Business is a powerful engine for innovation and is uniquely placed to play a crucial role in shaping a more sustainable future. Leaders must focus on dialling up their ambition as corporate stewards and translate this into accelerated impact.
The businesses that will experience future success are the ones who are asking today how they can be the best for the world, rather than the best in the world. The effectiveness of sustainable action often hinges on how well these efforts are communicated by using language that brings people on the journey with you. This is one of the eight levers for change – each accompanied by a set of high impact actions – in our responsible leadership playbook, Levers for Change: Accelerating Sustainable Action.
We recently brought together a roundtable of eight industry leaders, exploring how businesses can use the power of storytelling to deliver sustainable action. The discussion highlighted the critical role of narrative in fostering understanding and engagement around sustainability efforts. In a sea of data, acronyms and science, it’s easy to forget that sustainability is an issue that fundamentally impacts us all. Beyond the statistics, we need a narrative for our role as individuals and organizations in shaping a more positive future.
Use storytelling to showcase authenticity
In the face of increased regulation and public scrutiny of sustainability claims, it was no surprise that our conversation gravitated towards exploring the fine line between effective storytelling and greenwashing. There was a shared acknowledgement of the difficulty companies face and the scepticism many consumers have towards corporate sustainability communications. A key question for us was, “How can big businesses get the messaging right, such that you’re not greenwashing?”
What we heard was that authenticity is essential for effective storytelling and that alongside action, language plays a key part in credible messaging.
"We need good stories of how you can turn the tide on an industry and actually start to get sustainable economic growth, while also reducing your carbon footprint.
Beyond the statistics, we need a narrative for our role as individuals and organizations in shaping a more positive future.
Internal storytelling: engaging employees
Inspiring your people and showing them that change is possible can be incredibly motivating for them. Internal stories can be a uniting force that drive innovation and action towards shared sustainability goals. For everyone in the (virtual) room, it was clear that internal engagement begins with communication and success is dependent on employees understanding how their role can contribute to making a difference.
“As well as communicating what it is that we do as part of our sustainability strategy, we need to take the time to engage our people with why we are doing it and how they can be involved. This is what keeps people motivated.”
A partner from a global immigration law firm discussed how internal communication can engage employees and create ambassadors for the company's sustainability initiatives: “It's important to communicate to our staff what we're doing and have people motivated and want to contribute,” they explained.
Internal engagement is crucial for ensuring that sustainability efforts are genuinely integrated into the company culture and are not just a marketing initiative. By shaping a culture of change-makers, leaders can inspire employee action where every individual has agency to create positive impact. Here are the key takeaways for shaping a culture of change-makers:
— Drop your ego to empower the success of others, and always listen first.
— Share openly and honestly about the challenges of being a change-maker.
— Find your community of change-makers for inspiration and collective problem solving, as well as a source of support and resilience.
As well as communicating what it is that we do as part of our sustainability strategy, we need to take the time to engage our people with why we are doing it and how they can be involved. This is what keeps people motivated.
How to bring people along on the journey
Through conversations with over 150 business leaders, discussing how we can collectively accelerate sustainable action, we identified that to drive action through effective storytelling, leaders should:
- Meet people where they are on their journey and speak their language, especially with stakeholders from who you need to get buy-in – like the board or finance team.
- Remember that hope is motivating, while fear can be paralysing. Be thoughtful in how you communicate the climate crisis and the scale of today’s challenges.
- Avoid using overly technical language or making “acronym soup” so that others can understand you.
- Showcase what is working and positive examples to inspire your people and remind them that change is possible.
- Collect examples that cut through complexity. Support your business case and accelerate understanding.
- The role of radical collaboration
Our participants identified radical collaboration as a key component of effective storytelling.
As the African proverb says, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Sustainability challenges are complex and interconnected; tackling them is too big a challenge for any one individual or organization. As a group of eight, making change happen could seem like an impossible task. Yet, when we realised the scale of the business eco-systems that we belong to, the conversation shifted to a place of hope and possibility. By shifting to a story of collective purpose and radical collaboration, we can achieve more.
Sustainability challenges are complex and interconnected; tackling them is too big a challenge for any one individual or organization.
Radical collaboration enables us to be braver in iterating fast and working with emergent strategy, designing more inclusive strategies by harnessing the collective intelligence of people and supply chains.
Effective storytelling in corporate sustainability messaging is a delicate balance of authenticity, internal engagement, and collaboration. By sharing real stories of success and collaboration, companies can build trust with their stakeholders and drive meaningful progress. We are grateful to everyone who has joined us to explore how the power of a well-told story can transform perceptions, mobilize talent, inspire action, and ultimately lead to a more sustainable future.
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Louisa oversees our Sustainability and Systems Change offer. A seasoned sustainability expert, she brings over 10 years' experience driving business as a force for good, and has played a critical role in setting up sustainability service lines in two different firms.
