Creating pro-ESG content when the critics cry woke.

When Paul Snyder, Executive Vice President of Stewardship at Tillamook County Creamery Association, gets fired up, you can hear it in his voice. So I knew exactly where he stood when listening to a recent podcast where he addressed head-on the anti-ESG movement. “Totally ridiculous” were his exact words.

He backed that up with research supporting ESG as a business strategy for managing risk while simultaneously pursuing profitability. And he debunked a myth we’ve also challenged—that ESG is purely investor-driven. For companies like Tillamook who have been doing stewardship work for a while, Snyder says it’s really about being a values-driven company. And whether you call it sustainability, ESG, stewardship, global impact, or something else, a company’s values must be rooted in their programs and initiatives. From this foundation, you can create content that’s authentic and verifiable—with the kind of heft and meaning that’s the exact opposite of “woke.”

Lean into beliefs

The “woke” label being broadly assigned to ESG is causing confusion, leading people to believe that focusing on ESG diminishes a company’s financial returns when research proves otherwise. What’s worse is how it reduces this methodical, meaningful work to a political meme. One of the most effective ways to tune out the noise and quiet the haters is through communications that show how your company mission and values are inextricably linked to your ESG program—and totally embedded in how you operate.

A report by Allison + Partners and Headstand, “Reconciling ESG: Rhetoric vs. Reality” surveyed over 1,000 consumers and found that in the wake of the anti-ESG movement, clear and compelling communications are more critical than ever. And that means ESG communication has got to be about data and facts, which provide proof that what you say is what you do.

But it’s also got to be about your reason why.

“How to make ESG real,” a report by McKinsey, talks about forward-looking companies achieving this by “making ESG intrinsic to their strategy by defining, implementing, and refining a carefully constructed portfolio of ESG initiatives that connect to the core of what they do.”

ESG for all

Aligning ESG with only the investor audience may help the naysayers to fit their condemnation neatly into a box that ties ESG to financial performance. But it also exposes a lack of knowledge. Even companies that are early in their ESG journey understand that caring for the earth and the people who inhabit it have company-wide benefits that matter to many. Wanting employees to belong, needing natural resources to be preserved, requiring accountability for those in charge —these issues matter to multiple audiences from partners to employees to consumers.

That brings us back to the need for talking about ESG in a clear and compelling way so that it resonates with all your audiences. Whether it’s an article, an ad, or a 100-page global impact report, the heart of any content needs to inform and educate while also connecting with the human in us all.

Extend the story

To strengthen the link between your ESG program and company values, you can use a range of storytelling strategies that go beyond reports and requirements to turn information into inspiration and inspiration into action. Some of the ways we’ve helped companies do this are:

• showing their values through profiles of people living them
• promoting their purpose with executive thought leadership articles
• diving deep into an initiative with an explainer video
• summarizing progress on goals using an infographic

As Snyder says, “ESG is a new term for what a lot of companies have been doing for a long time.” It’s just that as more companies prioritize ESG, more people are becoming aware. And that means the greenwashing radar has gone way up, along with the critics crying woke. The goal, of course, is to avoid both altogether. By staying true to your brand’s values, backing up ESG claims with details and metrics, and showing the world what your programs make possible, you won’t just survive the anti-ESG haters, you’ll find new ways for your brand to thrive.