Why ESG should be part of your B2B PR campaign
A growing number of businesses are looking for ways to create a communications strategy that gives the right weighting to their ESG activities. That’s because many are concerned about being accused of greenwashing, especially those that make general statements without backing it up with data. Having an effective PR strategy will help your brand avoid this.
Communicating your ESG plan should sit at the core of your PR and communication messages and, as such, requires a clear, well thought-out approach. In terms of messages, your PR agency should be focused on making your ESG communication honest and transparent. To do that, ESG actions always speak louder than words, so if you can quantify the positive steps you have taken in this area it will enhance your brand strengths. There are now internationally recognised scoring systems that go a long way to quantifying your ESG actions.
Failure to do this opens your brand up to being accused of ‘greenwashing’. And, with the global sustainability movement growing in influence in recent years, there has been an equally powerful side effect and that is ‘corporate greenwashing’. We’ve all seen and heard examples as yet another company announces that it is saving the environment, without giving specific examples.
Eventually, this will present serious reputational challenges for businesses that get caught up in it.
One way of avoiding this is to make Environment, Sustainability and Governance intrinsic within your business, and not just around trying to sell more products and services, which is immediately obvious to customers! For example, simply planting trees via an online website, which might be in a far off land, or saying that your business welcomes diversity, isn’t going to cut it anymore!
There are better ways of engraining ESG in your business and we have guided our clients on a number of these. They range from supporting local communities, staff volunteer days, diversity of board members, through to promoting sustainable lifestyle of staff and data security.
The communication strategies we put together for out clients’ ESG revolve around three main pillars:â¯Sustaining the planet by transitioning to a net zero-world; building integrity through ethical, transparent, and secure business practices and; creating equitable opportunity by cultivating diversity and increasing community investment.
The question is: does putting resources into ESG and supporting PR strategies deliver a return on investment? The answer is emphatically, yes! Brands that have clearly defined ESG strategies have been shown to achieve greater loyalty, faster growth and be perceived by customers and stakeholders as having greater transparency.
.
ESG programmes are becoming more important for businesses as a way of demonstrating a responsible approach. A clear B2B PR strategy will help you navigate the diverse areas of carbon emissions, human rights and waste amongst others. Ultimately it will mean that your brand and businesses avoid being tarnished with the greenwash brush
At Dragonfly PR we are a B2B PR agency based in the north of England that specialises in the manufacturing and construction sector, helping you to communicate the complex issues that your ESG strategy presents.
For more details about our B2B PR and Social Media service, email hello@dragonflypr.co.uk or call 0114 349 5345.