The term is a mouthful, and so is the task: sustainability communications. Organizations need to examine their actions in environmental, economic, and social terms, and communicate them. The European Union’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) is now in force and requires respective formal reporting. More interesting, though, are the opportunities in voluntary internal and external communication. We give you an overview, also available as a PDF.

We’ve pushed the planet too far, so we have to act more sustainably. Customers and stakeholders expect it, and EU law now requires it: the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and its European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) set the formal reporting rules. The EU also moved to regulate environmental claims with a proposed Green Claims Directive; Parliament set its position in March 2024, but the Commission withdrew the proposal in June 2025, so the next steps are unclear.

Starting in 2024, new reporting requirements ask organizations to analyze and assess ESG (environmental, social, and governance) topics and to document their progress. For most organizations, that triggers significant transformation before any report is filed. We therefore treat sustainability communication primarily as the communication that accompanies this change. The path to a more sustainable organization runs through internal shifts, which is why it’s essential to distinguish between mandatory external disclosures, voluntary external communication, and internal sustainability communication.

What do we mean by sustainability communications?

Sustainability communications cover how an organization communicates internally and externally about its ESG priorities, actions, and results across environmental, social, and governance dimensions.

Why Should Organizations Communicate Their Sustainability Efforts?

• For many organizations, the CSRD makes sustainability reporting mandatory. For customers and stakeholders, talking about it is expected; for investors and lenders, it’s a deciding factor.
• The shift to a more sustainable organization drives innovation and creates competitive advantages.
• Internal sustainability communication builds employee buy-in and mobilizes support to deliver intensive change.
• External communication pushes you to improve. Staying silent on sustainability, by contrast, is a reputational risk – including for your employer brand.

What Differentiates the Three Levels of Sustainability Communications?

Mandatory external sustainability communication focuses on CSRD compliance and formal reporting. Voluntary external sustainability communication belongs in the broader corporate and marketing communications mix. Internal communication is especially important at the outset to enable the shift toward a more sustainable company. Sustainable business often requires a fundamental, sometimes radical, change in mindset.

How to Make Sustainability Communications Work

• Describe specific actions and outcomes. Skip “sustainable” and “sustainability”– they’re abstract and overused.
• Humility over boldness. We’re all at the start of this journey, with many open questions. Bring people along step by step instead of making sweeping claims. Credibility is precious.
• As everything shifts toward sustainability, complexity becomes both a challenge and an opportunity. There are countless stories to tell. Storytelling makes complex topics clear and emotionally resonant.
• This journey demands stamina. It also calls for a new kind of transparency – one that makes you vulnerable, but without it sustainability communications will be neither authentic nor convincing.

Bottom line: sustainability communications give companies and organizations a powerful lever for successful transformation. That strengthens the brand, including the employer brand, and builds lasting competitive advantage.

Download this summary as a PDF.

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