Great, you’ve committed to making your business more sustainable by working with the Rainforest Alliance. You are doing your part to create a world where people and nature thrive in harmony. What’s next? Communicating about what you’re doing to your audience and stakeholders.
We’re the first ones to admit it— finding the right language to comprehensively explain what the Rainforest Alliance is, what we do, and how your commitments are making a difference can be tricky.
Not to worry, we’ve developed communications guidelines, messaging templates, and even an ultimate marketing guide to help you tell your sustainability story and articulate the essence and impact of our work together. These tools will give you the basis for how to talk about the Rainforest Alliance, certification, our green frog seal, and your company’s sustainability commitments.
Communications guidelines for talking about sustainability
Sustainability is at the core of what we do at the Rainforest Alliance and therefore it is also key for our partner companies. This means that “sustainable” is a word that we regularly see in our partner companies’ materials, and rightly so. It’s also a word that should be used carefully to ensure credibility.
Why is it important to communicate about sustainability in a credible way? First of all, trust in a company or brand is a great purchase driver. Commitment to sustainability helps build that trust; 87% of consumers would be more likely to trust a company when it supports a social or environmental issue. In addition, the media, civil society organizations, and consumers are becoming better informed about certification. This makes it crucial to communicate clearly and transparently about certification and your work with the Rainforest Alliance without over-promising.
In short, credible and open communication helps create trust and dispel misconceptions. And, most importantly, it adds value to your brand.
To help you communicate about your sustainability commitment effectively, we identified six basic guidelines:
- Express sustainability as a journey
- Use the term ‘better’ or ‘more’
- Avoid using ‘sustainable’ and ‘certified’ interchangeably
- Avoid using ‘100% sustainably/responsibly sourced’
- Avoid the term ‘guarantee’
- Communicate openly and proactively about sustainability challenges
Explore these guidelines in greater detail (including do & don’t examples!).
Messaging Templates
With the basics of how to communicate about the Rainforest Alliance and sustainability understood, our messaging templates will provide you with some “tried and true” messages to help you explain what the Rainforest Alliance is, what we do, and why we do it—and of course, what our “green frog” seal stand for.
Check out the Rainforest Alliance messaging templates.
The final step? Take advantage of our Ultimate Guide to Marketing your Rainforest Alliance Certified Product to ensure you are making the most out of your commitment.
Need more guidance on how to maximize your messaging or have a specific question you’d like our input on? We are here to help! Contact the Rainforest Alliance marketing team.