In an exclusive interview with Reputation Today, Suzy Goulding, Head of Sustainability APMEA at MSL Global, discusses her passion for sustainability communications in her current role. She shares the challenges faced in formulating and executing sustainability strategies within an organisation. We also explore the upcoming trends and challenges in sustainability, and Suzy’s strategies to address them. She offers her perspective on the critical role of emerging economies like India in sustainability efforts and how this influences her advisory to stakeholders. Lastly, Suzy delves into the essential skills, attitudes, and competencies needed by future sustainability communicators and her approach to equipping her team with these attributes.
Hemant Gaule: What about sustainability communications drives you the most in your current role at MSL?
Suzy Goulding: The topic of sustainability features in just about every client brief or RFP nowadays. And there is so much potential for communications around corporate sustainability to be handled badly by the communicator or to be misconstrued. As professional communicators I believe we have a responsibility to do all that we can to ensure our clients are communicating correctly, honestly and openly about their sustainability commitments and achievements. Preparing us to be real ‘Integrity Avengers’ in this regard is what drives me the most at MSL.
HG: Can you tell us about your challenges in developing and implementing sustainability strategies within an organisation?
SG: There are lots of challenges for any company wanting to become more sustainable. Getting buy-in and commitment from the top of the organisation is crucial but equally so is being able to engage and motivate everyone in the business to share in a sustainability ambition or goal and be willing to work together to achieve it. There is a tendency for companies to restrict sustainability activities to the responsibility of one person or team. This approach is doomed to failure as only by taking a holistic view across the entire business – and sharing responsibilities through collaboration – can companies succeed in their sustainability ambitions. My final point would be that this is still a very new and fast-evolving area for the majority of companies so they should not try to do it all themselves – look to work with experienced third parties who can help you develop your sustainability strategy, put in place a roadmap to success and help you communicate to stakeholders what you’re doing in a way that is not going to get you accused of greenwashing.
HG: What trends and challenges do you foresee in sustainability and sustainability communications in the near future? What is your approach to reconcile these trends?
SG: Greenwashing is THE issue for sustainability communicators everywhere and the perceived risk of being accused of it is negatively impacting the likelihood of companies to talk about their commitments and goals. We are seeing an increase in the phenomenon of ‘greenhushing’ where companies decide not to take the risk and just stop communicating about sustainability. This has huge implications for issues of trust, transparency and consumer decision-making. How can you make more sustainable choices as a consumer if there is no information available?
Overcoming greenwashing and greenhushing is not easy. It requires bravery from companies and the communications consultancies working with them. Bravery from consultancies who need to challenge a client when they spot a red flag in a brief and from companies to listen to expert advice and act upon it. This is in the interest of both parties from a reputational perspective.
HG: How do you see the role of emerging economies such as India in the quest for sustainability, and how does it feature in your advisory to your stakeholders?
SG: We see that sustainability and ESG are becoming important topics for corporate India which is heartening to see. However, as with both developed and emerging economies, companies share similar challenges when it comes to starting out on their sustainability journeys. How to take a first step, how to engage the whole of the business, what should they be measuring and how do they collect and analyse necessary data, particularly around emissions reduction. For most companies, big and small, sustainability can feel overwhelming and very difficult. We at MSL can’t help with all of their challenges but we can certainly provide counsel and support around employee and stakeholder engagement as well as helping them to develop an impactful and honest sustainability narrative, messaging and proof points which will enable them to tell the story of their sustainability journey in a way that is credible and transparent but which crucially can also inspire others.
HG: What kind of skills, attitudes and competencies must the sustainability communicators of the future bring? What is your approach to empowering your colleagues to build these?
SG: Bravery, empathy and an inquiring mind are essential to any communicator looking to help clients tell their sustainability story. They need to have a basic understanding of sustainability in a corporate context so they can spot red flags where more clarity is needed and feel comfortable in challenging clients to provide that clarity. Critical thinking skills are also crucial – this is often very strategic work with no clear right or wrong answer so you must never jump to an immediate conclusion. And I mention empathy because as I said earlier sustainability is still a very new area and everyone is constantly learning , which will include clients so it’s good to be aware that they may not have all the answers and may look to their consultancy for input and debate.
At MSL it is our priority to upskill our teams in these key attributes as well as rolling out a comprehensive training and development programme providing foundation-level sustainability knowledge with advice and support on how to apply this knowledge in a communications context.
The responses above are from Suzy Goulding as shared with Reputation Today
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