How (not) to tell a sustainability story

Let us take an example of what Microsoft chooses to do in their official blog. In this <a href="https://blogs.microsoft.com/blog/2021/01/28/one-year-later-the-path-to-carbon-negative-a-progress-report-on-our-climate-moonshot/" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">post</a>, a senior executive takes stock of progress made in relation to the company’s commitment to address climate crisis. The post highlights a number of measures taken during the year interspersed with a number of aspirational statements. The only picture used in the article is a <a href="https://www.gettyimages.co.uk/detail/photo/hiking-around-moraine-lake-royalty-free-image/585587819?adppopup=true" rel="noopener ugc nofollow" target="_blank">stock image</a>, a picture more appropriate for a travel magazine. The picture is not captioned and there is no attribution. It captures your attention with its sheer brilliance. The picture is about the natural environment, its beauty, the sense of adventure and with the individual staring into the distance, also about aspiration and ambition. It does not tell you anything about the other details mentioned in the written text- specific carbon projects that the company claims to be involved with, internal carbon tax, how it works with suppliers to reduce emissions etc. In not anchoring the meaning of the image in a caption or other written text, the picture can be best described as being in the realm of a dream, the dream of the kind of pristine nature that Microsoft, in their own words, is committed to protect. <a href="https://medium.com/@honestpicture/how-not-to-tell-a-sustainability-story-89a5171fd818">Learn More</a>