Enjoy this post from the SSC Archives.
Here’s the cold, hard truth – maybe you, your shareholders, your CEO, and your customers don’t really care much about climate change when viewed through the “quarterly earnings” lens of business operations.
Well, they’re probably not alone.
According to the Yale Project on Climate Communications, there are six different belief subsets held by the public, ranging from “skeptic” to “activist.”
A recent article in Green Biz took those subsets and applied them to a simplified model discussing how business decision-makers may fall into categories regarding the business’ role in climate change.
Knowing the “belief subset” a company’s leadership, falls into is important, but as a sustainability professional, advocate, concerned stakeholder or policy maker, it’s more important to understand the subset position in the context of change management. Essentially, identifying the subset will help also pair the appropriate persuasive tactics to shift corporate thinking from subset to subset, pushing towardfrom #1 “skeptic” into #2 “acknowledgement,” and ideally, all of the way to #6 “thought leader/activist.”
The business community and its beliefs are as varied as the general public’s views on climate change, so be deliberate in understanding your audience when advocating for progress, reporting, action, or funding for a sustainability initiative.
Many of our best clients started out in the middle of this climate change subset scale – feeling pressure from stakeholders to “do something,” but not understanding or having the in-house expertise to make any progress on the issue. Through sustainability reporting and materiality assessments, among other services, many of our clients have been able to move from feeling pressured to actively embracing CSR initiatives – while earning new business, remaining competitive, and saving money in the process.
No matter where your organization is on the spectrum, the momentum toward taking meaningful action on climate change issues is going to reach you eventually. Get ahead of the curve. We can help.