Business as a force for good is not a “nice concept” for “good brands” — it’s a
necessary shift if we are going to save our planet. If this altruistic fact
isn’t enough to convince you to start taking action, consider your bottom line:
This is what consumers (otherwise known as people) are calling for.
There’s no business on a dead planet.
A recent open
letter
addressed from Extinction Rebellion to the
advertising industry reads:
“If you don’t make this change, consumers will insist you do. Look at the
streets of London in the last month. People are beginning to see where the
problems lie, and soon they will see you.”
Two years ago, I left my job and founded The
Humblebrag, with the mandate to support and
amplify the voices of change-makers. I wanted to support companies to understand
why they should take a bold stance on societal issues, and support business
leaders to amplify their voice.
The business case for doing good
Speaking to a room full of creatives in 2017.
As I’ve moved away from my niche — and found myself in bigger and bigger
boardrooms — I’ve been called on to fight harder to prove the business case for
purpose. To appeal to the skeptics (of which, surprisingly, there are still
many), I usually outline insights such as:
But this line of reasoning is no longer enough. More than “young people care
about this planet, and form their opinions about your brand based on your
actions and views,” the time has come to be bolder and braver, and call it as it
is. As Extinction Rebellion state in their letter to the advertising industry:
“You have an extraordinary moment to be on the right side of history. That’s
not something that can get postponed to Q3. It needs action right now."
The Creative Climate Disclosure
Image credit: The Creative Climate Disclosure
This week, this industry responded. Signifying a bold move away from
conversations around “purpose” to activism, change agency Futerra built on the
#creativesforclimate
movement
and launched the Creative Climate
Disclosure.
I signed up, and made our agency the first in The Netherlands to join.
More than committing us to not working on any fossil fuel briefs — and disclose
income based on industry and high-carbon clients — it sends a message to all,
and this industry in particular, that we too declare a climate crisis and
commit our creativity to this
cause.
This is not the time to brag — it’s the time to be humble. Collective action is
what we need to spur meaningful change, and this means joining forces. It means
supporting already established movements such as B
Corp, and joining initiatives such as
#CreativesforClimate and signing this commitment.
The role of the private sector
Business as a force for good is not a “nice concept” for “good brands”; it’s the
responsibility of the private sector. People often mutter that governments and
civil society should be “doing more” — having worked in NGOs and then deep in
the world of sustainability, I’ve seen firsthand the limits of both to drive
change.
Money is power, and the private sector is an incredibly powerful force that has
to take responsibility if we are going to tackle this challenge. As Xavier Rees,
CEO of Havas London — the first advertising agency to become a certified B
Corp — told
me:
“Quite frankly, this is about businesses taking responsibility for what they do
and who they are. Yes, governments have a key role to play in improving society,
but so too does the private sector.”
Declaring an emergency
Extinction Rebellion have made it clear that one-off initiatives, CSR, pro-bono
work or planting trees is not going to be enough. The letter reads:
“No, making a small campaign to give up drinking from plastic
straws
is not going to cut it. Neither is doing some pro-bono for an anti-palm oil
initiative. Here’s the thing you can do: Declare a climate & ecological
emergency and act accordingly. Persuade your clients and their audiences to do
the same.”
In the few days since the Creative Climate Disclosure has been signed, criticism
has already mounted saying ‘it’s not good enough.’ Ed Gillespie, author of
Only
Planet,
called it “baby steps” and wrote in The
Ecologist
that “we need to go further and confront our obsession with economic growth.”
And he’s not wrong.
A report from the IPCC has already confirmed humanity's probable
failure to stop warming short of the 1.5 degree
Celsius threshold. A report from
May
outlines that one million species are on track to go extinct due to human-caused
environmental degradation. And still more new
research
predicts that by 2050, London will have a climate similar to that of
Barcelona today, Seattle will feel like San Francisco, and
Madrid will feel like Marrakech.
While it may only be “baby steps,” we need more actors to join us in taking
them. Because, as Gillespie points out, “Business as usual is not an option;
it’s a collective death sentence.”
Commit your creativity to ‘the biggest brief’ this sector has ever known. Join
us: https://www.creativeandclimate.com.
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Lucy von Sturmer is founder of global non-profit Creatives for Climate — a network of 40,000 professionals driving climate action at work — and CEO of award-winning communications consultancy The Humblebrag.
Published Jul 12, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST