Credit: Bingo Baker
Buzzwords are like plaque in your arteries: over time, they build up to the point where clear thinking, or arterial blood flow, is impeded. Left unchecked, buzzwords can kill clear thinking in the same way that plaque narrows arteries and constricts blood flow, leading to increased risks of heart attacks or strokes.
The ESG bingo buzzword card above hints at the rhetorical challenges of referring to anything as broad as ESG:
- For people, does ESG mean practicing veganism or vegetarianism, to reduce our impact on natural resources? Or does it mean something else?
- For utilities, does ESG mean supporting electric vehicles or offering paperless billing? Or does it mean something else?
Regardless of whether the answers to these questions are “yes,” “no,” or “maybe,” they illustrate the broad dimensions of environmental, social, and governance issues. By the way, this ESG bingo buzzword card is one of several separate cards offered by that vendor, Bingo Baker, further dramatizing the nearly boundless range of activities that could be part of ESG world.
Why Buzzwords are Bad
So, yeah, as utility communicators, we should make every effort to limit our use of buzzwords for the same reason we should limit our intake of fried foods, red meat, and cheese: because doing so will lead to healthier careers and lives.
That thought occurred to me recently as I conducted research for a client. I was asked to determine if energy companies were substantively backing away from ESG concerns, which many had so prominently proclaimed a few years earlier, or only reducing their use of that term in favor of more concrete, easily understood terms such as “environmental protection” and “employee fulfillment.”
My research showed that many utilities have replaced their use of the word “ESG,” which was all the rage five years ago, with more concrete terms like “environmental protection,” “pollution reduction,” and “community impact.”
For years, we have encouraged utility communicators to avoid buzzwords (see additional resources below). When I feel particularly professorial, I refer to George Orwell’s compelling essay, “Politics and the English Language,” as all the reason one would need to prohibit piffle and thwart twaddle from entering your vocabulary.
The ESG Factor
So, what is “ESG” and is your utility doing less of it, more of it, or the same compared to 2023, 2022, and 2021?
The constituent elements of ESG are, of course, environment, social and governance. But each of those words can mean different things to different people. That should be your first clue that buzzwords are afoot: if the same word has five, nine, or 13 possible meanings, it means nothing. In essence, it’s a rhetorical code. “Virtue signaling,” to its critics.
Worse, your customers may not agree on what ESG is, as I suspect, and that’s another reason to banish it from your vocabulary. For the vast majority of the world that is not an expert in matters environmental, social or governance, the acronym probably confuses more than clarifies.
Communications tip of the month: Some people may confuse “ESG” with “MSG,” a flavor enhancer in Chinese food. To minimize the chance for confusion, and to make your meaning resonate with your audience, avoid acronyms whenever possible and use clear, easily understood terms when communicating with your employees, customers, community leaders, business leaders, and other stakeholders.
Xcel Energy’s Example
For example, Xcel Energy (my utility) is one utility with well-deserved reputation for doing good things around environmental, social, and governance issues. On the “Sustainability” page of its website, it is possible to trace the evolution of “ESG” at that utility. Helpfully, the Xcel webpage includes a brief video defining sustainability as well as a library of reports from prior years. What started out as a report on the triple bottom line in 2005 evolved into a report on corporate social responsibility in 2010 and then to a report on sustainability in 2020. The utility wisely set up a documents library to reflect the broadening understanding of ESG. Entire sub-pages are devoted to reports on “environmental,” “social,” and “governance” issues.
You can hear how Xcel communicated the “E” portion of “ESG” to their stakeholders in a webcast we held a few years ago.
Words Can Mean Many Different Things to Different People
For many years, we have stayed away from references to the political realm, as our readers of EEC Perspectives have very diverse sets of political views. But I hope you would permit me one foray into the political.
A recent Washington Post article discussed how the Democratic Party converted President Joe Biden’s exhortation to “protect democracy” into candidate Kamala Harris’ embrace of “freedom.”
By themselves, “democracy” and freedom” are equally vague terms, empty vessels into which nearly anyone can pour almost any meaning. But at their recent national convention, Democrats took care of that by explicitly listing what “freedom” meant to them (beyond Beyonce’s smash song).
In the words of Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro, it means:
- Freedom for children to read the books they want
- Freedom for women to make their own healthcare decisions
- Freedom from fear that your child will be the victim of gun violence at their school
- Freedom to love who you want
- Freedom to worship as you see fit
- Freedom to join a union
- Freedom to breathe clean air and drink pure water
A presenter at a recent energy conference I attended got right to the point on what his company was doing to improve the quality of life where it operated: “We have built over 200 schools in the overseas communities where we operate, as that is the most pressing issue facing residents.” Let’s all aspire to that same level of crispness, clarity, and community commitment!
Photo credits: iStock unless otherwise noted
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