If employees don’t understand your company’s ESG goals, you will struggle to reach them.
One of the greatest stories of employees leading change in the corporate world is the story of Michael Chanak, an employee at Procter & Gamble (P&G) from 1985-2003. During the height of the AIDS epidemic, Michael, a queer activist, fought to include sexual orientation in the company’s discrimination policy. His efforts changed the company and made P&G one of the first Fortune 500 companies to protect sexual orientation as a status, setting a precedent for the entire business world. His legacy continues through ongoing policy impact and is detailed in the documentary The Words Matter: How Individuals Can Affect Change.
Employees are crucial to innovation and success. This is especially true for your organization’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) program. In our experience, actively involving employees in areas where they excel and are passionate is vital to unlocking their potential and tackling your organization’s biggest ESG challenges.
Our internal communications agency has helped organizations harness employees’ passions to shape and tell their ESG story. We recognize that ESG happens on the inside and that internal communications professionals are essential in an organization’s efforts to fight climate change, reduce inequality, and work towards other UN sustainable development goals.
Based on our work with clients to report and communicate their ESG commitments, we’ve identified six critical practices:
Be inclusive
Involve employees from diverse backgrounds in developing your ESG priorities and strategies. This enriches decision-making and secures broad support across your organization. Make sure you invite subject matter experts and open the door to enthusiasts and volunteers eager to be a force for good. With our support and encouragement, one of our clients recently established an ESG employee resource group and the response and level of interest from employees was amazing. Encouraging participation from across the organization and ensuring that every voice, perspective, and idea is heard and valued is part of this work.
Communicate transparently
Clear and consistent sharing of ESG goals, progress, and results is essential. It helps employees understand and see the relevance of ESG topics to the business and their work. Transparency also means preventing internal greenwashing by openly sharing where there are gaps, failures, or more work to be done to achieve targets and goals. Our approach is to create a regular cadence or drumbeat of storytelling and information that keeps employees connected to the ESG program rather than simply publishing a yearly report.
Empower through education
Provide content and information to educate employees on sustainability issues and practices. ESG topics can be unfamiliar and complex. For example, many people are unfamiliar with the differences between Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. These range from direct emissions from company operations (Scope 1) to indirect emissions from purchased energy (Scope 2) and all other indirect emissions in the supply chain (Scope 3). By building a better understanding of ESG concepts and goals, you will empower your people with knowledge and encourage continuous learning and experimenting to nurture a growth mindset.
Celebrate and recognize ESG leadership
Celebrate contributions from all departments—not just R&D—to sustainability goals. Recognizing efforts from finance, procurement, logistics, and more can spur innovation and commitment across your company. We love using storytelling to highlight initiatives, progress, and success stories. A great way to do this is to include ‘vignettes,’ in the ESG report or by using a short vlog to give a behind the scenes view of important ESG work.
Listen and involve
It took Michael Chanak several years to have his voice heard, and the discrimination policy at P&G changed. Build systems, processes and psychological safety to harness employee voices and ideas. They might not always be acted upon, but by communicating that you value their input and ideas and sharing those ideas that make a difference, you’ll further encourage innovation and greater participation in ESG initiatives.
Use an expert partner
Partner with external experts to deepen your sustainability strategies and craft effective internal communication to spark interest, deepen understanding, and celebrate progress. These collaborations take your employee experience to the next level and bring specialized knowledge and innovative solutions, making complex ESG challenges more manageable. We love being a trusted advisor, sounding board, and idea generator for ESG leaders.
ESG programs and actions are getting more attention these days. Much of this is due to mandatory disclosures and reporting increases, but our experience is that ESG can and should be so much more than a financial reporting exercise. We’ve learned that employees are passionate about topics such as climate change and social justice, and intelligent organizations are elevating ESG by harnessing employee enthusiasm to make it an inside job.
Book a discovery call if you are new to ESG or want to learn more ways of involving employees in your program. We’d be happy to share our experience and knowledge.
