For companies committed to corporate social responsibility (CSR), there is a belief that all those good deeds will be rewarded with new business – but scant hard evidence.
Image Microsystems (IM), of Austin, Texas, stands as one of the few companies that can ascribe new business gains to its core values of sustainability and community, which are achievements that have been squarely leveraged by public relations to even better effect.
In an era when corporate trust remains depressingly and perhaps deservedly low, one clear strategy for speaking effectively and substantively with key stakeholders is sustainability communications – a practice of positive change management and brand improvements.
For public relations practitioners, sustainability can be a launch pad for more substantive roles in companies and with clients – elevating traditional PR functions and profile development and putting the brand expert squarely in areas of C-suite-level operational change and long-term risk management.
Sustainability makes issues-focused PR a pivot in business management innovation — using the filter of sustainability and its brand-boosting powers to transform and improve margins and mitigate the negative impacts of corporate behavior on the community and planet. Let’s see a press release do that.
