For the last few months, the Climate Group and RE-Source have been hosting the Communicators of Change Taskforce. The taskforce is a new group for highly respected senior communications professionals committed to promoting the benefits of renewables.

It is an opportunity for peer-learning and provides a safe space for leaders to share challenges and ideas for continuous improvement. Members of the taskforce include Asahi, Bosch, Decathlon, Nestlé, Nissan and Sanofi.

In this blog series, we will be sharing insights and learnings from the taskforce. This week, we’re diving into communicating the business strategy for renewables. For more information on the taskforce, please contact Aleksandra Klassen at [email protected].

1. Start at home

Why not start by communicating your renewable energy strategy to your employees? Our taskforce agreed that this should be the first step on this journey. Starting with employees has a couple of advantages. Firstly, it enables you to test and iterate your messaging and content before sharing it with a wider audience. Secondly, it can transform your employees into champions of your sustainability transition and gets their buy-in.

Sanofi did this by launching a new global employee network focused on finding creative new ways for Sanofi sites and activities to be more environmentally friendly. Their approach opened the doors to all ideas from small everyday changes to ambitious projects. The best ideas were incubated in Sanofi’s Innovation Lab and €3 million was awarded to the top three projects.

2. Learn from others

The taskforce highlighted that they all faced common challenges and that the best way to get started was to look to others and learn from their successes and challenges. No one business or industry needs to reinvent the wheel. There are shortcuts to be found and time and money to be saved by building upon what’s worked for another business.

Every member of the taskforce said that by joining RE100 and engaging with initiatives such as the taskforce was invaluable in helping them to learn from and be inspired by others. 

3. Put renewables at the heart of a wider sustainability strategy

Considering the business strategy for renewables as a standalone point won’t work. Many businesses in the taskforce highlighted the need for renewables to be embedded in a wider sustainability business strategy. For Chanel transitioning to renewable electricity is one of three central pillars of their climate strategy, with a target of reaching 100% renewable energy in their operations by 2030.

4. Make it real

Putting a strategy into practice and taking the first steps is where things get harder. In other words, having a strategy on paper is all very well but it only becomes real once action is taken. This can be a tricky point of change to navigate and is the first test of your commitment. However, our taskforce felt that once a business starts to make decisions in line with the strategy that’s where momentum builds.

Next up, the Communicators of Change Taskforce will be looking at how best to tackle point 1 on this list – communicating your renewable energy strategy with employees.