Bad Sustainability Writing Is Everywhere, and It’s a Problem

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The proliferation of ineffective communications is holding sustainability back in its most critical decade. There is no more time for boring, beige writing. We need language that teaches, convinces and inspires — before it’s too late.

There. We said it.

It’s something that’s been bothering us for a while now, at Radley Yeldar. Time and time again, we see brands abandon their uniqueness for blandness when it comes to sustainability communications. They default to a generic brand of sustainability that ends up literally everywhere — from product packaging to corporate communications to advertising campaigns. What worries us is how the proliferation of ineffective communications is holding sustainability back in its most critical decade. And we all know there is no time for boring, beige writing. We need language that teaches, convinces, and inspires — before it’s too late.

First off, it might help to explain what we mean by ‘bad.’ Some years ago, we explored the visual clichés of sustainability communications. You know it when you see it, because it is everywhere: lots of green, lightbulbs, an odd mix of dated corporate graphics, endless icons, and off-tone cutesy illustrations are just some examples. We called the generic brand of sustainability “Stock Sustainability.” We found the same problem with how sustainability is written. Verbal Stock Sustainability is a mix of science; corporate ‘business speak’; and strings of unconvincing, vague sentiments.