The Case for Corporate-Funded Education in a Misinformation Era

About every four years, large corporations work to adjust their framing to ensure their communications align with the prevailing political, regulatory, and economic landscape. While sustainability and circular economy initiatives generally have broad bipartisan support, the specific language and priorities can shift depending on the administration’s stance on climate policy, corporate regulation, and economic strategy. Sometimes, that shift is more obvious than other times, but it’s there nonetheless.

For example, under an administration prioritizing climate action and ESGs (Environmental, Social, and Governance), companies may want to highlight climate actions like carbon reductions, supply chain transparency, and alignment with global sustainability frameworks like the SEC’s climate disclosure rules or international carbon markets.

Under an administration prioritizing deregulation over climate policies, these initiatives may be reframed to emphasize job creation, U.S. manufacturing, economic resilience, and cost efficiency rather than climate urgency.

If media coverage is censored and government websites containing critical environmental data, research, and studies on vaccines, disease outbreaks, veterans’ care, hate crimes, and scientific findings are removed, any news producer who depends on this information faces fact-checking challenges. As environmental educators, we maintain our own database of these valuable government sources. When access to this information is compromised, or the information shared is no longer fact-based, we serve as a reliable resource, ensuring our clients’ content and campaigns remain grounded in accurate, data-driven, science-backed insights.

Challenges to the state of the news industry for environmental industries

Where do trusted marketing, sales, PR, and business development professionals get their information? They rely on subject matter experts, industry journalists, investigative reporters, internet research, scientific studies, market research, and reports from national trade associations, many of which are government-funded to keep U.S. industries globally competitive. But what happens when key journalists are censored and critical resources vanish? How do companies stay informed and inform their audiences when vital information disappears?

The state of journalism and reliable research and studies

In 2017 and 2025, many sections of important informational government agency sites were removed. In fact, The New York Times highlighted this disappearance of more than 8,000 web pages across more than a dozen U.S. government websites taken down. Here’s a list of the pages removed.

More than 3,000 pages from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
More than 3,000 pages from the Census Bureau
More than 1,000 pages from the Office of Justice Programs
More than 200 pages from Head Start
More than 180 pages from the Department of Justice
Close to 150 pages from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration
More than 100 pages from the Food and Drug Administration
Almost 50 research papers from the Office of Scientific and Technical Information
More than 25 pages from the Internal Revenue Service
20 web pages from the National Institute of Standards and Technology
18 pages from the Health Resources and Services Administration
18 pages from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office
8 pages from the Department of the Interior
4 pages from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission
3 pages from the Department of Veterans Affairs
2 pages from the Marshals Service

These pages are important resources for many journalists and researchers and for us as environmental marketing communication professionals and corporate educators to have resources we can rely on to support customers, leads, and our industry professionals.

What Happens When Reliable Research and Studies Are No Longer Available?

Consider this from a marketing and sales perspective: most marketing professionals do not have deep experience across all environmental solutions—renewable energy, waste and recycling end-of-life solutions, water technology, air and climate tech, alternative fuel vehicles, or sustainable farming. As a result, there is often a steep learning curve. Even those with industry-specific marketing experience likely worked in roles where a technical or environmental science background wasn’t required, making it difficult to understand how these solutions drive business development.

Sifting through extensive studies and research is already a time-consuming process.

Developing a strategy to interpret and apply these findings in marketing and sales efforts requires ongoing effort to stay ahead of industry advancements. It’s not just about having access to information—it’s about having professionals who are continuously trained to understand the industry, the solution, and how to communicate its relevance to the audience’s pain points. Effective marketing and sales communication depends on this expertise.

Journalists face the same challenge. Most do not have direct experience in every environmental sector. They rely on independent research, but when access to reliable studies disappears, their ability to provide well-researched, timely information is severely compromised. In many cases, they are left repeating what others have published—even when their peers are facing the same information gaps.

This information and knowledge gap is exactly why our company exists. Our founders built this firm to establish a new standard in marketing communication—one that serves humanity with integrity and ensures environmentally focused industries remain adaptive and resilient (A.R.). Without a multidisciplinary background, marketing professionals must rely on journalism to stay informed on industry developments. However, even when they find scientific research, they need to extract insights quickly—and this often leads them to AI-powered tools like Gemini or ChatGPT for analysis. The problem? These tools are not yet reliable in accurately interpreting scientific studies. A Purdue University study found that “52% of ChatGPT answers contain incorrect information and 77% are verbose.”

So, in a landscape where research and reliable sources are disappearing, where does the information that helps navigate growth and resilience come from?

Using brand campaigns to increase education

There’s a challenge right now with traditional media censorship, and it’s both an opportunity and a responsibility for companies to fill that gap, especially around educating on the issues they’re working to solve.

When media outlets become less reliable and audiences lose trust in their usual sources of information, companies need a strategy to fill that gap. Your company can step in as a trusted voice and educational leader by providing reliable studies, reports, and data-driven insights. This could involve conducting your own research, running surveys, and elevating your case studies and white papers. Taking this strategic approach strengthens your credibility and enhances both marketing and sales efforts.

When access to reliable research and studies becomes scarce, your company has an opportunity to step in and provide trustworthy, data-backed insights. Your audience is actively searching for credible information, and if your website and social media serve as unbiased educational resources, you build trust and keep them coming back.

To do this effectively, your content must be based on verifiable data, not recycled misinformation. Tracking statistics and ensuring your sources are credible allows your company to stand out as a reliable authority.

The Dangers of Using Unverified Information for a Company Campaign

A real-world example of the dangers of using unverified information is Purdue Pharma’s marketing of OxyContin. In 1996, the company built its entire marketing strategy around a four-sentence letter written in 1980 by a doctor who observed that addiction to opioids was rare in his limited experience. This “heavily and uncritically cited” letter was not a study, yet Purdue treated it as one, using it to justify claims that the drug was safe and non-addictive. The result was a national opioid crisis, billions in fines, and a permanent stain on the company’s reputation.

This kind of unchecked misinformation happens across industries and can destroy a brand’s credibility. Of course, you know this by the term greenwashing for environmental matters. By ensuring your content is based on real, vetted research, your company can avoid these pitfalls and position itself as a leader in reliable, evidence-based education.

Lead Your Campaigns with Environmental Education

Environmentally forward companies constantly navigate shifting markets and must be prepared to adapt. This means rethinking how to approach campaigns and ensuring access to reliable information that not only educates employees but also empowers marketing teams to deliver credible, impactful messaging to customers.

A key component of educational-based marketing is myth-busting; stopping the spread of misinformation before it dominates minds and search results, positioning your company as part of the solution and sharing truth. By prioritizing fact-based communication, your brand can establish itself as a trusted authority while reinforcing core environmental commitments.

To maximize impact, companies should:

Create and fund independent studies to provide factual, science-backed information.
Transform internal case studies into public knowledge to enhance credibility and transparency.
Invest in expert-driven marketing teams to translate complex environmental topics into clear, actionable insights.
Actively combat misinformation through rigorous fact-checking and myth-busting in corporate content.

Learn more about our approach to environmental campaigns through our case study.

Now is an optimal time to elevate your communications and align with stakeholder expectations. By fine-tuning how you present your initiatives, you ensure your brand remains both adaptable and authoritative in the sustainability space.

Resources

ESG: Too Resilient to Fail

Global trade is changing – and these cities are seizing the opportunity