Our house is on fire: The heat waves that hit Europe this Summer broke world
records, Greenland's ice has melted at a rate scientists didn't expect to see
until 2070, and the fires raging across the
Amazon
right now strike a further blow to our environment’s wellbeing.
Time is running out, and solving our climate crisis requires commitment from all
sectors of society, including the creative industries.
In July, change agency Futerra built on
the #creativesforclimate movement and launched
the Creative Climate
Disclosure. Now, on September 18th, creative agency The
Humblebrag will launch the Creatives for
Climate Summit, bringing
together key stakeholders within the Dutch advertising and marketing industry to
create a collective plan of action.
With talks from climate activist group Extinction
Rebellion, activist brand Patagonia and former
advertising-executive-turned-brand-activist Mark Aink, among others, this
event will open a dialogue on the climate emergency and the creative industry's
potential to limit further
damage.
And it will close with a clear, collective call to action that all players can
implement.
“The scale of this crisis is so large that we need radical systems change and
collaboration between business leaders across all sectors — like we’ve never
seen before,” says The Humblebrag founder Lucy von Sturmer. “I started The
Humblebrag with the mission to inspire and support business leaders to take a
stand on social, cultural and environmental issues. While I’ve been dedicated to
championing business as a force for good; I see the limits. Hence the need to
organize this summit. Extinction Rebellion’s message needs to be heard by the
creative industry — those that have the power to inform and shape minds.”
The creative industry has the power, influence and skillset to inspire action
and come up with new solutions. This is why Extinction Rebellion directly
called on the
industry
to step up to the challenge in the Guardian earlier this year, and continues
to do so — more recently at the Cannes
Lions
in June.
“Marketers, creatives, strategists and designers are in a unique position — we
have the ideas and the tools to mobilize citizens in defense of the planet,”
says Alex Weller, EMEA Marketing Director at Patagonia. “As a professional
community, we must take action; and the time is now.”
The Creatives for Climate summit is the latest in a growing wave of efforts to use the power of the creative industry to nudge consumers toward more sustainable behaviors and
lifestyles. In 2018, here in the US, 17 of New York’s top marketing, advertising and
communications agencies partnered with leading climate scientists and nonprofits
under the name Potential Energy, to harness consumer insights and creativity to motivate urgent and collective
action to address climate change, starting with Gen
Z —
an estimated 17 million soon-to-be-voters citing a deep passion for climate
change and other societal issues. Then, in June, a group of leading consumer brands — The
Estee Lauder Companies, Happy Family Organics, Heineken USA, Johnson
& Johnson, Keurig Dr Pepper, National Geographic, Procter &
Gamble, Target and Veocel — launched the Brands for
Good movement, a collaborative with the goal of transforming the field of marketing by shifting consumer behaviours at scale and making sustainable lifestyles more aspirational and rewarding, thereby driving positive impact for people and planet.
While momentum like this is encouraging, greater collective engagement and mobilization are needed to drive the necessary change. The scale of the crisis might make it easy for brands and businesses to
believe themselves inept at making an impact — according to the Carbon Majors
Report,
only 100 companies are responsible for 71 percent of the world’s carbon
emissions — but initiatives such as Brands for Good and the Creatives for Climate Summit are an invitation for the industry
to be part of the solution.
Linda Moerland, Extinction Rebellion The Netherlands, said: “Scientists have
confirmed we are in the sixth-mass extinction of Planet Earth. Today, CO2 levels
are the highest they have been for millions of years and this is causing more
frequent, prolonged and severe wildfires, droughts, and tropical storms. Many
cities in the Netherlands are below sea level. Historically, the Netherlands has
been successful in managing this, but we are grossly unprepared for the 1-3m
rise in sea level expected to materialize by 2100.
“We, too, will face an existential threat. I believe the creative industry can
lead the way in telling the Dutch public The Truth, something we desperately
need in the context of the climate crisis.”
Event information
Wednesday September 18
18.15 - 21.00
Patagonia HQ Amsterdam
Email for more information: [email protected].
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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 Aug 30, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST