96% of PR and communications professionals say they advise clients on the climate crisis, finds survey
July 2022 - Media and PR
96% of PR and communications professionals say they advise clients on the climate crisis: A survey of PR professionals has found that nearly all of the respondents polled said they advise their clients and colleagues on how to deal with the climate crisis and what they should communicate to the wider world about it.
The study by the PRCA Climate Misinformation Strategy Group polled over 200 UK based PR professionals in May 2022 and found that the number of respondents who advise their clients on how to effectively portray the part they’re playing in tackling the climate problem has increased by 14%.
The research also looked at ‘greenwashing’ – a term used for when a company makes itself appear more environmentally friendly than it perhaps is in order to boost public image, which the PRCA group says can have a negative impact on the environment.
More than half the PR professionals surveyed said they have seen clients, or their own organisation attempting to greenwash. On the other hand, nine in 10 stated they pushed back when the subject came up, with 57% saying they managed to change their client's approach.
However, changing the approach is only half the problem, found the survey, with many PR professionals struggling to force any action at all. Just a quarter of organisations set science-based ambitions, according to the poll, with a further 59% stating they don’t measure their own carbon footprint.
John Brown, founder of the activism agency Don’t Cry Wolf and leader of the Climate Misinformation Strategy Group, said: “It’s not good enough anymore to be involved in campaigns, activities or endeavours that are superficial and surface-level. We are sincerely running out of time; we do not need more bamboo coffee cups. We need genuine work, genuine activity, genuine systemic change. Clients jumping on an eco or greenwashing bandwagon is distracting from important work that needs to happen.”
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