Where’s ESG communications heading in an era of #FridaysForFuture, conscious consumers and shareholder activism? And how are Europe’s biggest companies responding the competing pressures for greater transparency and incisive messages for a social media audience?
We set out to answer these ambitious questions in our first European edition of .future, a new venture in Lundquist’s decade-old research into sustainability communications. Key findings have been highlighted in an article published on Triple Pundit today.
The article explains that our research takes “a new, future-oriented perspective” built around real stakeholder expectations and looking for credible, concrete stories about sustainability. After launching our CSR Online Awards back in 2008, this mission is as “urgent as ever”, driven by “surging interest in sustainability and an expectation that business should articulate how it is contributing to our collective future challenges.”
Our .future research looked at how Europe’s top 50 companies are positioning themselves in this landscape and how much they are able to combine “the talk” and “the walk”. We found that the best companies are managing to connect communications to the substance of their impacts of their business, suggesting companies are working hard not only to be relevant and engaging but to make sure communication is backed up by the kind of robust evidence that users clamour for.
Nine companies considered qualify as “Narrators” for this reason: oil companies BP and Eni, consumer groups Nestlé and Unilever, healthcare firms Bayer and Roche as well as BASF, Deutsche Telekom and National Grid.
Curious to know how your sustainability communications measures up to the best in Europe? Get in touch with James osborne (james.osborne@lundquist.it) for information about our .future assessment and workshop.
Read details of the European findings and download a free white paper.
