Energy and Sustainability Communications Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Corporate Communications Managers, Sustainability Communications Specialists and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 16 Nov 2026 Course code SD-PRC-045

Before you join: Participants should have practical experience in corporate communications, public relations, stakeholder engagement, sustainability reporting or related roles.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Energy companies, utilities, industrial firms, financial institutions and public bodies face intense scrutiny of climate commitments, emissions claims, transition plans, project impacts and energy affordability. Communications teams must explain technical subjects accurately while addressing questions from investors, regulators, employees, communities, customers and journalists. Poorly evidenced claims can damage trust, trigger regulatory attention and create avoidable conflict around projects, reporting and corporate reputation.

This course develops the practical discipline required to plan, write, govern and evaluate energy and sustainability communications. Participants work with materiality, stakeholder mapping, the GHG Protocol, sustainability reporting standards, message houses, PESO channel planning, crisis communications and communication measurement. They learn to convert emissions data, transition-plan assumptions and operational information into clear audience-specific messages without overstating performance, certainty or causality. The course also addresses greenwashing risk, investor communications, community engagement, misinformation and high-pressure issues such as outages, environmental incidents and project opposition.

Teaching combines focused instructor briefings, sector cases, message drafting, stakeholder analysis, media and crisis simulations, peer review and structured application planning. Cases reflect renewable energy, oil and gas, mining, infrastructure, banking and large corporate sustainability programmes. Participants leave with a reusable communications governance model, claim substantiation checklist, stakeholder engagement plan, crisis response framework and 90-day action plan. The course is delivered over five days, from 08:30 to 16:30, in classrooms in 50+ cities or live online. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

It is suited to communications professionals who already write, plan or approve corporate communications and now need stronger command of energy transition and sustainability subjects.

What you will be able to do

  • Assess sustainability claims against evidence, boundaries, assumptions and material limitations
  • Build stakeholder maps and engagement plans for energy projects and transition programmes
  • Create message houses that translate technical energy information into audience-specific narratives
  • Draft defensible communications using GHG Protocol, GRI, ESRS and ISSB reporting concepts
  • Plan PESO communications campaigns around reporting, project and policy milestones
  • Prepare investor, media and community responses to difficult sustainability questions
  • Apply SCCT and issue-risk registers to environmental incidents and reputational threats
  • Produce a 90-day energy and sustainability communications action plan

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Write sustainability claims with clearer evidence, boundaries and qualifications
  • Handle challenging media and stakeholder questions about transition plans and emissions
  • Build a credible portfolio of messaging, engagement and crisis communication tools
  • Contribute more effectively to annual reporting and investor communication processes
  • Gain a structured method for advising senior leaders on reputational communication risks

For your organisation

  • Reduce exposure to greenwashing allegations and inconsistent public claims
  • Improve alignment between sustainability data, corporate reporting and external communications
  • Strengthen stakeholder trust during project development, operational change and public scrutiny
  • Create faster, better-governed responses to environmental incidents and misinformation
  • Measure communication contribution to trust, engagement and strategic programme outcomes

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can interpret core energy and sustainability subjects for credible communication planning.

  • Materiality, transition plans and energy-system terms translated into audience relevance
  • Distinguish operational emissions, avoided emissions, renewable attributes and carbon credits
  • Map value-chain claims to procurement, operations, finance and investor questions
  • Identify policy drivers shaping energy narratives, permits and community expectations
  • Apply message discipline when technical uncertainty and commercial sensitivity coexist
  • Separate climate ambition, targets, performance data and future-oriented statements

Participants can prioritise stakeholders and design listening approaches for sustainability communication issues.

  • Stakeholder salience model prioritising power, legitimacy, urgency and proximity
  • Segment investors, regulators, employees, communities, customers and civil-society groups
  • Build stakeholder personas from information needs, trust drivers and media habits
  • Create listening plans using interviews, social monitoring and issue tracking
  • Assess social licence risks around projects, pricing and local environmental impacts
  • Set engagement objectives, owners, cadence and escalation thresholds

Participants can assess and draft sustainability claims supported by appropriate evidence and disclosures.

  • GHG Protocol scopes connected to defensible external emissions statements
  • GRI, ESRS and ISSB disclosures compared for communications planning
  • Substantiate renewable electricity, net-zero and circularity claims before publication
  • Use claim evidence files: source, calculation, boundary, date and approver
  • Flag greenwashing patterns: vagueness, hidden trade-offs, offsets and imagery
  • Draft qualified claims using scope, timeframe, baseline and material limitations

Participants can build clear, evidence-based narratives for complex energy and sustainability subjects.

  • Message house construction from strategic narrative, proof points and stakeholder needs
  • Frame energy transition benefits without overstating certainty or causality
  • Convert technical data into plain-language messages for non-specialist audiences
  • Balance affordability, reliability, jobs, emissions and biodiversity in narratives
  • Prepare spokesperson bridges, flags and hooks for difficult sustainability questions
  • Test messages against hostile interpretations, misinformation and competing frames

Participants can plan coordinated communications across owned, earned, shared and paid channels.

  • PESO model selection across paid, earned, shared and owned channels
  • Design editorial calendars around reporting cycles, milestones and stakeholder decisions
  • Match formats to evidence strength: fact sheet, FAQ, briefing or report
  • Write media pitches with news value, credible sources and timely angles
  • Structure executive bylines around a defensible point of view
  • Plan employee communications for operational change, safety and participation

Participants can align sustainability communications with investor expectations and corporate disclosure controls.

  • Align sustainability communications with investor relations, annual reports and earnings narratives
  • Explain transition-plan assumptions, capital allocation and material financial effects
  • Prepare Q&A for ESG ratings, activist investors and analyst challenges
  • Coordinate disclosure calendars to prevent inconsistent figures and premature claims
  • Translate climate risk and opportunity data into decision-useful investor messages
  • Maintain insider-information controls when discussing projects, targets and performance

Participants can plan accountable communications for communities affected by energy and infrastructure projects.

  • Map project stakeholders before announcing infrastructure, extraction or renewable developments
  • Use AA1000 stakeholder engagement principles to plan inclusive dialogue
  • Prepare community meeting materials addressing land use, livelihoods and impacts
  • Respond to environmental justice concerns with evidence, commitments and follow-through
  • Set grievance-channel protocols, response times and accountable case ownership
  • Coordinate government relations, community liaison and media response roles

Participants can prepare proportionate responses to sustainability issues, incidents and misinformation.

  • Issue lifecycle analysis distinguishes weak signals, emerging concerns and crises
  • Build risk registers linking scenarios, stakeholders, triggers and response owners
  • Apply SCCT to select denial, diminish, rebuild or bolstering responses
  • Draft holding statements for spills, outages, protests and allegation-driven scrutiny
  • Run approval workflows that preserve speed, accuracy and legal review
  • Monitor misinformation and correct false claims without amplifying harmful content

Participants can measure communication performance and report findings that support management decisions.

  • Build logic models connecting communication activity, audience response and outcomes
  • Define SMART objectives, leading indicators and outcome measures for campaigns
  • Apply AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework to plans and reporting
  • Set baselines using awareness, trust, sentiment, engagement and behaviour data
  • Distinguish outputs, outtakes and outcomes in communications performance reporting
  • Create dashboard narratives that explain variance, learning and corrective action

Participants can establish governance arrangements and a prioritised plan for workplace implementation.

  • Audit existing energy and sustainability communications against evidence and audience needs
  • Set governance roles for data owners, approvers, spokespeople and escalation
  • Design a 90-day communications action plan with milestones and measures
  • Prioritise actions using impact, urgency, feasibility and reputational exposure
  • Establish review gates before campaigns, disclosures and executive statements
  • Document decisions and assumptions for future assurance and challenge

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Sustainability claim substantiation checklist
  2. Stakeholder salience and engagement plan template
  3. Energy transition message house model
  4. PESO editorial calendar template
  5. Sustainability issue and crisis response playbook
  6. 90-day communications action plan

Who should attend

  • Corporate Communications Managers — need defensible narratives for energy and sustainability priorities
  • Sustainability Communications Specialists — need stronger methods for claims, disclosures and stakeholder messaging
  • Public Relations Managers — need to manage media scrutiny, campaigns and reputation risks
  • Investor Relations Professionals — need to explain transition plans and ESG performance credibly
  • Community Relations Managers — need structured engagement around projects, impacts and local concerns
  • ESG and Sustainability Managers — need to brief communications teams with accurate, usable evidence

Skills and tools covered

Sustainability claim assuranceStakeholder engagement planningEnergy narrative developmentCrisis response communicationsInvestor ESG communicationsCommunication measurement

Tools and standards

GHG Protocol, GRI Standards, European Sustainability Reporting Standards, AMEC Integrated Evaluation Framework

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish methods and standards, followed by case analysis drawn from energy, infrastructure, finance and industrial settings. Participants assess claims, build stakeholder maps, develop message houses and review communications materials against evidence requirements. Group work addresses investor questions, community concerns and crisis scenarios, while simulations test spokesperson responses and approval decisions under pressure. Each participant applies the methods to a current communication priority and prepares a practical action plan for workplace use.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have practical experience in corporate communications, public relations, stakeholder engagement, sustainability reporting or related roles. They should be comfortable reading business documents, drafting audience communications and participating in discussions on organisational strategy and reputation. Familiarity with basic climate, energy or ESG terminology is helpful but not essential; key terms are established during the course. Participants do not need engineering expertise, carbon-accounting certification, prior investor-relations experience or detailed knowledge of a specific national disclosure regime.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

You should have experience in communications, public relations, stakeholder engagement, sustainability or a related function. You do not need technical engineering knowledge or formal carbon-accounting training.

Bring examples of current communications challenges, reporting extracts, project materials or draft messages where organisational policy permits. These materials help you apply the course methods to work that matters to you.

The course suits communications, public affairs, sustainability, investor relations and community relations professionals. It is particularly useful for people responsible for explaining climate commitments, energy projects or ESG performance.

This course focuses on translating sustainability and energy information into credible stakeholder communications. It uses reporting and emissions concepts to improve messages, claims, engagement and response planning rather than teaching detailed emissions calculations or report preparation.

Participants use their own communication priorities to build claims controls, stakeholder plans, messages and response approaches. The final action plan identifies practical steps, owners, milestones and measures for the next 90 days.

Each day runs from 08:30 to 16:30 and provides about 6.5 contact hours. Time is divided between instructor briefings, sector cases, group analysis, drafting work, simulations and action planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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