Using its trademark alternative approach, ad agency TBWA is applying ‘disruptive ideas' to turn businesses and consumers on to greater environmental awareness
When the UK government announced a plan to reduce the net UK carbon account by 60% by 2050 it also set up a joint parliamentary committee on climate change to determine the feasibility of this target. The committee's response, published a couple of months ago, found that this target was not adequate if we are to prevent global temperatures rising above "dangerous levels". Whatever target we do work towards, it is clear that we, the consumers and corporations, are going to have to radically change what we do.
Sir Nicholas Stern, whose government review on the economics of climate change received wide media coverage last year, came to the agency in September to articulate the nature and scale of the problem, and to point out ‘the consequences of irresponsibility' - and it's scary stuff, even to the most hard-nosed among us. He made the point that growth and sustainability can be bedfellows, and that the challenge to us is not to stop promoting consumption but rather to change the nature of what we consume.
This won't be achieved merely by making sustainability a moral imperative. Being ‘good' is not a sufficient incentive to people, or to profit-hungry corporations. Being told to be good carries an attitude of stick rather than carrot. This should be turned on its head, with thought given to the questions: who are the stakeholders, and how can we tailor the message appropriately?
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