PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Sustain.
Sec. Sustainable Organizations
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/frsus.2025.1584276
From Climate Knowledge to Collective Action: The Case for Integrating Strategic Communication into Sustainability Science to Catalyse Environmental Action
Provisionally accepted
Christopher Martin*
Hannah Pira- The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Japan
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The sustainability value-action gap remains a critical challenge. In this perspective, we argue that, without structural institutional change, current scientific communication methods will fail to drive systemic transformation at the necessary scale and speed. We therefore advocate for the integration of strategic communications, drawing insights from marketing and advertising to enhance the effectiveness of sustainability messaging. We outline three principles for this shift: fostering emotionally resonant and value-aligned associations, balancing long-term messaging with short-term appeals, and tailoring messages to the lived experiences of target audiences. Real-world examples, ranging from climate adaptation in King County to narrative campaigns in New York, demonstrate the potential of these approaches. We conclude by advocating for building strategic communication capacity, the development of boundary spanning professionals, and a call for greater institutional recognition of communication as a professional practice essential to sustainability transformation.
Keywords: sustainability, Strategic communication, Environmental Communication, Sustainability transformation, Marketing
Received: 27 Feb 2025; Accepted: 06 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Martin and Pira. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Christopher Martin, The University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Japan
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