The New Language of Companies: Sustainability Communication

Sustainability has now become the way brands express themselves, build relationships of trust with their stakeholders and describe their vision for the future. Today it is not enough on its own for a company to run energy efficiency projects, reduce its waste, use recycled raw materials or develop sustainable supply chain work. Conveying that work in an accurate, comprehensible and professional language matters at least as much as the work itself.

Sustainability communication is becoming companies’ new corporate language. This language has a multi-layered structure fed by marketing discourse, technical reporting and corporate reputation. Constructed correctly, it increases the company’s visibility, strengthens brand value and creates confidence among customers and investors. But when incorrect, exaggerated or unevidenced expressions are used, that same communication can turn into a serious reputational risk for the company.

In recent years in particular, misleading sustainability claims — described as greenwashing — have become an important area of risk for companies. Presenting a product with strong expressions such as “environmentally friendly”, “carbon neutral”, “sustainable” or “harmless to nature” may be regarded as misleading or as unfair competition if it is not supported by scientific data, verifiable methodologies and transparent explanations. This does not only damage consumer confidence; it can also lead to legal sanctions, administrative fines, advertising restrictions and long-term damage to brand reputation.

The European Union’s assessments of green claims also set out the importance of this subject clearly. According to data shared by the EU, 53% of the green claims they examined contained vague, misleading or unfounded information, while 40% rested on no supporting evidence at all. These statistics show that sustainability communication does not consist merely of producing eye-catching expressions; on the contrary, it is a serious area of corporate responsibility requiring data, methodology, evidence and transparency.

The fundamental question in sustainability communication is this: “What did we do, how are we describing it, and has our message reached our target audience?” An energy efficiency study can be positioned, beyond reducing production costs, as a strategic improvement that lowers carbon emissions. A product being made with lower water consumption is not only an operational performance indicator; it can be presented to the customer as a value proposition with reduced environmental impact. The use of recycled material is not only a technical choice of material; it can be conveyed as a concrete indicator of a circular economy approach. The critical point here is that communication should be data-based and appropriate to the target audience, without straying into exaggeration. Language that is too technical can make it difficult for the customer to understand the message. Language that is too marketing-focused and immoderate can cause a loss of trust.

Our observations show that many companies are in fact carrying out valuable sustainability work, but that this work is not sufficiently visible. Many firms do not receive their due in the market because they have not been able to turn these efforts into a strategic language of communication. In other words, the good work done often stays inside the company and does not reach the customer, the investor, the employee and the public as a strong story. Good sustainability communication is communication that can strike the right balance between technical accuracy and plain expression.