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Chapter 3b: Effective Announcements

“Although we live in an information technology age, we often find ourselves in failure to communicate situations.”

–Johnny Tan, career coach and mentor

Objectives

By the end of this chapter, students will be able to:

  1. Use business announcements to convey good news, neutral messages, or bad news
  2. Organize announcements in direct or indirect order
  3. Differentiate various initiatives that businesses can join to prove their environmentally conservative values
  4. Analyze announcements by businesses on joining or leaving these initiatives.

Introduction

Announcements are a foundational tool in business communication. They inform, influence, and guide stakeholders during moments of change or continuity. When communicating business sustainability, announcements often signal shifts in company values, partnerships, or strategies in response to environmental, social, or governance (ESG) concerns. This chapter introduces the types of announcements used in business, the organizational strategies that shape their tone and effectiveness, and the key role announcements play in communicating sustainability goals and actions. We will focus specifically on communicating a change that could be good news, neutral news, or bad news, and put it in the form of a newsletter.

Types of Business Announcements

Business announcements fall into three broad categories depending on the nature of the message:

  1. Good News Announcements share positive developments with lively and engaging language. Communicating good news for planetary sustainability could include a business received an award, joined a partnership, met a sustainability milestone, or released a new green product. The tone is lively, optimistic, and celebratory.
  2. Neutral Announcements provide routine or expected updates that don’t carry strong emotional weight. Examples include updates to sustainability reports, changes in office recycling procedures, or reminders about stakeholder meetings.
  3. Bad News Announcements express difficult decisions, cancellations, or other changes that the reader or listener may find disappointing. In environmental sustainability contexts, this might include pausing a carbon reduction program, cutting funding for an initiative, or leaving a climate coalition. These require careful wording to maintain stakeholder trust and demonstrate accountability. [1]

Organizational Strategies: Direct vs. Indirect

The structure of an announcement affects how it is received. Two main patterns, direct and indirect, can be used depending on the context, culture, and the audience’s likely reaction. [2]

Direct Organization

Direct Organization is used often for good or neutral news:

    1. Main Idea – State the purpose of the announcement upfront.
    2. Details – Provide supporting context, background, additional information, or reasoning.
    3. Call to Action or Next Steps – Tell the reader what to do next, what to expect in the future, or where to go for more information.

Hypothetical Example of Direct Organization: “We are proud to announce that our company has joined the Global Plastics Pact. This initiative aligns with our long-term vision to reduce plastic waste and promote circular economies. We look forward to collaborating with other members and sharing our progress quarterly.”

*A real business good news announcement example can be found in Appendix I. A real neutral announcement is in Appendix II.

Indirect Organization

Indirect Organization can used for bad news or sensitive updates:

    1. Buffer or Background Information – Begin with shared values, appreciation for others’ efforts, or other relevant context.
    2. Explanation and Details – Provide the reasons for the decision off of which the announcement is based.
    3. Main Idea or Decision – Introduce the bad news (may be softened or implied).
    4. Redirection or Positive Outlook – Focus on solutions, support, or the future.

Example (Indirect): “As we continue our transition to net-zero emissions, we have evaluated our partnerships to ensure alignment with our updated sustainability framework. After careful consideration, we will be concluding our participation in the EcoTextile Coalition effective December 1. This decision allows us to reallocate resources toward innovations in carbon capture and textile recycling that directly benefit our value chain.”

*A real business announcement example can be found in Appendix III.

Announcements in Environmental Sustainability Communication in Business

Announcements in this context can serve several important purposes. First, when a company falls short of its goals, an announcement allows transparency and outlines corrective actions. Announcements can also communicate shifts in direction that reflect stakeholder values, such as joining a climate-focused investment alliance. Effective announcements help build a reputation for ethical leadership, especially when environmental or social issues are at stake. Lastly, announcements can celebrate sustainability achievements and provide data-driven updates for annual reports or press releases.

Newsletters

Businesses and entrepreneurs use newsletters to share valuable and relevant information with customers, prospects, subscribers, or even the public at large over social media. Newsletters allow business people to share engaging content, promote sales, and drive traffic to their website.

Businesses must consider how their announcements reflect their values, brand, and long-term goals. Visual display, timing, tone of voice, structure, and organization all influence whether stakeholders view the company as trustworthy, responsible, and committed. When newsletters are written externally, such as for the general public or customers, the goal is to keep them engaged, such as by clicking on a link to read your website, buy a product, follow you on social media, etc.

Many tools can help you create a template and deliver the final product to your readers. Examples include:

  1. Mailchimp.
  2. Pardot.
  3. Marketo.
  4. ActiveCampaign.
  5. Campaign Monitor

[1] This section and the next are both summarized in a variety of textbooks on business communication, one provided in footnote 2.

[2] Lentz, P., Rentz, K., & Getchell, K. (evergreen release). Business Communication: A Problem-Solving Approach. From https://www.mheducation.com/highered/product/Business-Communication-A-Problem-Solving-Approach-Lentz.html?cid=ppc|HE|PDP_Students_Dynamic|Google|&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=2071441096&gbraid=0AAAAADimpZOWJxM9AknfTGDTpfGdI02UF&gclid=Cj0KCQjwm93DBhD_ARIsADR_DjGC4hReYqacxXoLf0EL_bNqNEqONDhbmSra3fz7pegwQctpf8SUcFMaAvR8EALw_wcB

[3] What is a Newsletter. (n.d.). Brafton. From https://www.brafton.com/what-is-a-newsletter/

Chapter 3b Appendices

Appendix I Example The Swig Company Joins the Global Reporting Initiative

From https://urbanland.uli.org/sustainability/moving-to-the-global-reporting-initiative-for-esg-disclosure

Moving to the Global Reporting Initiative for ESG Disclosure

By Deborah Boyer and Kairee Tan

August 17, 2022

633 Folsom is an extensive retrofit of a office building in San Francisco by Gensler, WJE, Atelier Ten, and Permasteelisa.

New Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) rules requiring publicly-traded real estate companies to report greenhouse gas emissions as well as the potential physical risks posed by climate change to their buildings are likely to be introduced by the end of the year. Despite some concerns during public comment from within the industry, the SEC is pushing ahead and giving investors more tools and information regarding climate change in assessing investment risks. That’s an understandable move.

The Swig Company is a privately-owned real estate operator and investor and, like thousands of other private firms in North America, isn’t required to provide data of greenhouse gas emissions to anyone—not investors, lenders, or partners. But we do it anyway. Here’s why.

Sustainability has been a core value of The Swig Company since our founding more than 85 years ago and is woven into our company culture. We have been enthusiastic participants in Energy Star, LEED WELL, and WELL Health & Safety certifications, moving further toward futureproofing our buildings for sustainable operation.

For example, in 2013 we achieved LEED Gold certification at the Mills Building at 220 Montgomery Street, a downtown San Francisco property constructed in 1892 and which we have owned continuously since 1954. Four years later, our additional attention to the building led 220 Montgomery to become one of the first multitenant office buildings in the city to claim Platinum certification. During the pandemic, we added to our sustainable goals by fine tuning our efforts to deliver superior interior environmental quality and received a health and safety rating for the building as well as most of our eight million square foot portfolio through the International WELL Building Institute. The building also plays a part in downtown San Francisco’s biodiversity. In 2018 we installed beehives on the roof to support communities of honeybees, important urban pollinators.

These are approaches we’ve taken throughout our national portfolio. A 2017 renovation at 6300 Wilshire in Los Angeles included an extra focus on optimizing ventilation and comfort control as well as delivering more efficient water and lighting systems. In total, we estimate that these specific improvements will result in the building avoiding 10.6 million pounds (4,808,079 kg) of carbon dioxide over the next 10 years.

More recently, we’ve deepened our commitment to environmental stewardship, positive social impact and responsible governance and sharing that information with stakeholders through the publication of a series of annual reports. For our fourth annual report, the firm published a more comprehensive ESG report based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), an industry standard framework.

Transitioning to a GRI-based report was an important step towards specific, measurable goal setting and accountability, and allowed us to highlight important aspects of our company structure and community initiatives. The expanded report underscores our commitment to setting specific criteria to monitor our sustainability efforts. Reducing impacts on the environment with sustainable building programs starts by evaluating processes and projects that decrease energy consumption, water use and waste, and by adopting strategies that mitigate climate risk.

We’ve also incorporated climate-related considerations into our budget and strategic planning processes, deploying risk assessment tools to help us plan for greater resiliency in the face of climate change among our properties and we continue to evaluate other tools.

However, ESG is much more than greenhouse gas measurement and demands truly generational thinking. Through its long history, The Swig Company has been a highly responsible corporate partner to the community, supporting many social, cultural, and philanthropic initiatives and this is an important component of our mission. Our latest report outlines in detail our increased community engagement activities, such as growing the Engaging Tomorrow’s Workforce initiative through partnerships with organizations that support underserved students. The report also details our heightened support for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) by adding binding DEI language to vendor contracts, reporting on the diversity of our workforce and other initiatives.

We’ve also invested in the technology tools we think will engage our tenants—now and into the future—and maintain them as valued partners in our ESG efforts. Our h3experiences app, downloadable on Google Play and the iTunes App Store, allows our tenants to tap into more flexible office solutions, locate and book onsite meeting and conference facilities, event spaces and access health and wellness programming, as well as learn about our community partners and participate in community initiatives.

As a private company, we’ve made these significant investments in ESG—and continue to research and plan future investments—because we believe we can’t afford not to. Addressing issues such as climate change, diversity, equity, and inclusion and supporting our community are integral to the future of our industry, our neighborhoods, and our planet. For this reason alone, ESG is not just a public company issue. It’s an issue for every company. That’s why we believe providing transparency into our ongoing ESG efforts is an imperative.

 

Appendix II BlackRock’s 2030 Net Zero Statement

From https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/sustainability/2030-net-zero-statement

At BlackRock, we believe that climate risk is investment risk, and we strive to help our clients make the most informed choices to improve their investment outcomes. We believe investors and issuers that take a forward-looking position with respect to climate risk and its implications for the energy transition will generate better long-term financial outcomes. Climate risk and the economic opportunities from the transition are a top concern for our clients and a rapidly growing share of them have already committed to net-zero aligned portfolios.

Because an orderly transition to net zero by 2050 would benefit the global economy and our clients in aggregate, we believe that by 2030, all issuers would benefit from developing and implementing robust transition plans. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine is a stark reminder of the challenges of a just and orderly energy transition. These events may drive short-term increases in demand for fossil fuels and associated emissions in some regions, while potentially accelerating investments into renewable energy in Europe and other regions where energy security goals are aligned with decarbonization.

Our clients’ portfolios – which reflect the global economy – cannot reach net zero without sustained and consistent government policy, accelerated technological breakthroughs, and substantial adaptation in corporate business models. These portfolios will reflect the regulatory and legislative choices governments make to balance the need for reliable and affordable energy, and orderly decarbonization.

BlackRock’s role in the transition is as a fiduciary to our clients. Our role is to help them navigate investment risks and opportunities, not to engineer a specific decarbonization outcome in the real economy. The money we manage is not our own – it belongs to our clients, many of whom make their own asset allocation and portfolio construction decisions.

We focus on providing our clients with data and analytics, investment insights and thought leadership about the impacts of the energy transition on their portfolios. We offer a range of products and strategies from which they can choose to achieve their desired outcomes, including strategies designed to help clients navigate or accelerate the net-zero transition. We also engage with the companies in which our clients are invested to promote sound corporate governance and business models necessary to building and sustaining value over time. And in October 2021, we began expanding the opportunity for certain clients to directly participate in proxy voting decisions.

We expect to remain long-term investors in carbon-intensive companies, because they play crucial roles in the economy and in a successful transition. The success of these companies will be critical to the global economy, the world’s low carbon ambitions and our clients’ long-term financial goals. We do not pursue broad divestment from sectors and industries as a policy – particularly as a portfolio fully divested of such sectors in the near term may be at odds with enabling an orderly transition to a net-zero economy in the long term.

Currently, approximately 25% of BlackRock assets under management (“AUM”) with respect to corporate and sovereign issuers is invested for clients in issuers with science-based targets or equivalent. As the transition proceeds and issuers and asset owners continue to position themselves in front of it, we anticipate that by 2030, at least 75% of BlackRock corporate and sovereign assets managed on behalf of clients will be invested in issuers with science-based targets or equivalent.

 

Appendix III Vanguard’s Announcement on Leaving the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAM) in 2022

From https://corporate.vanguard.com/content/corporatesite/us/en/corp/articles/update-on-nzam-engagement.html

More than 30 million individual investors around the world have chosen to entrust Vanguard with their hard-earned savings. We have a singular goal to maximize their long-term returns and give them the best chance for investment success as they save for retirement, a child’s education, a home, or simply a more secure financial future.

Approximately 80% of our clients’ assets are invested through index funds, which provide broadly diversified access to stock and bond markets at minimal cost. Index fund managers don’t choose the securities in a fund or dictate a portfolio company’s strategy or operations. Instead, they buy and hold all securities included in the benchmark index and capture the return that the market provides. In the words of our founder, Jack Bogle, rather than searching for the needle in the haystack, buy the whole haystack. It’s an approach that has helped build wealth for tens of millions of everyday investors. Importantly, indexing relies on efficient and fair capital markets. Companies’ disclosure of material financial risks is central to that market health, which is why material risk identification and disclosure is a critical priority for Vanguard.

Climate change, and the ongoing global response, will have far-reaching economic consequences for companies, financial markets, and investors, presenting a clear example of a material and multifaceted financial risk. Vanguard has been taking steps to understand and attend to this risk to investors’ returns, including through our engagements with portfolio companies, policymakers, and broader industry efforts. As part of these efforts, and consistent with our commitment to promoting portfolio company disclosure of material financial risks, Vanguard joined the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM) in 2021. Such industry initiatives can advance constructive dialogue, but sometimes they can also result in confusion about the views of individual investment firms. That has been the case in this instance, particularly regarding the applicability of net zero approaches to the broadly diversified index funds favored by many Vanguard investors. Therefore, after a considerable period of review, we have decided to withdraw from NZAM so that we can provide the clarity our investors desire about the role of index funds and about how we think about material risks, including climate-related risks—and to make clear that Vanguard speaks independently on matters of importance to our investors. This decision is part of our continuous assessment of our participation in external organizations and their ongoing alignment with Vanguard’s mission and perspectives on investing.

This change in NZAM membership status will not affect our commitment to helping our investors navigate the risks that climate change can pose to their long-term returns. We will continue to provide investors the information and products they need to make sound investment choices, including products designed to meet net zero objectives. We will continue to interact with companies held by Vanguard funds to understand how they address material risks, including climate risk, in the interests of long-term investors. And we will continue to publicly report on our efforts with respect to climate risk, grounded in our deep commitment to our investors and their financial well-being.

Notes:

All investing is subject to risk, including the possible loss of the money you invest.

Diversification does not ensure a profit or protect against a loss.

 

License

Communicating Environmental Sustainability in Business for Global Audiences Copyright © by Marie Moreno. All Rights Reserved.

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