Building an authentic, uplifting and honest sustainability narrative that conveys a sense of shared identity and captures your ‘North Star’ can be challenging.

Sefiani has adapted a practical approach to assist with this based on the SCORE framework, which was developed through a partnership between The University of Oxford, Berkeley Law and The British Academy.

The SCORE framework aims to help industry leaders establish an overarching vision and communicate their sustainability objectives authentically. Meaning: the SCORE framework is a practical tool to help brands and organisations strategically communicate their ‘North Star’.

The framework includes five key elements for organisations to examine when focusing on embedding sustainability authentically into their company narrative.

Exemplify

Tell the stories

Use your North Star to differentiate and find a unique voice on sustainability that aligns with your brand purpose.

Reward

Motivate stakeholders by inviting them to play a meaningful role in the development and implementation of a sustainability strategy

Incentivise and track purposeful behaviour.

Own

Leadership needs to own the transition towards sustainability

Be visible, accountable and prepared for scrutiny.

Connect

Ensure there is no disconnect between words and actions

While business leaders will hardwire sustainability into the organisation, the role of communicators is to ask the tough questions and hold organisations accountable.

Simplify

Make your purpose and sustainability goals simple, convincing and relevant to the whole organisation

This overarching narrative must be ownable (can only belong to that organisation), enduring (will remain relevant and meaningful over multiple years), authentic, and provide clarity and direction.

When brands focus on these strategies, they can then begin to align their purpose with their sustainability goals, communicate their vision with confidence, and analyse risk, readiness and reputation in their communications plan.

Want to learn more about successful sustainability communications? Download the 2022 Communication that Matters report. It’s your playbook to communicating sustainability effectively.

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