After 18 years in marketing and branding, I have to ask if our profession is clueless or full of liars — or is it both? Evidence is everywhere that we’ve failed to learn the new language of sustainability communications. A study by Terrachoice concluded that 95 percent of consumer products with green claims are guilty of greenwashing. One small comfort? That’s an improvement over last year.

Why can’t marketers get it right? Are the minds behind flawed communications really out to deceive? Or are we clueless until consumers, a competitor or a watch group raise a red flag?

The problem is that traditional marketing communications are fundamentally at odds with credible sustainability communications — what I’ll call “clean speak.” In other marketing realms, audiences may tolerate half-truths in the name of brand love. But through the lens of sustainability, half-truths become outright lies. A new, implied contract has arisen between a brand and consumers, and its litmus tests for trust and honesty are tougher.

Can you even blame marketers? We’re just doing what worked brilliantly for decades: Communicate selectively. Think in silos. Practice the art of the compartmentalized, white lie. Find something biggest and best to spotlight and hype. Pump up aspiration. And, above all, entertain!

Again and again we apply the old methods to a new market and come up short.

We give in to the temptation to abbreviate the concept of sustainability to “green” and forget that customers expect businesses to be socially responsible, too. Even worse, we make the mistake of casting sustainability as a mere product feature. Slapping the word “recyclable” on a shampoo bottle won’t win the customer over if the ingredients of the shampoo aren’t responsibly sourced.

Bottom line: Sustainability is a full-blown cultural shift — a lens that sees globally and values interconnections. Traditional communications divided marketing, corporate and investor relations into isolated boxes. Now they’re facets of an ongoing, overarching narrative. This new way of thinking is perfectly suited to this decade’s rise of brand-as-story, with trust its key element.

Clean speak can be a conduit for tough questions: Tough because the art of persuasion loves bold statements and big claims (hello, greenwash). Tough because our goal-driven culture wants results (and stories of results) now — preferably reportable by the end of the quarter.

Sustainability, however, is an ongoing process and a long-term commitment. It demands more nuanced storytelling to appropriately disclose what’s relevant without compromising what’s proprietary. We have to tap into new groups of stakeholders, internal and external, and speak to their concerns. And do that in an engaging, if not outright entertaining, way.

On a daily basis, that requires more patience, more collaboration and a deep willingness to learn continuously. As sustainability begins to trickle through corporate structures, it’s overturning assumptions and forcing radical rethinking. Now it’s marketers’ turn to learn that new language and finally speak clean.

Photo by db photographs/flickr/Creative Commons

Jana Branch is a brand and marketing communications consultant who has advised Fortune 500 companies. Her independent practice, Articulo Consulting, is based in Santa Monica, Calif.