Localizing climate tech messaging for U.S. audiences

Climate tech founders keep losing deals to one backwards assumption. (I've watched this assumption kill 80% of climate tech sales cycles.) They think everyone in the buying journey cares about positive environmental impact. Wrong. Here's how it goes down: Sustainability champion brings you in, gets excited about impact, and hands you to the buying committee. You pitch carbon reduction, they're thinking cost savings.  You explain your mission, they want performance data.  Mismatch. Deal dies. Here's why: You're pitching Level 5 to people who need to climb from Level 1. Just like the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, buyers can't skip straight to self-actualization. They need survival first. Your messaging needs five layers, in this order: Level 1: Survival Lead with cost savings and performance metrics. Show them the money they'll save, not the tons of CO2. Prove your product won't crash their systems and break their bank. Level 2: Security Give them operational certainty. Share uptime data, reference customers, offer pilot KPIs and escape clauses. They're protecting their jobs first. Level 3: Belonging Show industry compatibility. Prove you fit their supply chains, meet regulatory standards, and won't make them the outlier. Level 4: Esteem Position sustainability as competitive advantage. Make the buyers the heroes that delivered margins and mission. This advances their career. Level 5: Self-Actualization Now tell them about changing the world. Connect to purpose, innovation, and industry transformation. Most founders start at Level 5.  But the smart ones start where buyers are, not where they wish they'd be. The companies that nail this progression will own industries while competitors are still explaining why the planet matters more than profit. Want more frameworks like this? I share tactical strategies for climate tech founders every week in my newsletter. Comment "maslow" and I'll send you the link.

Climate Communication Reimagined: Appealing Across Moral Foundations Recently, while working on energy transition scenarios for the Netherlands’ decarbonization by 2050 with TenneT, Jonathan Haidt’s insights from The Righteous Mind came sharply into focus. Full article: https://lnkd.in/gKQ4HfaQ Haidt research highlights six moral foundations — Care, Fairness, Loyalty, Authority, Sanctity, and Liberty — and argues that conservatives broadly use all six, while progressives strongly emphasize Care and Fairness. This explains why traditional climate messaging, dominated by progressive framing around harm prevention and fairness, struggles to resonate with broader audiences, especially conservatives. Effective climate advocacy requires blending messages to activate moral intuitions across this entire spectrum. For example, on clean energy jobs, progressives emphasize economic fairness, while conservatives focus on national strength and independence. A blended message: “Let’s revitalize America with clean energy, creating good jobs for all to keep our nation strong and independent.” On pollution, progressives speak to health impacts, conservatives to purity and national pride. Combining these, we get: “Cutting pollution protects our children's health and maintains America’s beautiful landscapes and clean air.” Framing climate change as a shared national challenge connects progressive concerns about global justice with conservative values around national security and heritage protection: “Protect our homeland from climate threats, safeguarding communities and the American way of life we cherish.” Even innovation and tradition can align: “Clean energy innovation continues America’s proud history of leadership, preserving the land and values we cherish for future generations.” In the Netherlands, debates around overhead transmission expansion benefit from similar messaging. Instead of purely technical arguments, framing transmission infrastructure as essential to national pride, heritage preservation, and economic vitality can resonate widely: “New transmission lines represent Dutch innovation, safeguarding our landscapes, health, and economy for generations.” I encountered this effective moral framing earlier while co-authoring Canada’s municipal guide for planned retreat amid climate risks. Communities rallied behind retreat initiatives when messaging emphasized collective good and community identity. European research, especially around Brexit, reinforces that messaging inclusive of national identity, sovereignty, and cultural integrity resonates more deeply than approaches limited to individual-focused morality. Ultimately, climate advocacy must leverage the full range of moral foundations to bridge divides and build broader consensus. Haidt’s framework is not only insightful, it’s essential for effective communication on climate and energy transitions.

Why meteorologists are great creators ...and lessons learned that all communicators can incorporate. [Blog post collaboration with Shel Winkley and News Creator Corps] After years of working alongside our Climate Matters network, here’s what we’ve learned makes (climate) communication effective: ☀️Know. Your. Audience. This is the golden rule for all communication. It means that you should learn as much as you can about who you will be communicating with, and then tailor your work to their interests. Consider topic, tone, and timing.  ☀️Meet people where they are. Too often we focus on our differences, but there is so much more that we have in common. From cheering on our favorite teams to caring about our kids and pets. Connect on shared values and build on shared experiences. ☀️Make it personal. Make it local. We are all influenced by the world around us, but it hits differently when it affects our families, communities, and daily lives. Whenever you can take a broader subject and break it down, it will resonate more deeply. ☀️Simplify. It takes serious skill to make complex topics accessible to all audiences. Drop the jargon. Translate scientific words and concepts. Explain concepts clearly. It’s all about clarity and respect. ☀️Tell stories when you can. Data informs, but stories take people on a journey. The storyteller who can take the abstract and make it concrete—that’s who people remember and trust. Stories are how we make sense of hard things. ☀️Don’t be afraid. You have science and public opinion on your side. People want to know more about our changing climate, and you have an opportunity to make that connection for them.  We invite you to join our growing Climate Matters community. Check out our free, localized resources to help expand your storytelling in ways that continue to connect with your audience, helping to answer the questions that are important to them.  (climatecentral.org) https://lnkd.in/eu9bMQnF Climate Central, Inc. #ClimateMatters

I’ve been coaching a climate tech founder this quarter who reminded me why storytelling matters more than ever in this space. When he first came to me, he had a solid product, sharp science, and a deck full of charts… but absolutely no story about what his company was actually doing for people. So we started with the human side. We talked about the plant managers he’s hired across the country — people who’d spent years in unstable jobs, now earning salaries that allow them to buy homes, support families, and build roots in their communities. We talked about the farmers who rely on his team’s soil technology to grow crops that can survive the heat waves, drought patterns, and unpredictable seasons that have become the new normal. Farmers who used to lose half their yield every summer… now reporting the healthiest, most resilient harvests they’ve ever seen. We talked about the small towns getting cleaner, safer water because his company implemented better treatment protocols, upgraded their filtration systems, or partnered with local agencies to mitigate contamination that had gone ignored for decades. None of this was in his pitch. Not one slide. Not one sentence. But this is the impact. This is the story. This is what climate tech is actually about. When we rebuilt his narrative from the ground up, centering the people who now have better jobs, better soil, better water, and a better future...everything shifted: — His investor conversations opened up — His partnerships expanded — His confidence multiplied — His mission finally felt like the purpose he knew it was Climate tech isn’t just carbon and kilowatt-hours. It’s parents working stable jobs. It’s farmers feeding their communities. It’s families drinking water that won’t make them sick. The data matters, but the people make the story unforgettable. If you’re a founder building toward a big 2026 and you want your narrative to reflect the actual impact you’re making, this is your moment. I’m opening a few more storytelling strategy sessions for climate and impact founders who want: — fundraising storytelling that resonates — investor-ready narratives — human-centered case studies — mission clarity — messaging that moves people to act Your technology is powerful. Your story should be too. 📩 DM me or book directly through my link (in comments) if you’re ready to elevate your narrative before the new year.