How To Ruin A Sustainability Story

26 ways to totally ruin any chance of people caring about our future

Jun 29, 2025

I’m an upbeat and positive person. So, the first iteration of this list was my personal top 26 ways to tell a GREAT sustainability story.

But I feel like I’ve written that list soooooo many times. For my own sanity, I decided to have some fun this time.

If you hate the future, despise your fellow humans and want sustainability to remain a sidelined and toothless endeavour, here’s my guaranteed tactics to lose any audience:

Classic Ways To Destroy Sustainability Goodwill

Start With Apocalypse
Make sure your audience feels completely doomed before they’ve even finished their oat milk latte.
Play The Guilt Card
Really lean into that ‘you’re personally responsible for the collapse of civilisation’ vibe.
Be Morally Superior
If everyone held the same values as you, everything would be fine, right? So ignore or disparage what other people value. Show them how shallow and selfish they are, so they will gratefully follow your lead.
Make It All About You
Position yourself or your brand as the saviour, stuffing your sustainability comms with ‘claims’ about your performance.
List Problems, Then Walk Away
Nothing inspires like a long list of global catastrophes… with no solutions offered whatsoever. We’re fucked, mic drop (why is no one applauding?)
Drown Them In Data
Remember: nothing touches the soul like a 47-slide PowerPoint deck on carbon intensity and ESG metrics.
Use Arcane Scientific Terms
Confuse and bamboozle your audience into silence with terms like ‘externalities’ and ‘anthropogenic forcings’. Imply that if they don’t understand, then they clearly should go away and inform themselves (because it’s not YOUR job)
Assume Everyone’s An Activist
Speak only in slogans. Use a megaphone if possible. Eye contact optional.
Demand Moral Perfection Or Else
If someone uses a plastic straw, shame them immediately. Cancel culture for climate crimes!
Remember: You’re The First Person To Try Communicating This!
You don’t need to research what works, learn from Indigenous communicators or review previous campaigns. You just had a GREAT idea, go raise some funding!
Say ‘We’re All Going to Die’ a Lot
It’s motivational, really. Like an existential alarm clock no one asked for.
Make Clear Sustainability Means SACRIFICE
Eliminate all evidence that sustainability means more jobs, healthier lives, less stress etc. Double down on taking things away. If people aren’t convinced that sustainability means sacrifice, then why would they support it?

How To Ignore Our Most Powerful Story Tools

Pretend Culture Doesn’t Matter
Forget movies, music, art or memes. Ignore the need for a new narrative altogether. Just keep yelling about policy frameworks.
Copy-Paste Global Messaging Without Context
One message to rule them all! Who needs local relevance or cultural nuance? All audiences are exactly the same and will respond to the same message. (For extra points, develop everything in English, then just translate it).
Only Talk to People Who Already Agree With You
Echo chambers are warm, safe, and filled with recycled tote bags. The people who are just like you agree with you, so everyone else will right?
Ignore Feelings, Just Facts Please
Emotion is for rom-coms. This is science, dammit. The science just needs to be BIGGER and LOUDER, and it will eventually prevail, right?
Be Mean, Cruel And Cynical
People LOVE that stuff and won’t run away at all. Treat ‘em mean, keep ‘em sustainable.
Play It So Safe You Send People To Sleep
Beige slides, cautious tone, zero personality. Let’s keep it bland, abstract and emotionally sterile. Just the way humans don’t think. Sustainability, but make it beige.
Avoid Anyone Who Thinks Differently
Diversity of opinion is terrifying. Stick to your tribe. Unfollow all relatives.

Tactical Fails For Extra Climate Disengagement

Write Reports No One Can Read
Preferably 80 pages long. With acronyms. In PDF. Behind a paywall.

Forget That Design Matters
Use Comic Sans. Clip art if possible. Make your PowerPoint feel like a punishment.
Tell People THEY Should Care, Rather Than Why YOU care
You care about climate because you’ve swum in the ocean since childhood, and it breaks your heart to think of those whales, plankton, corals and starfish being lost. But never tell that story of course, instead share stats on the sixth mass extinction and parts-per-million of CO2
Pretend the Whole Thing Is Simple
Say things like ‘we just need to change capitalism’ and hope no one asks questions like ‘HOW????’
Talk At People, Not With Them
Conversations are overrated. Monologue is the real path to global transformation.
Confuse Going Viral With Changing Minds
If your YouTube video or paid advertising got views, the job is done. Right?
Give Up On Hope
Tell everyone it’s too late. Then sit back and enjoy the slow, smug unravelling.

I hope these rules for totally failing in your sustainability communications serve you well!

Seriously though, all of these are such easy traps to fall into. I’ve done so myself countless times over the decades! I hope by poking a bit of fun as these mistakes I help us all (me included) remember to avoid them.

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In other news:

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