When Green Gets Harder: A 4-Part Framework for Stronger Climate Comms

By Barry Johnston, Founding Partner

If you're responsible for climate strategy or communications in a large organisation right now, you're probably feeling the pressure. Public support for climate action remains strong in the polls, but political headwinds are intensifying. Net zero scepticism has moved from the fringes to the mainstream. And increasingly, the changes required for the transition are not in distant power plants but in people's everyday lives – their commutes, their heating systems, their diets.

This creates a more challenging landscape for organisations trying to maintain momentum on climate commitments. How do you communicate authentically about the challenges ahead without handing ammunition to opponents? How do you demonstrate real progress while navigating legitimate concerns about fairness and feasibility? How do you avoid greenwashing accusations while still telling a story about achievement and ambition?

These questions will only intensify as we approach COP 30 in Brazil next month and beyond. That's why we've developed "When Green Gets Harder" – a practical tool for organisations that want to update their climate communications for a more fractured and challenging context.

Where Do You Sit?

First we’ve developed a "Sustainability Spectrum" to help organisations assess their current position and future ambition:

Cautious organisations focus on baseline compliance, checkbox reporting, and ad hoc innovation. They participate minimally in industry collaborations.

Conventional organisations publish sustainability reports, make modest commitments (net zero by 2050, often with offsets), and offer some green products.

Changemaking organisations set ambitious science-based targets, invest meaningfully in clean technology and circular economy solutions, lobby for stronger climate policies, and lead cross-sector partnerships.

The question isn't whether you're perfect – it's whether you're moving deliberately toward more ambitious action and more honest communication about the journey.

The Four Pillars

The framework then identifies four interconnected areas for action, each addressing a critical dimension of credible climate action:

1. People

Your climate commitments are only as strong as the people delivering them. Do your teams have the skills and knowledge to navigate difficult conversations about trade-offs and timelines? Are roles and responsibilities clearly defined? Most importantly, do your people have the right incentives – not just to hit targets, but to communicate honestly about progress and challenges?

We're seeing too many organisations where sustainability teams operate in silos, disconnected from core business decision-making. Climate communications can't just be a CSR function anymore – it needs to be embedded across the organisation.

2. Products

This is where strategy meets reality. Are you genuinely designing products and services for sustainability, or just adding green features to maintain market position? How are you aligning R&D investment with climate goals? How are these products marketed – with care and accuracy, or with claims that outpace delivery?

In the current environment, your products will be scrutinised more intensely than your statements. They need to demonstrate real progress, not just messaging discipline.

3. Proof

In an age of scepticism, evidence is everything. Do you have robust governance structures overseeing climate commitments? Is your data reliable and transparently sourced? Can you provide a clear audit trail showing how targets translate into actions and results?

This pillar is about building the infrastructure of trust. When challenged – and you will be challenged – can you point to systems and processes that verify your claims?

4. Partnership

No organisation can navigate this transition alone. Are you engaging your supply chains as partners in decarbonisation, not just vendors? Do you have access to the right external expertise when you need it? Are you collaborating meaningfully with peers, regulators, and civil society organisations?

The most credible climate communications come from organisations that position themselves as part of a broader ecosystem working toward shared goals, not as isolated actors claiming credit.

Practical Next Steps

As you prepare for the conversations ahead – both internally and externally – consider these questions:

• Can you articulate your climate strategy in terms of concrete actions and investments, not just end-state targets?

• Do you have mechanisms to listen to and address stakeholder concerns about the equity and feasibility of your transition plans?

• Are you prepared to acknowledge difficulties and trade-offs, rather than presenting the transition as purely beneficial?

• Can you demonstrate progress with specific, verifiable metrics rather than aggregate commitments?

The organisations that will maintain credibility and momentum in this harder phase are those that combine ambition with honesty, urgency with realism, and vision with detailed execution.

The "When Green Gets Harder" framework isn't about making climate communications easier – it's about making them more effective when the context is tougher. Because the alternative to doing this work well isn't to avoid criticism; it's to lose the capacity to act at all.

Want to explore how this framework could support your organisation? We're working with companies across the food, transport, FMCG, and legal sectors to strengthen their climate communications. Contact me at barry.johnston@purposeunion.com or sign up to our Climate Counsel newsletter here.