The aim of any business communication is to raise awareness, influence perceptions and ultimately influence the behaviour of employees, customers or other stakeholders.
Communicating an environmental or ethical message brings some specific challenges and sensitivities. It requires expertise to be heard above the noise of other messages and then it needs to be believed so that it will lead to behavioural change.
Growing a reputation for good environmental or ethical management will result in real operational benefits by motivating and sustaining good practice. But where non-tangibles are said to make up the major element in determining business value, a strong reputation in this field has also important strategic benefit.
With over 15 years experience in communicating environmental messages for a diverse range of sectors, The Environmental Academy Communications Team has established a leading reputation in this field.
To communicate effectively we need to have a comprehensive understanding of how environmental and ethical communications will be received by a target audience. The Academy has access to, and undertaken itself, a significant body of research in understanding environmental attitudes and how these have developed over recent years. We help organisations position themselves in a way that is palatable to the environmental attitudes of its target audience but often, at the same time, influencing those attitudes. This may be acknowledging ‘green inclined’ or ‘green advocate’ behaviours in consumers or identifying ‘office campaigners’ to help drive forward internal change.
We work closely with clients' communications team so we can provide a co-ordinated message, be consistent with overall branding and adhere to important internal communications protocols. Clients will have knowledge and expertise that will be critical to the success of an environmental or ethical campaign.
Our expertise cuts across all forms of communication and often adopts a multi-media approach- utilising mobile, Internet, word-of-mouth as well as more traditional communication media. Environmental Academy projects where our communication skills have been utilised include:
- Working alongside the implementation of an Environmental Management Standard, such as ISO 140001, to ensure employee behavioural change that will ensure environmental standards are sustained and developed.
- Developing a strategy to communicate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) to a range of stakeholders.
- Multimedia campaign development to convincingly communicate an environmental feature of products, a service, or brand
- Enable organisations in the environmental sector to communicate effectively to their target market.
- Developing communication material such as leaflets, flash cards, web sites, video and multimedia content that promotes environmental messages in an effective and engaging way.
- Developing an effective communications strategy for environmental or ethical messages, is a significant challenge in an era of mass marketing and public cynicism. The Environmental Academy Communications Team has the know-how to convert the challenge into a major commercial benefit by:
- Getting your message heard
- Making it believable
- Enhancing corporate reputation and value
Contact the Academy Team on +44 (0)191 495 6248
or e-mail info@environmental-academy.co.uk for further information.