Thought leadership

Clean Economy Thought Leadership: How to get started.

In this article, we delve into clean economy thought leadership and how it empowers business leaders to drive change and create impact.

Clean economy thought leadership is bound to be essential this year, with global businesses just five years away from the 2030 sustainable development goals set by the United Nations.

Making products and services eco-friendly is no longer enough. Leaders are increasingly communicating their progress to instil stakeholder trust, educate others, and better their industries.

This is why, for many impact-driven leaders, thought leadership now takes precedence over traditional marketing.

Unsure about why this might be the case? In this article, we deep dive into the definition, benefits, and strategies to enact clean economy thought leadership successfully.

What is a clean economy?

A clean economy is an ideal that The United Nations, governments, and global corporations are working towards, where the planet prospers with net-zero emissions.

There are many players involved in this mission, including pressure groups, global governments, investors, and, of course, the clean tech industry, where the likes of renewable energy and bioplastic firms are especially crucial to mitigate the destructive impact of our largest industries.

Without these companies, a clean economy would be impossible. Hence, the public spotlight on the executives that lead them is huge as audiences await the latest technological breakthroughs and foresight.

Why invest in clean economy thought leadership?

If you lead a green business, becoming a visible leader is imperative to steer clear of regulators and set yourself apart.

After all, industries such as cleantech are among the fastest growing in the world. While these companies collectively work to create a clean economy, they are all in competition with each other within an increasingly saturated space.

Case-in-point, it’s time to invest in clean economy thought leadership.

Our Managing Director, Jordan Greenaway, explains the benefits of ESG thought leadership. Source: Profile.

What is clean economy thought leadership?

When carried out across multiple channels, clean economy thought leadership improves your visibility by positioning you and your company as leading experts in your field.

This is done by sharing novel insights with key audiences to gradually increase your exposure and following over time. The more valuable your ideas, the better the traction generated.

For instance, you might predict that carbon capture capacity will double within the next year or reveal a new material for sustainable construction.

Profile

This can take place by posting on social media, writing an article for a media publication, or speaking at an industry conference.

Because thought leadership needs to be an ongoing activity to have a long-term impact and avoid appearing tokenistic, it allows you to regularly connect with audiences.

By doing so, you can understand their pain points on a much deeper level than you would if you hadn’t invested in thought leadership.

This means you can tweak your products and services in response to feedback and give your take on prominent industry trends, where you sometimes become the centre of the story.

The tangible outcomes you can expect are huge.

  • More talent.

  • Greater investment.

  • A surge in customers.

  • Beneficial partnerships.

  • Regulation and policy influence.

Best of all, it doesn’t take a lot to get started.

Who within a company can become a thought leader?

Anyone can become a thought leader. But usually, a founder or CEO is elected to represent their business since they usually have the most experience and authority.

However, while a founder or CEO might be more senior than their colleagues, they still need to work just as hard to carve out a niche as a subject matter expert.

Profile

Some leaders make the mistake of thinking that whatever they say will immediately go viral. But this is hardly ever the case unless you're Elon Musk. In most cases, you need a strategy.

What does clean economy thought leadership look like in practice?

In practice, an executive will have to focus on optimising their online profile before any engagements.

Otherwise, audiences will Google your name to find a lack of professional photography and up-to-date credentials, thereby giving a poor first impression.

Think about leveraging a backdrop of a jungle, lab, or ocean, so your audiences know exactly what you’re about.

You should also take time to ensure that any experiences you list on your socials or online biographies align with the objectives of your thought leadership campaign.

For example, if you aim to influence policy, consider emphasising your past contributions to white papers or roundtable discussions you have participated in.

Next, think about the trends you want to comment on.

Consider undertaking some extensive reading of trade publications and social media debates to uncover questions that need answering and weave in your expertise to add genuine value.

Profile

In our experience, the most successful thought leaders have something to say that is completely unconventional, fresh, and original, such as by sharing a hot take that turns heads.

Simply reinstating a popular opinion will do nothing for you. And if you keep doing this, your audiences will eventually become disengaged.

What platforms are best for clean economy thought leadership?

With so many different topics you can touch upon, it can be easy to get caught up in deciding which platforms to focus on.

However, neither is more important than the other. To become a good thought leader you need to master every platform.

Too much social media engagement can saturate your voice and come across as insincere while failing to speak at events won’t give audiences a chance to put a face to a name.

In a similar vein, a lack of a presence on your company website suggests a lack of leadership, while too much media pitching can tire journalists.

Podcasts, meanwhile, are particularly popular. Their longer format also lends to a much deeper, personal profiling opportunity. So, don't be afraid to experiment.

How to draft a thought leadership social post?

Social platforms like LinkedIn are great because you have complete control over your content. You can also post 24/7. However, that doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

As a rule of thumb, posting no more than three times a week is enough to generate engagement without saturating your voice.

Profile

Otherwise, audiences may perceive that you write about anything and everything for likes and follows.

It’s also important that you make your posts engaging.

  • Leveraging anecdotes about how you founded your business or overcame a huge hurdle is essential to add colour to your arguments and make them more relatable.

  • Break up your posts with shorter sentences and bullet points to make them easier to digest and use relevant imagery where appropriate.

  • Use direct videos to communicate your ideas better and diversify your content.

Lastly, each post should build towards a general argument that you want to hammer home so that your posts follow a theme over one, two, or three months, and don’t seem disjointed.

How to speak at a clean economy event?

As ambitions to meet the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals have intensified, the number of impact-driven events that you can speak at has skyrocketed.

Some of the best include The Cleantech Forum and World Hydrogen Summit.

But while it’s a good thing that there are hundreds of high-quality events to speak at, it’s not a given that you’ll be invited to do so without a strong pitch.

  • You need to outline your expertise.

  • Highlight the topics you are willing to speak about.

  • Suggest why your ideas are relevant to the event and panel.

  • Include a video to prove that you’re a confident speaker.

If you can ensure this information is compiled in a sharp, succinct, and punchy email, you have a good chance of booking yourself an introductory call.

How to secure media coverage?

To secure media coverage, you need to extensively research the publication and journalist that you plan pitch to ensure that your thought leadership is a fit.

The more that you can show journalists that you understand their work, the more likely they are to work with you.

Profile

But most importantly, you need to set aside the time to build a rapport with these journalists, whether you’ve already worked with them or hope to.

This means respecting the journalist's deadlines and general time, providing legitimate, fact-proven information, and consistently engaging with their content on social media.

If they are comfortable doing so, you can even suggest an informal coffee or lunch to get to know them on a personal level.

Profile

Journalists are people after all. Treat them with mutual respect and you can expect more opportunities to secure coverage.

In terms of sector-specific advice, publications like Business Green and Carbon Brief publish thought leadership content that usually has a strong political or action-orientated angle, aimed at educating readers rather than rehashing existing discussions.

So, always set aside enough time to ensure your work is both thought-provoking and well-researched.

How can clean economy thought leadership support recruitment?

As a leader of a cleantech firm, recruitment will likely be one of your utmost priorities.

Not only because there’s a known shortage of talent capable of working within the cleantech industry, but because cleantech firms must also compete with more established tech industries for talent.

Companies within software, for instance, tend to dominate because they seemingly offer more prestigious and less risky career paths while many cleantechs struggle to scale.

Profile

But this is an anxiety not enough leaders have put to bed. It’s up to you to promote your company's mission-driven culture, paths for growth, and point of difference to change common perceptions.

Our research shows that just by having a more visible presence, you can significantly improve trust and the number of candidates who want to work for you.

How can clean economy thought leadership increase investment?

The best cleantechs are inherently high risk and high reward. Before one is successful, hundreds fail before it.

With this being the case, securing investment within this climate is tough, with concerns about scalability nearly always prefacing any decisions investors make.

The one key difference between attracting a VC or not is whether the leader behind the business is knowledgeable, passionate, confident, and goal-driven.

In this sense, clean economy thought leadership is just as much about promoting yourself as your business. So, you’ve got to ensure that anything you do presents you in the best possible light.

Profile

That said, the investment climate is not as bleak as it once was with global governments actively incentivising the launch of promising cleantech companies.

Hence, this means it's not only VCs, PEs, or institutional investors that you need to engage with but public sector stakeholders too.

How can clean economy thought leadership solve infrastructure hurdles?

There’s no way that clean tech firms can scale at the rate needed to collectively create a clean economy in the coming years without the necessary land or infrastructure.

Although the public sector is doing its utmost to accelerate the development of wind farms and solar grids, these businesses still face significant roadblocks.

For instance, global farmers have protested regulations, policies, and proposals from governments that jeopardise their land.

Profile

On one hand, farmers' opposition to cleantech is understandable since a loss of land directly impacts their livelihood and puts pressure on the food production sector.

But, on the other, many older farmers fail to understand the vast benefits that renewable energy grids could bring, such as cutting electricity bills and securing additional revenue through the lease of their land.

Hence, using clean economy thought leadership to educate these groups and encourage critical partnerships is imperative.

You can even use your voice to spotlight other issues, such as supply chain disruption or rising material costs to collectively find solutions with your peers.

Why is clean economy thought leadership important for urban planners?

Just as rural land is crucial to building a clean economy, so is sustainable urban planning.

Without it, much of our net-zero progress will be undone as new builds are constructed in cities rising in population and green spaces are eradicated.

Hence, clean economy thought leadership will become increasingly crucial for urban planners as governments become selective about the projects that they green light.

Profile

There is also the threat of pressure groups to contend with too, which transparent communication can help mitigate.

Why is sustainable investing thought leadership crucial?

Investors are increasingly turning to sustainable investing as a way to achieve substantial returns while demonstrating their commitment to good causes.

But while many business leaders in the past may have jumped to accept funding offers, cleantech companies today, well aware of the high-risk environment they are operating in, have become much more selective with the investors they partner with. They now seek greater assurances that they will be supported for the long term.

Too many cleantechs are abandoned by investors at the first sign of trouble or when investors lack the industry knowledge to provide meaningful guidance.

Profile

Hence, thought leadership is becoming increasingly vital for investors to demonstrate a genuine commitment to sustainability. It's also essential to inspire others across the sector to contribute to the clean economy vision.

How can clean economy thought leadership better developing economies?

It goes without saying but the most important recipients of clean economy thought leadership are undoubtedly those within developing economies.

These regions face the greatest challenges, particularly in terms of sustainability and they lack visible leaders.

So, no matter where you and your business are located, whether it’s small, medium, or large, your thoughts and ideas are valuable, and you need to make use of them.

You may even experience less noise and even greater demand from global publications willing to cover your ideas, giving you a competitive edge over your peers and genuine potential to create lasting change where needed most.

Please enter your details.

To top