Sustainability Storytelling with Mike Hower: The Four C’s of Carbon Communication

What do you do when you’re not going to hit your 2030 sustainability goals?

You could bury it in your sustainability report. Or you could call up your biggest critic and have an honest conversation. Mike Hower says PepsiCo chose the second option — and that’s exactly why they’re one of his best examples of sustainability communication done right.

Mike Hower is the founder of Hower Impact, author of Sustainability Storytelling (Kogan Page, 2025), and host of the Sustainability Communicator podcast. He spent more than a decade as a journalist covering sustainability for GreenBiz, Sustainable Brands, and Triple Pundit before moving into communications strategy at Edelman and beyond. His clients include Mars, HP, and Berry Global.

In this episode, Mike and Aaron cover:

• The Four C’s of effective sustainability storytelling: Context, Compelling, Credible, and Compliance
• Why the best sustainability communicators don’t have to say “sustainability” — the Fight Club rule
• How to use layers of communication to make GHG data accessible without losing credibility
• The approaching 2030 net zero reckoning and how to talk about missed goals without a credibility crisis
• Why CEOs say they understand sustainability and still treat it as a cost center — and what to do about it
• The one cross-functional action you can take this week to improve your sustainability communication

Find Mike at Hower Impact, listen to the Sustainability Communicator podcast, and order Sustainability Storytelling wherever books are sold.

This episode is brought to you by North Star Carbon & Impact — the carbon and sustainability management platform built by sustainability professionals, for sustainability professionals. Visit northstarcarbon.com to learn more.