New narratives for a changing world: how should brands talk about climate change?

Photo by USGS

Introduction

Understanding a changing world We started this research having discovered in our own client insight studies that people believe companies need to be playing a bigger role in addressing climate change.

Yet while the perceived need was there, it was clear that there was doubt and cynicism around what companies are actually doing, and how much of it is greenwashing. With the fundamental question remaining: was anything really being achieved?

The premise that climate change has the potential to reframe the role of the company in our society – and create new opportunities and threats to our corporate landscape – lies at the heart of what we set out to investigate in this research.

Our aim was to understand how people are responding to climate change, to better understand what companies need to do to bring them on their sustainability journeys with them.

We hope that this report provides you with some thought-provoking insights and implications.

Getting a sense of perspective Today, we can sometimes feel under siege from the constant negative news coverage on the threats posed by climate change. We experience a flow of information from news outlets about the increasingly fragile state of our world, marrying today’s impacts with bigger-picture, longer-term projections and fears. It can feel like our futures are under existential threat every day we turn on the TV, scroll through the news or check our social media.

It can be hard to have any sense of perspective against such a bleak backdrop. However, by many measures, last year was the best ever for humanity. Yet according to Factfulness, by Hans, Ola and Anna Rosling, we commonly misunderstand all the ways in which the world is improving.

And as Nicolas Kristof recently noted in the New York Times: “A majority of Americans say in polls that the share of the world population living in poverty is increasing — yet one of the trends of the last 50 years has been a huge reduction in global poverty”. By many other standards, 2019 has been proven or is likely to be proven to be the best year ever, for example with decreased child mortality, increased literacy, better access to electricity, piped water and the internet to name a few positive developments.

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We ask that you keep that in mind as you explore this research – because while the world is on fire and many of us agree that the need for action is now, all of these signs of progress can give us hope that we can move forward and drive change together.

This report explores people’s changing attitudes and concerns about climate change based on the results of a nationally representative survey of 2,750 people across the UK and Ireland conducted by Truth and Instinctif Partners.

Our research also included cultural insight, using machine-learning based methods to analyse language sentiment and shifting dialogue online.

The study also looked at people’s perceptions towards corporate climate change initiatives and what is expected from brands as industries look to meet net zero targets.

From this research, which is shared at a topline level in this report, we seek to offer the following:

• A ‘state of the nation’ view of how people are feeling about climate change today.

• A view on people’s expectations on the role of companies in addressing climate change.

• A vision of the direction of travel for climate change-related dialogue.

• Implications for how brands might think and talk about climate change.

Beneath this short report there is a wealth of data and insights that can be tailored to the needs of specific sectors – so should you wish any more detail please do not hesitate to let us know, and we would be happy to discuss.

We are not immune

Only 11% believe they will not see the effects of climate change in their country, while 42% believe we are seeing the effects already.

Climate change and health

80% indicate that looking after their health is important to them. But they see that the climate risks adversely affecting people’s health.

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Online search language analysis: Canopy; Online social media language analysis: Relative Insight; Survey fielding and panel provision: Dynata

74%

86%

70%

72%

83%

64%

are concerned about climate change, which is the key way in which

the world is seen to be getting worse

say that protecting the environment is important to them

are concerned that climate change

will affect people’s physical health

believe climate change is an urgent issue

say that minimising their (negative)

impact on the world is important to

them

are concerned that climate change will

affect people’s mental wellbeing

Stats at a glanceClimate change matters to us

But climate change is seen as the major challenge in an increasingly fragile world.

Notes:

In this report, climate change refers to the long-term alteration of temperature and normal weather patterns in a place. This could refer to a particular location or the planet as a whole.

Unless otherwise stated, quotes in this report are from our research participants.

“Twenty-five years ago people could be excused for not knowing much, or doing much, about climate change. Today we have no excuse.

Desmond Tutu

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Photo by USGS

Understanding psychological impact

Fear is widespreadClimate change anxiety is widespread, with 74% of respondents admitting to feeling concerned. Interestingly, this sense of unease cuts across age bands, with no significant differences according to age.

From a corporate perspective, we need to understand this fear to work out how best to respond.

Per Espen Stoknes, a psychologist and economist recently appointed to the Norwegian Parliament, has studied the ways in which humans react to hearing about catastrophic climate change. He has said that “from psychological research, we know that if you overdo the threat of catastrophe, you make people feel fear or guilt or a combination. But these two emotions are passive. They make people disconnect and avoid the topic rather than engage with it”.

Despite this, two of the traditional barriers to climate change activity seem to be eroding:

• Dissonance – “I can’t quite believe it because it doesn’t relate to me and my lifestyle”

• Distancing – “it’s too far in the future”

Time is running outThis distancing barrier appears to be breaking down rapidly.

Our research found that 72% agree or strongly agree that climate change is an urgent issue. As a majority agree that we don’t have long to tackle the issue, there is little evidence of ‘distancing’.

And notably, only 21% agree or strongly agree that climate change won’t affect us that badly, indicating that most do not see this as a problem for ‘others’. On the contrary, it is well understood that climate change is going to affect us meaningfully in the UK and Ireland.

The findings clearly demonstrate that people are worried about existential threats to their way of life. An overwhelming 89% of UK and Irish respondents think we will see the negative effects of climate change in this country, while 42% believe that we are seeing the effects already.

74% 72% 71%are concerned or very concerned about extreme

weather

are concerned or very concerned

about raising sea levels

are concerned or very concerned about species

extinction

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People recognise action is needed from all cornersWhen we asked people to distribute 100 points for where they thought the responsibility for tackling climate change lay, on average 15 points were given to companies, the same as people gave themselves and individuals like them. The points were distributed as follows:

While governments are seen be needed to play a pivotal role in addressing climate change, they are not seen to be doing enough.

Only 24% express positive sentiments that their government is doing enough to tackle climate change.

More damningly, only 17% express positive sentiment that companies are doing enough.

Even if they were perceived be proactively addressing the issue, equally only 17% claim that they trust what companies tell them about their climate change initiatives.

There is a clear distrust in ‘big business’, as is evident from social media analysis. There is a perception that it’s antithetical to large corporates’ core objectives to tackle climate change, and that they can use their scale and might to greenwash and evade rather than drive meaningful change.

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I feel that not enough is being done by large companies to reduce their carbon footprint.

I believe if we don’t act decisively we will see the end of our world as we know it and in the near future the end of the human race.

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Other Governments around the world

20.3

19.6

15.3

15.3

10.2

9.5

5.4 4.4

The UK / Ireland Government

Companies

The UK / Ireland population

The EU

The UN

The mediaCharities

“I do as much as I can on an individual level but businesses and governments need to do so much more.

The research found that 73% could not name a single company they considered good at dealing with climate change or providing sustainable options.

It’s clear that businesses must do more and do better to build trust and to drive systemic change.

This is reflected in people’s online behaviour. Online search analytics indicates meaningfully increased searches for ‘sustainable brands’, ‘sustainable clothing’ and ethics in relation to consumer choices.

But although the motivation is there, the research found that people are struggling to filter through the noise to make confident and better-informed choices: 63% cite there being conflicting information on how to make sustainable choices, while 62% noted that while they wanted to make sustainable choices, they sometimes found it hard to know what to do.

And so we see that people focus on making changes where they are most confident to do so - for example, plastics reduction.

Avoiding driving

Not purchasing due to environmental impact of product or service

Not purchasing due to packaging

Not purchasing due to brand ethics

Not purchasing due to product

materials

Avoidingflying 25%

22%

21%22%

20%

12%

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Impactstoourwaysofliving are expectedBut while we try to make all the small changes we can, we recognise the bigger threats and risks, and increasingly feel that the small actions we can take are not enough.

Changing behaviours People report making a range of behavioural changes in the past year in a context of increasing urgency around climate change:

71% 65% 61%are concerned

about the threat to human life

are concerned about economic

instability

are concerned about mass migration

Plastic is top-of-mind81% are concerned about plastic pollution in oceans.

And reducing plastic waste is the key behaviour people report they are adopting to reduce their personal impact:

• Whether carrying a reusable shopping bag - 92% claim to do so at least occasionally, including 56% all the time

• Carrying a refillable bottle - 69% claim to do so at least occasionally, including 25% all the time

• Or avoiding single-use plastics - 79% claim to do so at least occasionally, including 14% all the time

“We need to do something but since they won’t stop with production of plastic there’s not much we can do.

“The problem requires immediate action but the effects of this action would take decades to be evident. Current world leaders would not benefit from action. They have little incentive and will continue to fiddle while Rome burns.

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Photo by USGS

Corporate pressure points – our top predictions

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Drawing from trends we can already start to see, and bearing in mind that people are increasingly anxious, mistrusting and hungry for change, we have outlined below our top predictions.

Weincreasingly expectsystemicchange, while being cynicalofbigbusinessThe language of ‘system change’ related to tackling the climate emergency is increasingly being used. More and more, we recognise that we need a concerted effort. And this way of thinking is not the domain only of the experts – we see people talking in this way too. Thinking about the need for companies to group together, to disrupt the status quo together.

But our cynicism of ‘big business’ is not going to go away. Corporates will need to take people on a journey to engender their trust. Ideas, initiatives and language that break normal paradigms will help.

It is far more common-place now for consumers to publicly shame companies, dragging brands through the mud for their green economy claims or their attempts to greenwash products. The noise on Instagram recently around Just Water for its supposed sustainability credentials is an example of this.

Publiclyshaming companies that are part of the problem The masses are already sceptical of greenwashing. Companies that are perceived to be greenwashing – highlighting positive efforts in one area to distract from C02 emissions in another - will increasingly be challenged.

Challenging current emblems of capitalism 2018 saw companies such as John Lewis expressing frustration about Black Friday – which has become a culturally-grounded process retailers are trapped in.

2019 saw companies, in particular smaller brands, find ways to push back on Black Friday on the basis of its encouraging inappropriate consumerism. We can expect this trend to continue. It’s small today but it will grow.

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“I think we live in a throwaway society and things should be made to last.

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Statussymbolswill become shame symbolsThe UK is making progress with its electric vehicle strategy, though challenges remain. The Government recently announced a plan to accelerate the ban on sales of diesel and petrol cars from 2040 to 2035 to push change more swiftly.

At present, growth in electric vehicle sales is greatly overshadowed by sales in petrol and diesel SUVs. According to WIRED “For every electric car purchased in the UK 2019, we bought 37 SUVs.”

We can apply the technology adoption curve here. Just with flight-shame, we expect that there will be a lag between the ‘innovators’ and the rest of the population. There will be a disconnect between shifting cultural sentiment and the purchase decisions of most.

We predict this will change. Buying a new petrol or diesel SUV will soon be seen as demonstrating open disregard for climate change. First the sense of aspiration will erode, then car-shame will come.

Sustainable solutions expected to become more accessibleThis is one important way in which companies risk being challenged – if there is a disconnect between their corporate narrative on climate change and the pricing and accessibility of their products and services.

In principle, people claim that they will pay more for sustainable products designed to be reused or recycled, according to a global survey of 6,000 people by Accenture in 2019.

But we will start to question price differentials that place greener solutions out of reach for those whose budgets can’t easily stretch, but who want to make a difference.

Minimalism will take on new meaningMinimalism will be elevated beyond a style statement: it will amass a following as a sustainability philosophy. New forays into stripped-back packaging are evident across a range of brands.

A recent example of this is Colgate’s Smile For Good’, a vegan toothpaste in a fully-recyclable tube and cardboard box, but this is a trend we see across the luxury personal care market.

We will expect smarter thinking - we will want companies to avoid creating excess that cannot be shiftedThis is a massive issue for many consumer B2C retail brands. Take, for instance, the fashion industry, which is starting to operate under a microscope as consumers push back against waste and instead drive towards a circular economy. We have seen Burberry shamed for burning clothes to avoid selling them at discounted prices for fear of losing exclusivity. Others have faced well-publicised issues related to stockpiling of unsold clothes.

Meanwhile, smaller brands have adopted pre-order systems to avoid creating waste. This is a challenge for big brands - how can they better predict demand?

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What does this mean for brands?

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There is nowhere to hide – radical transparencyisinIt is clear we want companies to drive positive change despite implicitly distrusting their claims around climate change efforts. New challenger brands are already rewriting the script, with examples across categories of brands that are sharing more information on their supply chains. We can expect that these changes around the margins will start to shift into the mainstream.

Luxurywilltakeon new formsWe will become more and more frustrated about for being told to want things that can be deemed luxury, unnecessary items. This will have implications for brands across categories, as they will need to work harder to prove meaning and value in an era of increasingly conscious consumerism.

Circularitywill become expected We can see in our research that people are focusing on plastic waste – reducing their intake and the amount they send to landfills.

Already people question the difficulty disposing of everyday items from electrical goods to children’s car seats. And there is growing dialogue on plastic waste, which accelerated with David Attenborough’s Blue Planet II documentary in 2017.

We increasingly recognise that recycling is not enough, and brands will be expected to show more joined-up thinking across their product life-cycles.

“ “Talk is cheap… Time will tell how effective their actions are.

We just need to find a way to use less plastic packaging. It’s a temporary use for a permanent material, and that’s never going to be OK.

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Brands will increasinglyneedtofacilitate people’s impact on a larger scaleCompanies will need to do more than provide a product or service – people will increasingly look to brands to facilitate and magnify their impact on a broader scale.

People will expect to see companies imagine and action new ways of working, new partnerships, groups and coalitions, to drive impact at scale. Aligned with this we will look to brands to help bring us along this journey, to show that we’re part of something bigger. Companies will play an integral role in creating this idea.

Brands that address this need most effectively start with helping people make positive behaviour changes in their consumption, such as Colgate encouraging us to save water while brushing, or Ariel stimulating us to consider washing at 30 degrees (which is also a great proof point for the efficacy of its products).

But remember… consult, act, before youtalkSome companies are keeping their sustainability policies quiet for fear of being seen as disingenuous, or are motivated purely by commercial imperatives.

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Businesses need to do more to prevent climate change; individual citizens’ impact is minuscule.

It terrifies me and frustrates me as I feel there is not enough substantial action being taken.

Act quietly, get your house in order, and only really shout when you are confident you can talk with integrity. To combat the overwhelming distrust felt towards corporate climate change initiatives, have clear proof points, but also clarity on human impact.

And as you go about this, recognise how quickly the needle is moving. Just this year we’re seeing major companies leapfrog beyond carbon neutrality to promising to offset past emissions and to becoming carbon positive.

Don’t get left behind. The world is changing fast.

Final thoughts

Rigorously consider the role of sustainability in your brand – How integral is it? And should it be?

Consider your role in educating people – but take care in the tone you strike to avoid patronising and greenwashing.

Reframe the language of consumerism. The consumer is dead.

We’d like to leave you with some final thoughts.

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Photo by USGS

This is just a snapshot of our insight into the changing landscape of sustainability. For more detailed learnings, please contact us:

tellmemore@instinctif.com

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Photo by USGS