Mistra Environmental Communication

Reframing Communication for Sustainability

Mistra Environmental Communication is an eight-year research programme dedicated to investigating how communication shapes sustainability transformations. Our work is critical and change-oriented: we advance a scientifically grounded understanding of how communication practices can contribute to efforts towards a sustainable future. The programme is a close collaboration between researchers from diverse disciplines, authorities, civil society organisations, and companies.

Why Environmental Communication?

Environmental communication is any communication about the environment – spoken, written and visual. It takes place all the time and everywhere, from casual conversations at the kitchen table to high-stake negotiations at COP meetings. The way we express ourselves and interact with each other shapes our understanding of nature and environmental challenges. Ultimately, these understandings influence how we act upon these issues. This places environmental communication at the center of sustainability efforts.

To address complex and controversial crises such as climate change and biodiversity loss, we need to identify harmful communication patterns and develop ways of communicating that encourage constructive dialogue and drive action toward sustainability.

What is Mistra Environmental Communication?

Mistra Environmental Communication is a transdisciplinary research programme dedicated to examining how communication shapes sustainability transformations. Our work is critical and change-oriented: we advance a scientifically grounded understanding of how communication practices can contribute to efforts toward a sustainable future for people and planet. The programme is a close collaboration between researchers, government agencies, civil society organisations and cultural institutions.

What is Environmental Communication?

Environmental communication refers to any communication about the environment, whether spoken, written and visual, direct and indirect, or formal and informal. It takes place all the time and everywhere, from casual conversations at the kitchen table to high-stake negotiations at COP meetings. The way we express ourselves and respond to each other shapes our understanding of the natural world, environmental problems, and human-nature relations, and ultimately, how we act upon these issues. This places the study of environmental communication at the center of sustainability efforts. The complexity and controversies of socio-environmental crises, such as climate change and biodiversity loss, highlight the need to identify and understand harmful communication patterns and develop communication approaches for constructive engagement and action for sustainability.