Sustainability has become a hot topic in the business sector, but becoming a sustainable business is about more than hollow promises and stated company goals. Being a truly sustainable business is about taking tangible sustainability actions, and communicating these clearly with your consumers.
When it comes to communicating your sustainability message with potential buyers and building a brand identity, your company website is usually a great place to start. Here are three things that you will want to make sure that you include.
A clear message to your stakeholders
Whether you have a separate CSR page on your website or choose to incorporate your sustainability message into your ‘About Us’ page, it is important that somewhere on your website you have a clear message for your key stakeholders detailing your company’s sustainability measures. It’s important to remember that your key stakeholders may have different things that they care about, for example, your suppliers may be most concerned about sustainable supply chain initiatives whereas your customers may want to see how your CSR plan affects them and your employees. Try to create a message that appeals in some way to everyone who may be visiting your website to learn more about your sustainability message, and remember that you can always provide more information to each stakeholder group through more targeted pages on your website.
Links to your social media channels
Social media is an essential part of a sustainability communications strategy and therefore is now a very important consideration when designing a website with sustainability in mind. Social media is the perfect place for your business’s sustainability claims and physical actions to align, demonstrating the tangible things that your company does on a daily basis to work towards their sustainability goals. This information shouldn’t just be restricted to those who follow your social media, and so you may want to include live-feeds from your social media channels on your website to spark a conversation, or at the very least you should link through to your social media accounts to encourage those who are interested to see more to follow you.
Proof that you live by your own sustainability values
Your CSR or sustainability web page may outline your sustainability goals and highlight what you plan to do to achieve them, but what people really want to see is that you and your employees embody your own values. A great way to demonstrate that you truly live and breathe your own sustainability message is to include information about personal sustainability efforts within the biographies of your key staff members. This could be something like the COO cycling to work, your marketing manager volunteering for a local food-waste charity, or the fact that your intern loves to shop zero-waste. At a broader level, you may also want to include information on smaller sustainability measures that you put in place for your staff members on a daily basis, be that the provision of plant-based lunches or reusable bottles.
These are just three of the things that you will want to make sure that you include on your business website. For more information on how to develop a sustainability-focused brand or how to communicate your sustainability strategy, then get in touch.