Most businesses today are engaging with sustainability in some way. For some it’s about compliance and reporting. For others it’s a genuine attempt to transform how they operate and the impact they have on people and planet. Either way, sustainability is no longer a separate ‘job to be done’ – it’s shaping strategy, operations and culture.

And of course, that means we’re also thinking hard about how we communicate what we’re doing: how we report, how we engage employees, or how we talk to customers. All while trying to avoid the very real risk of the dreaded greenwash.

Increasingly, though, we at TBL are having conversations with our customers around how, as businesses, we take it a step further. A different conversation is emerging.

Not just how do we talk about our sustainability?
But what responsibility do we have to help others with theirs?

Because businesses don’t operate in isolation. We sit in the middle of networks of customers, suppliers and employees. If we’re serious about accelerating change, our role can’t just be to reduce our own impact – it has to be to enable others to reduce theirs too.

In other words, communicating about ‘you’ as well as ‘us’.

Supporting customers: making sustainable choices easier, not harder

For both B2C and B2B organisations, customers are under growing pressure to make more sustainable choices – but they’re also time-poor, budget-constrained and often overwhelmed by conflicting information.

Most people don’t want a lecture on climate science when they’re trying to buy a product or service. What they do want is clarity, confidence and practical help.

That might mean:

• Clear, honest information about impacts and trade-offs
• Products and services designed so the more sustainable option is the easy default, not the premium upgrade
• Simple guidance on how to use, maintain or dispose of something in a lower-impact way
• Data and insight that helps B2B customers meet their own reporting and targets

This isn’t about shouting ‘look how green we are’. It’s about asking: how can we help our customers succeed in their own sustainability goals? And then communicating in a way that’s genuinely useful (and not self-congratulatory).

Working with suppliers: building capability, not just policing performance

In supply chains, this thinking is already more established – particularly as organisations grapple with scope 3 emissions and human rights due diligence.

Leading businesses are moving beyond simply assessing and auditing suppliers, to actively supporting them to improve. That can include:

• Training and education
• Sharing tools, data and best practice
• Collaborative target-setting and problem-solving
• Incentives and recognition for progress, not just penalties for failure

Communicating here is as much about dialogue as disclosure. It’s about being transparent about expectations, honest about challenges, and clear that improvement is a shared journey – not a box-ticking exercise.

Engaging employees: from awareness to empowerment

Employees are another critical, and often overlooked, stakeholder group.

Internal sustainability communications shouldn’t just be about telling people what the organisation is doing. They should help employees understand:

• Why it matters
• How their role connects to the bigger picture
• What practical actions they can take, at work and beyond
• How they can contribute ideas and challenge decisions

When people feel informed, trusted and involved, they become advocates themselves – shaping culture, influencing behaviour and carrying those values into their communities and future careers.