Companies are under scrutiny: from consumers, investors, politicians, and the general public. A lack of clarity in sustainability communication can therefore quickly become a pitfall – especially in the wake of growing regulatory requirements. In contrast, transparent sustainability communication can help build trust – and unleash potential to authentically position your company in the area of sustainability. To credibly communicate sustainable actions, the first step requires a robust strategic foundation with clearly defined goals and measures.

Sustainability communication can encompass various strategies, channels, and messages. To approach this area in a structured way and better understand your company's current status in this regard, we have developed the Sustainability Check.

As part of this offering, your company first undergoes our "Performance Check," in which we identify strategic gaps and opportunities related to sustainability. In a further step, we scrutinize your communication surrounding sustainability topics. We identify opportunities and risks regarding channels, tone, formats, and themes. Finally, we analyze how your company is perceived by the public with respect to sustainability. In this last step, we highlight perception gaps and positioning opportunities among your target audiences.

The result of this process provides the foundation for credible and differentiating sustainability communication.

We support your company's sustainability communication by sharpening and conveying your sustainability profile both internally and externally.

Due to the CSRD and other regulatory requirements, it is becoming increasingly important to communicate about sustainability topics in a target-group-specific manner. The Sustainability Statement primarily targets the capital market. But how do companies communicate appropriately with their customers, suppliers, or employees when it comes to sustainability topics?

Our Sustainability Hub provides answers to this question. The Sustainability Hub is a website concept that bundles all sustainability-related statements of a company and disseminates them in a target-group-specific way. The basis for all these statements are the material topics or your company's sustainability strategy built upon them. This ensures content consistency in messages – regardless of the target group or channel.

Our experts identify suitable topics and messages and develop credible sustainability statements. In doing so, we also ensure that these statements comply with the requirements of the Green Claims Directive. Furthermore, we develop storylines and increase efficiency by focusing on relevant target groups and communication channels.

The goal of our collaborative communication work is to transparently present how your company addresses sustainability challenges and what measures it employs to tackle them. In this way, we also answer your stakeholders' questions.

We design communicative measures to be activating, engaging people on the path to greater sustainability. Effects arise, for example, in customer loyalty or employer branding, for pricing, or in tapping into new target groups.

Creative communication has the power to differentiate companies and set impulses to change attitudes and behavior. We orchestrate communication campaigns and creative ideas within the Scholz & Friends Family.

Authentic social engagement by companies is characterized by clear objectives, impact-oriented conception, relevance to the core business, and long-term partnerships with NGOs. On this basis, donation and sponsorship measures, pro bono activities, the establishment of foundations, or corporate volunteering can develop demonstrable social added value. Furthermore, this type of engagement allows employees to experience corporate values firsthand.

Drawing on many years of experience, Scholz & Friends Reputation develops strategies for companies' social engagement and designs impact-oriented projects for businesses. In doing so, we work with you to identify suitable societal challenges for the thematic focus of the engagement and establish a connection to business activities and corporate values. On this basis, suitable formats for implementing your engagement can be identified. And we make success stories visible for you: internal and external communication campaigns help strengthen your positioning as a responsible company.

With our know-how in German and EU regulations, we develop the strategic foundation upon which credible and robust sustainability communication is built. Orchestrated with the expertise of our agency family, we develop creative and activating communication solutions for every challenge on this basis. It is important to us to involve your communication specialists early in the processes to jointly develop tailored and individual solutions for your specific questions.

In this way, sustainability communication leads to positive differentiation from the competition, strengthens your brand, and makes you a company that communicates credibly and in a future-proof manner. We are happy to support you in this.

What is the Green Claims Directive?

The Green Claims Directive is a legislative proposal by the EU that aims to regulate environmental claims and protect consumers from greenwashing. To this end, the proposal sets out criteria that a product or service must meet to be advertised as environmentally friendly. This includes, for example, that claims such as "climate neutral" or "natural" must be substantiated. It was proposed on March 23, 2023, and is expected to come into force in 2027, with member states having 18 months to incorporate it into their national legislation.

What is understood by Greenwishing?

Greenwishing refers to the communication of companies that do not intentionally deceive but act naively. Due to a lack of know-how, aspects of a sustainability measure or characteristic are highlighted and particularly promoted, even though the actual impact is minimal or non-existent. While not inherently deceptive like greenwashing, persistent greenwishing without genuine progress can ultimately contribute to consumer skepticism and blur the lines with intentional misrepresentation.

How do companies make their social engagement effective?

By engaging socially, a company supports the tackling of specific challenges in society – outside its business activities. The social impact of the engagement is made demonstrable through a multi-stage impact logic with corresponding KPIs. For an engagement project to become a high-impact strategic investment in the community, companies must consider several parameters: setting clear and achievable goals for each program, an impact-oriented concept, building long-term partnerships with NGOs as competence holders and potential implementation partners. Strategic derivations and thematic relevance to the core business increase the credibility of the engagement.