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Sustainability fatigue: What can we do about it?
It is no wonder that conventional media and popular social media platforms rarely give as many portions to sustainability issues, save for some outlets, as other issues.
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Illustration of sustainable development (Shutterstock/PopTika)
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ack in December 2020, Kiroyan Partners’ then senior consultant, Michello Loebis, wrote about the dangers of the constant flood of information within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. She quoted journalist and scholar Susan Moeller’s assessment that “Relentless information and the news cycle in the digital sphere have exacerbated pandemic fatigue […] that when war, famine or even pandemics are constant, they become boring,” (The Jakarta Post, Dec. 11, 2020).
Fast forward to 2023 and these assessments cannot be farther from the truth for sustainability issues in Indonesia. As media consumers, business professionals, journalists, experts and policymakers, we are constantly bombarded with information regarding the importance of sustainability and three-letter buzzwords: CSR, ESG, SDGs, CSV, including this piece.
However, sustainability still feels like a niche, elitist issue in a country where its citizens are struggling to make ends meet. Amid this constant information glut we have arrived at a sustainability fatigue that makes it harder for sustainability to enter mainstream discourse.
I would argue that the form of sustainability communication, especially by companies that still revolve around talking about self-performance rather than advocating for the necessary changes, is the main reason for this situation.
There are three layers of sustainability communication. One, communicating sustainability performance, or in other words, telling stakeholders about what we have done and what we think contribute positively toward better sustainability.
There are numerous examples for this: Company A installs solar panels for its factories, Company B plans to replace its distribution fleet with electric vehicles (EVs), Company C develops partnerships with local farmers, Company D engages consumers for plastic waste recycling programs, and the list goes on. All of these are then packaged and communicated as achievements rather than something that must be urgently done. It is like watching someone throw a can into a garbage bin and then posting about it on social media.
But what is the impact of having an EV fleet or solar-powered electricity for people near factories? How do these acts inspire consumers to buy locally sourced products and reduce plastic waste? Do these measures protect employees from layoffs? What will happen to program beneficiaries 10 years after the program concludes?
