Carbon as a PR metric but who's counting?

PR practitioners must measure carbon in the rush to address ESG concerns. A report published today suggests that the UK is woefully unprepared for climate risk.

As society emerges from the COVID-19 pandemic, the call to build back better is growing louder and louder.

Organisations recognise the urgent need to address a broader stakeholder group beyond shareholders, and a wider set of metrics beyond financial performance.

This is the move towards an emerging set of organisational metrics grouped under the umbrella of environmental, society and governance (ESG).

The PR industry is making an assertive claim as an ESG advisor. It is well placed to understand an organisation’s role, relationships, and impact on the environment and society. This is the topic of a briefing paper published by Vuelio by Dr Jon White and I.

Slow progress has been made on societal and governance concerns, but environmental concerns rarely feature as a metric.

The 2015 Paris Climate Agreement set the goal of limiting global heating below 2C to tackle the climate crisis. The UK must reduce its greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 40% below 1990 levels by 2030 to meet its commitment.

Action to improve the nation’s resilience is failing to keep pace with the impacts of a warming planet and increasing climate risks facing the UK according to an independent assessment of climate risk published today by the Climate Change Committee (CCC).

The PR industry’s default response to environmental concerns is typically focused on carbon reduction or offsetting through so called green initiatives such as recycling and tree planting.

However well intentioned, action on green initiatives is meaningless without objective and quantifiable measurement. To make a meaningful impact on carbon reduction we need to measure and benchmark usage over time.

It is complex. There are no quick fixes or easy answers.

In the agency sphere the market for ESG consulting is booming with every agency seemingly launching a specialist team and touting its credentials. This in itself is a paradox. ESG is not so much a specialism as a definition of life itself.

Brand activism agency Don’t Cry Wolf is the first agency in the UK to measure and report on its carbon usage. It reduced carbon dioxide equivalent gases (CO²e) by 45% from 50.17 tonnes in 2019 to 26.91 tonnes in 2020. (Disclosure: I’m a non-executive director of Don’t Cry Wolf).

PR industry awards have started to address ESG concerns but typically reward business and campaign performance rather than actual environmental impact.

In the past week Wadds Inc. has examined the market for industry awards among industry associations and media.

There are two broad conclusions: firstly, the market is saturated leading to the inevitable question of what’s meaningful and what’s not; and secondly, we failed to find any award that called for a demonstrable measurement of carbon usage.

The PR industry congratulates itself for banishing AVE from awards and focusing on organisational metrics. It continues to make progress on societal issues such as gender, ethnic and socio-economic diversity. It must now recognise that carbon is the single most important metric for sustainability.

Events such as the 47th G7 Summit in Cornwall and upcoming COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow offer important moments that create energy for change. I hope the PR industry takes note.