Enhancing Sustainability Communications Strategy for Accsys

Situation

Accsys, a UK wood company, wanted to update the sustainability section of its website. Accsys needed a new way to format its key messages, to make it easy for the user to understand the sustainability attributes of the company’s key product – Accoya wood.

Solution

Anthesis reviewed the current messaging and proposed a new messaging hierarchy. Accsys’ key pillars were reimagined to tell a more holistic story of what sustainable wood means for the business, stakeholders, and the planet.

The messaging had to be clear and concise, with supporting evidence made easy to interpret for a number of customers (manufacturers, architects, distributors) all with varying levels of interest in sustainability.

The sustainability section of the website was rewritten and redesigned, Anthesis also provided a new suite of icons, which will be used across the website to clearly identify the sustainability attributes of the wood.

Finally, it was important that the FAQ page on the website clearly reflected the queries of a range of customers. Anthesis expanded the FAQ section, taking in a wider view of sources, including search engine optimisation (SEO) considerations, and developed the questions to provide a larger bank of quick-view answers.

Accsys is now looking to visually compare the sustainability attributes of Accoya wood with other wood species and competing building materials. Anthesis has been commissioned to review all the available sustainability data on materials and operations. Going beyond Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs), the project will provide a clear representation of the sustainability attributes behind Accoya wood.

Impact

The refreshed communications strategy spoke to various customers with different levels of interest in sustainability in a way that was easy to understand with credible data points to evidence the claims of sustainability.

For example, architects needed highly detailed information which explores the granular aspects of what makes its product sustainable. Whereas distributors only required high-level sustainability information. Catering for each customer was crucial.

The sustainability information was clearly displayed on the webpage to help users navigate the site, and further reading was signposted should the user require further detail.