Recommendations for Environmental Communication in Organizations

Proceedings of The 3rd World Conference on Media and Communication

Year: 2023

DOI:

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Recommendations for Environmental Communication in Organizations

Juliana de Oliveira Vicentini, Odaléia Telles Marcondes Machado Queiroz

 

 

 

ABSTRACT: 

Since the 1960s, the denunciation of ecological damage and the environmental crisis has made sustainability an important agenda for the society. Social movements, conferences and protocols aimed for an ecologically balanced environment began to emerge, making different society segments interested in the theme. Environmental communication emerged as the process that an organization puts into practice to provide or obtain information and to dialogue with internal or external agents, in order to create a shared understanding about environmental issues and performance. Environmental communication is an important organizational strategy, used to help people understand environmental commitments and policies, disseminate information for sustainability, to be a tool to understand stakeholder needs, to promote organizational achievements, to raise environmental awareness, and to improve people’s perception about the organization. This study objective is to present strategies and tools to implement or enhance organization external environmental communication. Based on a critical analysis of theoretical references (Ferguson, 1999; Oepen, 1999; Cox, 2013) and guidelines presented by several institutions (IMI 2005; BNISO 14063, 2009; ISO 14063, 2020), we propose a communication plan to address socio-environmental issues in organizations, organized into four stages consisting of 16 steps: (1) organizational context: lessons learned; human and financial resources; motivations, objectives and goals; theme; (2) planning: communication tools; partnership with strategic groups; target audience; geographic coverage; (3) production: message conception; production; pre-test; (4) action and reflection: content distribution; monitoring; return; assessment. Organizational environmental communication as information sharing and social engagement, is a strategic action for strengthening the organization itself and society sustainability.

keywords: guidelines, information, institutions, strategic communication, sustainability