Manuals for Environmental Dialogue

Abstract One of the essential factors in enhancing the motivation of companies for increasing environmental efforts is to improve their ability to conduct a positive dialogue on environmental issues with clients and other stakeholders. Efficient communication is a precondition if attention to environmental issues is to contribute to maintaining or increasing market share. But until now many companies have been focusing on putting their own house in order, and expecting that the marketing impact would more or less come of its own. Today, many Danish companies admit that a serious and targeted effort is needed in order to turn a high environmental profile into marketing advantage. The opportunity for companies gaining competitive advantage from environmental management systems and other pollution prevention activities increasingly depends on the ability to communicate attitudes and performance to the stakeholders. The responsibility for environmental communication is often assigned to the person responsible for environmental issues. They will have both the technical insight and the environmental knowledge, but will often need communication skills and, most important, tools to carry out the communication task. Requirements for communication skills on environmental issues have grown, especially because the market's and the public's interest in environmental issues concerning production and product impacts increases day-by-day. In Denmark, authorities are focusing on the fact that information on both production and products plays a key role. This focus is reflected in the Act on Green Accounts, the introduction of eco-labelling, as well as the initiatives taken by the Danish EPA under the enhanced Integrated Product Policy. These developments have caused companies in different sectors to look for tools for environmental communication. This article focuses on tools for improving environmental communications on environmental issues in general, and with different groups of stakeholders.