3c vattenfall

AGENDA SETTER

10

01/2008 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 01/2008 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR01/2008 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 01/2008 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR

As high on the public agenda as it is, climate change is also becoming a pri-ority for corporations in all sectors. Vattenfall’s 3C campaign - Combatting Climate Change - aims to involve stakeholders and clients alike.

by George P. Kyriacou

T he hype about climate change doesn’t seem like it’s about to give in. The gores and greens of the de-veloped world having been on a run these last eight months or so – bantering and bickering about

how companies and states should streamline services to people and how people should start streamlining, well...their lives.

Critics have stormed the stage bearing arguments of ‘re-dundant rhetoric’, saying we have far more vital issues at stake both in business as well as in world society to deal with today. On the other hand, Al Gore’s now Nobel role as ‘The Inconvenient Truth’s’ mouthpiece-mastermind has pulled in literally millions of sympathisers considerate to climate change and the suppression of global warming.

On that note, Swedish energy giants, Vattenfall, are heading a programme called ‘3C’ standing for Combat Climate Change which aims to enforce momentum around a global conversation about the risks of climate change and global warming. In 2004, several energy companies sat round a table to discuss the EU’s proposed Emissions Trading scheme, where the discussion’s outcome was to ensure that business no longer only support the aim of reducing emissions but that it also took up a robust role in doing so. Where did Vattenfall specifically come into this? They took up the responsibility of drafting an official corporate-community opinion on the issue.

MAPPING THE ROAD The results of that opinion saw the light of day three years later in January 2007, in the form of a road-map. Immediate connotations to ‘road-maps’ normally pertain to post-crisis situations where global governance provides a recommendation towards ensuring

MISSION POSSIBLE?

Phot

o: w

ww

.com

batc

limat

echa

nge.

org

peace is at hand. The 3C road-map, according to Vattenfall, seeks to do just that. Resolute in their convic-tion that we are already well past the tell-tale signs of climatic ca-tastrophe, the 3C road-map points out that its 9 incorporated princi-ples are a result of a “process that’s been going on within the global business community for quite some time”, according to the compa-ny’s spokesperson Hakan Axelsson. With the likes of ABB, Citigroup, Bayer, SUEZ and General Electric to name but a few – and a total of 44 other multinational corporate signatories - already on board this call for action, the aim is to sup-port political leadership in taking action on climate change through pragmatic, science-based actions. These range from the complete and utter endorsement of the global business community to support the development of a long-term cred-ible emissions trading system based on fundamental business principles – to embracing and financially vivi-fying climate-friendly technology...as quickly as possible!

All of this sounds mighty ambi-tious and a tad utopian one might hear you utter. How on earth can the destiny of an entire planet (and

01/2008 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR 01/2008 COMMUNICATION DIRECTOR

AGENDA SETTER

11


our planet may it just be added) fall into the hands of a bucketful of multinational corporations? All cor-porations who to the scoffer’s mind immediately evoke thoughts of busi-ness as usual – yet to the believer’s possibly ones of repetitive hope.

COMM’ING THE CHANGE On the communication waterfront and just to be clear, 3C is not trying to drive home its 9 prophecies to the end-user either through consumer PR, or in the form of massive televi-sion spots for that matter. Despite a series of inventive TV spots de-picting a CEO type-figure literally blowing smoke in front of an audi-ence – proving how “empty words just add carbon dioxide” (which has been running on the BBC, the CNN et al for some time now) – Vatten-fall’s 3C initiative has purposely avoided the mass audience target. In what B2B has spoilt us with for a few decades already, in reputation management Vattenfall has come up with a roundabout way of spreading the 49 signatories’ messages virally. Not surprisingly through the web.

The target audience, according to the company’s top communication management representatives, is in fact a very limited number of peo-ple with a direct influence on the political process. The prime comms vehicle in usage: content deliv-ery. Becoming more and more the norm in 2007, in the PR industry, content delivery has continued to surge despite not actually having a direct link to a specific end-target. It is more the fact that it is dedicat-ed, relevant and timely material for many information multipliers to use. Vattenfall’s 3C is leveraging its ad-vantage of having a website literally bombarded with relevant, scientific literature available for all to employ

Vattenfall’s initiative has purposely avoided the mass au-dience target. They have come up with a ‘roundabout’ way of spreading the 49 participating companies‘ messages....

and interpret in their own way. When you navigate over 3C’s website you will notice a small embedded video por-traying a series of testimonials, from a selection of CEOs from the world’s largest and richest corporations. Their manifesto: that it’s time everyone got on board the fight against climate change. That it can only benefit business as well as the wider environmental issue at hand.

Parallel to this, Vattenfall made an event of the launch of the road-map in November 2007 in Washington DC. The venue was chosen as it is a centre of attention for in-ternational media; US Congress had just pushed through

AGENDA SETTER

12


a crucial piece of legislation (as well as Bali attracting interest at around about the same time), on top of the event providing an ideal arena for communicating directly with the US administration. Thirty major media outlets attended and covered the event, which witnessed a closed dinner at the Swedish embassy in the presence of King Carl XVI Gustav of Sweden. A second activ-ity to brief the White House about 3C during an official meeting also helped endorse the campaign.

Measurably, Vattenfall points to two notable achievements in 2007. Firstly, that a handful of important

political leaders in European Com-mission: President Barroso, Ger-man Chancellor Merkel and George Bush having openly and publicly acknowledged the initiative. Quan-titatively, 3C’s participating compa-nies has grown threefold (from 17 to 49) all in the space of 10 months. The company’s short-term expecta-tions include reaching 100 partici-pating companies by 2009 as well as getting as many on-board before that at the 3C summit due to take place later this year.

If 2007 was all about communi-cating climate change and global warming to tom, dick and harry; 2008 will be about incorporating it organically and inherently in corpo-rate social information and through the means of business sustainability and endorsement. Ph

otos

: priv

ate

Asja Cengic

Communications Analyst, UNDP, Sarajevo

Asja Cengic is Comms Ana-lyst & Spokesperson at the UNDP. She has been Head of PR/Comms at the High Judicial & Prosecutorial Council, PR-manager (Sarajevo Film Festival) & Regional Information Of-ficer (Office of the High Representative of the Sarajevo Region). She has a degree in Business from the Anglo-American College in Prague.

Glenn O’Neil

Lecturer, International University, Geneva Glenn O’Neil teaches

communication courses at the International University in Geneva & is currently undertak-ing a PhD in Evaluation Methodology at the London School of Economics. Specialised in communications, training & public education, he leads evaluation projects for international organisations, NGOs & companies.

Self-extinction campaign?

The 3C initiative to combat climate change is the latest twist in the evo-lution of corporate communications: Companies originally communicated on their activities to be better understood. Companies then tried to differentiate themselves: customer, employee or community-focused communications took hold. But now companies focus on issues that their very own activities are one of the main causes of. Today, fast food chains campaign against obesity; breakfast cereal pro-ducers speak of nutrition and cigarette manufacturers produce TV campaigns to combat smoking! Is it possible that the founding mem-bers of the 3C initiative, companies producing power and power-generat-ing equipment, are basically campaign-ing for their eventual extinction? For Vattenfall, the 3C initiator, this would mean abandoning the for ty five per cent of their power production from fossil fuels. We can cynically conclude that energy companies take a proac-tive position on climate change to mask their ongoing detrimental core businesses. Too cynical? Perhaps, let’s not forget the cultural origins of the 3C initiative - Scandinavian – a region that wants to do “good”: This part of the world gives the most money to fight pover ty; Scandinavians have been key conflict mediators (Bosnia, Israel–Palestine and Sri Lanka) and arguably lead the world in gender equality. Genuine concern may drive the 3C initiative – although it does strangely mirror issue-cause campaigns from other business sec-tors.

Everybody’s turning green

These days business is full of enthusiasm for combatting climate change. Every sector boasts about their greenness. “No country can win the battle against climate change acting alone. Collective action is not an option but an impera-tive“ from the UNDP‘s Human Devel-opment Report ‘07/’08; Fighting climate change: Human solidarity in a divided world. Climate change is fashionable, and although fashion has the virtue of being able to transform the dull and worthy into the hip and happening, it is, by definition, transitory. Vattenfall ele-gantly used the momentum to position itself as a leader in this positive trend. Placing the Road Map before well chosen tables of the key stakeholders – politicians and industry representa-tives is to my mind a recipe for success. It is common knowledge that, when it comes to environment protection and climate change, “business can do it only with governments’ help” so Vattenfall’s followed that path in building up their PR strategy. A launch event (promot-ing the 9 principals of the Road Map) aligned with the Bali Conference was a smart PR move and in a way an answer to unclear conclusions of the Confer-ence. The Road Map for post – crisis recovery is today’s strategic manner of setting up a political agenda that opens the floor for advocacy tools. When it comes to advocacy, briefing in the White House and acknowledgement by the key European and US govern-ment politicians will definitely bring the Swedes their 2009 goal. The only ques-tion that remains unanswered is: was it about the right moment or about a great PR strategy?

EXPERT OPINION

3C’s manifesto roars that it’s time everyone got on board the fight against climate change. That it can only benefit business as well as the wider environmen-tal issue at hand.

Documents

3c vattenfall