Topic: ”Formative conversations as foundation for strategic sustainability communication: Reflexive investigations of a neglected feature”
Speaker: Johan Florén
Date: September 9, 2026
Time: 13.00-14.00
Location: Teams, sign up here >
Organizers: Sustainable Finance Lab
ABSTRACT: Sustainability communication confronts some of society’s most pressing challenges. This thesis highlights complexity as a defining, yet largely neglected, characteristic of strategic sustainability communication. It challenges the dominant approach that frames communication merely as a tool for corporate goals, recognizing it instead as fundamental to shaping sustainability strategies and practices. Drawing on complexity and paradox theories, the study analyses interviews and six years of reports from a global investor climate initiative to understand how communication is shaped by “wicked problems” and tensions between sustainability and financial goals. The results show that conceptual ambiguity, stakeholder diversity, and organizational paradoxes break traditional communication models. Ultimately, the research argues for a shift toward interactive, adaptive approaches that prioritize societal engagement over organizational control to address the grand challenges of our time.
BIO: Johan Florén is a researcher in strategic sustainability communication and received a Licentiate of Philosophy degree in Media and Communication from Lund University in 2026. He works as Public Affairs Officer at Sustainable Finance Lab and Senior Advisor at AP7, where he was previously Chief ESG and Communications Officer for many years. Johan has previously been a member of The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) as well as chairman of the Swedish Forum for Sustainable Investments (Swesif) and Amnesty Business Group. He holds a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Stockholm University and a degree in Theoretical Philosophy from Uppsala University.
