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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 .” |