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Robert was recently titled‘ the grandfather of sustainability’ when he was announced as a speaker on the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by Wendy Bonham- Carter who was hosting the conference. A light-hearted tease as Robert had indeed just become a grandfather and his career history in sustainability is unparalleled.“ I got into the sustainability world over thirty years ago when my first child was born,” says Robert.“ Since then, my colleagues and I have celebrated some wonderful triumphs – and a few disappointments – along the way. One delightful early success was our launch of the UK farmers’ markets movement. With the help of the BBC, it quickly grew from the first market( in our hometown of Bath) to over 530 of them throughout the UK. We have also helped create extremely rewarding sustainability projects with governments, universities, charities and other organisations including Unilever, Microsoft, NatWest, Barclays Bank, Toyota, the NHS and dozens more.”
In December last year, Robert and I had a call. Becoming a grandfather had influenced his thinking and career direction. He felt that the time had come to finally bring to bear all his work in sustainability and that the key to sustainability success was communications. And after discussions with my business partner Daniel O’ Connor, we decided to join together and launch Transform ESG.
Don’ t get us wrong. This is not about communications in terms of press releases or grandiose announcements of meeting zero carbon targets. It’ s about integrated communications that involve quite distinct – yet interconnected – disciplines.
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1. Internal communications. If your employees aren’ t onboard, then you’ re going nowhere. If they are, however, the rewards can be remarkable. Effective ESG( environmental, social, and governance) increasingly produces engaged employees and research shows that this has enormous, measurable commercial as well as ethical benefits. Purpose drives prosperity.
2. External communications. Many of the greatest improvements come from market share gains, customer loyalty, brand equity boosts and other customer-based benefits. Relationships with other external stakeholders such as suppliers, regulators, investors and the media can also be significantly enhanced.
3. Interpersonal communications. The Covid crisis has changed the way we do interpersonal communications for ever – for better or for worse. One striking aspect is the key difference not between digital and face-to-face conversations but between the truly meaningful and merely functional. This is true whether it is a one-to-one conversation or a 500-person international conference.
4. Media communications. We use so many forms of media for so many kinds of communication today – we are, as the cliché goes, more connected than ever. That, however, means that everybody is bogged down with information overload. To make a difference, we need the right media carrying the right message to the right person at the right time. ESG can do that.
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As Robert says,“ To make all this work optimally, requires the coordination of a range of disciplines, from mentoring to media scheduling, from project management to promotional collaterals, from venue selection to video production, from transformation talks to team coaching. From leadership, ultimately, to legacy.
“ Thirty-something years of experience has taught me that, when this level of integrated ESG communications is achieved, very rapid results follow. And, as the stark media coverage of today’ s climate realities has shown, our grandchildren will, quite rightly, demand nothing less.”
That’ s why the teams at Transform Communications and Transform Digital Marketing have joined together with Robert to form a new company. Transform ESG Ltd is an activator of integrated ESG.
Veronica Hannon, together with Daniel O’ Connor and Robert Barnard-Weston, have launched Transform ESG Ltd. We ' d love to hear how you would like to transform your approach to ESG.
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“ To make a difference, we need the right media carrying the right message to the right person at the right time. ESG can do that.” |