Sustainability Communications : The Skill Gap in Cameroon’s PR Industry No One Is Talking About.

The Fig Leaf. Hedging Your Best. Two phrases from a course I am studying that stopped me-not because they were shocking, but because they were so familiar.

 I am currently working through Session 5, Critically Evaluate the Role of PR in Advancing a Corporate Sustainability Strategy, as part of my CIPR Specialist Diploma in Sustainability Communications.

The session introduces what it calls the Shades of Greenwash-a spectrum of ways organizations can misrepresent or overstate their sustainability credentials. As I read through it, two patterns stood out. Not because they were shocking, but because they were so familiar.

The first is the Fig Leaf-proudly promoting a small sustainability initiative to distract from much larger social or environmental impacts. The second is Hedging Your Best-publicly championing sustainability while, elsewhere in the organization, actions or decisions undermine the very commitments being promoted.

What struck me is that greenwashing is not always intentional. Without a structured approach to sustainability communications, rooted in research, stakeholder understanding, and clear objectives, even well-intentioned organizations can drift into one of these shades of greenwash.

At the same time, I have seen the opposite. Organizations delivering sustainability programmes that create genuine value for communities and the environment, yet without a deliberate communications strategy, those efforts remain largely invisible.

A company organises a beach clean-up. Volunteers collect plastic waste. Trees are planted. Photos are taken. A press release is issued. A LinkedIn post follows. Everyone applauds, and then attention shifts to the next World Environment Day.

Somewhere between the activity and the press release, something important gets lost: the question of whether the initiative is connected to a broader sustainability strategy, a measurable objective, a long-term commitment, or a genuine understanding of the organization’s environmental and social footprint.

And when I mention it in conversations with peers leading communications at banks, multinationals, FMCGs, and NGOs across Cameroon, the approach is almost always the same. Then it dawned on me: there is a serious skill gap in Cameroon’s communications and PR industry, and no one is talking about it.

Reactive Comms: Why Good Intentions Are Not Enough

Across sectors-FMCGs, banks, multinationals, NGOs in Cameroon, the dominant model of communication around corporate social responsibility tends to follow the same pattern. A company does something: plants trees, donates to a school, runs a health campaign. Communications produces a press release, a social media post, maybe a feature on a blog. Job done. Move on.

This is not sustainability communications. It is reactive PR with a green label on it.

And while such activities are not without value, they significantly diminish what sustainability communications can achieve. They reduce it to a series of isolated promotional actions rather than recognizing its strategic role in building trust, demonstrating accountability, engaging stakeholders, and supporting long-term business and sustainability goals increasingly demanded by regulators, investors, supply chain partners, and conscious consumers.

What Sustainability Communications Actually Is

Sustainability communications is not a press release. It is not a news article on a company blog. It is not a one-off campaign. It is a process. And like any serious communications process, it begins long before a single word is written for external audiences.

It starts with understanding the environmental and social impact of your organization-honestly, rigorously, not just the parts that look good. It means engaging with international frameworks like the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the GRI Standards, or EUDR compliance requirements, and understanding where your business sits within them. It means identifying the sustainability issues where your company has the most significant impact, whether that is deforestation, child labour, forced labour in supply chains, waste generation, or carbon emissions. It means deciding where you want to be known for making a difference.

From there, it follows a structure many communications professionals already know: the RPIE framework. Research your context and stakeholders. Plan your key actions and messages. Implement with intention. Evaluate against measurable KPIs. Then communicate, not the other way around.

Segmenting your audiences matters enormously here. Communicating EUDR compliance achievements to European buyers, for example, requires a different approach from communicating farmer training programmes to smallholder communities. Both are sustainability communications. Both require different tools, language, and channels.

And for businesses operating in competitive sectors, getting this right is not just about reputation. It is one of the most powerful tools available for brand differentiation. In a market where multiple companies offer similar products or services, a credible, well-communicated sustainability position can be the deciding factor.

Why This Matters Now: The Stakes Have Never Been Higher

The business case for sustainability communications is not abstract. It is rooted in a simple but uncomfortable truth: businesses operate in societies where wealth and poverty often exist side by side. The communities that grow our food, mine our minerals, and manufacture our goods do not always share fairly in the value they help create. Blowfield and Murray (2019) argue that this is precisely why Corporate Social Responsibility matters, not just for reputation, but as a genuine accountability tool. That is what sustainability communications, done well, is supposed to do-not cover up the tension, but engage with it transparently and show what the business is actually doing about it.

Meanwhile, regulations are tightening as climate and other environmental and social crises deepen. Companies in Cameroon, like everywhere else, will face hard questions from investors and, governments and regulators. Their communications teams will be expected to answer those questions with substance, not spin. If those teams have not been trained to engage with sustainability at this level, the consequences go beyond reputational risk. They affect market access.

Leadership Has to Go First-and Go Public

One of the most important insights I have taken from my studies is that sustainability communications is not just a function of the communications department. It is a function of leadership.

Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, once said: ‘The big issues the world is facing require new approaches, new business models and new partnerships. Responsible businesses must take a more active leadership role.’

As Andrew Last observed in his analysis of PR as an agent of change, going very public, very early on sustainability can have remarkable results. When leadership takes a visible position on sustainability, the effects reach further than any single campaign: it builds trust with stakeholders, attracts investors screening for ESG performance, signals accountability to governments, and opens doors to partnerships with NGOs and development organizations.

From Watchdog to Partner: A New Corporate-NGO Dynamic

For decades, NGOs and corporations occupied opposite sides of the sustainability conversation. NGOs held businesses accountable. Businesses managed their reputations in response. The relationship was, at best, transactional.

That dynamic is shifting, because it has to. The scale of today’s sustainability challenges means no single actor can address them alone. A 2025 communications trend report confirms what practitioners are already sensing: there will be more collaboration between businesses and NGOs to solve common problems. Sustainability requires collective effort.

Businesses are asking NGOs to make a difficult journey-from corporate watchdog to corporate partner. That requires a genuine leap of faith. And it is communications that can make that leap possible. Highly visible public declarations of intent from business leaders, backed by transparent reporting and measurable commitments, are what give NGOs the confidence to move from scrutiny to collaboration.

Conscious Consumerism Is Coming to Africa-Are We Ready?

Jori White PR (2024) puts it directly: moving towards a greener future is not only a moral obligation for the PR industry but also a strategic imperative, in a world where consumers increasingly align their loyalties with environmentally conscious brands.

That shift is gathering momentum globally, and while it may feel distant from the realities of Cameroon’s markets today, it is not far off. Younger, urban, connected African consumers are beginning to ask the same questions their counterparts in Europe have been asking for years. Where does this product come from? Who made it? What did it cost the planet? The pace of that shift will only accelerate.

Communications professionals in Cameroon must be ready, equipped not just to protect brand reputation, but to advocate genuinely for a transition to more sustainable business practice. The future of PR in this space lies in authentic action, data-driven storytelling, third-party validation, and real impact reporting. Stricter regulations are coming whether we are prepared or not. Ethical communication is becoming a necessity, not a choice.

And because this is imminent, some things must change…

• Universities and journalism schools need to integrate sustainability literacy into communications curricula.
• Professional associations representing PR and communications practitioners in Cameroon and across CEMAC need to offer structured continuing professional development in sustainability communications.
• Employers need to invest in their communications teams, and practitioners need to take ownership of their own development. The knowledge is available. The question is whether we are seeking it out.

If this resonates with you-whether you are a fellow practitioner, an employer, an academic, or someone working across the sustainability space, I would love to hear your perspective. What are you seeing in your sector? What do you think needs to change?

The conversation is overdue.

By Regina Leke Tandag

Corporate Communications Professional | Media Practitioner/ Sustainability Communications Candidate at UK’s Chartered Institute for Public Relations (CIPR)