Options for Your Sustainability Digital Hub

All companies need to address Sustainability and Corporate Responsibility on their website. It’s a key topic for many audiences, and is a driver of reputation. But it’s growing more complicated. What’s the best approach for you?

There are factors to consider as you identify the right approach for your company.  AI-powered search is raising the stakes for transparency: if you don’t tell your own story, generative AI will find others who do. So, where to start? First, determine what words you want to adopt—Sustainability or ESG or Impact or something else entirely, and who the hub is for. The audience for this information is broad, so a thoughtful organization and tailored messaging is important.

Next, determine the company’s approach to the web: a single central site or an ecosystem of sites? Is your corporate website flexible enough to accommodate the content? Will Sustainability be lost among transactional or product content? What are the technical limitations? Once you consult with your web team you can weigh the factors, both content and technological, to determine the best approach for you. There is not one right answer. Below are two examples.

Create a Microsite

For some companies, the corporate website is focused on consumer or product content. The audiences for Sustainability information may get lost, information may be hard to find, or the site just may not be optimized for this type of storytelling. In this case, a stand-alone microsite approach can give the Sustainability team flexibility to craft the narrative and engage their audiences. A benefit of this approach is that the content can be tailored to your primary audiences with multiple paths, and you can work with an expert partner of your choosing. You may be able to “self-govern” so you are not tied to an existing web publication strategy. It is still part of your digital ecosystem and can meet the needs of audiences while provide depth of information for AI search.

A drawback can be that you need to work harder to surface the content in a search on the primary site (depending on how it is all set up).

Dominion Energy created an ESG hub that weaves together various reporting and links to consumer and investor sites, and established a home for ESG content. The latest ESG news is surfaced here, and links to the corporate news hub. The goal is not to duplicate the content, but to give it prominent signposting, so all audiences—employees, recruits, raters & rankers, customers, investors, and more—can find what they are looking for.

Create a Section on your Primary Website

With your web team on board, you can build out a section of the primary corporate website that reflects your Sustainability strategies. You can create pathways for various audiences and incorporate audience specific messaging. A benefit of this approach is that you may be able to feature your Sustainability content in other areas of the site. A drawback is that you may be limited as to what stories to tell, how you tell them and the volume or frequency of publishing. If you can’t aggregate the content and control a section, and a stand alone microsite is not an option, an index approach is another to consider.

Armstrong World Industries created a Sustainability section on their corporate website. IOP worked to architect the website section, and then created the site with the company’s in-house web team. No outside developer was needed, and the effort was centered on selecting the right content and how to display it. We were able to leverage content from their Sustainability report as well as web-specific content and build out a robust site section. The content links to their various product sites, the investor relations site, and relevant articles.

The Takeaway

Whether you integrate content into your corporate site or create a stand-alone microsite, a Sustainability Hub can help audiences find the information they are looking for: stories, reporting, policies, data and the company’s overall approach. Increasing visibility of this information has positive implications, helping reinforce what is important to the company and to your stakeholders, increasing visibility for rankers and raters, and clarity in your commitments. It contributes to your digital credibility and increases understanding.

How Ideas On Purpose Can Help

For over 25 years, IOP has created strategic digital presence through authoritative digital ecosystems where credibility, thought leadership, and stakeholder trust are the primary business drivers. We’ve helped organizations transform their sustainability messaging into compelling, award-winning communications and reporting that drive understanding and action. Our end-to-end approach combines strategic messaging with creative execution to ensure your sustainability story connects with key audiences.

Email us to discuss how we can help you maximize the impact of your sustainability communications.

Updated 4-2025
Header photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash