What is a sustainability communicator?
If you've worked in corporate sustainability for any length of time, you've probably noticed something strange: while companies increasingly invest in sophisticated sustainability strategies and reporting, they often struggle to tell compelling stories about this work. Yet the most brilliant carbon reduction initiative or circular packaging innovation means little if it doesn't inspire stakeholders to take action. And while it’s great that more companies than ever are reporting, this doesn’t equate to effective storytelling.
This gap between substance and storytelling is where the sustainability communicator steps in. But what exactly is a sustainability communicator? Let me share some insights from my forthcoming book: Sustainability Storytelling: Translating strategy into effective stories.
More responsibility than role
It's important to understand that a sustainability communicator is more of a responsibility than a role. In most organizations, the job of communicating sustainability falls to communications or marketing professionals responsible for the company’s overall storytelling efforts. These "informal sustainability communicators" make up the vast majority of professionals responsible for communicating sustainability.
The challenge is that these professionals already have plenty on their plates. Corporate communication teams are focused on building and protecting a company's reputation, while marketing teams are developing strategies to promote products and drive revenue. Sustainability communication becomes just another hat they occasionally wear—developing messaging around greenhouse gas reduction goals one day, creating branding for a sustainable product the next.
In an ideal world, these teams would work closely with sustainability professionals to effectively translate complex concepts into meaningful stories. But when sustainability teams and informal sustainability communicators fail to collaborate effectively, sustainability stories fall flat with audiences at best and trigger greenwashing backlash at worst.
The rise of formal sustainability communicators
As the stakes of getting sustainability storytelling right have risen, more organizations are hiring "formal sustainability communicators." These professionals identify as both sustainability and communication experts, embedding the responsibility of sustainability storytelling directly into their role.
Common titles include Sustainability Communication Associate, Manager, Director, or Vice President. While they might lack the technical depth of sustainability analysts, they possess sufficient subject matter expertise to interpret complex data for diverse audiences.
"I think of my job as a facilitator," Lindsay Philpott, Sustainability Communications Manager at KIND told me during an episode of my podcast, The Sustainability Communicator. "I have conversations and have a technical understanding of what our technical experts are doing really to make sure that we're getting the work done."
A formal sustainability communicator wouldn't perform a product Lifecycle Assessment, but they could review the results to understand the key takeaways and how to fold them into the organization's sustainability story. They feel equally at home sitting in on a net-zero strategy call as they would in a marketing update meeting.
Nuance: the sustainability communicator's superpower
What makes sustainability communicators effective? I'd argue their superpower is nuance.
In sustainability communication, nuance involves recognizing that issues are rarely clear-cut and instead contain complexity that defies simplistic categorization. A nuanced perspective acknowledges subtle distinctions, contextual factors, and multiple valid viewpoints. For a company communicating sensitive sustainability information, this nuance can mean the difference between a sustainability message succeeding or being sued for greenwashing.
How one acquires such nuance isn't so simple. Because the subtleties of sustainability's social, political, and legal context change so frequently, it can't be fully taught in a classroom. True nuance is earned through hands-on experience. I learned this through years of writing hundreds of articles for GreenBiz and other outlets, working on countless campaigns for large companies. This has helped me develop a sixth sense for sustainability storytelling that is hard to quantify.
As Philpott told me, "I can understand sustainability from both angles as somebody who has one foot in the technical sustainability space and one foot in the communications space. I can more easily facilitate those discussions because I think that's where a lot of tensions rise when talking about sustainability. Holding space for both is really important because there's so much nuance in the sustainability landscape."
The critical skill trifecta
Beyond nuance, effective sustainability communicators must possess three interrelated skills: curiosity, humility, and empathy.
Curiosity is invaluable given that complex sustainability topics are in near-constant flux. It's impossible to know everything all the time, so you must have an insatiable thirst for knowledge, constantly absorbing new information from books, reports, news stories, and conversations.
"It's like being in school forever. Your job is to stay curious and aware of all the angles on this topic, weaving together something strong," Jessica Appelgren, a friend and sustainability and climate tech communication leader, told me during another podcast episode.
Humility means understanding that you don't know it all, giving you the space and perspective to identify gaps and find the resources and authorities that can help fill them. As Edgar Schein writes in Humble Inquiry: "Humble Inquiry is the fine art of drawing someone out, of asking questions to which you do not already know the answer, of building a relationship based on curiosity and interest in the other person."
Empathy allows sustainability communicators to anticipate how a particular audience might receive a sustainability message by understanding their worldview. Most people enter sustainability because they care about "making a difference," and this empathy helps us connect with diverse stakeholders.
The journey, not the destination
If there's one idea sustainability communicators must keep in mind at all times, it's this: there's no such thing as a sustainable business. Through action or inaction, companies can become more sustainable or less so. Perfection is impossible—and not really the point.
Fortunately for sustainability communicators, the best stories are about the journey, not arriving at a perfect destination. When we think of stories that really stay with us, it's usually not those about flawless protagonists who overcome nothing. It's quite the opposite—as imperfect beings, we naturally connect with the underdog. This is as true for organizations as it is for individuals.
While nobody expects a company to be perfect, they do want them to be better. The sustainability communicator's job is to authentically tell that story of progress—balancing ambition with humility, technical accuracy with emotional resonance, and business objectives with planetary boundaries.
As you read this, you might be thinking about where you fit in the sustainability communication landscape. Perhaps you're an informal sustainability communicator—a marketing or communications professional occasionally tasked with sustainability storytelling. Maybe you're a formal sustainability communicator with dedicated responsibility for this work. Or perhaps you're a sustainability professional who recognizes the need to develop stronger communication skills.
Wherever you are on this journey, developing the nuance, curiosity, humility, and empathy needed for effective sustainability storytelling will serve both your career and our collective efforts to build a more sustainable world.
This piece draws from my forthcoming book "Sustainability Storytelling," publishing with Kogan Page in May 2026. For more insights on effective sustainability communication, subscribe to this newsletter or listen to The Sustainability Communicator podcast.
