Communicating Sustainability
How visual storytelling can support communicating sustainability
Communicating Sustainability is still a major challenge for most organisations according to a recent survey by CIM in the UK:
The survey found that 64% of respondents didn’t think their company was doing enough to communicate its environmental, social and governance (ESG) messages effectively.
Yet, 66% were very conscious of the risks of their business being accused of either green-washing, green-hushing, or both; with 80% stating that they’re facing more pressure internally and externally to evidence their claims on sustainability.
Communicating sustainability effectively drives benefits
What better evidence is there than visual evidence? This is why photography and also video, is being more widely used to communicate social impact, environmental initiatives and other programmes that demonstrate corporate responsibility.
Visual storytelling supports sustainability communications when they authentically balances corporate aspiration with transparency, and strategy with the motivation to change behaviour. Photography and video play a crucial role in this process by providing visual evidence of these sustainability initiatives, helping businesses to avoid greenwashing and greenhushing, and instead build trust and credibility.
The power of photography to cut-through
Photography has the ability to move, inspire, and motivate. We looked at one ESG reporting presentation for 2024 yesterday and found only four small photographs in a 40 page document, the rest was text.
Photography and/or video content can bring sustainability efforts to life, meaning that organisations can showcase real-world impact that can been seen, rather than relying on text alone. Strong photography can document and tell the story of sustainable practices in action providing internal and external stakeholders with an authentic view of progress.
Video can add further depth by capturing interviews that allow stakeholders to hear about the positive impact being made. Photography and video can illustrate the steps a company is taking toward sustainability, humanising the narrative and building trust through transparency.
The problem with the stock images
“We already use photography in our reports” This is a quote from a sustainability manager of a major financial institution. However, the photography they use are stock images, purchased from an online library, usually after entering a keyword or phrase.
Most people use this service because it’s cheap and fast but it also works based on algorithms which means that the most popular images downloaded are the ones you get shown first. That means that it is very likely that your image has also been downloaded by many others for exactly the same purpose – and yet one of the reasons for reporting and communicating sustainability is to be build trust and credibility.
Sustainability is meant to be a competitive advantage – helping organisations to attract the best talent and customers, so why would you want to look like everybody else in your reporting?
Communicating Sustainability Visually
Those responsible for ESG or sustainability communications should thin about integrating photography into their sustainability strategies and projects from the outset. It’s not just about building a library of assets, it’s also another form of governance and reporting.
Photography and video can support sustainability managers and communicators by creating genuine visual stories of the sustainability journey that will resonate with stakeholders internally and externally. Internally people will feel a sense of pride and purpose, externally you can build trust and loyalty.
A documentary style approach will strike the right balance between promotional storytelling and being seen to be accountable. With the right professionals you can expect to capture images that focus on progress and challenges in equal measure, ensuring that story is honest and credible.
About Clarity
Clarity is a small photography agency (we also produce videos) based between the M3 and M4 on the Hampshire/Berkshire border.
We focus primarily on documentary style projects and work with sustainability managers in the retail, banking, construction, and manufacturing sectors to engage audiences with stories of CSR and sustainability. We work with our clients to create compelling visual stories that support employee communication, investor relations, campaigns, and external stakeholder engagement.
We first started working with clients to communicate sustainability initiatives and targets in 2006 when we were involved in launching and communicating the CSR commitments of the John Lewis Partnership to 80,000 employees and thousands of suppliers – and we still do it today.
To find out more, why not get in touch here.
