Welcome to a new feature of the Sustainability News Review: interviews with sustainability superheroes. Communicators can face challenges on many fronts as they navigate change, engage internal and external stakeholders, and fly the flag for the societal, environmental and commercial value that their work seeks to achieve.

Not all wear capes, but all have developed interesting capabilities, and have personal stories to share about their career paths and current focus.

First up is Emily Luscombe, partner and EMEA communications agency lead for sustainability consultancy ERM. 

Having worked for several specialist and global network communications agencies, Luscombe moved to another side of the fence when she joined a business consulting firm earlier this year to develop a broader communications offer. Her journey is indicative of the twists and turns that sustainability communications has seen over the past decade.

“The joy had been parked”.

It’s not the sort of thing you might expect a sustainability comms expert to say about the past few years.

But then, Luscombe has seen her fair share of challenges, and new opportunities, in her career. The loss of joy she refers to was the point at which the ESG compliance burden ripped the heart out of strategic sustainability communication — forcing many businesses to transition thoughtful, audience-informed voluntary reporting to mandatory box-ticking. You can see her point.

She spent most of her 20 year career working for corporate communications agencies, where sustainability emerged as a “golden thread” across many of her client mandates.

Fast forward to 10 years ago, and the Paris Agreement, when communication of sustainability change commitments by businesses began to emerge as a prominent, and in some cases dominant, aspect of how they promoted and protected reputation. 

The focus was on providing a compelling view of goals and evidence of their progress towards them, as well as creative campaigns, partnerships and engagement programmes across multiple types of stakeholder, from customers and partners to investors, shareholders, employees, NGOs and politicians.

Yet in her view, the past few years have seen the dawning of another era in sustainability communication as disclosure has dictated a different language. 

Criticism about the lack of accountability in charting progress towards goals and holding corporations to account over their actions has forced heightened regulation, with Europe’s CSRD in particular compelling businesses to ensure they are ready to report on emissions reduction, alongside other drives to achieve greater transparency.

“What we in communications agencies observed was many businesses having to pivot resources and strategy into reporting — and the mandate moving away from communication towards compliance,” explains Luscombe.

“It all made sense, was necessary and largely for the good — to ensure transparency, hold business to account and support investment decisions.

“But the perhaps unintended consequence was that energy and resources for making sustainability communication compelling and engaging dissipated. Since that happened, we’ve seen climate misinformation and disinformation rise, perpetuated by thought leaders who are themselves masters of communication — and that cannot be countered by data alone.”.

Now though, says Luscombe, we’re seeing the emergence of another phase — as businesses recognise the value that disclosure and data affords them in being able to secure a robust market advantage through how they communicate corporate progress. 

Clearly, reporting requirements remain, although policy developments — such as the EU Omnibus proposals — are beginning to ease some of the weight on business.

Despite more recent politicisation of sustainability and corporate purpose, many businesses are seeing clear returns for placing greater emphasis on social and environmental goals — mitigating corporate risks while making good on long-term investments.

Her work at ERM focuses on enabling businesses to secure a market advantage in return for their investment in sustainability. This might be through helping elevate disclosure through reporting and into strategic communication to drive action amongst key corporate stakeholders. 

She works alongside colleagues to manage internal communication and change as businesses implement new transition strategies devised by ERM. And there is still a big slice of reputation management required — as organisations seek to explain changing goals, manage divergent stakeholder asks, and keep ahead of more regulation — such as the EU’s Green Claims Directive and greenwashing risk.

“ERM surveys the global population every year, and has done for nearly 20 years. What our data tells us is that people still care deeply about sustainability, despite some of the rhetoric we see in the papers,” she says.

“Customers want to buy from companies that are working for a more positive future, many investors demand that better business pays back for them and employees want to work for firms that are doing the right thing.

“We’re now at a point where communications not only plays a more strategic role in all of that, but a more integral one. We have more of a long-term focus.”

Why a sustainability superhero? For Luscombe, it’s not about a single campaign or company, but about having navigated the shifts and surprises of the evolution of sustainability communications, to the point where it can now help to drive impact, and not just report on it.

It’s certainly a more joyful outlook — and that’s something, at this challenging time, we can all embrace.