Communicating Climate Action
In sustainability reports across sectors, Climate action is the most mentioned UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG).
One-fifth of the world’s 2,000 largest companies have made this pledge, and these numbers are rising. The number of commitments have doubled in less than a year. Most are aiming for a zero-carbon economy by 2050 as part of the UN Race to Zero. This United Nations corporate coalition involves more than 3,000 businesses and over 700 cities around the world.
It’s clear that having a clear position on climate change is critical, but many companies get it so wrong. In fact, only 10% of the 250 largest corporate greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters globally have a meaningful plan to actually decarbonise in the next decade. Moreover, 40% of sustainability claims online may be greenwashing, which I covered in a post here. But as consumers become more informed, this isn’t going to hold up.
I call communicating your climate change actions for small business, “sustainability storytelling”. But sustainability storytelling and reporting is not marketing. It’s based on science-backed facts. It’s based on truth - like an assessment of your climate-related risks, targets and your action plans. It’s not straightforward, but it’s what it takes for companies to be serious about climate change.
Transparency about climate change (telling the good, the bad and the ugly) builds trust. If companies are not open about climate risks, actions and impacts can they be trusted? Overstating the positives in your climate change story is greenwashing – an activity that is bad for the environment, erodes trust with people and may one day incur legal costs and penalties.
