In recent decades, driven both by international strategies and regulations such as the United Nations’ “2030 Agenda (SDGs)” (2015), the European Commission’s European Green Deal (2019), as well as by greater awareness and the resulting social and environmental engagement, organizations have placed increasing emphasis on sustainability communication as a strategy to convey the added value of their products or services. However, companies are also using sustainability communication as a corporate marketing tool or a platform for social visibility.
The ecological transition represents a strategic growth opportunity aimed at mitigating the risks posed by the climate crisis. In this context, sustainability communication is not only a strategy for communicating values but also enables organizations to consolidate their economic and financial results, mitigate risks, and expand opportunities. However, behind the term “sustainability” lie numerous challenges—not only environmental but also socioeconomic—that intersect with one another. Among these, it is worth mentioning climate change, the deepening of socioeconomic inequalities, and migration; it is therefore a concept rich in meaning and complex in its interpretation.

During the course, we will analyze the landscape of sustainability-related competencies, exploring in particular aspects related to various sustainability communication strategies. Companies and organizations (including political ones) use social sentiment to construct public narratives on sustainability; however, the rapid transformation of language and communication within the dominant public narrative risks stripping the term of its meaning—even its Latin etymology of “sustaining life”—through increased use of consumer deception techniques, such as greenwashing.