Creative Ways to Promote Sustainability

Finding ways to communicate your sustainability initiatives to your boss, your employees, your customers, and investors can be a challenge. Here are some creative ways to share your sustainability initiatives through words, visuals, and actions.

Here are some creative ways to share your sustainability story to help promote your efforts and build engagement.

Instead of focusing on perfection, we must do our best and look for opportunities for continuous improvement, adaptability, and faster implementation to propel our progress forward. This mindset fosters a more productive and less stressful business environment, leading to greater success and innovation.

EMPLOYEES

Show appreciation, get feedback, and offer incentives.

Employees are an important audience when communicating sustainability. You want to show them appreciation for their ideas and leadership, get feedback, and offer incentives to engage.

Use your intranet to post a recent success
Share success stories on your website / blog
Create a bulletin board ‘wall of fame’ photos
Paint one of your walls with white board paint and use it as place for people to share inspiring messages on how to be more sustainable in the workplace
Everyone loves to doodle! Put up a white paper banner in the lunch room, get a set of coloured markers, and let your team inspire your with their green ideas.
Share charts to show successes
Front row parking for electric cars
Showers & safe bike storage to encourage people to bike to work
Day off to volunteer
Social media posts sharing success stories
Ask for feedback! One of the greatest things we can do to show appreciate is listen and make changes. When you can’t, let them know why.
Sponsor employees who take their green initiatives beyond the office walls i.e. community garden project

EMPLOYEES, CUSTOMERS, SUPPLIERS, INVESTORS

Help people understand the WHY behind your sustainability initiatives.

Help people connect the dots to why they should be engaged with, and supportive of, your sustainability initiatives. Include articles, visuals, research, and insights on what is being done in your business, industry, community and globally. If you are facilities or the department in charge of the sustainability program, talk with your communications on how to best promote your story.

If you are a business owner, marketing director, or President of a small-medium sized business, a communications consultant who specializes in sustainability or corporate social responsibility can offer support with your campaign. There are also marketing agencies that specialize in serving environmentally-focused organizations and business owners, such as Acorn Studio Marketing & Co.

WAYS TO PROMOTE SUSTAINABILITY

Sustainability Report - Make them creative & engaging! Visual graphics, videos, and interactive PDF are all ways you can make your sustainability report more interesting. It is more likely your investors, employees and boss will read your entire report if you add design to the text and number rich content.
Incorporate your green story into your sales materials - brochures, trade show displays
Certification badges - Apply certifications, when applicable, you have to all marketing materials to give credibility
Website - sustainability statement / vision, news releases, success stories. Read about Envirotech Office Furniture and their sustainability story.
Blog - write about your work with a specific category for Green Team and/or Sustainability.
Social Media - share success stories, use hashtags #CSR Corporate Social Responsibility / #Sustainability
Print Posters
P.A. System - IKEA is one organization that shares their sustainability message on their store's P.A. system so people can hear when shopping.
Lunch n learn events
15 min. at the general office meeting for the green team to update everyone on progress is sometimes all you need
Create visuals on waste stream separation and post on blog, social media, and use in posters
Have your sustainability story as part of your corporate video!
Submit a press release - newsworthy items
Word of Mouth - mention at networking events as part of your 'Our Story'
Lead by example - business owners & CEOs should be examples for their employees on how to be an ambassador.
Team Building Exercises - in Nature! Consider taking your leadership team building exercises out into nature. Check out ForestFix.ca - leadership & executive skills training sessions! You get coaching and a chance to immerse yourself in nature (Canmore, Alberta)
Share your thought-leadership on sustainability - On their professional social media sites, such as LinkedIn, leaders can educate through thought leadership - sharing articles, joining groups, and commenting on relevant posts in their networl
Be available for comment for media opportunities - There are websites where you can find media opportunities to share your expertise - i.e. connectively.us
Ride your bike to work!
Green Team - Make sure you are engaged in the office green initiatives e.g. recycling.
Keynote Speaker - Speak at a conference / member meeting
Choose to donate to Charities that align with your Sustainability Values. At Acorn Studio Marketing , we support OneTreePlanted .

COMMUNITY

Support your Community

Leverage the marketing opportunity, networking, and support available by getting involved with various groups in your community that are proactive in supporting environmental and wellness initiatives in your local community. Make sure these groups align with your vision and values. There are always local not-for-profit organizations and charities who are looking for volunteers and sponsorship.

"Alone we can do so little. Together we can do so much." - Helen Keller

Looking to connect with or support a sustainability-focused organization?

Here are some local and national directories and organizations (Canada)

This is only a sample list to help you get started and not meant to be an endorsement of any kind.