How to talk about sustainability without burning down your corporate house

Let’s be honest. For a while, “sustainability” was the open concept living room of the corporate world. You couldn’t walk through a company’s front door without tripping over a recycling pledge or knocking your shin on a net zero promise. 

But the neighborhood has changed.  

In today’s fractured U.S. political landscape, the topic of ESG has gone from a polite dinner party conversation to a food fight. To the Left, you aren't doing enough. To the Right, you’re engaging in “woke capitalism.” To the average consumer, even though they look to companies to solve a lot of these big, scary problems, they’re also afraid that you’re just trying to sell them slightly more expensive stuff. 

That brings us to the communications construct. 

Never heard of a communications construct? I’ll bet you know what I’m talking about even if you don’t spend all day every day thinking about marketing and how to drive brand preference based on sustainability. 

You’ve heard of a brand house, right? A communications construct is, at its core, an extension of your brand house. It is a sub-brand house focused solely on sustainability. If your broader corporate brand is your main residence (sturdy, reliable and familiar), your sustainability messaging can’t just be the pop of color that brightens up a room. It needs its own architectural blueprint. It needs pillars that show the “what.” Those are the stats, numbers and other reasons people should believe what you’re saying. It needs a sentiment, that emotionally compelling language that connects the “what” to the “why.” And it needs the short pithy value proposition that tells your “why” to the world in a bite-sized way that is unforgettable and unique to your brand. 

Let’s talk about why you need a sustainability-focused communications construct now more than ever. 

In the current U.S. political climate, words are loaded weapons. One man’s “decarbonization strategy” is another man’s “radical leftist agenda.” Conversely, one woman's “energy efficiency” is another's “corporate greenwashing.” 

Building a communications construct isn't about separating your values from your business. It's about organizing them to survive the storm. A dedicated communications construct allows you to organize your sustainability proof points into distinct pillars that can be deployed strategically across your messaging strategy. 

• When talking to Wall Street or Red State regulators: You invite them into the Efficiency & Resilience room. You talk about cost savings, energy independence, risk mitigation and job growth. 
• When talking to Gen Z consumers or Blue State policy makers: You invite them into the Impact & Stewardship room. You talk about carbon footprints, ethical sourcing and community health. 

Same house, same foundation, different entry doors. All focused around your most important audiences and what they care about. Without this structure, you’re just shouting “WE LOVE NATURE SO MUCH! LOOK AT US!” into a void that hates those empty vagaries more every day. A strategic messaging document focused on sustainability makes sure your message resonates with the right audiences, is believable, and builds your brand rather than detracting from it. 

We are seeing a massive trend of “Greenhushing.” Companies are terrified to talk about the great things they are doing for people and the planet out of fear of backlash. This is a tragedy. You spent the money on reducing your impact, you should get credit for it. 

A communications construct gives you the confidence to speak up. With it, you aren’t just winging it with ad-hoc social posts with a green leaf on them. You have a structured hierarchy of your most important claims, supported by data, tone-checked to align with your brand and built around your business goals. It’s not just marketing; it’s armor for your brand.  

So why not just have one pillar of your brand house focused on sustainability? Without a dedicated framework, sustainability messaging tends to get bolted onto the main brand like an ugly addition that wasn't permitted by the HOA, which waters down the value you’re bringing to the market. A communications construct ensures that your sustainability story complements the main brand house rather than competing with it. It serves as a bridge: 

• Main Brand Promise: “We build the toughest trucks on the road.” 
• Sustainability Bridge: “We build them with 40% recycled steel so we can keep building them for the next 100 years.”

The final reason you need a communications construct is because consumers’ BS detector is at an all-time high. Americans are tired. They’re skeptical. Our data shows that while 67% of people percent of people want to hear from a brand about their efforts to reduce environmental impact, ¼ don’t believe what they put in the recycle bin actually gets recycled! And they’re skeptical with good reason. They’ve been promised that buying a specific yogurt will save the rainforest, and they’ve noticed the rainforests are still in trouble. 

In a polarized America, brands must be bilingual. You need to speak both Profit and Planet fluently, without stuttering. A communications construct gives you the dictionary, the grammar and the confidence to say what needs to be said, to the right audiences, without burning down the neighborhood.