Interview
Communication, marketing and sustainability issues
Blogger and co-founder of the French “Collectif des Chercheurs-Consultants”, Mathieu Jahnich is also an independent researcher-consultant on communication, marketing and sustainability issues.
Why is it essential to change communication codes in order to achieve France's carbon neutrality objectives?
Communication is one of the driving forces behind the dominant economic model, which is based on the myth of infinite growth in a finite world. The role of communication is to promote companies’ offerings, generate brand preference and encourage citizens to consume ever more products and services. This is clearly incompatible with the challenges of ecological transition and, in particular, the fight against climate change.
Companies are facing the mistrust of consumers, who consider them guilty of greenwashing, just because they are big companies. In concrete terms, what do they need to change to avoid this?
Consumers do indeed have less and less confidence in what companies claim. Particularly when it comes to sustainable development, social responsibility or climate.
- Make a sincere and meaningful commitment, not in a peripheral way, but on the main issues of their activity, at the heart of the business and by opening up to stakeholders.
- Communicate on factual elements, with evidence and, above all, with a posture of humility with regard to the scope of the results achieved and the efforts still to be made.
Large companies face an additional challenge: demonstrating that a given achievement has a significant impact on the scale and scope of their business. For example, for a giant consumer goods company, does the design and deployment of less environmentally-impactful packaging impact 3% or 30% of its products?
What's the opposite of "greenwashing"?
More responsible communication: aware of ecological issues and caring about the needs of all human beings. It also refers to communication habits that look as much at the way messages are delivered as at their content. Finally, it’s a form of communication that embraces the notion of urgency.
Why is it so difficult to communicate authentically and therefore avoid "greenwashing"?
There are several reasons:
- a misunderstanding of ecological issues and the different levels of maturity of audiences,
- peripheral CSR actions that do not address the company’s actual challenges, and for which any communication operation is doomed to failure,
- natural resistance to the change in posture required by a more responsible communication (more humility and transparency),
- the difficulty of getting marketing and communications teams to work together with teams in charge of CSR, R&D, innovation, etc.
What do you think are the best examples of genuine green communication?
I prefer to talk about “inspiring examples” rather than “good/best examples”. As an external observer, it’s always difficult to assess the real scope of the actions promoted and their sustainability over time.
Here are a few operations that have caught my attention recently:
- a series of videos highlighting the Jardin BIO étic brand’s environmental, social and economic commitments
- an educational video presenting the advantages of the Candia eco-designed milk carton
- Camif’s “Nos meubles aussi pensent très fort à demain” campaign for more local and sustainable furniture
- successive campaigns by the dairy products brand Les 2 vaches to raise public awareness on animal welfare, farmer remuneration, biodiversity protection…
What new expertise and/or skills does this require in marketing and communications departments? How can they be acquired?
First and foremost, marketing and communications professionals need to better understand the environmental and social issues we are collectively facing on a global and local scale: climate change, loss of biodiversity, health-environment, peri-urbanization, social and solidarity economy… Then, they need to understand the various impacts of their activity and identify the levers for action: fighting greenwashing and stereotypes, promoting a certain image of society, assessing and reducing the environmental impacts of communications actions…
To help them in this approach, I encourage them to read the “Guide de la communication responsable” published by ADEME in 2020 (to which I contributed). They can also follow one of the many training courses on the subject (such as the Masterclass in Responsible Communication that I run with my colleague Thierry Libaert).
