
Carbon credits over climate impact
Wind and solar over green energy
15% less plastic than before over eco-friendly
Solar-powered over sustainable
1,000 hectares of land reforested over good for the planet
Moving forward
Brands that want to be seen as climate leaders have a big responsibility to get their communications right. Consumers deserve the truth, or as close to the truth as can be achieved in the time and formats available to brands.
But brands should see this responsibility as a great opportunity to become trusted authority figures. The more brands take on roles as climate educators, the bigger the contribution they can make to climate action, and the stronger the relationship they will form with consumers.
⚠️ Managing Editor Jonathan Moore is picking up then pen for The Climate Hub’s send next week, so don’t miss out!