Environmental Social Justice Podcast: Driving Social Impact Communication

Wendy E. Nystrom and Joel Vendette invite Eric Ressler onto the Environmental Social Justice podcast to discuss why social impact communication is so important when communicating complex topics about science, climate change, and our environment at large. Eric Ressler is the Founder and Creative Director at Cosmic, a social impact creative agency. Eric shares his thoughts on how you can elevate your language and communication materials to drive the most impact in an organization and also shares what he’s currently seeing with his clients who have a strong environmental focus.

“We’re so focused on our lane that we don’t realize we can’t communicate with people outside of that.”

Episode Highlights:

• A little bit about Cosmic and the work they do. [0:50]

• We need to hold the government and corporations accountable for the environmental impact
  they are causing. Our planet is in a crisis. [3:35]

• Nonprofits are so focused on their product and idea, but often lack the right resources to
  communicate their importance to the public. [5:10]

• Information is an abundant resource. Now, we’re competing for attention. [7:35]

• Empathy plays a large role in a successful impact communication plan. [10:50]

• What made Eric go into this kind of work? [11:50]

• Are you a social impact organization? Get in touch with Eric. [15:35]

Quotes:

“A lot of this does come down to people feeling apathetic [about the environment]. We’re too late and
there's nothing to be done. So what’s the point? And that’s the exact wrong message that needs to be
spread right now.” - Eric

“When communication design is done effectively, it has the potential to be an impact multiplier, but if it’s
done ineffectively, it’s holding organizations back.” - Eric

“As an agency, we realized that if we can’t support our clients from a more purpose-driven lens, then it’s
really hard for us to do the hard work. When we get behind the work our clients are doing, everything is
better.” - Eric

Resources:

Romeroinstitute.org