Navigating Sustainability Communications During Uncertain Times
Searching for a path forward in a shifting landscape
The sustainability field is experiencing a major inflection point. With rapid developments in environmental policy and corporate action, the foundation upon which sustainability visions and programs were built has begun to shift—and it appears little will settle any time soon. Yet new data reinforces that Americans expect companies to act, even on polarizing issues. According to a GlobeScan survey fielded in March 2025, 71% of Americans agree CEOs should speak out about climate change, and 67% say the same about DEI1.
How do leaders make choices about sustainability communications without full clarity?
Over the past several months, I’ve been advising clients to reground their approach in a few core principles. While originally developed with sustainability and social impact professionals in mind, these practices are increasingly relevant across corporate reputation communications in today’s uncertain environment.
Be selective. Keep promises. Build trust.
Many corporate sustainability professionals will benefit from focusing on a narrower set of priorities, at least in the short term. Demonstrating a clear business case for environmental, community, and employee programs is resource-intensive, and managing a broad portfolio of efforts means introducing the risk of spreading too thin in a volatile environment. One leader I spoke with pointed out that building internal trust is more important than being a knowledge source for the company right now. They see an opportunity in the long run to accomplish more by delivering on “promises,” meaning guiding their organization to meet its sustainability commitments within a resource-constrained environment.
Define how sustainability is linked to business value.
“Value” has become the operative word in sustainability. As altruistic language fades, organizations are increasingly expected to define how their environmental and social efforts contribute to measurable business outcomes. That means aligning sustainability with core missions and growth goals. While some companies internalized a commitment to “shared value” when it was introduced as a concept more than a decade ago, the current environment makes articulation of that approach more important than ever. But, for this theme to be lasting, and not face the fate of similar terms, such as ESG, companies need to define what sustainability business value uniquely means for their company. Communicators should closely track the quickly maturing collaboration between sustainability and finance teams to quantify how sustainability and social programs reduce costs, drive growth or spur innovation. These outputs will become the stories that put deeper meaning behind this promising, pragmatic narrative.
Let stakeholders be a guide.
In today’s fractured external landscape, focusing on what matters most to stakeholders is more important than ever. Audience insights are essential not only to a communications approach, but in the sustainability industry, it’s a natural part of a well-run, transparently governed sustainability strategy. During a time when the holistic forces that had been, for large part over recent years, in lockstep driving sustainability progress (e.g., policymaking and investing) seemingly appeared to have fractured overnight, narrowing the lens on what matters to a company’s key audiences can help bring current priorities into focus. Communications should have a seat at the table during this discussion, providing insights from the external landscape and quantitative data to help reduce bias in decision-making.
Embrace the scale of the challenge.
In February, I attended the annual GreenBiz conference – the pre-eminent gathering of sustainability leaders. Founder and sustainability business thought leader, Joel Makower, opened the conference by urging attendees to remember that solving complex challenges to ultimately create a positive, science-based outcome is what attracts most people to the sustainability industry. No doubt this is one of the most convoluted times in the practice, particularly for those in leadership roles and for the communicators that support those leaders and their teams. Everyone wants clean air and water and natural spaces to enjoy and explore. Finding a path toward that outcome that’s a middle ground between the disparate approaches of the Biden and Trump administrations will require sophistication, creativity and collaboration. A challenge I would argue that sustainability professionals have been preparing for their entire careers.
