Public Relations & the Environment -
Introduction
In the present-day society there are few values that may be considered
as universally common to everyone in the world.
An analysis of this kind is very hard to make and any conclusions
reached may not find universal agreement.
But there is one value that everyone feels: the environment, its
safeguard under every different aspect, a value that expresses a search
for a better quality of life, and that, for this reason, involves social
and economic aspects, the life of enterprises and organisations.
The environmental issue is a value to which people in every country
refer, on which public opinion expresses judgements and opinions and which
requires decisions and attitudes from all social classes, governments,
enterprises, unions, and so on.
There is valuable proof of the environment being one of the most
universally recognised values.
One proof is given by the United Nations’ Conference on Environment
and Development held in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, where 178 nations, 118 of
which represented by Head of States, could discuss these issues; where
international agreements could be signed.
Another proof is given by the many Green Directives originated by the
European Union, in most cases already converted into national laws and
regulations by the European countries.
These considerations lead us to look at the environment issue as a
strategic reference in the planning and decision making processes of every
company and enterprise.
We are therefore bound to analyse the nature of the environmental
requirements to which companies must refer towards the community and we
must develop a "green" communication, capable of using all
opportunities in the dialogue with public opinion.
The public opinion believes that companies must "be green"
because this is right, because society demands it, because public
authorities, governments require so.
Environmental issues and public relations
The area of public relations on public environmental issues shows
characteristics of its own, highly differentiated for its concerns in the
different European countries. Firstly owing to the different impact that
these issues have locally in every community and for the higher or lower
influence of the environmentalist groups in the media system and politics.
On the whole, the environmental issues are seen as real
"values", identified and accepted by the public opinion all over
Europe, even though to a different extent and with a different impact,
because they represent the search of quality to every society in all
European countries.
Today, all enterprises must consider the environmental issues in their
communication processes owing to the impact that these issues have in each
community, involving public opinion, prompting judgements and views.
The public relations function constantly analyses the public opinion’s
views and judgements and for this reason is requested to define the
evaluation criteria able to assess the environmental impact of the company’s
choices while establishing plans and taking decisions.
There is a great number of laws and regulations which define behaviours
and procedures for the safeguard of the environment in each European
country. Also numerous are the directives and other initiatives of the
European Commission and Parliament which rule production activities in the
different sectors with specific reference to environment protection.
Altogether, these "rules" and what emerges from the public
opinion on the environmental issues allow the PR professional to identify
the publics and the specific interests to which the enterprise must refer.
Internal and external publics are thereafter identified, both carrying
"concerns" on environmental issues, which are expressed through
different contents and in different ways. As for the internal publics,
employees, workers and their families show concerns mainly linked to the
environmental safeguard at their working places, to "noise", to
manufacturing processes of harmful substances and so on.
But, at the same time, the internal publics are part of a community,
they perceive judgements and opinions on the company and the environment
from the external publics, and thereafter establish "values".
If we consider as external publics those who live close to the
manufacturing plants, the quality of the environment is given by what they
physically feel as "sound" pollution, air pollution, street
traffic and so on.
But other external publics add to these concerns judgements and
opinions linked to industrial waste disposal, other consider the impact of
products and goods’ packages and wrappings, other discuss on the raw
materials used in the manufacturing process.
In many countries the value of raw materials’ recycling is very
popular for its environmental meaning and for its economic advantages.
Basic contents of environmental public
relations
Environmental relations develop through activities and programs with
the following contents:
- analysing and defining the useful "scenario" to assess the
impact of the enterprises decisions and situations with respect to the
environment safeguard, relating such impact to the internal and
external publics;
- gathering and giving out information on the enterprises measures
adopted within the manufacturing process, the products and services;
- defining and managing programs to develop environmental protection
with "educational" objectives, able to show the enterprise’
s proactive role on environmental issues within the community;
- producing reports on a timely basis in order to identify the trends
on environment protection issues generated by groups and associations;
- representing the enterprise’s opinions and positions on issues
having specific impact on the environment in specialised organisations
and trade associations;
- suggesting and adopting internal measures, involving employees and
external staff in significant actions for the environment safeguard,
such as, for example, materials recovering and recycling, and similar;
- supporting the management and all company’s functions in their
acting with adequate awareness of the environmental issues.
To handle these activities, the public relations professional must have
a deep knowledge of all the enterprise’s technical and production
concerns that may somehow be related to the environment protection issues,
together with an appropriate information on all possible kinds of external
publics and, mainly at local level, of associations, groups and
specialised press.
Profile of the environmental public relations
professional
The PR professional, having assessed the environmental impact, defines
possible concerns and publics involved, shows interactions with other
publics, with the media and politics.
Journalists and public managers, who also outline the environmental
issues, help define the environmental impact of enterprises’ policies
and decisions.
The public relations function must be capable of assessing the
environmental impact and all related concerns defined by the actual
"values" of the community within the given enterprise, product
or service.
The PR professional must be skilled to deal with a wide range of
options and with an increasing number of regulatory requirements within
the environmental management.
He must also have the communication tools to handle environmental
communication as a strategic process that relates corporate environmental
objectives with the publics’ expectations.
Many are the aspects of environmental public relations that the PR
professional must be skilled in, such as:
- understanding scientific and technical elements related to the
company and its products, so as to translate specific expressions into
clear and comprehensive language for all publics;
- getting employees, consumers and customers, media to understand the
meaning and the importance of the environmental public relations
handled by the company;
- acting with the total awareness of the environmental public
relations being in fact risky communications, because knowing,
evaluating and deciding on the basis of elements that are differently
considered by the publics means acting with lack of certainty;
- exercising a strong sense of responsibility because it is very
difficult to strictly define priorities.
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