Irina Manole, Oxygen: Vague Is No Longer Safe

This October, Oxygen launches Speaking Green — A Practical Guide to Responsible Sustainability Communication, a free resource for companies, brands and communication professionals navigating the evolving European landscape on environmental claims and sustainability communication. We sat down with Irina Manole, Head of Sustainability at Oxygen, to discuss why the agency decided to create the guide and why the future belongs to brands that can support their claims with evidence, not just good intentions.

What prompted you to develop the guide and make it available for free?

Speaking Green – A Practical Guide to Responsible Sustainability Communication was created in response to a real need we have observed across the market. This guide also reflects our own evolution as an agency. Sustainability has been a strategic direction for Oxygen for several years. We became the first integrated communications agency in Romania to monitor our carbon footprint, while also creating a dedicated Sustainability & CSR practice and working alongside companies from multiple sectors as they navigate an increasingly complex sustainability landscape.

New European legislation, particularly the Empowering Consumers for the Green Transition Directive (EmpCo), signals a shift towards a new standard of transparency, accountability and substantiation. Sustainability communication has entered a new phase, where credibility and proof matter as much as creativity.

We felt the industry needed a practical resource that translates legal requirements into the language of marketers, communicators and business leaders. Making it freely available was an easy decision, as we strongly believe sustainability communication cannot evolve in isolation. If we want more credible sustainability communication, we need more shared knowledge, more dialogue and more practical guidance.

What are your hopes and goals with it?

Our ambition is not to replace legislation or legal advice, but to help professionals understand how European requirements translate into everyday communication decisions. Speaking Green will be made freely available on 8 October, when Oxygen, in partnership with the Sustainability Embassy in Romania, will host its official launch event in Bucharest. We will be bringing together representatives of the European Commission, sustainability experts and communication professionals from Romania and across Europe, as new EU rules redefine what credible sustainability communication must look like.

We hope the guide becomes a practical reference tool for communication professionals, sustainability teams and decision-makers. If it helps companies and creatives ask better questions before launching a campaign, encourages stronger collaboration between marketing, ESG and legal teams, and contributes to more impactful sustainability campaigns, then it has achieved its purpose.

Sustainability has long been treated as a communication theme. How do we shift the perception towards responsibility, transparency and concrete proof?

Indeed, for many years, sustainability communication has been driven by ambition. Increasingly, however, it is judged by evidence. We are moving from a language of promises to a language of proof. That shift begins with changing the question. Instead of asking, “How do we communicate this?”, companies should first ask, “What can we actually demonstrate?”

This doesn’t mean companies need to be perfect. Consumers are not looking for perfection; they are looking for honesty. They value brands that communicate both progress and limitations with transparency. Saying “We have reduced our emissions by 20% compared to year X” is far more credible than simply claiming to be “green” or “sustainable” without explaining what those claims actually mean or the evidence behind them. Ultimately, responsible sustainability communication starts with facts. The message should be the result of the evidence, not the other way around.

What does the new regulatory framework actually change for companies on the inside?

The biggest change is that sustainability claims will need to be much more specific and better substantiated. EmpCo compliance is not a marketing adjustment. It is not about rewording a few claims or adding a disclaimer.

It requires an internal process that links each sustainability claim to verifiable data, clear methodologies and an explicit acknowledgement of limitations. That is not the work of a single team; it is, by its very nature, cross-functional. In practice, companies will need stronger internal governance around sustainability.

One of the key messages of the Oxygen Speaking Green Guide is that sustainability reporting and consumer communication should not tell two different stories. They are two perspectives on the same company – the difference is simply the level of detail and the audience. This alignment, however, cannot happen by accident and requires departments to work together from the outset, not in parallel silos.

What types of communication will be problematic now and how can brands communicate more meaningfully and more credibly?

The most problematic claims are usually the most generic ones. Vague, aspirational language that was once common practice is no longer enough. Words like “green”, “eco”, “planet-friendly” or “sustainable” can sound attractive but tell consumers very little when they are not supported by specific evidence. Instead, brands should communicate specific, measurable achievements. Rather than saying “sustainable packaging”, explain that “the packaging is made from 85% recycled paper” or that “the bottle is fully recyclable where appropriate collection infrastructure exists.”

A fundamental question remains: does this solve the problem of greenwashing?

No piece of legislation and no guide can solve complex problems overnight. But together, as an industry, with the right tools, we can significantly raise the standard for sustainability communication.

Ultimately, credibility doesn’t come from regulation alone. It comes from the choices companies make every day: to communicate with precision rather than exaggeration, with evidence rather than assumptions, and with transparency rather than ambiguity. At the same time, real change happens when companies, agencies, regulators and communication professionals all embrace the same standard.

What other problems do you see in Romania when it comes to communicating on sustainability?

One challenge is the fragmentation of responsibilities across teams that I touched on earlier, and the fact that sustainability is still sometimes treated as a communication exercise instead of a business transformation.

The broader economic context also matters. Inflation and the rising cost of living have made consumers more selective and pragmatic. People continue to care about sustainability, but they are also asking very practical questions: Is this product better? Is it worth the price? What is the real environmental benefit? Companies therefore need to demonstrate that sustainability creates value, not just virtue.

Finally, it is always a mistake to underestimate consumers. They may not know every regulation, but they recognize authenticity, consistency and transparency. Companies that underestimate that shift are likely to fall behind.

How have company representatives and the public evolved in their understanding of what sustainability means in recent years?

Five years ago, many discussions focused almost exclusively on environmental initiatives. Today, companies have a much broader understanding of sustainability, including governance, supply chains, social impact and business resilience.

Consumers have evolved as well. They ask more questions, compare information and are more attentive to the difference between genuine progress and marketing language.

This tells us that we are entering a more mature phase, where sustainability is no longer judged by the ambition of a campaign, but by the consistency between what a company does, what it reports and what it communicates. The companies that adapt first will not simply reduce regulatory risk. They will also be better positioned to compete in a market where transparency is increasingly becoming a differentiator.

That is, in many ways, the core message of Speaking Green.