Resources for Environmental and Sustainability Communicators
We’ve put this guide together to share some of our initial messaging learning from Framing Climate Justice, a participatory cross-movement framing project coordinated by PIRC, 350.org and NEON seeking to bring justice firmly to the centre of climate change communications. During the project we explored different framing and narrative techniques, carried out communications research, developed new ways of talking about...
What we say about climate change and how we say it matters. It affects how people think, feel and act. The right story can build the public appetite needed to catalyse change. Decades of research and experience shows how stories can shift how people think and feel. They can make important actions feel right, normal and inevitable. Intentionally changing the...
When it comes to the natural world, grim headlines abound. As we hear of forests burning and species going extinct, it can be hard to remain hopeful. However, amongst the stories of loss, there are also many inspiring stories of hope that are waiting to be shared, learned from and replicated. Conservation Optimism is built on the belief that securing...
When communicating about the ocean, we all make choices about what we say and how we say it. We can make choices that increase public understanding and boost support for action to heal the ocean. We can avoid messages that get lost in translation. By framing our communications well we can be confident that we’re being heard and understood. These tried-and-tested ways of talking about the...
There is currently a lack of research into communicating the concept of net zero and why it is needed, but existing insights on climate change communication suggest the phrase net zero is a technical one that will not resonate well with the public. The purpose of this report is to test these assumptions, and make recommendations on the best ways...
Weathercocks and Signposts… advocated communicating and campaigning on the basis of a deep and imperative love for the natural world as one of many roots to inspiring environmental concern. But it also highlighted definite limits to the kind of arguments that we should make. It made the case that we should seek to widen public support for our aims by...
Our wildlife matters…but so do our words. This guide will show that our choice of words is just as important as any other decision we make in conservation. The guide will explain what framing is and how we can use it to create a better world for wildlife. If we communicate with an understanding of framing we are more likely...
Effective communications requires reflecting and responding to different audiences, and tailoring messaging to the values of each audience. NGOs and financiers have different values and therefore use different narratives, often with entirely different vocabularies. Policymakers – especially those in government and multilateral development agencies – tend to sit between the two sectors, adopting some of the NGO concerns about social...
A narrow visual vocabulary currently determines climate change in the public mind: polar bears, melting ice-caps, smokestacks and – as the results of our Climate Visuals research show – potentially polarising images of environmental protesters. This can undermine the effectiveness of campaign messages by failing to engage audiences, and can detract from the reach and value of journalistic reporting on...
To accompany this year’s UK Climate Coalition Show the Love campaign, which we helped shape, we’ve created a new practical guide, “Public engagement with climate change post-Brexit: a centre-right perspective”, in collaboration with the Climate Coalition. Many climate campaigners and communicators consistently state that they struggle to have conversations with people of centre-right values – in response, our new guide...
