Copywriters vs. Climate Change: Saving the World with the Word

We left Client Earth’s summit on how to discuss climate change buzzing with ideas about how it can apply to B2B sustainability marketing, whether we're talking social media like Twitter, professional fora like LinkedIn, email and cold marketing, or advertising. We liked what the esteemed panellists had to say so we felt it would be a good idea to showcase some of the highlights with our own analysis.

It’s as much a copywriter's job to communicate meaning and value for their clients as it is to translate that into terms and benefits their target audience can understand. According to “Bridging the Divide” panel member and CEO of Climate Outreach Rachel Orr, about 20% of people are opposed to climate action and a further 20% are what we would call climate activists. That leaves 60% on the fence. If we’re to reach this ambivalent 60%, we copywriters should assume nothing, and engage our audience from a position of empathy and understanding. A good copywriter that understands this can make the difference between a small business selling their climate change solution, or not.

Copywriters: Don’t Patronise Your Readers!

Assumptions about any reader’s level of engagement are harmful in several ways. We've all seen the inflammatory blogs and angry posts on Facebook. They might be great at drumming up support in your niche, but what about the 60%? Here’s a few of the ways a copywriter’s attitude can poison the discourse around climate change.

Copywriters: Don’t Alienate your Audience

Nobody likes a know-it-all. Nobody wants to be talked down to. When communicating the universal risks of climate change or opportunities of sustainability solutions through press releases, articles and blogs, nothing turns people off a conversation faster than the assumption that they’ve nothing important to say. Copywriters and content writers are not infallible, they don’t know everything. This is true of specialist industry insiders (like ourselves), freelancers and sector-agnostic mega-marketing firms alike.

Of the assumptions a copywriter might make about their audience, one of the most egregious is that of the “information deficit”, the idea that climate change insiders and sustainability copywriters are coming into this debate from an elevated, educated position and that our audience can only benefit from shutting up, sitting down and listening to what we have to say. Any sustainability or senior copywriter worth their salt will tell you that the opposite is true; you have to be willing to learn from your readers if you want to craft messages that will get through to them. 

Copywriters: Get off the Soap Box

Copywriters shouldn’t approach the discourse from a soapbox, it needs to happen in a safe space, an arena where every participant’s thoughts, concerns and insights are treated as relevant and everyone’s comfortable expressing them. Fundamental truths are what drives discourse, but they’re not changing minds all on their own. A deluge of data, facts, evidence and scientific consensus will come off at best heavy-handed, at worst condescending. Let’s not stifle the discourse before it can flourish.

We need to engage with humility and always keep in mind that we’re asking for an unprecedented social transition in a very short period of time. There’s no panacea for climate change. We have to walk before we can run and recognise that the sustainable transition can happen in small, manageable steps. 

Copywriters: “Winning” the Argument is Not the Point, nor is Showing Off Your Writing Skills

Don’t be oppositional, this is not an argument to be won, lost or even drawn in your climate copywriting work. Climate change affects everyone, regardless of political affiliation, nationality, or socioeconomic status. In the UK, 75% of people say they feel concerned about climate change and there’s an all-party consensus on net-zero. The universal benefits like cleaner air, improved public health, cheaper energy and a future we can count on will be shared by everyone. After all, if we don’t keep global temperature rises below 1.5°C by 2030, no one’s a winner.

Listening to understand and being willing to take constructive criticism will do more for the discourse than listening just to debate. Fraught debates risk the creation of antagonism, politicisation and tribalism. Rather than emphasising differences and risks, we should emphasise shared values, common goals and opportunities. In the words of Reos Partners’ Mpinane Senkhane-Mahlatji we “need collective power for effective systemic transformation.” That means everyone pulling in the same direction, not not losing ourselves in debate for debate’s sake. Talking about collaboration, the common good and how we all have a part to play in our blog posts are the antidote to NIMBYism. When it comes to climate change, it’s in everyone’s backyard.

As a sustainability copywriter, you’re not there to win an argument, you’re there to make sure your client’s climate change solution gets a fair shake at being adopted by their buyers or potential employers. That's a copywriter's job. To do that, you need to make sure it’s understood, the benefits are clear and that they’re relevant to your target audience through your skilled content writing.

Copywriters: Don’t Greenwash

Sounds obvious, but the well-intentioned, accidental greenwash is a thing. Cries of, “that’s not the solution that’s going to fix everything” are all too common, and often levied at the next big sustainable solution. We’ve seen it used on renewables, carbon capture, afforestation, agroforestry and everything else. You name the solution, someone will tell you it isn’t the one. We’re not here to make the argument about whether it is or it isn’t, but some might say it’s greenwashing.

We’re hitting peak greenwash in the media, so people are suspicious - those who are opposed to climate change as much as people on the fence. We don’t blame them, in the words of Ben Jackson, Director at Climate Centre, it’s the media’s job to “inquire and kick the tires of everything”. The media is there to diagnose maladies in our society, and that requires scepticism about solutions that might do more harm than good. Scepticism is healthy, but it’s not the cure to climate change. Conversely, suspicious optimism isn’t helpful either.

Copywriters: Watch out for Conflicts of Interest

There's a conflict of interest when companies are trying to get ahead by talking up their climate achievements in their marketing materials, product descriptions and advertisements. Climate policy and brand awareness are synonymous. Ironically, a lot of companies that are making strides in sustainable solutions are afraid to show them off, out of fear of a backlash for not being good enough. That’s also a problem. If you’re saving the world, why not tell them it was you with slogans, billboards and advertisements? Brave companies need to lead the way in normalising positive reinforcement for positive change.

Sustainability marketing is a nascent field with its reputation yet to calcify. If we’re to make sustainable solutions mainstream, we need to become one of the public’s trusted messengers. It’s why we ought to be ultra-scrupulous not only with the language we use, but the evidence we use to back it up, freelance copywriter or not. If it turns out that the data’s a little off, clients can and will be accused of greenwashing.

Copywriters: Tell a Good Story 

Once you’ve understood where your audience is coming from, made sure your evidence is tight and everyone feels heard, it’s time to get inspirational on top of providing valuable insight and do your best work. Remember that good writing is storytelling, it just so happens that writing copy about climate change is storytelling with a purpose, backed up by good data. This is just as true in your own blog as it is in client work.

Rebecca Solnit said it best: “Perhaps we also need to become better critics and listeners, more careful about what we take in and who’s telling it, and what we believe and repeat, because stories can give power – or they can take it away.”

To mitigate the worst effects of climate change we need to talk about it. We also need to be honest about the negative impacts that the green transition will have in order to approach people’s concerns. We need a healthy discourse as much as we need innovative, sustainable solutions. We won’t close the information gap about sustainable solutions by talking without listening. If we’re going to bridge the divide, we’ll have to start building from both ends.