When communicating about the green shift, it's essential to include the traditional industry: the established, mainstream businesses and sectors that significantly impact the environment.
Why it doesn’t work to ignore traditional businesses
Generally, the support of these players is crucial in making the green shift a reality. Ignoring or portraying them as the problem will only lead to resistance and opposition.
What to do instead
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.
The Role of New and established companies
Scholars disagree on which role incumbents and new entrants could have in sustainable entrepreneurship. However, most agree that we need a mix to solve a common problem.
In his book “The Innovator’s Dilemma,” Clayton M. Christensen explains why there is considerable incitement for incremental innovation within traditional industries.
But facing global warming, we need disruptive innovation.
The solution, then, according to Christensen, is for traditional industries to form independent units within the organization to build new business models and new solutions.
In the article “Greening Goliaths versus Emerging Davids,” the authors argue that we need a shared effort from new and established businesses to make the green shift a reality.
This may sound self-explanatory. However, it is many times not reflected in climate communication.
From a communications perspective, the solution would be to form alliances with the traditional industry instead of framing them as a problem or the story’s villain.
Let me give you an example of a bad way of communicating with traditional industries and then follow up with an example of effective communication.
What happens when you are being perceived as arrogant?
A few years ago, I got into a festival on sustainable boating, I didn’t find much enthusiasm in the traditional industry, so I wanted to figure out why; I interviewed a dozen of the leading players in the established boating industry,
I started asking them how often they had been contacted by environmentalists, green politicians, or any other person making promises on behalf of the business. After all, every sector is supposed to cut emissions by more than 50 percent by 2030,
The answer was depressing; none of them had even been contacted. None of the boat builders and main boating businesses in Norways had ever been asked to give their opinion on what a green shift could look like within the boating industry.
They had never been asked if they would like to come up with solutions nor asked to describe the natural barriers to zero-emission boating. Neither had they been asked if they wanted to be partners or what it would take to make a sustainable transition happen.
Instead, environmentalists had been arrogant, making promises on the industry's behalf without dealing with the risk. They presented a top-down policy without inviting the most significant players to have a say.
This is terrible communication. And it happens all the time.
What happens when you invite people into a story they want to be in?
Let's illustrate this by analyzing a true story within a classic story plot.
Status Quo
For 20 years, he had been a main player in the Norwegian Boating Industry. He used much of his spare time riding his leisure boat.
No one knew the market better than him after years of talking with all the players in the industry and visiting international boat fairs. He used to read a lot about global trends and market analysis to understand the path forward for the industry he loved.
Like all industries, he realized that the industry would face some fundamental changes by 2050. But like most of the boat market, he also believed the barriers to an electric boating industry to be massive.
Not only was there no charging infrastructure along the coastline, but the zero-emission boats were also too expensive, and the reach of the batteries needed to be better.
Technological problems and little interest in the marketplace dominated his perception of the green shift in the short term. Still, when he made scenarios for 2040 or 2050, he thought there would be some disruptive innovations.
The strange paradox he faced was; sustainable electric boating seemed to be both inevitable and impossible at the same time.
Upsetting event
One day he was invited to a conference on sustainable boating. A minister announced that by 2030, all new boats should be powered by electric drivelines. Another representative stated that a green revolution was happening in the boating industry.
He couldn’t believe what he heard. The statements had no anchoring in the industry.
People could glance out the window to see that the claim of a green revolution was false. How could they stand there making promises on behalf of an industry they were not a part of? No one had ever called him to ask his opinion.
Struggle
In the months after the conference, he felt more cognitive dissonance. His beloved industry was labeled “dinosaurs” as a part of the problem of global warming. But no one presented him with better solutions or real-life examples of zero-emission boats that the market could find attractive.
So he became more resistant to the green shift and lost respect for the people trying to change his industry from the outside.
Climax
But one day, he got a call from the Electric Boating Business Network. He was invited to a workshop to discuss how Norwegian businesses may compete in the future European boat market. Reluctantly he said yes.
In the workshop, he met start-ups and people interested in listening to his knowledge of the industry and the market. They told him that new electric boats would hit the market when they were cooler than traditional boats.
They told him they believed the future sustainable boating would provide even better performances and user experiences. They believed in pairing the planet with the market - to align sustainable products with self-interest, just like people bought electric cars because their neighbors got one, not because they were eager to save the environment.
They presented a plan. First, to create enthusiasm in the early market by introducing new technology. Then build infrastructure to enable electric boats to be effective and efficient. Finally, reach a new industrial growth period and protect the environment.
New Outlook
Ever since he built trust with the Electric Boating Business Network, he has been inspired by all the possibilities and benefits of future boating.
He is much more optimistic about the green future.
Stop talking; start listening
I believe we can make giant leaps toward a green future once we start taking paying more attention to other perspectives. After all, most people care about the planet, even if their perspectives may differ from ours.
Next week, we’ll tap into Messaing Mistake #4 - Telling people what to worry about. Sign up underneath to get a weekly update on a radical new model for climate messaging and storytelling!
See you!
A god article to reflect on.