Are you familiar with the 2030 Sustainability Agenda put forward by the United Nations?
If not, don't worry - you're not alone.
In fact, if you visit their website to learn more about the agenda, you'll likely find yourself facing pages upon pages of information that can be overwhelming to navigate.
The agenda tries to provide a blueprint for creating a better and more sustainable future for all. The overall goal is to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure that everyone can live a peaceful and prosperous life.
However, these goals are not communicated in a way that is accessible, causing individuals, communities, and organisations to view sustainability as something that is confusing and difficult to implement... which often leads to inaction.
Therefore, in this article, we wanted to share our thoughts on the following to get the sustainability storytelling conversations reignited.
Despite the availability of information covering the steps needed to achieve the global sustainability goals by 2030, the information is not being communicated to the general public in a way that is clear, memorable and actionable.
We live in a world where greenwashing is prevalent, making the public even more resistant and sceptical than ever before. Commitments made in writing are often seen as lip service if there is no meaningful, transparent action plan or evidence of progress.
Sustainability is also a complex issue that comes with its own set of industry language and information that can be overwhelming to the general public. To encourage action, the information needs to be made as accessible as possible.
Even then, people can read what you’re saying, but they can’t ‘see’ anything as a result.
The covid pandemic caused a large number of cultural shifts, one of the main ones being a desire for simplicity.
For years we were subjected to an information overload. Policy changes, last-minute lockdowns, news updates hourly backtracking on those policy changes. Everyone had different information and barely anyone could agree on what the right thing to do was.
Moving towards Net-Zero is seeing similar challenges. There’s a lot of information and data that is being collated to identify our current position, desired outcomes, and how to achieve them. However, presenting raw data and overwhelming people with information does not help to mobilise action.
Think of some of the following successful marketing taglines, remember where they came from?
Just Do It.
A Diamond is Forever.
Finger Licking Good
Make America Great Again...
Creating a narrative that the audience can imagine in their own mind is crucial to having them buy into the vision or idea. Everyone is unique, so you need to create a narrative where the audience can fill in the blanks to determine what that means to them.
Sustainability, on the other hand, had statements that caused confusion and countered this with mass amounts of disconnected information.
The average person is very unlikely to go through any of this information, let alone all of it. They don’t know who to listen to, or where to begin so they do what they have already been told, they try and recycle and may or may not avoid using plastic straws.
There is a rule often discussed within NLP and the Law of Attraction.
“What you focus on expands”
This essentially means, where you put your attention, you will attract more of that into your life. If you feel negative, you will look for negative things, if you feel positive, you will see the positive side.
This is very interesting, especially when applied to the current narrative of climate change.
Because If we asked 1000 people what the future would look like if we failed to reach net zero, most would be able to paint a very bleak picture.
The ice caps will melt, ocean levels will rise, marine life will suffer, many animals will become extinct and more frequent natural disasters… to name a few.
However, if we asked those same people to describe what would happen at a local level should the sustainability targets be hit… Well, what do you think that would look like?
Case and point. Most people don't have a clue what the future COULD look like, should we succeed.
The sustainability message focuses primarily on negative news, and there is nowhere near enough conversation taking place on the positive picture of the future. We need more positive stories about technological advancements, tangible actions taken by organisations and visions for a sustainable future.
The saying "what we focus on expands" holds true, and too much focus on the negative makes people feel hopeless. Only by painting a crystal clear image of the positive future can we actually move towards it, otherwise, we will default to the next clear vision we have. Which is the negative story.
It’s fair to say that the negative story doesn’t have a happy ending for any of us.
The way forward for sustainability storytelling involves a few key strategies.
Firstly, the entire narrative needs to move away from failure and towards success. We can’t move towards a future we can’t clearly see. We need broader action from organisations at a government level to visualise the outcome should we hit global sustainability targets.
This should then be applied at a regional and local level to paint clearer pictures for the individuals. It’s hard for someone to understand the severity of destroying the rainforest if they’ve never even left the country…
We need to answer the question “What does success look like in their own community?”
We also need to drastically simplify the messaging of sustainability. There is too much confusion, too many opinions and too much misinformation. Many people feel overwhelmed by the plethora of choices they could make, so instead of taking small steps, they resort to inaction.
At an individual level, any action is better than in-action, we just need more people to do what they can with the resources they have available to them to get started. This snowball effect will compound over time as sustainable practices become the societal norm.
These steps will allow us to start shaping the narrative of sustainability in a more promising and positive light.
Together we can create a vision of the future we want to live in, and not just one we’re trying to avoid.
What are your thoughts? We’d love to hear your own insights and recommendations on the subject via our social media/ email so that together we can create a more sustainable future!
