I noticed a recent promotion where The Energy Saving Trust and the Imperial War Museum have teamed up to promote the ‘Wartime Spirit Campaign’ to encourage people to learn from the past how to reduce waste and save energy.

It all sounds very idealistic but as a nation we’re so institutionalised in luxury and the satisfying of all our immediate desires and wants that any lesser existence would seem inconceivable.

Personally I would love to grow my own vegetables but without land and being time poor it seems like an alien concept and very idealistic. Certainly this is the case whilst living in the inner sanctum of the urban metropolis where open space is a premium to say the least.

Philip Sellwood, chief executive of the Energy Saving Trust, said: “We are certainly not advocating a return to rationing or indeed enforced personal daily allowances. However if we could adopt just a few of the practices used during the war, such as recycling bath water for watering plants, then it would go a long way towards saving energy and reducing our carbon footprint.” I do quite like the idea of using the bath water on the plants although capturing the water from the shower might prove a little more difficult. I can’t in fact remember the last time I had a bath but I guess a lot of people still do. However,  I do remember fondly sharing baths with my siblings whist growing up to save on energy and time. In fact I know sharing a bath is one of the hot tips in the ‘We Are What We Do’ series of tips, although preferably with someone you love. See http://www.wearewhatwedo.org/actiontracker/action.php?action=8

Interestingly, research conducted by the Energy Saving Trust – which provides free advice to consumers on reducing their carbon emissions and works with retailers, builders and industry to increase the availability of energy efficient products – suggests the British public might not be averse to a bit of enforced frugality. I think the recession is fast forwarding this situation as a matter of necessity and that’s probably what people need to influence their behaviour patterns.

As part of the joint campaign, the Imperial War Museum has put together a number of examples of how wartime initiatives can be adapted for the modern world, including ‘make do and mend’, ‘is your journey really necessary?’ and ‘save fuel for battle’.

From a marketing point of view it’s fascinating to see the language used and the call to actions used in these advertising campaigns during the war prior to mass market communications and the overload of insidious messages we experience today through spam. I wonder how effective these posters were in engaging people and contributing to behaviour change compared to today’s multi-million pound integrated campaigns?

ACT - Advertising Community Together is a non-profit association that showcases ads on social, environmental and sustainable development accessible on its website. They also produce a worldwide touring exhibition shown at public and professional events, conferences and debates within the communication industry. Its goal is to promote and inspire responsible communication on sustainability, equitable development and social responsibility. ACT shows how advertising professionals from all continents can use their core talent - creativity - to play a significant role in addressing today’s crucial world issues.

They are preparing a new exhibition that will be premiered in Cannes 20-26 June 2009 before starting its annual world tour. It illustrates the main issues of Sustainable Development from the environmental to the social and demonstrates the power of “creativity” on today’s crucial issues.

They are gathering worldwide ads about sustainable development themes :

- Environnemental Ads: Visual communication examples regarding environmental areas, such as Water Preservation, Climate Change, Biodiversity and natural areas Protection, Desertification, Renewable Energies…
- Social Ads: Visual illustrations on subjects such as Solidarity, Human Rights, Childhood Protection, Poverty, Education, Sanitation, Racism…and also Alcohol Abuse, Drug Addiction, Personal Health, Road Safety, Obesity Prevention, Organ Donation,..

Why become part of the ACT Exhibition?

- After 7 years, ACT is now well known by the Advertising Community as a key player in Communication and Sustainable Development topics.
- Be part of a great Worldtour of Exhibitions including Cannes 2009. Since Cannes 2008, The Expo has been seen in over 10 locations around the world including the NY Advertising Week, EACA Euro Effies, Golden Drum, IAA and more.

See www.act-responsible.org

Companies will face tougher tests when advertising their green credentials, under proposals released recently.

The Committee of Advertising Practice, the industry’s self-regulator, proposes to expand the environmental and social responsibility sections of the broadcast advertising code, to “prevent marketers from exaggerating the environmental benefits of their products”.

The clampdown on greenwashing is part of a wider consultation into the first major changes to the advertising code in eight years.

CAP’s proposed new rules require green advertising on television to be based on the full life cycle of the advertised product or service. It also will use general principles rather than specific rules, which it says could quickly become outdated.

“Absolute claims must be supported by a high level of substantiation,” the proposed rules say, although comparative terms such as “greener” may be allowed in some circumstances.

“It provides a catchall for the unintended and the unexpected,” said Andrew Brown, chairman of CAP and BCAP, the broadcast committee.

Complaints about greenwashing have risen sharply, reflecting the increased popularity of environmental claims in advertisements. In 2006, the Advertising Standards Authority received approximately 117 complaints about 83 advertisements, rising to 561 complaints about 410 advertisements in 2007.

Environmental claims have become a “new form of competitive language for advertisers”, requiring tighter rules that provide “less excuse through ignorance and obfuscation”, said Mr Brown.

David Norman, director of campaigns at WWF UK, whose complaint against an advertisement by Royal Dutch Shell last year was upheld by the ASA, gave the change in rules a cautious welcome.

“WWF would say certainly it sounds like a good move to strengthen regulations so that those companies who do have genuine investments in green technology and answers to climate change are rewarded for that, rather than the companies who invest in marketing.”

Mr Brown said that in general, the review of advertising rules – the first to revise broadcast and general advertising codes simultaneously in their 50-year history – was designed to help broadcasters and advertisers adapt to an increasingly fragmented media landscape.

The new rules are expected to come into force next year.

IFAW recently scooped Sustain Magazines Business & Society Award for Communication for the Adopt a Humpback Campaign that GREEN produced.

The overall aim of this campaign was to stop Japanese whalers from carrying out their threat to kill humpback whales in a sanctuary in Antarctica. By “adopting” named whales for all UK MPs, we hoped to engage and motivate them to do all they could to deter Japan from killing these 50 humpbacks – a vulnerable species decimated by whaling in the last century.

One of IFAW’s key international campaigns is to end commercial or so-called “scientific” whaling and protect whales. We hoped MPs would support IFAW’s work and continue lobbying against whaling at the annual International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting.

The overall campaign objective behind the Adopt a Humpback project was achieved, as a few weeks after the campaign was launched, Japan announced that it would not kill any humpback whales during the 2007/early 2008 whaling season in Antarctica’s Southern Ocean Sanctuary. While this may yet turn out to be only a temporary reprieve for these whales (at the time Japan pledged only that it would not take any humpbacks before the 2008 IWC meeting in June), there has been no clear indication since as to when Japan intends to resume the hunt for these whales.

In August 2008, IFAW welcomed the news that the status of humpback whales on the world’s Red List of endangered species has been moved from “vulnerable” to “least concern” after the population made a considerable recovery since the moratorium on commercial whaling came into effect in 1986.

Another aim of the campaign, to engage and motivate MPs to protect the humpbacks and to be active on the whaling issue generally, was also achieved. 154 MPs responded to the adoption pack, with 63 attending the photo call and a further 91 requesting press releases so they could highlight the issue with their local and regional media despite not being able to attend the photo call. Many MPs also used a follow-up press release revealing that the humpbacks were no longer being targeted. More than 100 newspaper stories appeared on the MP humpback adoption campaign, as well as a small amount of radio coverage. In addition, many MPs responded to our request to write to the Foreign Secretary and the Japanese Ambassador on the issue.

The next time we needed MPs to be really active on the whaling issue – in the run-up to this year’s IWC meeting – we sent another eye-catching mailing. This one was designed to build on the interest from the humpback adoption and encourage MPs to write to countries we feared may vote with the pro-whalers in favour of overturning the ban on commercial whaling.

To make this issue as interesting as possible, as well as being informative, we sent them another foldout pack with a teaser message. The outside read “one person” and as it was folded out continued with “influencing one minister”, “can swing one vote”, eventually showing a map of the world with pro-whaling nations, anti-whaling nations and others. It urged MPs to target five countries in particular, and to push for the creation of a new whale sanctuary in the South Atlantic.

Campaign recognition surveys of MPs have shown widespread recognition of IFAW’s Adopt a Humpback campaign and also indicated whaling was one of the issues they received most correspondence about from constituents. In previous years, MPs had told us whaling was not an issue which their constituents often raised with them.

In a meeting with Marine Minister Jonathan Shaw MP prior to this year’s IWC meeting, he said he had received representations from 250 MPs on the issue. To keep MPs interested and active on whaling we intend to keep sending them personalised updates on their whales as and when sightings occur.

It clear now the word ‘sustainability’ has become embedded in our daily language however we should avoid overusing it and brandishing it around like a new toy. It reminds me of the marketing jargon from previous years like CRM (Customer Relationship Management) once the buzzword of the  marketing community in the early 90’s. Clearly I’m showing my age. I think some have labelled the misuse of the word ‘sustainability’ and all things green as ‘middle class environmentalism’ in overdrive. I think even with the huge media frenzy around climate issues and brands jumping on the bandwagon your average Joe Bloggs in the street still doesn’t have much more of an idea of what gas causes global warming, whether Kyoto ever happened or what exactly what a Greenhouse gas is. From a marketing perspective we ‘ve got to think very hard about the use of language and imagery. I’m not sure the ‘carbon footprint’ graphical device has really translated well into public consciousness even though it’s widely  overused to illustrate what our Carbon usage is. It’s amazing how quickly a communications idea can become adopted and then becomes the symbolic representation of global problem even though alot of people would probable struggle to articulate its meaning. This is the communications challenge and we should regularly assess the effectiveness and understanding of the target market rather then adopt accepted buzzwords before rolling out national campaigns. I wonder how well the carbon footprint translates across different religious and cultural identities? 

The third Green Awards have culminated at the Brewery, London with the winners of 13 categories and the overall ‘Grand-prix’ winner being announced. Initiated to reward businesses for communicating sustainability in a creative and original way, the awards emphasise the role that needs to be played by the marketing and communications industries in informing people about green issues, products and lifestyle choices.

The evening was enlivened by rousing speeches from Climate Change Co-ordinator from the United Nations Environment Programme, Mr Kaveh Zahedi, Friends of the Earth Chair Simon Counsell and Baroness Peta Buscombe, Chief Executive of the Advertising Association.

The Grand Prix rewards the campaign which, in the opinion of the expert judging panel, best exemplified an outstanding environmental message, and had the greatest sustainable impact. This accolade went to Nokia for their ‘Power of We’ for their corporate employee engagement programme.

The judges were impressed by the results of the campaign: 73% of worldwide employees are aware of their environmental initiatives, over 1200 environmental champions have signed up with the target of a further 1000 in the next 3 months – with employees making over 4000 pledges with the number growing every day.It was agreed the campaign was a really engaging way of getting employees on board – it really was very practically based, anybody could do it, it wasn’t preachy and it seemed to be doing the business. Less a green campaign than an entire organisational cultural shift.
 
Other notable winners included Green Thing ‘Walk the Walk’ for Best Green Digital and the We Want Tap Campaign for Best Green Integrated under £50,000 Budget.

According to Baroness Peta Buscombe, Chief Executive, The Advertising Association “The Awards demonstrate our industry’s commitment to promoting positive environmental change. The environment is an issue where we are all looking for solutions, it is important to ours and future generations and is one in which the communications industry can play a powerful role.”

Two new categories were introduced in 2008. Best Green Campaigner and Best Green International Campaign. Nick Nuttall, Spokesperson to the Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and Head of Media commented “The marketing industry is both part of the problem but also a big part of the solution to the challenge of climate change and the wider sustainability challenges facing over six billion people. UNEP is delighted that the Green Awards is evolving from its solid base in the UK to inspire creativity and campaigning globally by attracting entrants from all of the world”.

- ENDS  -

Editor’s Notes: All winners and commendations.

Best Outdoor Advertisement (under £50,000)
sponsored by Clear Channel Outdoor

International Fund for Animal Welfare: IFAW on the Underground

Best Outdoor Advertisement (over £50,000)
sponsored by Clear Channel Outdoor

Coca-Cola Great Britain: Talent From Trash

Best Press (no budget split)

CLG and COI: COI Energy Efficiency Check-up

Best Direct Mail (no budget split)
sponsored by Guardian Direct Marketing

International Fund for Animal Welfare: MP Humpback Adoption Campaign

Best Radio (no winner)

Gcap Media - Commended

Best Green Digital (No budget split)
sponsored by Propel Earth

Green Thing: Walk the walk

Best Internal Communications (under £50,000)
sponsored by B.sustainable

Punch Taverns: How big is your Carbon Footprint?’

Best Internal Communications (over £50,000)
sponsored by B.sustainable

Nokia: The power of We

Best Audiovisual (under £50,000)
sponsored by ITN Source.

BDH and the Soil Association: One Planet Food

Best Audio-visual (over £50,000)
sponsored by ITN Source

DEFRA: ACT ON CO2, Save Money, Save Energy Campaign

Best International Campaign (no budget split)

Romanian National Water Administration: Let’s keep the waters clean
 
UNEP and UITP: The Voice of Reason (Age 6)

mtc touch, Lebanon - Commendation

Best Campaigner (no budget split)
sponsored by Media Training Masterclasses

Batteryrecycling-uk.co.uk

Neil Jennings Associates Community Interest Company - Commendation

Best Packaging (under £50,000)
sponsored by ASDA.

Lush: Squeaky Green Shampoo Bar

Angus Soft Fruits & Adare - Commendation

Best Packaging (over £50,000)
sponsored by ASDA

Cadbury: Cadbury Eco-Eggs

Best Website, (under £50,000)

Friends of the Earth: The Big Ask

Best Website (over £50,000)

Largeblue: green.tv

Best PR (under £50,000)
sponsored by Planet 2050, Weber Shandwick’s

United Utilities Plc: Tap Into Water

Best PR (over £50,000) - No winner

Best Integrated (under £50,000)

We Want Tap: Tap
 
For more information, visit www.greenawards.co.uk  or contact: Green Awards Team: + 44 (0) 207 6085220

It was really refreshing to see the entries arriving in for this years Green Awards. One of the exciting aspects of Climate Change if I can be positive about such a negative is the opportunities for brands to innovate in their product ranges and for new companies to emerge with niche offerings that might become fairly mainstream in time.

The funniest entry for me this year which is one that actually didn’t make it in time for the deadline but is still worthy of mention - the Skooperbox. The Skooperbox Dog ‘Scoop’ Box is an alternative to plastic bags for all you Dog owners. Made of 100% recycled paper which is 100% biodegradable it demonstrates that companies have real opportunities to review every aspect of our busy lives to find truly alternative ways to make a difference.

Your one stop shop for the sustainability addled rantings of a group of communications consultants trying to change the face of change.