New Centre handbook aims to accelerate sustainability transition

“Seven of the nine planetary boundaries have been crossed. But it is not enough to know this; we must communicate it better in order to return humanity to a safe operating space. Planetary Communications is a scientifically grounded handbook designed to make complexity understandable and inspire real action,” says Johan Rockström, Centre co-founder and director of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, who has been involved in the project from the beginning and wrote the foreword to the handbook.

Planetary Communications draws inspiration from the Planetary Boundaries framework and the Centre’s 20 years of experience communicating complex and transdisciplinary research. The handbook, funded by Formas, was created with contributions from around one hundred researchers, communicators, and creatives, including Johan Rockström, Maria Wolrath Söderberg, Isabelle McAllister, and Martin Hultman.

“Planetary Communications is a science-based handbook that we hope will make complex sustainability research more understandable and engaging — and help accelerate the transition by highlighting the relevance of scientific research,” says Marcus Lundstedt, head of communications at the Centre and co-author of the handbook.

The handbook includes a framework consisting of nine “ingredients” that can be combined in different ways to make complex scientific messages about climate and the environment more relatable and accessible for different target audiences. The ingredients are:

• Be factful
• Simplify it
• Time it wisely
• Link to other societal concerns
• Inspire collective action
• Highlight solutions
• Navigate emotions
• Make it personal
• Visualise it

“All the ingredients are important, but it is impossible to maximize all of them every time. The key is finding the right mix depending on the sender, the message, the channel, and the target audience,” says Fredrik Moberg, deputy head of communications at the Centre and co-author of the handbook together with communicators Marika Haeggman and Vaida Ražaitytė.

Planetary Communications is based on the latest research on communication and sustainability, but also builds on practical experience. The book includes a number of examples of successful sustainability communication initiatives from around the world.

The handbook was designed by Azote designer Jerker Lokrantz, who also created the well-known image of the Planetary Boundaries.