In the last 30 days alone “climate change”, as a term, appears in nearly 300 articles in the Financial Times. While this is partly due to the COP26 taking place in a little under a month from now there is growing urgency and accountability for action demanded by all stakeholders. The public are holding policymakers and companies accountable, investors are holding companies accountable, companies require leadership, regulatory clarity and support from governments, employees are increasingly holding their own employers accountable and watching over all – the media – are holding all publicly accountable.
Gone are the days that communicating about ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) targets and best practices was the privy of the consumer sector. Trade media are increasingly making the connect between for example, climate change and energy efficiency and the important role the “value chain” and “manufacturing processes” have as part of this chain and its criticality in reaching the goal of zero emissions.
The view of PR practicioners
Looking at these trends from another perspective, the Public Relations industry is also aware of this. According to a recent survey by Vuelio, a well-known PR software and media database, 63% of PR practitioners affirm that ESG has an impact on their clients and 32% of the organisations interviewed, state that they have policies in place to evaluate and manage ESG risk while the 41% are working on it (Vuelio, 2021). The opportunity for industrial businesses is clear: this is now a matter of survival – many of the valid improvements in energy efficiency can and should be understood by their target audience as directly correlating with “higher” goals of climate change mitigation. And the media get this too! Trade, national and financial journalists alike are increasingly receptive to and appreciative of the importance for manufacturing companies to meet standards such as ISO 14064-1 certification on their journeys to carbon neutrality.
The PR practitioner in the industrial sector needs to understand these bigger issues as well as their clients’ business strategy and value proposition, creating a clear, recognizable and honest connect to ensure their clients’ messages receive the attention they deserve. This is not just a matter of good PR, nor even helping our clients grow their reputation and sales, but is increasingly about all of us, in our ways and means, taking responsibility for improving the understanding and effectiveness of industrial processes to meet the challenges our planet and humanity jointly face.