I was invited recently to a meeting of environmental leaders to share my lessons learned in communicating about climate change. Everyone in the room was passionate about the issue and frustrated by the lack of legislative action in the US. We needed to reframe our message and reconnect with voters. We talked about the sound science; we talked about the ethical mandate; and we talked about the increasing urgency of the issue.
Then it was my turn. I began by sharing the best communications advice I ever heard, attributed to someone in marketing at (what was then known as Ralston) Purina: “Make sure they have a dog . . . .”
As we work to advance public policy on climate change, I think we need to meet people where they are. And today, every policy is a jobs policy.
At Duke Energy, we took that idea and created this PowerPoint presentation. Sure, there’s some self-interest here. But, it’s proven to be a good conversation starter. Which reminds me of some of the other great communications advice I’ve gotten over my career: ”the facts are important; but so is the narrative.” Let me know what you think:
Roberta Bowman is Chief Sustainability Officer at Duke Energy. She has more than 30 years of experience in public policy, advocacy and stakeholder relations on important (and sometimes controversial!) energy issues.