{"id":5161,"date":"2026-05-08T08:18:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/?p=5161"},"modified":"2026-05-08T08:18:20","modified_gmt":"2026-05-08T08:18:20","slug":"mihaela-sofronea-green-group-trust-no-longer-comes-from-what-a-brand-says-but-from-what-it-can-actually-show","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/2026\/05\/08\/mihaela-sofronea-green-group-trust-no-longer-comes-from-what-a-brand-says-but-from-what-it-can-actually-show\/","title":{"rendered":"Mihaela Sofronea, Green Group: \u201cTrust no longer comes from what a brand says, but from what it can actually show\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Architects of Perception and Trust | Editorial Series by Sustainability Today<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn recent years, sustainability communication has been flooded with greenwashing messages. \u201cCircular economy\u201d, \u201ccare for the environment\u201d, \u201csustainability\u201d, \u201cgreen future\u201d, we all use them, but very few can show what happens behind these words. This has created a high level of scepticism toward environmental communication, not toward the idea itself, but toward the way it is communicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this is where the real shift happened: it is no longer enough to say what you want to stand for. You must show what you actually do,\u201d Mihaela Sofronea, Communications Director, Green Group told Sustainability Today.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe brands that will succeed will not just build visibility; they will build relationships. And relationships come from a simple place: understanding. When someone outside your organization truly understands what you do and why, they don\u2019t just notice you, they begin to trust you. And trust is built over years, not through campaigns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How would you describe the biggest changes in brand communication over the past years?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most visible change I\u2019ve experienced directly is that people have stopped believing in promises and started asking for proof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent years, sustainability communication has been flooded with greenwashing messages. \u201cCircular economy\u201d, \u201ccare for the environment\u201d, \u201csustainability\u201d, \u201cgreen future\u201d, we all use them, but very few can show what happens behind these words. This has created a high level of scepticism toward environmental communication, not toward the idea itself, but toward the way it is communicated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think this is where the real shift happened: it is no longer enough to say what you want to stand for. You must show what you actually do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What do you believe will define successful brand communication strategies in 2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Creativity still differentiates. But it can no longer sustain a brand on its own. I believe in the ability to build trust, not just visibility. And that is harder than it seems, because it requires having a reality worth communicating before you communicate it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The brands that will succeed will not just build visibility; they will build relationships. And relationships come from a simple place: understanding. When someone outside your organization truly understands what you do and why, they don\u2019t just notice you, they begin to trust you. And trust is built over years, not through campaigns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In your opinion, how has consumer trust toward brands evolved recently?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the past, trust was almost implicit. If a brand was large and visible, there was a baseline level of acceptance. Today, that baseline has significantly decreased. Audiences are more informed, more attentive, and more sensitive to inconsistencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our industry, this shift is even more visible. The more sustainability has been communicated, the greater the need for clarity and concrete proof has become.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this context, trust no longer comes from what a brand says, but from what it can actually show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What are the top three priorities for brand communication teams in 2026?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The priority is operational credibility. Every external message must have a real counterpart internally. Communication teams should not build messages in parallel with the business, but together with it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second is market education. Communication can no longer focus only on promoting the brand, it has to raise the level of understanding across the entire industry. When people understand how things work, whether it\u2019s recycling or any other system, the long-term value is shared by everyone, not just the brand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third is timing. Communication can no longer come in at the end just to \u201cpackage\u201d a decision. At that point, the space for influence is minimal. Real value appears when communication is in the room from the beginning, when decisions are being shaped, not just explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How should communication teams demonstrate their value to business leadership?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Through impact. Not necessarily through how many articles were published or how many posts were created, but through the moments where communication influences something tangible: a decision, a relationship, or a situation that could have escalated but didn\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communication plays a dual role, often invisible: it protects and it enables. It protects in sensitive moments and creates opportunities in moments of growth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But for this to be understood, it has to be expressed in the language of business, not the language of communication.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Which communication channels are currently the most effective for building brand equity?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve stopped asking which channel is the best, when is the golden hour, because there is no universal answer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Different contexts require different types of interaction. What matters is consistency, that the same reality is translated in a relevant way across all channels.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But from experience, the most powerful remains direct contact. The moment when someone sees, understands, and forms their own conclusion. That\u2019s when communication stops being something you see and becomes something you experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What initially attracted you to a career in communication?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was drawn to the idea that you can make something visible that is important, but hard to see. There are processes, industries, and systems that sustain the way our world works, but remain invisible to most people. For me, communication is the bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recycling is a perfect example. The processes that turn waste into resources are real, they run 24\/7, and yet for most people they remain abstract or almost non-existent. That\u2019s where communication becomes essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve never been interested in selling a message. I\u2019m interested in making reality understood. That difference felt fundamental then, and it still does now, after 15 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is the biggest lesson you’ve learned working in communication?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the beginning, I believed that doing things well would be enough that the value would speak for itself. In reality,  every function in an organization speaks a different language: operations measure efficiency, sales measure contracts, leadership measures results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communication becomes relevant only when you can translate its value into those terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real shift happened when I stopped trying to explain communication and started demonstrating it, through decisions, results, and especially in sensitive moments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, the lesson is simple: credibility is not requested, it is built, until it no longer needs to be explained.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What keeps you inspired in your everyday job?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m drawn to tangible things, the technical side, the processes, what happens beyond the surface. I\u2019m not just in a nice office. I\u2019m in the middle of operations where things actually happen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s where I see the \u201dmagic\u201d,  not as a metaphor, but as reality, in the way things transform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s a rare privilege in communication. I get to communicate something I can see, understand, and explain further, things that, put together, genuinely change how the world around us works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you could change one aspect of communication today, what would it be?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s a clear pattern today: big messages, aspirational language, ambitious commitments about the future. They all sound similar, feel safe and in the end, they don\u2019t differentiate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I would like to see more of is ownership. Saying exactly what you do, instead of staying in generalities. That\u2019s difficult, because it requires organizational courage, not just communication skills. But it\u2019s also the only way to build something real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beyond any strategy, you need to show<\/strong>, not just say, to be understood<\/strong>, not just visible and stay consistent<\/strong>, even when results are not immediately visible<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Architects of Perception and Trust | Editorial Series by Sustainability Today \u201cIn recent years, sustainability communication has been flooded with greenwashing messages. \u201cCircular economy\u201d, \u201ccare for the environment\u201d, \u201csustainability\u201d, \u201cgreen future\u201d, we all use them, but very few can show what happens behind these words. This has created a high level of scepticism toward […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5162,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5161","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-interviews"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5161"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5163,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5161\/revisions\/5163"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sustainability-today.ro\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}