Challenge

The language of corporate responsibility (CR) is getting stale, and we all know it. But it’s also vital for companies to get right. Get too wonky or jargon-heavy, and you turn people off. Get too warm and fuzzy, and you lose credibility. We saw a need for a new, more inspiring vocabulary that could infuse purpose, possibility and humanity into CR stories without sacrificing accuracy. We set out to spark a movement to make it happen.

Solution

We dug into the go-to words in the CR palette—words like green, footprint, impact and responsibility—to examine why each one works, why it often doesn’t and how we can do better. Word by word, we began building the Unglossary, an interactive exploration of the CR words we see and use every day. Visitors have the chance to zero in on why old words are losing steam, think about new possibilities and submit their own Unglossary entries.

Impact

Immediately, the Unglossary struck a chord. People who visit the site tell us it’s sparked new conversations about how they read, write and think about corporate responsibility. And they’re returning to check out new words as we add them. In the first few weeks, we exceeded our initial benchmarks, and new visitors and submissions keep coming.