How will you use your sustainability voice in 2024?

In 2024, it will be more important than ever to make your Sustainability messaging compelling, impactful and genuinely useful (adding to the conversation and not just self-serving).

This will be a tough year for getting across any coherent message. The confusion around climate will compete with the combative election rhetoric and competitive campaign analysis, against a background of two major wars around the world (so far and it’s only January). If you want to use your voice effectively, it will take more work this year than ever.

One way to start is to get some perspective by doing what I was forced to do when I had writer’s block for the last few months of 2023: shut up and listen. Try to sort out the different voices you hear and read: Which provide useful information? Which provide important insights? Which provide perspectives you would not hear otherwise?

And which voices provide information only about their own interests, insights only into their own motivation, maybe even more insight than they mean to share?

Another way is look back honestly at how you’ve used your own voice in the past. Reviewing a decade of my own writing, I saw times when I clearly just wanted to be visible; other times when I wanted to impress potential clients; and yet others when I really wanted to influence a particular audience. Being honest with myself, for most of the decade my thinking about objective and audience was pretty mushy. The COVID-era pause put me in close touch with a very wise advisor who taught me to really identify and drill into my target audiences, and to focus every piece of writing on one particular audience. The change in impact and effectiveness was astounding.

At the very least, I hope you can go into 2024 listening and reading more critically. Try to identify the audience and objective of the voices you hear and read. Let that inform your choices about which voices you want to give access to your head.

What is your objective?

Why are you writing, talking and posting? What do you want people to know, understand or do differently as a result of hearing your voice? Is your intention to:

• Inform?
• Instruct?
• Inspire 
• Influence?
• Inflame?
• Impress?

Are you trying to comfort your audience or discomfort them? Are you trying to get results, or just attention? Do you have unique insights that people need to hear? Do you see opportunities others are missing?

Once you know your objective, you can begin to focus on the right content and tone. If you don’t know your objective, that should be a pretty important clue that maybe you’re not ready to say anything.

Who is your audience?

Whom do you really want to reach, in order to achieve your objective? Who do you want to read your writing, hear your voice, consider your message? Is your audience:

• Peers?
• Prospects?
• Fans?
• Foes?

Who are you preaching to? The choir, other clergy, or the folks who aren’t even in your church. Any of those audiences may be valid, but they need to match your objective. Too much of the climate conversation seems aimed at those who already believe, not at those who question or are unmotivated.

Choosing your sustainability voice for 2024

Do speak and write. But do it critically. Think about your own audience and objectives. Be honest with yourself (and with your audience). Our sustainability issues are too important to be lost in the clutter.