Chapter 2b: Sustainability Statements and Examples
“Data visualizations must communicate answers and provide business outcomes. If the data feeding an analytics dashboard is not trusted, the results are meaningless. If the visualizations do not answer important business questions, the visualizations are not actionable.”
– Kati Horvath
Introduction
The first chapter covered essential terms in business sustainability and communication. Each even-numbered chapter will cover practical topics that businesses communicate, beginning with sustainability and mission statements. Students will be able to identify effectively written sustainability and mission statements and create their own for real or hypothetical businesses or nonprofits. The next chapter will look at reports more specifically while this chapter will focus on short statements included in most environmental sustainability communications.
Students will be able to:
- Identify and explain the key components of an effective Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report, including structure, content, and presentation.
- Evaluate the quality and impact of various statements in CSR reports by assessing the clarity, transparency, and comprehensiveness of the information presented.
- Examine case studies of effective CSR reports to understand how well-crafted reports can enhance corporate reputation and stakeholder trust.
- Analyze best practices for reporting on social, environmental, and economic performance in CSR reports.
- Create clear and compelling CSR mission statements aligning corporate actions with stakeholder expectations and reflects an organization’s values, goals, and commitment to sustainability.
Corporate Social Responsibility
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a voluntary corporate framework that promotes a company’s ethical and responsible behavior towards itself and the public. Through the implementation of corporate social responsibility, also known as corporate citizenship, firms actively consider and address their influence on several dimensions of society, such as the economy, social well-being, and the environment. [1]
Sustainability Statement
A sustainability statement is an outline of an organization’s public commitment to sustainable practices. There are a few elements that all strong sustainability statements have, even if the exact wording will differ based on the business. First, they make their point very clearly and succinctly. Secondly, they provide measurable objectives on which they can be reported tracked over time. Lastly, they set a schedule for accomplishing those objectives, such as an exact year. Companies may create successful sustainability statements to keep employees accountable for adhering to basic standards. Sustainability statements demonstrate an organization’s commitment to sustainable development in a few short, specific sentences. Concrete sustainability statements can help to build trust with stakeholders while creating a shared understanding of what sustainability means for the company or organization. Overall, sustainability statements provide a structure for measuring growth and can be a powerful tool for driving change.[2]
Guidelines to effective sustainability messaging
1) Ensure your sustainability message is human-centric
Customers still have doubts about organizations who continuously promote their sustainable approach because they assume that eco-claims are driven by economic profit. In fact, 60% of Americans “worry brands are involved in social issues just for commercial reasons” or marketing tools (Kantar SSI Study, 2023) [4] Instead of concentrating only on what your brand or company is doing to behave more sustainably—e.g., trees planted, gallons of water saved, plastic eliminated—show the ways in which your company is helping produce better goods for people and the world. Explain how the product or service fulfills a need in an individual’s life. Cues to sustainable benefits or considerations can be secondary—sourcing information, packaging, language, etc.
Brand Example:
“Every time we pre-rinse our dishes, we can waste up to 20 gallons of water. Together we can save up to 150 billion gallons of water*. That’s billions. With a B. With Finish, you can Skip the Rinse.” [5]
Ricket’s “Skip the Rinze” campaign concentrated much of their messaging on how their product saved customers time and money by removing the need to pre-wash dishes and lowering water bills. The choice to purchase seemed simple—the extra benefit of helping preserve water worldwide or eradicate trash was clear-cut.
2) Focus on a sustainability topic that your brand can credibly speak to
Almost half (48%) of American consumers[6] agree that they “pay a lot of attention to environmental and societal issues in the news.” Over half (51%) of Americans 18+ said “I feel that I can make a difference to the world around me through the choices I make and the actions I take”. However, half of generation z Americans over 18 have also reported “it’s up to companies and governments to protect the environment”. [7]
Similar to how the younger generations believe their choices can change the world, consumers are turning to organizations to help in the action. Every sector, in some way, helps to aggravate climate change. Start with places where your company or brand has negative effects on society or the environment. This not only shows your company owning a problem but also lets your staff explain concrete methods your brand may bring about good change.
Brand Example:
McDonald’s has been open in acknowledging the effects its operations have on society and the surroundings along with changing its Happy Meal to provide children more balanced nutrition, the firm has committed globally to develop more sustainable beef production by improving the lives of farmers and giving animal welfare first priority.
“At McDonald’s, we take great care to ensure that what we serve every day is safe, quality food. That means we use 100% real beef patties seasoned with just a pinch of salt and pepper. It means our Egg McMuffin® is made with a freshly cracked egg. And, our Filet-O-Fish® sandwich is made with 100% whitefish sourced from sustainably managed fisheries. It means our Chicken McNuggets® are made with white meat chicken. Simply put, it means real, quality ingredients and always evolving what matters to you.” [8]
3) Prioritize simplicity
VALUE-ACTION GAP: While only 10% of Americans agree to “actively changing their behavior” to live a sustainable lifestyle, 94% of Americans “want to live a sustainable lifestyle” (Kantar SSI Study, 2022). Though consumer optimism about what they want to do to bring about good change, frequently life gets in the way—with the 2022 Who Cares, Who Does? Study revealing over half (45%) of consumers are struggling to “act sustainably due to social or financial constraints.” This is the reason Kantar keeps seeing such a significant Value-Action gap—that is, the difference between consumer value and what people really do when they purchase.
Considering where consumers are currently, living a more sustainable lifestyle might often seem tedious, impossible, expensive, or excessive. Thus, make your brand message simple, such as how it develops towards a more sustainable future, what the good or service performs, and how customers may simply change their behavior to join the organization on its sustainability path.
Brand Example:
Love Beauty & Planet is a personal care business providing ethically-sourced, cruelty free, sustainably packaged goods to customers, therefore enabling more people to afford sustainable buying. Though all the sustainably minded decisions shape their brand strategy, their packaging leads with the what consumers can expect from the product—from scents to texture—while also including subtle cues to their sustainability efforts—imagery and secondary messages like “& acts of love for our planet.”
“At Love Beauty and Planet we operate with sustainability at our core. Working to further reduce our environmental impact is a labor of love, and we’re inspired by the challenge to make our planet a little more beautiful.Our journey of improvement is ongoing, and we promise to be open and honest about the challenges we face. In this first report, we’ll take you on that journey, showing you how we’ve thought carefully about our consumer, our business, and our planet; sharing goals and successes along the way across four main categories: our packaging, our product formulations, our carbon footprint and our partnerships.
One quick note: Palm oil and palm kernel oil derivatives are important ingredients, predominantly used for surfactants (cleaning agents) in shampoos and body washes. We recognize that there is still work to be done to improve our supply chain of palm oil or palm kernel oil derivatives. Our goal is to move towards using Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil certified sources or palm oil alternatives for some of our surfactant ingredients.”
What Makes a Well Written Sustainability Statement?
AI and the LinkedIn community commented on an article that summarized it in these ways [9]
Define your scope
Remember to include the three Ps (even implicitly): people, planet, profit. Pick a few important key words and values to include. Some examples are potable water, equity in education, access to clean air, etc. Begin with a clear understanding of your organization’s sustainability goals and values is the first step. Nikole Pearson (2023) recommends asking yourself questions such as:
- What environmental or social issues are you most passionate about?
- How do you envision your organization positively impacting these areas?
- What values and principles guide your sustainability initiatives?
Defining your goals and values will provide the foundation for your mission statement and ensure it accurately represents your organization’s commitment to sustainability. [10]
Research best practices
Start by stating your organization’s name. This anchors the statement to your brand and establishes ownership. Clearly articulate the core sustainability objective you’re striving to achieve. Whether it’s carbon neutrality, ethical sourcing, or community empowerment, make it the centerpiece of your statement. Define your areas of impact – carbon, ethics, community. Engage stakeholders, industry leaders, or others for a diversity of insight and feedback. Next, align company actions with one or more global sustainability goal. This sets boundaries for impactful initiatives. Finally, describe the steps you’re taking to fulfill your sustainability goal. These actions should align with your mission and reflect your commitment to responsible practices. Look at well written examples and companies that inspire you. *A few examples are at the end of this chapter.
Draft your statement
A vague but common example is “Our mission is to innovate for a sustainable future by reducing our environmental footprint, empowering communities, and driving economic growth through responsible practices.” How will you reduce your environmental footprint? How will you empower communities and which ones? What will you do to drive economic growth? What kind of responsible practices? What makes them “responsible”?
Refine your statement
A useful acronym in business is to make your goals SMART:
- Specific: Be intentional; identify an area you want to focus on as specifically as you can. Instead of “get rid of waste”, clarify what kind of waste (Food? Plastic? Toxic? Water?).
- Measurable: Be clear how the goal can be measured over time. How many months do you predict this will take? By which year should it be accomplished? The more realistic the better.
- Achievable: Is this goal able to be accomplished? The goal may not be easy but what you say about it could persuade the reader in having faith in its fruition.
- Realistic: Is the goal possible? Make sure to clarify how and by when in a manner that the audience would also agree with in practical terms. Avoid sugarcoating issues, exaggerating, or showing naivety.
- Time-related. Set a realistic deadline, usually a specific year.
Share your statement
Utilize a diversity of channels like social media, newsletters, websites, reports, presentations, and events to share your statement. Enhance its impact using one or more of the following:
- Stories
- Visuals (infographs, icons, photos, other images)
- Testimonials
- Data (facts, figures)
Consistent sharing not only informs but also fosters trust, credibility, and engagement with your audience and stakeholders. The more transparently you communicate your mission, the stronger your impact becomes.
Other considerations
Make a clear connection to your core business. If you are a tech firm, describe how you see your statement driving tech development. If you are in fashion, describe how you see more sustainable process means more success. Overall, keep it believable and realistic.
Collaborate with AI-Powered Content Generation Tools
Once the main idea and word choice have been established, you may consider using AI-powered content creation tools. With the use of these tools, you may create phrases that express the main ideas of your sustainability mission statement concisely. AI can help examine linguistic patterns, produce substitute phrase structures, and propose synonyms; all of which can improve the overall effect of your mission statement.
Keep in mind that while AI is an effective tool, relying entirely on AI can result in vague, unrealistic, and robotic-sounding business messages. Aim for a balance between human contribution and AI-generated material when crafting an audience-resonant sustainability statement. [11] Plan on showcasing your human creativity and judgment while crafting any business message for this course.
Review and Finalize
After several iterations:
- Review the final draft of your sustainability statement.
- Ensure that it captures the essence of your organization’s commitment to sustainability and aligns with your goals and values.
- Share the statement with key stakeholders and gather feedback to validate its effectiveness and refine it if needed.
Vision, Mission, and Value Statements
A short paragraph to call attention to specifically is the Vision, Mission, and Values (VMV) of the organization. It may go by any one of those names, or some derivative, but it is typically set forth quite clearly early in the a sustainability report and sets the context of the organization’s views on sustainability. The VMV acts as the frame by which we can judge a company’s sustainability efforts. VMV sets the desired destination, so our first goal is not necessarily to judge the destination, but to understand if the organization’s stated strategy, approach, and indicators align with the destination. In essence, we do not bring our preconceptions or existing frames to measure the organization, but we use their own words and definitions of what is important to their organization.
The below is a sample of the stated VMVs for a handful of outdoor products companies:
- The North Face: [From CEO’s letter] “Our love of the outdoors anchors our focus on exploration, protecting recreation areas, and addressing the environmental effects of our business. To marshal our resources most effectively, we are targeting our energies at the areas where we can achieve the greatest impact. For The North Face, this means focusing on resource efficiency and material selection in our product manufacturing.”
- Patagonia: “Our Reason for Being: Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.”
- REI: “REI’s purpose is to inspire, educate and outfit for a lifetime of outdoor adventure and stewardship. At the co-op, being a good steward is reflected in how we care for the world in which we play, work and live, and how we connect people to nature. Specifically, our efforts are designed to: Facilitate the active conservation of nature, inspire the responsible use and enjoyment of the outdoors, enhance the natural world and our communities and the places in which we work through responsible business practices, foster opportunities for outdoor recreation with a focus on young people, maintain REI as an employer of choice where employees are highly engaged and reflect the diversity of our communities”
- Columbia: “At Columbia Sportswear, we are committed to building a company of which we can all be proud – not only of the innovative products we create and the financial results we achieve, but the manner in which we achieve them. Whether it’s responsible sourcing, giving back to our communities, or reducing our environmental impact, we believe corporate responsibility is a company wide effort.”
- Arc’teryx: “The single biggest area of our company’s environmental impact is the products we design and make. As a result, our environmental initiatives are primarily structured to address the footprint and composition of our product and materials. In general, we seek to operate in a responsible, efficient, and mindful way. This translates to minimizing waste in our operations, to sourcing safe and effective materials, and perhaps most importantly, to designing and manufacturing products to be the longest lasting and best performing in our industry. Our environmental initiatives, like our product design in general, focus on extending the lifetime and performance of the products. These initiatives span product design and care, materials research and development, efficient manufacturing, and responsible sourcing.” [12]
[1] Fernando, J. (2024, March 6). What Is CSR? Corporate Social Responsibility Explained. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/c/corp-social-responsibility.asp
[2] Pearson, N. (2024, March 21). Best Sustainability Statements: 7 Examples For Inspiration. Peak Science Communications. https://peaksci.com/blog/sustainability-statements
[3] Our Sustainability Sector Index 2023 is out! (2023). https://www.kantar.com/campaigns/sustainability-sector-index
[4] Our Sustainability Sector Index 2023 is out! (2023). https://www.kantar.com/campaigns/sustainability-sector-index
[5] Skip the rinse and save water. (n.d.). Finish. https://www.finishdishwashing.com/our-values/save-water/
[6] Our Sustainability Sector Index 2023 is out! (2023). https://www.kantar.com/campaigns/sustainability-sector-index
[7] Brenan, M. (2018, March 29). Americans want government to do more on environment. Gallup. Retrieved from https://news.gallup.com/poll/232007/americans-want-government-more-environment.aspx
[8] Commitment to Quality: Our Sustainability Goals | McDonald’s. (n.d.). https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/about-our-food/our-food-philosophy/commitment-to-quality.html
[9] How can you create a sustainability mission statement? (2023, September 27). https://www.linkedin.com/advice/3/how-can-you-create-sustainability-mission
[10] CITATION MISSING
[11] Pearson, N. (2023b, July 19). How to Write a Sustainability Statement Using AI in 2023. Peak Science Communications. https://peaksci.com/blog/how-to-write-a-sustainability-statement-using-ai
[12] James, A. (2023). Corporate Sustainability Reports (CSRs). Sustainability Driven Innovation. https://www.e-education.psu.edu/ba850/ under a creative commons license. See more at https://creativecommons.org/compatiblelicenses and https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/