Creating communications excellence

Sustainability is a global purpose that binds us together. As healthcare communicators, we have a unique opportunity to inspire passion and positive change. We owe it to ourselves, and to our future leaders, healthcare professionals and patients, to act today.

Dissolving global borders
Let’s look at healthcare education through a sustainability lens and dial up the connection between the work we create every day and the future well-being of people and our planet. Conceiving new and innovative approaches can play a critical role in dissolving global borders – communicating valuable content to people across a broader range of geographical, social, political and cultural contexts, and supporting diversity, equity and inclusion in education.  The role omnichannel strategies play in planetary well-being is also clear, with content travelling to the stakeholder rather than vice versa. Keeping sustainability priorities front of mind day-to-day will ensure we lead with purpose in increasing socially and environmentally conscious practices, while continuing to deliver brilliant work that challenges, educates and provokes new ways of thinking.

Committing to positive change
Evidenced actions speak louder than works. Commitments need to be clear, specific and well-socialised, with a strong foundation of environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles – from the science-based targets of our climate commitments to our HR and talent policies. There are a variety of common global platforms we can use to manage our ESG compliance and accountability – helping guide our understanding of where we are, and where we need to get to. We should challenge ourselves to look for new ways to collaborate with, and give back to, the communities we operate in. Having a richness of active community partnerships not only improves our practices, it builds personal and emotional connections and educates and inspires others.

Enabling our future leaders
How can we strongly enable our future leaders, in many cases already passionate sustainability advocates, to be powerful voices for change? Consider organisation-wide strategies that motivate these future change-makers to join and make a meaningful difference, while learning valuable skills along the way. Inspiring a passionate will for corporate social responsibility is a great place to start.

Small changes can make a big difference.

Rhiannon Meaden is Global Head of Complete HealthVizion, Global Sustainability Champion at IPG Health Medical Communications