Solutions and Resources- Beyond Social Commentary
The resource suite of the Honest Picture Project called "Reading Green Pictures" offers ratings and recommendations for the use of pictures in sustainability communication, with a primary focus on identifying greenwashing attempts.
Understanding the Reading Green Pictures tool
The first of the tools that has been developed pertains to the corporate sustainability report and considers several representational aspects of pictures used to provide an objective score for the visual rhetoric of the report. This score is indicative of attempts at greenwashing by the company in question. The tool has produced some quite interesting results in terms of divergence in the manner in which sustainability is communicated visually vs other modes as the below graph shows.
The graph shows a comparison of the scores obtained by companies ranked in the top of the pile in the Corporate Knights' index of world's most sustainable companies for the year 2021 and that obtained by the same companies when their sustainability reports were analysed using the Reading Green Pictures tool.
A comparison of the scores obtained by companies on the Corporate Knights' index of world's most sustainable companies and that obtained by the same companies when their sustainability reports were analysed using the Reading Green Pictures tool.
The graph illustrates a comparison between the scores obtained by companies ranked in the top echelon of Corporate Knights' index of the world's most sustainable companies for the year 2021 and their scores when their sustainability reports were analysed using the Reading Green Pictures tool.
Key Insights from the Graph
The most interesting findings from the graph are the following:
Some companies that do well in terms of sustainability rankings do not fare as well in terms of honest picture usage. This is indicated by the difference values being greater than 50 points for three companies (see the page on methodology for definition of honest picture).
Amongst the five companies, Orsted is consistent across both rankings and can be termed as honest according to both criteria.
Empowering Stakeholders with Insight
The Reading Green Pictures tool empowers companies, communication agencies, policy makers, and other stakeholders with a practical and comprehensive framework to understand visual communication better. This includes the use of pictures as well as their interplay with associated text in multimodal communication, as commonly seen in sustainability reports and other modes of sustainability communication.
Our Methodology
The methodology behind this tool aligns with the guiding principles outlined earlier. If you are interested in a more detailed introduction to the Reading Green Pictures tool tailored for sustainability reports, please contact us using the form below:
Expanding Our Reach
While the tool currently focuses on sustainability reports, we are actively developing tailored tools for other modes of corporate sustainability communication. This expansion will include websites, social media, advertising, and more.
Let's Work Together
The Honest Picture Project welcomes collaborations with companies throughout the entire life cycle of sustainability report creation. We also offer services for analysing reports before they are made public. We are dedicated to promoting genuine sustainability communication.
The Honest Picture Project also invites others interested in our tool and those seeking tailored solutions to get in touch.
