Sustainability\nis something we think is important and we have people writing to us about it.\nSadly, the articles often don’t perform very well. Sustainability writers know\nit is important to people around the world who are the audience they are trying\nto reach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
First,\nthere is a need to consider what people care about most. There are sets of\nconcerns that are top of mind in our culture that need focus. Inequality, for\ninstance, has taken to the headlines of top stories and unless we change that,\naddressing sustainability will be a day-time dream. Inequality is a bigger\nproblem than climate change. We are rarely going to fix climate change if we do\nnot deal with inequality issues that are affecting governments around the\nworld. There is a lot of different competing things. Sometimes, one will enable\nthe other \u2013 or will disenable it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Better communication can draw attention<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n We are always thinking\nabout how do you take something important and make it as interesting as it\nshould be. Whenever I hear sustainability stories, it sounds like a lot of kale\nto me and not enough smoothie. I think ways to get a little bit of kale in the\nsmoothie can be helpful. I also don\u2019t hear enough people. People are interested\nin people. We love to watch people work. If somebody takes action or young\npeople in an organization change something, there is just that natural\nnarrative that people would be interested in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Communicating is not\nabout imparting knowledge like people are in school. It is about really\nengaging with storytelling, with a strong narrative that connects these things\nto their lives and shows that it matters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Look beyond the\npartisan nature of some of these issues. If people hear \u201cclimate change,\u201d that\nkind of turns them off. But there is great demand for learning about the\nresearch that everybody in this room is doing and how it relates to lives, how\nit can help them understand this complicated marketplace of products; what is\nsustainable, what is not, what is free-range, cage-free, what is the\ndifference, what is actually good for the environment, is there a sustainable\nsmartphone out there\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n If you frame the debate as regulation versus\nsaving the planet, for a lot of people, the desire for less regulation will\nwin. If it is taking away their SUVs, they are not going to go for it. If you\nwrite an article about it, you have a chance to reframe what it is about, going\ninto why it matters and trying to get through the back door of these political\nconversations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Figure out what that simple narrative is.\nClimate change, it seems so hard. But everybody understands a budget. Managing\nclimate change is just an energy budget. If you can find simple models, it\nhelps people to understand things better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Identify the role you want to play<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Should I worry about offending people? This\ndepends on your purpose. There is room for activists and there is room for conciliators\nin any debate. But to connect effectively\u2026you need to change the mind of the\nreader. One needs to push the needle a little bit. To do so, you have to find a\nway to take a step back and say, \u201cWhere can I create that common ground and\njust present the evidence?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Communicating is difficult in a hectic, divided world. The public space for discussion and knowledge sharing is challenging. Opinions \u2014 and even facts \u2014 seem polarized. Information is scattered and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":6675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-social-responsibility"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6671"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6671\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/rayscohosting.best\/ASM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/story-1.jpg\")
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