Have you ever experienced being told what you should do, and the other person shows no interest in listening to your perspective?
We all need to feel heard, understood, and valued. It is just a basic human desire.
I like to think that we all carry our “inner two-year-old” - a deep need to be seen that doesn’t change much as the years pass.
In part three of the miniseries on messaging mistakes, I explained what can go wrong when environmentalists are perceived as arrogant and top-down in their communication.
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Link to that blog post here. https://www.pederspeaks.com/post/why-environmentalists-should-stop-ignoring-traditional-industries
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Environmentalists, activists, and climate communicators (including myself!) are often so eager to drive action that we forget to listen to the other perspective.
The great misunderstanding
We interpret the lack of action as a sign of resistance or even climate denial.
This may be a profound misunderstanding.
I often hear claims that most people resist change. We need to bust that myth!
In an interview, Professor Arne Carlsen at Norwegian Business School said, “One of the great myths within leadership is that people resist change. That is not true. We want change as long as we are invited to be a part of it.”
The truth is, we don’t resist change. We resist loss.
Why would I want to engage if my perception of the green future is associated with restrictions, poorer products, and less fun?
I genuinely believe that the problem isn’t that people don’t care, but that messaging about climate change has been overwhelming. We are more open in our current mindset than we tend to believe.
How new ideas come to spread
New ideas and new technologies are first tested out in a tiny segment of the market. This is as close to a “natural law” as we get within social and economic sciences.
Thousands of studies show the same pattern; the new stuff is filtered through the early market and is only spread to the mass market after the early adopters vouch for it.
The figure shows the classic Innovation Adaption Curve developed by the great sociologist Everett Rogers. Innovators and early adopters conduct "the early market."
However, once an idea or a product hits the early majority of the market, it sometimes spreads very fast. Malcolm Gladwell writes about the immense power of word-of-mouth and compares it to a virus.
Ideas or messages, once they reach a tipping point, are contagious and spread until the whole society is “infected.”
Based on what Gladwell names “the law of the few,” a small number of opinion leaders or influential people can generate a wave of support for an idea, brand, or phenomenon.
Getting a grip on the early market may take years. But once they buy in, things tend to speed up.
Inviting people to join the inevitable change
The gravity of politics, regulation, renewable technology, and finance sector climate risk all lead to an economic paradigm shift. We know it’s coming. It is just a matter of how fast we get there.
The Ellen MacArthur Foundation names the transition to a circular economy the most significant business opportunity since the industrial revolution.
The green revolution is the sixth wave of innovation in modern history and will change our society profoundly.
To visualize the scope of the change, reflect on how smartphones, social media, and digitization have changed the economy, communities, and behavior in only 15-20 years.
Building trust with the traditional industries
The support of the established players is crucial in making the green shift a reality.
Ignoring or portraying them as the problem will only lead to resistance and opposition.
Some may be out of the market when the low-emission, circular economy emerges. But many traditional industries will be able to disrupt or make strategic partnerships with sustainable, new players.
As climate communicators, we should include the traditional industry in the conversation and find ways to make them a part of the solution.
We must show them how they can benefit from the transition and how their expertise and resources can help drive the change. Furthermore, we must adopt a collaborative and inclusive approach to recognizing these industries' challenges and opportunities.
Most importantly, we need to ask the traditional players what it would take to make green solutions profitable.
Working together makes it possible to create a sustainable future that benefits both the environment and the economy.
Three examples of how to do it
Here are three examples of organizations and businesses that are good at building trust and strategic alliances
Example # 1: Evoy - making electric boating irresistible
Leif Stavøstrand quit a C-suite job in the Oil-industry and co-founded Evoy in 2018. Their goal is to make sustainable boating irresistible.
I love a quote from Leif’s father and co-founder of Evoy “We don’t inherit the planet from our ancestors; we merely borrow it from our children.”
Leif knows that change is coming, and he positions Evoy to provide the early market with better-performing boats.
Vision: Irresistible boating.
The whole emphasis is on the electric customer experience and second-to-none technology.
Mission: Eliminating boating emissions
Pioneering plug-and-play performance marine electric motor systems
Goal: Global market leader
A top-tier supplier with a worldwide reach and a genuine approach.
They actively build networks within the traditional industry to achieve their goals, partnering with leading motorboat manufacturers like Nimbus, Axopar, and Goldfish.
Evoy participates at every boat fair and event the established boating industry hosts, building trust through listening and challenging.
Example # 2: Saferock - mitigating the environmental impact of concrete
The value chain for concrete production significantly contributes to global greenhouse gas emissions within the building and construction industry.
According to the think tank Chatham House, its crucial component, cement, is the source of about 8% of the world's CO2 emissions.
Saferock’s business idea is to make the future of concrete circular. They partnered with the recognized architectural firm Snøhetta to spread their ideas and attract investors.
Instead of carbon-intensive cement, aggregate, and water, Saferock uses mine tailings, aggregate, and activators to make sustainable concrete.
This new concrete reduces carbon emissions by over 80% compared to the industry norm and recycles waste from mining into a value-adding product.
Snøhetta, and Saferock estimate that carbon emissions associated with concrete production can fall by more than 70% as a first step by utilizing industrial by-products to make geopolymer concrete. By 2025, the aim is to produce fully CO2-neutral concrete.
What a brilliant partnership between a traditional player and a start-up.
Example # 3: Morrow Batteries - utilizing 100 years of process industry legacy to scale green solutions
Morrow Batteries is on a mission to scale the production of the world’s most sustainable and cost-effective batteries.
To make this happen, they lean heavily on the experience of their region's well-established process and supplier industry. While Morrow Batteries represent a business model based solely on sustainability, the supplier chain primarily consists of innovative traditional players.
Suppliers like Elkem, Glencore, and Fiven all represent established industries going all in on supporting green technology. Morrow’s project is about establishing a circular value chain - transforming waste into resources and moving toward a closed-loop production system.
Their battery production is powered 100 % by renewable clean energy and is designed in close partnership with owners and traditional industry giants ABB and Siemens.
The Morrow Batteries case is an excellent example of the power of joining forces to scale solutions.
Wrapping up the lessons learned
Imagine what could happen if we all got 5 percent better at listening to the other perspective!
Ignoring or portraying the traditional industry as the problem will only lead to resistance and opposition.
As climate communicators, we should include the traditional industry in the conversation and find ways to make them a part of the solution.
Evoy, Saferock, and Morrow Batteries all excellently handle this.
Listening - I mean, really listening - is a skill. And probably on the top three list of skills climate communicators should practice regularly.
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Next week, I'll post blog # 4 in a five-week mini-series on solutions, effective climate communication, and best practices!
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See you!
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