A Step-by-Step Guide to Honest Sustainability in Companies

True sustainability is built on radical transparency, not marketing spin. To effectively avoid the trap of greenwashing, organizations must first secure their foundation by ensuring full stakeholder alignment and conducting an honest, comprehensive audit of their actual impact areas. By establishing these fundamentals, the "Relevance Methodology" can then be applied to transform sustainability from a corporate slogan into a strategic roadmap. 

This approach ensures that every initiative delivers measurable value across three critical layers: 

• the company’s internal resilience, 

• the client’s journey, and 

• a lasting positive impact on both society and the planet.

Kai Platschke's book, Das Anti-Greenwashing-Buch (The Anti-Greenwashing Book), serves as a practical guide for companies on how to genuinely and effectively pursue sustainability while consistently avoiding greenwashing. The central message is that sustainability is not a mere marketing trend but an urgent necessity for survival on our planet. The book's approach, the "Relevance Methodology" (RM), aims to establish a double impact-oriented strategy: building relevant relationships with the target audience and implementing genuine, sustainable actions within the company.

I. Realization: The Necessity of Honest Responsibility

The first step on the path to sustainability is "Realization" ("Erkenntnis"). This means acknowledging climate change as a scientifically proven fact and developing the willingness to take responsibility for one's own, often unsustainable, behavior. It is emphasized that the responsibility cannot solely lie with consumers; instead, companies must critically question their entire value chain.

Greenwashing is identified as a critical problem, defined as PR methods aimed at giving a company an environmentally friendly image without sufficient foundation. The most effective antidote to greenwashing is one hundred percent transparency and honesty. Companies must be willing to disclose all "skeletons in the closet"—i.e., deficiencies or unknowns in the value chain—and make them public before discussing positive individual actions. Sustainability is understood as a constant "journey" on which both consumers and companies find themselves.

An important mental model introduced in this context is the Circular Economy (CE). It is based on the principle of minimizing resource consumption and waste production by slowing down, reducing, and closing energy and material loops. The central principles are to view waste as a raw material, foster resilience through diversity, utilize renewable energy, and think in closed systems. The CE serves as a "thinking and action model" to drive internal change within the company.

II. Strategy: The Relevance Methodology as a Compass

To translate realization into concrete action, an impact-oriented strategy is necessary. The Relevance Methodology (RM) is introduced as a framework connecting strategy and activation. The first five steps form the strategic foundation:

1. Brand Essence: Defines what the brand does and what makes it unique.

2. Brand Belief: Describes why the brand exists and what it believes in (the inner conviction). For a credible sustainability strategy, this belief must inherently include sustainability.

3. People: Identifies a minimal "core target group" and their emotional "Pains" (concerns) and "Gains" (joys) to create the greatest possible impact and the basis for relevant relationships.

4. Playground: The topic the brand wants to engage in a relevant dialogue with the core target group. It must both suit the brand and interest the target audience. Sustainability itself is too unspecific and must be interpreted into a concrete Playground (e.g., sustainable tourism).

5. Role: Defines the type of relationship the brand wants to establish with the target group. It combines the two lines of action of the strategy: building relationships with the target group and the company's own sustainable action. The Role is the direct transition to active doing ("Tun").

The RM is regarded as a "No Bullshit" machine because it demands an immediate translation of the strategy into concrete actions and leaves no room for vague marketing phrases.

III. Doing: Transformation Through Action and Projects

The strategy is translated into concrete "Doing" ("Tun") in steps 6 to 8 of the RM. This action unfolds on four impact levels: internal rethinking, relationship building with the core target group, external impact on people and the environment, and autonomous team work based on personal responsibility (New Work).

1. Behavior (Verhalten): Brings the chosen role to life and defines the brand's code of conduct through concrete verbs (e.g., asking questions, listening, mediating, expanding). External behavior toward the target group must be translated into inward-facing behavior that drives internal sustainability (e.g., analyzing the value chain).

2. Project(s): Manifests the behavior in a long-term, active engagement of the brand/company. Unlike the short-term "campaign," the project is an active framework for building relationships and demonstrating sustainable action. Sustainability must either be the focus of the project or its immediate result.

3. Landscape: Serves as an activation plan to publicize the project and maintain the established relationships. The Landscape consists of the core idea, awareness (for promotion), and the Content Perpetuum mobile. The latter ensures that the project creates lasting value and generates and shares content as a self-feeding system.

IV. New Work: The Organization of Change

To manage the complexity of the four impact levels and the newer, more agile working methods, a change in work organization, known as "New Work," is unavoidable.

The shift from manager to leader is crucial. The boss must evolve from a "Command & Control" manager to a "Coordinate & Cultivate" leader who enables the team to work autonomously and responsibly.

New structures are necessary to foster employee autonomy and commitment, given that their emotional bond is often low. Approaches such as Card Sorting, used to identify important topics and priorities, or inspiration from new organizational models (e.g., Holacracy, which replaces hierarchies with agile "Circles") help in this endeavor.

The Canvasation approach is presented as a tool to give teams structure in this new way of working. A Canvas serves as a "game board" and guideline for meetings, enabling interdisciplinary teams to jointly make strategic and creative decisions.

In summary, the book demonstrates that only the combination of internal Realization ("Erkenntnis") and clear Strategy can lead to impactful Doing ("Tun"), with Work ("Arbeiten") providing the necessary organization for this holistic change. Genuine, sustainable transformation requires companies not only to think about greenwashing but to anchor the purpose of sustainability throughout their entire organization.