D&AD Branding & Environmental Issues Forum

Snippets from a D&AD lecture on sustainability in March 2007…

The questions posed were:

How do brands and agencies communicate to people in an environmentally friendly way whilst maintaining sales?

Would brands be better off spending their money on actually helping the environment and not wasting it telling people they help the environment? Whose responsibility is it to push sustainability up the corporate agenda?

The bag is not produced in a sustainable way and is made from non-organic cotton. It’s fun and maybe a little superficial but that’s exactly the kind of thing that might infect the popular imagination and create different behaviour, and certainly debate about the wasteful stupidity of plastic bags.

Walkit.com is a routefinding website for pedestrians in London, it also shows you how many calories you’ve burned, distance travelled and C02 emissions saved by not taking a car, taxi or bus.

Greenpeace campaign ‘BA’s answer to climate change’. In 5 years time business air travel will be as unacceptable as wearing fur…

Marks & Spencer announces “Plan A”, a business-wide £200m “eco-plan” which will have an impact on every part of M&S’ operations over the next five years. The 100 point plan means that by 2012 M&S will become carbon neutral, send no waste to landfill, extend sustainable sourcing and set new standards in ethical trading. This will have a knock-on effect on other retailers as M&S raises the standards that consumers expect major retailers to adhere to.

Wardrobes by Howies, idea created by Carter Wong Tomlin. Gave wardrobes to different artists and illustrators to get creative with on subject of junk mail, food miles, fish farms, brand power, GM food or sparrows. Cost about £2,500 in total for second hand wardrobes. Wardrobes then went into shops and became an award winning point of sale promotion. Artists included Ian Wright and Marion Deuchars.

“As a brand you need to tell people your issues in a way that charms them.”