Sustainable strategic communication

About the research project

Titel: Sustainable Strategic Communication: How to create sustainable communication departments?

Team: Prof Ulrike Roettger, Lennart Rettler (University of Münster)

Project period: March 2023 – May 2024

Sustainability is a much-discussed topic both in society and in communication management. The Communications Trend Radar 2021 identified sustainable communication as one of five trends and a future challenge.

In the past, communication research has focused primarily on the communication department’s efforts to communicate the corporate sustainability commitment to its stakeholders.

A research project at the University of Münster investigated ways into how strategic communication itself can become sustainable. In addition, the project identified characteristics of sustainable strategic communication.

Methodology

First, the research team examined concepts of sustainable communication (= the strategy to create a sustainable communication department) and sustainability communication (= the content). They derived requirements for sustainable strategic communication and compile a sustainability framework.

Second, 12-15 interviews with experts from industry, science, NGOs, and other public fields, have been supplemented the framework with a broad range of insights.

The final framework of sustainable strategic communication provides insights into creating more sustainable communication departments.