{"id":2550,"date":"2026-05-18T04:09:44","date_gmt":"2026-05-18T04:09:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/?p=2550"},"modified":"2026-05-18T09:01:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-18T09:01:20","slug":"esg-communications-where-genuine-impact-ends-and-greenwashing-begins","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/?p=2550","title":{"rendered":"ESG Communications: Where Genuine Impact Ends and Greenwashing Begins"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The most fashionable phrase in corporate communications over the past five years has been ‘our commitment to sustainability.’ I have written those words more times than I care to count. And I have spent a growing proportion of my time in recent years helping clients figure out how to make that commitment mean something \u2014 or, in some cases, advising them very directly that their ‘commitment’ is not yet real enough to communicate.<\/p>\n

The pressure on brands to demonstrate ESG credentials \u2014 environmental, social, and governance \u2014 has never been higher. Consumers demand it. Investors price it in. Talent expects it as a baseline. And media scrutiny of ESG claims has become forensic in ways that organisations genuinely underestimate.<\/p>\n

Greenwashing \u2014 the practice of communicating environmental commitments that are superficial, misleading, or unsubstantiated \u2014 is no longer just a reputational risk. It is increasingly a regulatory and legal risk. The EU’s Green Claims Directive, the UK’s ASA crackdowns on misleading environmental advertising, and growing SEBI guidance in India are all pointing in the same direction: you had better be able to substantiate what you say.<\/p>\n

From a PR perspective, the challenge is this: the brands with the most aggressive and sophisticated ESG communications programmes are not always the ones with the most meaningful ESG performance. And the brands with genuinely transformative sustainability practices are sometimes the ones that communicate them least effectively.<\/p>\n

The communications framework that actually serves brands well in this space starts from the inside out. What are you actually doing? What is measurable? What is independently verifiable? What targets have you set, and what is your actual progress against them? Build the communications strategy around honest answers to those questions, and you will produce something that builds long-term trust.<\/p>\n

I have refused to develop ESG communications campaigns for clients who cannot answer those questions satisfactorily. Not because I’m particularly virtuous \u2014 but because a greenwashing scandal is infinitely more damaging to a brand than a frank acknowledgement that their sustainability journey is ongoing.<\/p>\n

Say less. Do more. Then say it accurately. That is the only ESG communications strategy that holds up over time.<\/p>\n

__________________________________________________________________________________<\/p>\n

The views and opinions published here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the publisher.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The most fashionable phrase in corporate communications over the past five years has been ‘our commitment to sustainability.’ I have written those words more times than I care to count. And I have spent a growing proportion of my time in recent years helping clients figure out how to make that commitment mean something \u2014 or, in some cases, advising them very directly that their ‘commitment’ is not yet real enough to communicate. The pressure on brands to demonstrate ESG credentials \u2014 environmental, social, and governance \u2014 has never been higher. Consumers demand it. Investors price it in. Talent expects <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2550","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-elevate-excellence-rt-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2550"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2556,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2550\/revisions\/2556"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2550"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2550"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/commsnews.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2550"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}