Here's how you can assertively and confidently communicate in a sustainability career.

Clear and simple to remember messages: Be sure to be clear about what you expect from your audience and express it from the beginning. Call for action at the end of your speech

1. Understand your audience to be able to tailor your sustainability message to fit well with the audience. Different audience determines the complexity of the message. Always ensure that for policymakers, the message is simple and clear with action points.

After ensuring you're well informed on what you're reporting you then need to ensure you know your audience. Understand their backgrounds and then form your message to resonate with their values. Point out all of the benefits...show your work and the back up. Be positive and stay upbeat. Then...actively listen with an open mind. Be empathetic and gentle as you guide the conversation towards sustainable solutions.

Mastering sustainability means knowing your facts inside out. Hereby, it's absolutely crucial to stay updated regarding e.g. environmental issues and new regulations (like CSRD). It's NOT about being the one expert in every single topic in the complex field of sustainability - Pick your focus topics and dive into them - become the expert who is getting asked first for these specific topics. Impress with your knowledge, building a solid foundation for persuasive communication. Start to lead the conversation with expertise! ??

Knowledge is Power: The Importance of Being Informed in Sustainability In the realm of sustainability, being armed with accurate facts is paramount for effective communication. By staying informed about environmental issues, legislation, and best practices, you establish credibility and confidence in your assertions. Whether discussing carbon footprints, renewable energy sources, or waste reduction methods, a deep understanding of these topics enables you to articulate your ideas convincingly. Moreover, your breadth of knowledge equips you to address questions and criticisms adeptly, fostering more persuasive and impactful communication. In sustainability, knowledge truly is power.

Effective communication always starts with attentive listening. The best communicator is not the one who is talking the most - its the one who is actively listening the most. Get to know your audience - Tune into others' perspectives, show empathy and understanding. Foster collaboration through respectful dialogue. Let's create a space where different perspectives are really heard and used to drive sustainable solutions.

In effective communication for sustainability, we need to understand stakeholders' positions, attitudes, and challenges to adjust sustainability messages accordingly for two-way communication. For example, suppliers may not disclose carbon emissions and labor practices not because they don't want to, but because they haven't collected relevant data. Similarly, management may want to implement more sustainability practices but may lack knowledge on how to do so or face opposition from others. We need to understand their concerns, show respect and openness to their opinions, and then offer effective suggestions based on those opinions.

Cut through the noise with clear and simple language. It's crucial to get the tone your audience uses. Therefore, communicate precise, as simple as possible and avoid too complex terms. Break down complex topics to ensure your message is universally understood for impactful collaboration.

One thing I find helpful is to break down complex sustainability concepts into simpler, more digestible terms. Use analogies, examples, and real-world scenarios to illustrate your points and make them more relatable to your audience. Avoid using overly academic or technical language that may alienate or confuse non-experts. Define key terms and concepts related to sustainability to ensure everyone is on the same page. Provide clear explanations and definitions for terms such as 'sustainable development,' 'carbon footprint,' 'biodiversity,' and others that may have different interpretations. Clarify any ambiguity to prevent misunderstandings and promote effective communication. Hope that resonates with you as well. :)

Confident communication is key as sustainability professional. Hereby, establishing real self-confidence is absolutely crucial. Knowing about your strengths, your knowledge and your achievements helps a lot in regards to inspire others with trust and credibility. Confident communication is way more than just using cool rhetoric terms but includes beside others speaking clear in the right tone with poise and assurance, using strong body language, including great storytelling, and way more. Let's learn how to exude confidence in every interaction, inspiring trust and credibility to make a positive impact!

As sustainability professionals, we are passionate people. We care deeply about the work we're doing, because it's critical and making a hugely positive difference. But don't let this passion come out as anger, condescension, or hubris. Projecting confidence is about knowing your stuff and communicating it in a way people will resonate with. At the end of the day, we are trying to get as many people as possible to change their behaviour. If we yell at them, or treat them like children, they'll just ignore our important message.

Feedback helps a lot to grow stronger within your sustainability journey. Hereby, it's crucial to decide from whom you wanna take feedback in a first step. Actively ask for feedback from those regularly and embrace it graciously. For those who tend to take feedback personally: it helps a lot to learn how to separate the factual and the emotional level - try to see the opportunities you get, learn and adapt from both positive and constructive feedback. Strengthen relationships and reputation through responsive engagement. Let's evolve together, turning feedback into a real driving force!

Leverage data visualization to communicate well. Package your communication in visual images, charts and graphs which are clearly labelled and explained

Change your perspective towards constructive (and sometimes critical) feedback. It is like a suggestion and a different point of view towards your activities/tasks/achievements. Sometimes we all have blind spots and it is important to get an external point of view in order to be more objective and to grow and get better.

Link your sustainability message to the global agenda and parameters that are relevant to the audience. This may include sustainability reporting standards and benchmarks developed for different sectors and for different Professional Bodies and associations.

Listen! Sustainability requires excellent stakeholder management skills since you will likely be working with many different departments. For many of these people sustainability is not their first priority. Listen to what their issues are and see if there's a way to integrate sustainability into their prioritised work.