A key-note address I gave for the Public Relations Institute of New Zealand (PRiNZ) conference on the important role PR and communications professionals have in the sustainability area.
Remember to click slide to get name up Intro myself – anything that isn’t covered already by the person introducing me.
Human extinction probability
So that’s the context, let’s get into what it all means…
Nothing like a definition that’s more confusing than the word it’s defining! Precautionary principle – if we don’t know, for sure, what the impact will be of doing something, we shouldn’t do it. The precautionary principle is based on…
And understanding this is the core philosophy of sustainable business I want to paint a picture of some of the issues that my industry faces, almost all of which can be solved by your industry…
Everyone gets caught up in the science
Resources that we use per person Example of Water Humans currently use the resources of 1.25 Earths So assuming we don’t go on a mass cull, we need to reduce the amount of resources we use per person. A much easier way of looking at it is the funnel metaphor…
It’s not about chaining yourself to a tree (1923 to 2000) So what are these theories…
So that's the internal drivers, but what about the external ones…
By comparison – if you are seen to be not doing it, human philology dictates that you will automatically be seen as the pole opposite – silence is just as bad The financial drivers…
Minimum requirement – being as bad as the law will allow you to be. So that’s all the reasons why you’d be daft not to; but what about the opportunities…
It’s not all negative drivers So when we talk about sustainable thinking, what’s included?...
Broad brush of the topics covered under Corporate Sustainability Cover off Sustainable Development – the oxymoron There's a great deal there, so let’s break it down a bit more…
So that’s all the theory, but how does it work in practice…
There are plenty of New Zealand examples, but this is a global one (talk about my involvement) the real drivers – sound economic sense, Aus$2.5 million saved in waste reduction over two years – why wouldn’t you? Ray Anderson (the face of Interface) President – mentioned in The Corporation – can’t get better positive PR than that and it was free! What was the difference between us (recognised as a global leader in sustainability) and our competitors, who got branded as green washers? – damned good PR and Comm’s people, that’s what and that’s ALL! So what’s driving New Zealand businesses to engage in sustainability today?...
Hundreds of org’s in NZ already report So what does this mean for you?...Now we’re getting to the important bit that you’ve all been waiting so patiently for…
GRI tells them what to report on – what data to report
Even worse, more often than not it’s environmental consultants who have been ‘rebranded’ as sustainability consultants There is a framework that everyone uses though, so lets’ have a look at that…
Everyone who’s anyone uses this framework Sets out a series of performance indicators for organisations to report on – it’s basically what everyone is expecting to hear about from a sustainability perspective: Waste to landfill Energy usage CO2 emissions How you treat your staff etc and what you are doing to improve matters So, again, there’s the ‘what’ but not the how. Oh, but don’t worry, that’s covered as well…
Yep, that’s all they tell you. Much help? There is also a diagram if you like those instead, which is actually more confusing than the words. It’s not hard to see how most organisations get so caught up in the technical aspects, they forget why they are reporting in the first place, especially when it isn’t legislatively required. Reporting is a communications tool, so why is it that businesses lose sight of the fact that people read it?
Currently an enormous gap. Example of stating data without meaning – co2 emissions per year in tonnes – what does that mean? What’s that per person or per m2 – what do other companies produce, what are the plans to reduce etc??? It’s all good in theory, but what the whole movement is about is getting people to change their behaviour, so do we manage that?...
(internal & external) But currently those trying to influence people are environmental or sustainability professionals – clearly not the best communicators! Another one of those unhelpful terminologies I mentioned earlier, so what does that actually mean?…
The basic psychology The environmental preacher! We always go with the easiest thing to change – our beliefs - Give example of a guy with the V8
Don’t tell us what we can’t do all the time – stop doing this, don’t do that – tell us what we can do for a change – then we can act. We are starting to get it though, so I wanted to show you a good example of that (since I’ve done nothing but whinge the whole time – typical Pom)!
Try and get high resolution version
Remember to click slide to get name up Thank everyone for your attention, and now we’ve got time for questions, so fire away…