Information is power – the more you know about sustainability, the more influence you will have, both as individuals and as an agency.
The more people in your agency that understand the issues, the more people will understand what they can do in their role to contribute. Education in sustainability is constantly evolving as we understand more about the issues and as new solutions are developed.
No one is an expert across all areas of sustainability because the topic is so broad, but it’s important that you and your colleagues understand the priority issues for your agency (see step 2.5), and what action you can take.
We can be the game changers – but we can’t change it if we don’t know about it. It all starts with education.
Agencies are not always confident to start a conversation with their clients about the sustainable outcomes they want to achieve. So, it’s important to be well informed.
Advertisers rely on being in tune with culture, and with their audience. So, if agencies are even a year or two behind the status quo, and out of depth or out of date, it is going to show. Sustainability is an agenda that moves very quickly.
The best agencies have a passion for the brands they serve. They add value by understanding their clients’ culture – their values, purpose, products and audiences. And they combine this with a keen appreciation of what’s happening in the outside world, in the hearts and minds of customers and communities.
This role is now more critical than ever, because the landscape is (literally) changing. Agencies must be well enough informed to meet the client’s need for strategic and creative solutions, or to inspire new ways of thinking for businesses and brands.
Education will give you the understanding and the confidence to have the conversations you need to have with your clients.
Generic training modules will help you build the base understanding of the issues (there are some good general on-demand training resources linked below), but then you need to make the training ‘role relevant’ in your organisation. It needs to be relevant to your colleagues’ jobs, their careers, their day to day, their client relationships. This will help to empower everyone to take proactive and positive steps.
We are now in an era where not having sustainability expertise looks regressive, like you are out of step with the times.
The training doesn’t all have to be computer or classroom-based – there is a host of really good guides that are role-specific and packed with information. See the glossary to provide a good starting point – we have split guides by role where relevant.
As a minimum, you and your colleagues need to grasp the basics of climate science, how business activity is driving climate change and the role that advertising plays in that. But it’s not all doom and gloom, this is also about understanding how to inspire real passion for change.
Focusing on negative stories and restrictions is not a recipe for engagement or behaviour change (see The Green Print for further reading on this topic). But, it’s important to know the scary reality of the path we’re currently on, and then use that knowledge to craft the positive picture of how much better life on earth will be as we transition to a cleaner, greener future. Energy independence, clean water, clean air, healthier environments, liveable cities – it sounds pretty good, doesn’t it?
The following training courses were all flagged during the interview process as valuable by your peers in the industry. This is by no means a comprehensive list of all the sustainability training offerings on the market.
Please also refer to the appendix of this document where you will find links to many more guides that can help you get up to speed on things like the Green Claims Code, BCAP Code and sustainable advertising more broadly – all of which can help increase your knowledge and awareness of the topics and what steps you can take.