Hook investors with a heartfelt sustainability story.

Expectations for investor communications have changed—and the bar is higher.

Like a majority of their fellow consumers, investors are looking for more engaging messaging in general, and they want to hear more about companies’ sustainability efforts specifically. 

Research shows that 77% of investors are interested in sustainability (often used interchangeably with “ESG”), with 54% planning to increase their sustainable investments. A growing number of companies address it in their earnings releases and calls. And some experts think it’s now “an accepted part of corporate and investment life.”

Of course, the numbers still matter, whether it’s greenhouse gas emissions or tons of solid waste generated. But it’s the story wrapped around them that has the power to connect with people on a deeper level. 

An engaging narrative—one that infuses data with emotion—can be a powerfully persuasive reason to invest in your company. But what will make your sustainability story resonate with this demanding audience?

1. It should be anchored in materiality. This is essentially defined as identifying the sustainability issues your company has an impact on, or may be impacted by. Why do investors care? Because they want to know what actions you’re taking to reduce the risks associated with these issues (e.g., helping mitigate business interruptions caused by climate change). In fact, 88% of them scrutinize a company’s ESG issues as much as operational and financial issues.
   
2. It should be data-driven, yet human. Investors rely on quantitative sustainability metrics, but they also want to understand the strategic thinking behind them. You can win them over by making clear how your sustainability plans align with your business model.
3. It should be forward-looking—but realistic. Investors are increasingly skeptical of greenwashing (making inflated claims of sustainable practices), which can make them feel misled. They’re looking for a sustainability story that demonstrates your progress, acknowledges your challenges, and shows how your current initiatives pave the way for future opportunities. 

Focusing on these attributes will help investors see the bigger picture of how your sustainability strategy and efforts are creating long-term value.

 

Ready to craft your sustainability narrative? Here are five ways to make it both compelling and credible, and storytelling tips to make it more meaningful for investors.

1. Start with your why: connect purpose to performance.

The most compelling sustainability stories start not with what you’re doing, but why you’re doing it. 

Research shows that top-performing companies integrate sustainability initiatives into their overarching corporate strategy. Without messaging that illuminates that link, investors may struggle to understand how your sustainability efforts affect financial performance and intrinsic value.

Communicating your purpose—and relating it to your sustainability efforts—can also be very attractive to the 64% of investors who say they choose companies based on their beliefs and values.

Investor storytelling tips:

• Clearly communicate how your sustainability initiatives support your company purpose, mission, and vision, using specific examples.
• Create a “before and after” narrative that shows how sustainability is transforming your business.
• Connect your environmental and social goals to long-term value creation by quantifying the financial benefits of your sustainability initiatives (e.g., cost savings, new revenue streams, risk reduction, enhanced customer loyalty) and explaining how they provide competitive advantages.

2. Begin with the bad news.

To cultivate investor trust, be as honest about your setbacks as you are about your successes. 

This kind of bold transparency helps avoid perceptions of greenwashing, adds credibility to your story, and builds stronger relationships with investors who view it as a sign of your genuine commitment to improvement. 

It’s an approach that’s paid off for Holaluz Clidom SA, a Spain-based energy transition company that regularly shares detailed ESG policy updates and touts its commitment to transparency and accountability. CEO Carolota Pi describes their ESG communication strategy as “over-communicating what we are doing to maximize our impact.”

Investor storytelling tips:

• Demonstrate your knowledge of your industry’s sustainability issues, and explain how you’re proactively acknowledging and mitigating them. This demonstrates industry expertise and leadership—especially if you can show that your company is ahead of the curve and out in front of your competitors. 
• Combine stories of setbacks with lessons learned—and improvements made—because of them. This transforms your stumbling blocks into evidence of your continuous progress. 
• Show how your challenges are driving innovation. For example, Unilever has openly discussed the difficulty of reducing plastic packaging while maintaining product quality—and how that led to breakthroughs like the world’s first paper-based laundry detergent bottles.

3. Make your data tell a story.

Numbers alone aren’t enough. Wrapping your data in context and meaning transforms your metrics into a clear, engaging narrative. It can also help investors connect the dots from your sustainability initiatives to your real-world impact to your financial performance.

For example, Microsoft doesn’t just report on the dollar amounts of its sustainability investments—it shares stories of how those investments are helping track endangered species, supporting indigenous communities, and producing other tangible results. Each metric becomes an intriguing chapter in their larger sustainability narrative.

Investor storytelling tips:

• Use visual storytelling to bring your data to life. By using visual content like infographics and video to tell the story of your progress and showcase your value, you can make your metrics appealing and intuitive, elicit emotions, and better engage visual learners (as 65% of people are).
• Keep it simple. Whether you’re using professionally designed graphics or more traditional charts and graphs (which may be the best choice for displaying certain types or amounts of data), a clean, straightforward approach helps investors focus on the main messages you want them to take away.
• Connect your metrics to real-world impact. Reporting that you’ve increased your use of renewable energy sources sounds good, but describing the health problems avoided by not burning fossil fuels tells a fuller, more convincing story.

4. Adopt an “always-on,” multichannel approach.

Sustainability storytelling shouldn’t be a once-a-year event tied to your annual report.

To keep people invested (no pun intended) in your sustainability efforts and strategy, maintain a continuous stream of communication across a variety of channels—and encourage feedback. This helps build trust with trust and credibility with investors, especially those who prefer frequent updates to assess your company’s long-term commitments and impact.

Investor storytelling tips:

• Meet them where they live: online. A recent global survey found that 70% of retail investors are under 45. These younger stockholders are digital natives who spend more time on social media than their elders—but older generations are doing their fair share of scrolling and liking too. Posting regularly about your sustainability efforts on multiple platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube serves up your communications in easily digestible, bite-size chunks. That promotes interest and engagement—and makes your progress visible year-round.

• Change it up and keep it interesting. Create short- and long-form versions of your sustainability story, develop and distribute assets that capture key narrative elements, partner with investor organizations to produce sustainability-focused thought leadership content … get creative! Offering investors myriad ways to engage with your messaging helps keep them interested in your story and makes them feel confident in your openness and expertise.

• Make it a two-way conversation. Encouraging dialogue with investors not only helps nurture stronger relationships, but also allows you to track whether your sustainability messaging is hitting the mark. So invite them to message you with questions, offer input via email or a form on your website, and take part in interactive events like virtual town halls focused on sustainability.
• Track and optimize. Measure engagement with your investor comms on a regular basis to see what’s working well and where you need to improve. Also consider distributing an investor survey to gauge the types and frequency of sustainability information they want from your company. The results will help you refine your investor communications plan and update your messaging to be as relevant and impactful as possible.

5. Keep it personal.

Investors are people, and people often make decisions (even financial ones) based on emotions.  

The most powerful emotional responses involve relationships. So humanize your sustainability efforts with stories of real people that make your progress tangible, relatable, and personal.

• Connect your sustainability initiatives to individual human experiences. For example, Interface, a global flooring manufacturer, documents stories of local fishermen whose communities benefit from their Net-Works program, which recycles fishing nets into carpet tiles.
• Put a spotlight on employee experiences. What part do employees play in your company’s sustainability journey? Let them explain in their own words in videos, social media, and blog posts, focusing on their personal reasons for getting involved and the impact it’s had on their own lives.
• Make sustainability everyone’s business. When sustainability exists in a silo (often a department headed by the chief sustainability officer) or is treated like a special initiative, investors may perceive it as a short-term campaign or PR effort, and may not understand how it supports your overall business model.
  
  So make it a cross-functional, multidisciplinary program that clearly defines how each part of your company is responsible for implementing your sustainability strategy, and how their efforts will deliver value.

A powerful sustainability story isn’t just about what you say—it’s about making a connection.

By combining authentic storytelling with robust data and clear strategic alignment, you can create a sustainability narrative that investors connect with, believe in, and want to be part of. 

 

We can help you create and tell your best sustainability story—one that goes beyond the numbers to make meaningful connections with investors and other stakeholders. Get in touch and let’s talk.