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Tom Idle’s top tips for better communications on sustainability

Greta Jonyniate | 10.08.11

We loved Tom Idle’s top tips for better communications on sustainability in Sustainable Business magazine - amazingly simple, clear and compelling. A must read for businesses trying to tackle communications on sustainability issues. It is good to hear from an Editor's perspective and someone who sees first hand the claims and stories from all sorts of businesses across the UK.

Sustainable Business is a must read for anyone trying to tackle the risks and opportunities created by the sustainability agenda. It is always a good read and we can learn alot through the case studies, analyis and comment, examining how others are responding to the enormous challenges of Climate Change. So - thanks Tom - and feel free all who read it to pass it on: There's no art to green communications. It's just good communications.

See below the top tips from Tom Idle on Green Communications:

Be realistic. For every Marks & Spencer and Unilever (e.g. those that have fundamentally shifted their business model thinking and placed sustainability at the heart of what they're doing), there are hundreds of thousands of companies that are merely performing well (e.g. meeting their waste targets), and hundreds of thousands that are merely performing good housekeeping (e.g. keeping their energy as low as possible). The three groups of companies should not be confused with one another.

Be transparent. More and more companies are reluctant to communicate what they are doing for fear of being tripped up for failing to meet targets or not quite achieving what they set out to do. But there's no need to be cautious. Communicating sustainability and ethical and green issues is all about being open and honest. If companies are upfront about their failings, people are more willing to look past that in search of more positive stuff.

Be positive. Five or six years ago, communications around environmental issues was dominated by images of polar bears floating on sheets of melting ice. But fatigue has set in and people can't relate. It's time to be positive. The education piece is over, so it's time to concentrate on the positives - the solutions, the technologies, the standards, the products that are going to get us out of trouble. Leave the education and campaigning and doom and gloom to the activists and get on with promoting yourself as one of those that is going to lead us to a better planet.

Know your audience. There's really no point in promoting your sustainability credentials if the stakeholders you're talking to don't get it, or don't care. It's about what is important to them, making what you have achieved real and bringing it to life.

Don't over-egg it. Companies know that there is money to be made from green PR and more and more put pressure on their marketers and PRs to take advantage of it without really knowing whether their story stacks up. It's easy to fall into the trap of greenwashing for communications sake. Don't fall into it. Consumers are getting more savvy and they won't be taken for fools.

Get your story straight across the company. It's easy to see straight through a PR campaign that is a side, vanity project - as opposed to one that is core to what the business is trying to achieve. Promote what you are doing internally first, before attempting any form of external communication.

None of this is new. Communicating green messages isn't new, so let's not pretend it is. You need to keep things fresh, be creative, innovative and interesting - all the stuff you'd expect from good communications best practice. Because sustainability communications is no different from any form of communications - it's about being creative, honest and appealing. The difference is, if you get it right in this space, there is the added incentive that an emerging market will be hungry for your products.

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Top 10…environmentally friendly travel companies

Matilda Lee | 09.06.11

Next week marks the first ever Green Tourism Week; an initiative launched by the Green Tourism Business Scheme last October. But Green Tourism Week isn’t alone in its drive to promote a greener way to travel. Nominations are currently being gathered for the Responsible Tourism Awards, which will be presented on 9th November - World Responsible Tourism Day. Even the UN’s World Environment Day (5th June) is getting in on the act, with a host of initiatives aimed at boosting environmentally conscious travel scheduled in.

It’s not all awards and world days though. Ethical travel company, Gap Year for Grown Ups, estimates that more than 100,000 of us choose trips that involve volunteering or conservation each year. While it doesn’t compare to the numbers heading off on package trips to Magaluf and Faliraki, it’s a positive start. So what does eco-tourism really mean? The International Eco-tourism Society defines eco-tourism as being ‘responsible travel to natural areas that conserves the environment and improves the well-being of local people.’ Although it sounds straightforward, some less scrupulous companies call their activities eco-tourism when in reality, all they offer is a carbon offsetting scheme - even though this has become standard practice for many travel companies. If that’s left you unsure of where to look: read on for the 10 responsible travel companies that are putting Thomas Cook and co to shame.

Click here to continue reading this article from the Ecologist….

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Spring at Greenhouse: A new blog editor

Matilda Lee | 17.05.11

Dear Greenhouse Readers,

I'm pleased to let you know that as of today I'm joining the Greenhouse team as the editor of the blog. I was drawn to Greenhouse PR because of the way it chooses its clients and its positions -- that is, with the utmost care. In helping truly sustainable companies raise their profile, Greenhouse is contributing to the small but powerful transition away from consumerism and towards sustainability. I'm excited to be part of it. By the way, I also work as the Community Affairs Editor at the Ecologist, and am the author of 'Eco Chic: the savvy shopper’s guide to ethical fashion.'

In this blog space, I hope to spark the conversations from which social change emerges. We want to get the right people talking, and to have their voices be heard. The blog is further meant to motivate and encourage those already out there doing great things in sustainability. We see this as a place to reflect, question, comment and engage readers on various issues – from energy policy to advocacy tactics; from urban agriculture to ethical fashion.

On behalf of everyone at Greenhouse, we're looking forward to conversations with you about the issues we all care about.

-- Matilda, editor

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A Climate Week Conundrum

Sally Hill | 24.03.11

The Royal Bank of Scotland and Tesco have been accused of green-washing over their sponsorship of the approaching Climate Week initiative. In many green and ethical circles these brands were difficult to like in the first place, but this is making them even harder to stomach.

Read more

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The Power of Communication

Anna Guyer | 24.01.11

Guest post by Gemma Bridgman

Photo credit: www.flickr.com/piblet

C4’s autumn documentary ‘Where the Green Movement went wrong’ is a striking example of the power of communication. It was particularly thought provoking as to the role of communication in relation to the ‘Green Movement.’

Read more

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WWF Report: ‘Humanity’s demands exceed our planet’s capacity to sustain us’

Kenneth Hill | 15.10.10

"Populations of tropical species are plummeting and humanity’s demands on natural resources are sky-rocketing to 50 per cent more than the earth can sustain, new analysis in the 2010 edition of WWF’s Living Planet Report – the leading survey of the planet’s health ­– reveals."

So starts an announcement from WWF on the release of its biennial report on the state of our planet. The upshot assessment that in 2007, 1.5 Earths would have been needed to accommodate humanity's resource demands, is mind-blowing. The report estimates that by 2036, two Earths would be needed at the current rates of consumption.

The UK ranks 31st on the highest resource users in the report's table of Ecological Footprint per country, per person. The top 5 are UAE, Quatar, Denmark, Belgium, and the US.

Denmark's ranking seems somewhat incongruous with the way most people think about Denmark (progressive, environmentally conscious). The Copenhagen Post outlines the reasons why they are failing -- pork production and consumption being a main indicator. l

There is an enormous amount of interesting and useful information in the report. I like this link at WWF, which leads you into some of the publication's most compelling stuff, including interactive tools where you can look up different countries and species.

Importantly, there are links to things all of us can do about it.

Living Planet Report 2010

 

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Yeo! Dairy’s Rapping Farmers Are Da Bomb on X-Factor, Fo’shizzle

Kenneth Hill | 11.10.10

Yeo Valley busted out its £5 million advertising campaign this weekend, slotting in an ad on X-Factor that features rapping farmers putting the cool in sustainability, things organic and Yeo Valley, the UK's largest organic brand.

The new rap ad knocks one out of the park: a smart, funny, catchy, unexpected spot, placed on the top-rated TV show in the UK, posted online and poised for viral sharing. The song and the rapping farmers are irresistibly fun (you can download the ringtone), and will go a long way in giving a whole new rap to sustainably produced, organic food. 

The four young farmers - plus extras including Yeo Valley staff, their cows and an awesome owl known as Ted -- serve as the hippest ambassadors ever for the West Country and Yeo's suite of organic products.

"Our farmers aren’t rapping about their bling, girls and fast cars but instead about our cows, tractors and wax jackets — matters a little bit closer to home," blogs Ben Cull, head of brand marketing at Yeo Valley, on the company's new interactive web site.

Yeo's new site sports links to their presence across social media platforms (profiles at twitter.com/yeovalley, Facebook, and "YeoTube"), plus personable and accessible video clips featuring founder Mary Mead, and son Tim who runs the Blagdon-based, family-owned dairy farm that prides itself on being a "real place" working in harmony with nature.

Admirably, Yeo Valley has a strong commitment to maintaining a low-carbon footprint, too. For example, their new pots are 100% recyclable and made from 80% recycled material, they use green energy to run the dairies and they employ double-decker trailers to move more product which results in fewer lorries and less fuel.

Bottom line: this ad is a true winner.

PS: It won't hurt the image of the Young Farmers' Clubs either. Peace out. 

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rap music, yeo valley, tim mead, facebook, youtube, advertising, mary mead, sustainable farming, green social media, x-factor

Big Ideas: 29 authors look at the spirituality of being green

Sally Hill | 19.07.10

Last Wednesday, ‘GreenSpirit: Path to a New Consciousness’ was launched in London. It’s a new book which is receiving a great deal of attention in ‘green’ circles. The gathering was well attended by some of the UK’s finest environmental minds including guest speaker Jonathon Porritt.

Jonathon, who is the founder of Forum for the Future, drew inspiration from the book as he questioned whether we can we achieve growth and prosperity and still have room for the needs of the human spirit.

The book is an extraordinary read. The stringing together of ideas from fields as varied as ‘deep ecology,’ astronomy, spirituality, theology and mythology, ancient and indigenous culture and tradition, ‘ecopsychology,’ traditional religions and environmentalism give the reader a vast array of concepts to think about.

Author Christopher Johnstone called it ‘a valuable guide to some of the deepest thinking on the connections between ecology and spirituality. Never before have so many important ideas on these subjects been assembled between the covers of a single book.’

To explain briefly the ‘GreenSpirit’ concept, advocate Patrick Moore describes it as ‘combining environmentalism with both a deep appreciation of nature and an enthusiasm for the challenge. ‘Spirit’ as in spiritual and ‘spirit’ as in team spirit.’

The book's authors (there are more than twenty contributing writers) follows a trend in current environmental debate which questions the anthropocentrism of our culture, value-system and institutions. That is, the deeply embedded set of values that sees human beings as the centre of the world – with the universe revolving around us.

The stream of thought throughout the book describes a shift that needs to take place in perception. It compares this to the change which that occurred when humans discovered the sun didn’t revolve around the earth, but the earth revolved around the sun. The mainstream version of this idea is evident in the movements around campaigners Polly Higgins, and All Living Things.

Edited by Marian Van Eck McCain, the tone of the book is thoughtful - never instructional. McCain's writers lead the reader along a path, where each of us can draw our own conclusions.

Traditional religions are dealt with in an interesting manner. While the book draws attention to the idea that there is a part of Christianity that helped to separate humans from nature, it is never critical or dismissive of this or any religion. The philosophy embraces people both within and apart from religion, and sees Christianity as one of many cultures and traditions that gives a context and body of knowledge from which we can build a greater understanding of life, the planet, the universe, and our place in it.

GreenSpirit proposes solutions to our environmental predicament, which it calls ‘greening our culture’.It involves reforming education, law, and the anthropentrism of our institutions – essentially an overhaul of our value system, which it sees as necessary in the context of global environmental challenges.

There is a danger in any new framework being held up as the solution and as a new and right way to think and be. However, the thinkers who have contributed to the book have built into the philosophy the need to appreciate diversity of thought and perspective, which goes some way to reducing this danger. The concept never dismisses a point of view, only puts it into a new context.

The ‘GreenSpirit’ mindset may be worth exploring for those who are interested in a deep engagement with the natural world and the ‘why’ questions of being involved in sustainability. Whether or not this resonates with you, it’s an engaging read about some very big ideas. GreenSpirit challenges us to see, think and feel in a whole new way about the world around us.

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green, sustainability, jonathon porritt, review, spirituality, book, marian van eck mccain, launch