Getting the inside track on sustainable marketing and comms

With sustainability legislation tightening, marketing and communications professionals need to take care over greenwashing. That’s why I went to Sustainability School last week.

Many people will have missed the news on 24 May 2024 that false and misleading green claims in marketing campaigns could lead to companies being fined a whopping 10% of their global turnover. The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill is designed to discourage false and misleading marketing messages. But it was easy to miss as it came into force by the general election announcement two days before.

With it in mind, now is a good time to brush up on sustainability knowledge. So I joined an online training hosted by Schneider Electric. Called Sustainability School, the online course was first developed to upskill the company’s own employees.

However, it’s now available to everyone. And it’s well worth joining as Time magazine named the firm as the world’s most sustainable company in June 2024. By taking Chapters 1 and 2 in four and a half hours, I’ve absorbed some of that green approach.

Chapter 1 covers the basics of climate science and taught me a few new facts. For example, I now know that water vapour can act as a greenhouse gas. As a result, I will now take more care when writing about green hydrogen – it’s not accurate to say that burning green hydrogen has no impact. I’m also fully briefed on why the climate varies naturally, giving me ammunition to dismiss any climate change deniers if I need to.

However, Chapter 2 includes a section dedicated to marketing and communications professions. It contains helpful guidance on how to back up environmental claims with solid evidence.

For me, this approach comes naturally as it builds on my experience of PR for engineering and industry. The secret to successful thought leadership for engineers is to respect the current state of their industry, balance the needs of newcomers and old-timers and back up claims with real-world proof.

And from a personal point of view, it’s handy that I can use my Chapter 1 and 2  certificates to log continuous professional development points with the CIPR.