In 2010, Unilever CEO Paul Polman told the BBC that his company was putting sustainability at the heart of its global operations. Pledging to cut the environmental impact of its products in half, while simultaneously doubling sales, he said it is “the only way of doing business long-term.”

He’s not a lone voice. When The Economist held its Sustainable Business Summit in 2011, the significance of the topic was underlined by the fact that it attracted speakers from leading firms such as Tui, Shell, 02, Siemens and Standard Chartered Bank.

Genuine commitment

Sustainability, however, is a slippery beast from a PR point of view. This is because any corporate claims to be sustainable or environmentally-friendly will inevitably be scrutinised by green lobby groups then amplified by the media. Car manufacturer VW, for example, may have thought it was doing a good job of reducing C02 emissions on some of its newer makes and models. But that didn’t protect it from a well-orchestrated and marketing-savvy attack by Greenpeace in the middle of last year.

In PR terms, a scenario like VW vs Greenpeace is complex, because it is no longer enough for brands to persuade media organisations to listen to their side of the story. 10 years ago, VW might have been able to limit the damage caused by persuading newspaper editors that its commitment to sustainability is genuine. But these days the debate is played out through social media - where standards of proof are less rigorously adhered to, where an extreme point of view can be accepted as mainstream, and where a consumer’s bad day can be interpreted as systemic brand failure. The double whammy is that the media can then report the story at one stage removed; so even if the allegations are questionable, they are still disseminated as a 'spat' story.

Avoiding a 'greenwash'

In this context, brands need all the friends they can get – so the sustainability argument needs to be delivered to as many stakeholders as possible, starting with your own employees.

Convincing your own team of your sustainability credentials is critical, because if your employees regard the issue as a waste of time, a greenwash, a policy that costs jobs or a non-essential/voluntary aspect of their job description, how can you ever expect to persuade the public of your green commitment?

There’s a good PRCA Case Study on this subject, in which agency GolinHarris worked with Kraft coffee brand Kenco on an employee-facing sustainability information programme. In this case, client and agency developed a one-day event for 130 employees, in a setting that reflected the theme of sustainability.

There’s plenty of scope to get this kind of event wrong. But the Kenco/GolinHarris team made sure every detail was in line with the sustainability message they were trying to deliver: “The venue chosen was the eco-conference centre at the award-winning Sheepdrove Organic Farm inBerkshire,” says the PRCA case study. “The tone was set right at the start with employees receiving a “paperless” teaser invitation. Attendees were discouraged from taking their own transport - coach transport was provided, and Al Gore's ‘An Inconvenient Truth' was shown during the journey.”

With the framework set, it was important that the messages were delivered by the right people. So presentations were given by Kraft senior executives, representatives from Kenco partner the Rainforest Alliance, guest speaker Ben Tuxworth from Forum for the Future and Diago Llach, a farm manager from El Salvador.

In other words, there was a mix of senior executive buy-in, expert insight and story-telling from the front-line. This was reinforced with hands-on activities, interactive workshops and guided tours that brought to life the principles at the heart of the Rainforest Alliance - environment, economy, society. Employees were also taken on tractor tours of organically-reared livestock, and shown reed bed irrigation as examples of sustainable practices.

Other elements designed to ensure employee engagement included the unveiling of the Kenco Employee Carbon Footprint League Table, which put together with information collated from employees and include ideas for how to make their everyday life greener. At the end, attendees left the event with a re-useable jute bag and a booklet on the Rainforest Alliance. This was also distributed to staff unable to attend, including factory workers.

Results: After the event 90% of those attending said their opinion on Kraft's commitment to sustainability had improved, and 92% felt more informed and engaged with Kenco's plans. According to Kenco and GolinHarris: “The event delivered against Kenco's goals, engaging theUK team in the Rainforest Alliance story, and getting each individual's personal commitment to the initiative. It was a particular success in terms of employee understanding of the key messages and impact on their motivation levels. The results show a significant shift in?attitudes, a clear commitment to the cause and strong likelihood of behavioural change”.

Cost: There’s always some concern about the cost of putting on such events. But Kenco says the event involved a “relatively small outlay”. Not only that, but there was a secondary benefit (aside from getting the workforce to buy into a core brand attribute). According to the client, “the format for the event and much of the collateral produced has been used as a template for briefing sessions with key retailers”. In other words, that the cost of Kenco’s PR exercise has been amortised against the crucial goal of achieving and retaining distribution. That can’t be bad.