Service
June 6 2024
For sustainability storytelling to have grit and substance in today’s marketplace, it must be factual. This is the lens one trained journalist takes to her communications practice, and it could perhaps be the advice a communicator needs to avoid pitfalls amid a changing regulatory landscape. Read on! Say it plainly. While editorialized titles and en vogue headlines make for a
Guest Writer: Kaley Roshitsh
For sustainability storytelling to have grit and substance in today’s marketplace, it must be factual.
This is the lens one trained journalist takes to her communications practice, and it could perhaps be the advice a communicator needs to avoid pitfalls amid a changing regulatory landscape. Read on!
Say it plainly.
While editorialized titles and en vogue headlines make for a clickbait ad or read, it is less serviceable in reality. Simple is often best. (Does this sound familiar? It is borrowed advice from Strunk and White’s renowned “The Elements of Style.”)
Avoid buzzy language.
Labels provide consumers with necessary information for decision-making – or they should. But with the rise of unregulated words like “sustainable” or “eco-friendly,” choices became tricky. European Union regulators and other like-minded governments have vowed to step in. In the rise of sustainably-labeled products, the EU made its own EU Ecolabel and looks to update its current Ecodesign Directive. Although it is not the only option out there – as many stakeholders contribute to effective policy making – as of April 2024, nearly 96,000 products and services earned the EU Ecolabel.
Know your supply chain.
It goes without saying, but if something cruel or unusual is happening in one’s supply chain, it needs to be eradicated. There’s no sustainable “story” to tell if human rights or ecosystems are undercut for the sake of profit. When and if there’s a compelling process, innovation, or human interest story to share, then it will come organically (excuse the pun). To help decipher if it’s something worth sharing, ask oneself, “Does this improve my industry? Does this help the greater good?”
Validate, validate, validate.
This goes back to reading up on the latest policy and compliance needs, but everything about one’s product or initiative is up for debate without proof. Be it disproving forced labor claims by tracing a cotton fiber’s origin to asserting fewer tradeoffs with a biomaterial substitute with a lifecycle assessment study, for example, there has to be evidence to back up its claims.
Know when to pivot.
Just because it’s right doesn’t always mean it’s the right time. Far too many visionary sustainability advocates struggle surviving for the long-term in a marketplace built for speed and growth. Fashion designers may be prone to reinvention, as recent examples show. In May, sustainable designer Mara Hoffman closed her doors after 24 years in business, but hope is not lost if she’s anything like fellow designer Tracy Reese. In the time since shutting her namesake label, Reese’s “Hope for Flowers” spinoff has created space for a handcraft resurgence in her hometown Detroit, Mich.
Kaley Roshitsh is Editorial Director, Cascale, Sustainable Fashion Editor and Consultant.
Roshitsh is a writer, editor and longtime sustainable fashion advocate. You may contact her or find more of her work at KaleyRoshitsh.com.
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