If the technical case is our skeleton – our cold, dry bones – then our core values are our heart and soul. Metaphors put flesh on our bones – they give us our face, our figure. And as we make our way in the world we choose what we wear, we choose our vocabulary depending on the context, and on our audience.
Our Core Values
Social and environmental standards are about sustainability. Sustainability is our fundamental shared objective. That may seem kind of obvious, now we refer to them as sustainability standards. But remember, back when the project started that’s not how we referred to them. We called them all sorts of things, but not ‘sustainability standards’.
Sustainability is hard to define technically, and hard to communicate, but its key elements include:
- recognizing and respecting the value of the natural world;
- respecting and behaving fairly towards other people today;
- ensuring that future generations can enjoy at least the same quality of life that we do;
- balancing these values fairly.
These are our core values.
Sustainability, based on these values, is the foundation on which we need to build our efforts at communication. This is what we believe in, and what motivates us in our work. It is the irreducible core that explains everything else that we do. It is “who we are” – our personality. This is what motivates us.
Our Vision
Our core values are reflected in our vision of a sustainable global economy. A sustainable global economy:
- recognizes and respects the value of the natural world;
- respects and behaves fairly towards other people today;
- ensures that future generations can enjoy at least the same quality of life that we do;
- supports good public governance to balance these values fairly.
Sustainability standards and certification help create a more sustainable global economy.
Key Metaphors
We propose two broad metaphors for the role of sustainability standards in helping to create a sustainable global economy. Both metaphors focus on the complexity of the world, the challenge of achieving sustainability, and the role of sustainability standards in making things better.
- Maps. This first metaphor addresses the need for guidance: for businesses and policy makers to navigate sustainability in a complex technical and market landscape.
- Filters. This second metaphor addresses people’s desire to live their lives more sustainably – behaving fairly to each other, to the environment and to future generations.
Maps
Sustainability standards act as Maps to help us understand and navigate the complexity of the world’s economy and to find more sustainable ways of behaving. They help us all to do the right thing. They help businesses see what needs to be done, and do it. They help us see the direction we need to move in. They show us the way.
Filters
And sustainability standards, certification and labeling also act as Filters. They help businesses distinguish between sustainable and unsustainable activities, and between sustainable and unsustainable materials in their supply chains. They help businesses filter out unsustainable materials, practices and suppliers in their supply chains. They help them clean up their supply chains and products.
And they help us separate sustainable products from unsustainable ones. They help protect us from harmful products and practices. They help us filter out products that harm other people, and harm the planet. In doing so they make our lives, and other people’s lives better.
Three key contexts for communication
Recognition of a shared technical narrative, core values, and the consistent use of powerful metaphors should provide a strong foundation for effective communication. But it is also essential to ensure that the language that is used to communicate is appropriate to the context, and to the audience.
The analysis at the start of the project identified three primary contexts in which dialogue about sustainability standards and certification tends to be framed:
- Markets
- Governance
- Communication
Effective communication in each of these contexts will use language appropriate to that context, but will combine this with language which uses the core metaphors of Maps and Filters, and in ways which trigger fundamental associations with sustainability. See Situation Assessment for more information on the contexts.
This leads us to a preliminary identification of vocabularies for communication.
Sample Vocabularies
Each of our key metaphors supports a wide vocabulary. The following examples are a small selection only.
MapsDirection, directions, navigating, finding the way, the way, way, paths, pathways, the right path, which way, the way to go, possible ways, at the beginning, setting off, starting from different places, looking for the way forward, how to choose the right path, going in the right direction, navigating different options, towards, roads, markers, landmarks, keeping on course, right way/ wrong way, making the journey easier, steering, compass, mapping, maps, guides, guideposts, way-posts… |
FiltersFilters, screens, editing, filtering out, cleaning, purifying, impurities, ensuring that only the best practices remain, cleaning up, sorting out, sieving, simplifying… |
In a Markets context we would expect to use the same metaphors, but in discussing the roles of consumers, businesses, market strategies, corporate social responsibility, supply chains, production, consumption and added value.
In a Governance context we would expect to use these metaphors in discussing the roles of citizens, democracy, good governance, accountability, transparency and such like.
In a Communication context we would use the metaphors in discussing labelling, communicating social expectations, communicating requirements, communicating needs, messages, entering into conversations with stakeholders, making sure that information is available, is clear, and can be understood.
To see this language in action, check out the demonstration site Sustainability Standards 101.
