As marketers, advertisers and comms professionals, we’re in a powerful position. We can influence people’s behaviour through imagery, words and design. Together we can inspire and support people to make sustainable choices.
Sometimes we’re the ones responsible for putting up barriers to green living in the first place – let’s tear them down (and then recycle them responsibly)!
“Saving our planet is now a communications challenge.”
Sir David Attenborough
Our industry can have a big impact on people’s behaviour, as Ad Net Zero’s Dr Bill Wescott explained:
“While advertising itself only directly accounts for around 2% of the world’s emissions, advertising has an outsized impact on the other 98% – and is therefore responsible for enabling the shift in behaviour change the world so urgently needs.”
Promote sustainable lifestyles
- Normalise sustainable behaviours and lifestyles in comms. Show people walking, cycling and taking public transport. Drinking from reusable coffee cups and recycling. Taking short showers, keeping the heating low, turning the lights off as they leave a room. Living in homes with heat pumps, solar panels and electric cars…
- Make it easy for people to make sustainable choices. For example, when offering delivery options for consumer goods online, list the slowest postal option first, with the fastest and carbon-hungriest delivery option last. When listing travel directions, put car-free options first (train, bus, bike and foot) and driving directions last.
Build a culture of sustainability at work
Greening your workplace is good for the environment, but it’s also a powerful recruitment and retention tool. The majority of Gen Zs (69%) and millennials (73%) are making changes to their lifestyles to minimise their impact on the environment. They want to see action from employers, too.
- More than half of both Gen Zs and millennials research a company’s environmental credentials before accepting a job from them
- 25% of Gen Zs and 23% of millennials say they plan to change jobs due to climate concerns.
How you can help
- Make sustainability KPIs part of every communication brief and project evaluation
- Set environmental objectives as part of appraisal and bonus schemes
- Ask your suppliers, partners, clients and agencies what they’re doing for the planet
- Look at your company’s use of data – around 65% of data that’s stored is only used once, if at all. Data that’s stored-then-ignored is estimated to generate over 5.8 million tonnes of CO₂ every year
- Organise activities and events for colleagues to mark Digital Cleanup Day
- Switch work mobiles to ecotalk. The mobile provider is powered by green energy and uses profits to help nature
- For every £10 you put in your pension, £2 is linked to deforestation. Ask your employer to provide an ethical pension
- Use the Climate Solutions at Work guide to see whether your company is doing enough to address the climate crisis. Get ideas of how everyone can help, no matter what their job title
- Share this guide.