Your Sustainability Story Matters: Three Communication Lessons for Local Businesses

Emily Newcomer, Green Business Program Coordinator

One thing I’ve been struck by since becoming Green Business Program Coordinator is how much sustainability work is already happening across Summit County. Businesses are reducing waste, conserving water, improving energy efficiency, and finding other ways to make a positive impact every day.

The challenge often isn’t doing the work—it’s finding the time and words to talk about it.

That was one of the themes explored during Beyond Buzzwords: Writing Sustainability Content People Care About, a recent workshop hosted by the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau and led by Right On Founding Partner, Kim Grob and Creative Director, Beth Lopez. The session offered practical ideas for communicating sustainability in ways that resonate with people. It also served as a reminder that these lessons apply to the Green Business Program, too, challenging us to think about how we communicate sustainability in ways that feel approachable, relevant, and meaningful to local businesses.

Here are three takeaways from the workshop that I think local businesses may find helpful when communicating their sustainability efforts:

1. Start with the Why

One of the biggest takeaways was that effective communication starts with the audience, not the topic.

It’s easy to write from a “we” perspective: We’re reducing waste. We’re conserving water. We’re improving energy efficiency.

The workshop challenged participants to flip that thinking and start with the audience instead. Why should they care? How does this affect them? What problem does it solve?

For example:

Instead of saying:
“Our restaurant recently implemented a food waste diversion program.”

Consider saying:
“When you eat here, your meal is prepared to be not just delicious, but thoughtful too. And if you leave a few bites behind, they’ll be turned into compost instead of being sent to the landfill.”

Or:

Instead of saying:
“We’ve installed energy-efficient lighting throughout our store.”

Consider saying:
“The next time you stop by, you may notice the store feels a little brighter. New energy-efficient lighting helps us create a more enjoyable shopping experience while using less energy.”

In each example, the action is the same. The difference is that the rewrite connects the sustainability effort to something the audience can see, feel, or care about.

Before writing a website update, newsletter article, or social media post, ask:

• Who am I trying to reach?
• What do they care about?

2. Leave the Jargon Behind

The workshop also challenged participants to think about sustainability terms that may be familiar within the industry but don’t mean much to the average reader.

Participants were encouraged to replace technical language with words and phrases that feel more relatable and less polarizing.

For example:

During the workshop, attendees were challenged to rewrite a message about glass recycling that was packed with terms like waste diversion rates, automated optical sorters, Scope 3 emissions, and decarbonization trajectories. While technically accurate, those terms can make it easy for readers to gloss over the message if they don’t immediately understand what they mean.

The revised version was much simpler:

“Give your empty glass containers a new life. New free glass collection sites in Kimball Junction, Coalville, and Kamas make it easy to recycle your empty glass containers. Instead of wasting space in the landfill, these containers become insulation for homes.”

The goal isn’t to oversimplify. It’s simply to make sure people understand what you’re talking about without needing a sustainability dictionary.

As someone who has worked in recycling and sustainability for many years, I appreciated this reminder. Sometimes the words we use most often are the same words that cause folks to tune out.

3. Make It Local and Authentic

The workshop also emphasized the importance of bringing your organization’s personality and voice into your communications.

People are more likely to remember a story about a person, challenge, or experience than a statistic or broad sustainability claim. That means moving beyond broad sustainability statements and focusing on real experiences, local examples, and the people behind the work.

It also means being honest about both successes and challenges. Sustainability isn’t always a straight line, and sharing what you’ve learned along the way can be just as valuable as sharing your accomplishments.

Whether you’re writing a social media post, newsletter article, or website update, think about the story you’re telling. Does it have a beginning, a middle, an end, and a reason for your audience to care?

The more local, specific, and authentic your story feels, the more likely it is to resonate.

Before you hit publish, ask yourself:

• Who am I trying to reach?
• Why should they care?
• Can I replace any jargon with simpler language?
• Can I make this more local or specific?
• Am I talking about benefits or just activities?

Sometimes a few small adjustments can make the difference between content that gets skimmed and a sustainability story that connects.

What This Means for the Green Business Program

This workshop was a reminder that these communication lessons apply to the Green Business Program, too.

It challenged me to think about how we talk about sustainability and certification. Are we communicating in ways that feel approachable and actionable? Are we helping businesses understand where to start, what steps to take, and how sustainability can support the goals they’re already working toward?

It also reinforced the role the program can play in helping businesses tell their stories. Certification is important, but so is recognizing, celebrating, and sharing the work happening behind the scenes. As the program grows, we will continue to create more opportunities to highlight local businesses and amplify the sustainability stories that deserve to be heard.

Thanks to the Workshop Partners

Thank you to the Park City Chamber & Visitors Bureau for hosting this valuable workshop and to Kim Grob and Beth Lopez at Right On for sharing their expertise and leading such an engaging discussion. The session provided practical communication tools that businesses, nonprofits, community organizations, and sustainability professionals can apply immediately.

To learn more about Right On and its work helping organizations communicate sustainability in meaningful and effective ways, visit wearerighton.com or connect with the team on LinkedIn.