Our top 21 environmental campaigns of 2021
Greenhouse
It has been an extraordinary year. From August’s landmark IPCC report to November’s COP26 summit in Glasgow, 2021 was a tipping point for the climate crisis. And at Greenhouse Communications, we believe wholeheartedly in driving positive social and environmental change that will have true impact on a fight for the planet that is more urgent than ever. The time to act is now.
We’re proud of delivering impactful and ambitious campaigns for all our clients – campaigns that deliver real social change, amplify the voices of those most at risk from the crisis, help create conversations, and expose those that are still working against the planet, not for it.
We call out greenwashing and demand climate justice. We focus on communications to accelerate action at scale. We put purpose above profit and only say yes to clients that create positive social and environmental impact. And in 2022, we’ll do it all again – working harder, faster, bigger, better, brighter, bolder, to ensure marginalised voices are always represented, to put pressure on governments, decision makers and business to do the right thing (and not just be seen to do the right thing), and to keep 1.5°C alive.
But first, let’s look back at 2021. With thanks to our incredible clients, here are our highlights – 21 brilliant campaigns for 2021:
Reaching global climate goals requires innovation on a huge scale this decade to make clean energy technologies affordable and accessible for all. Mission Innovation – the coalition of 22 governments and the EC – wanted to ensure that innovation was seen as a crucial lever of change at COP26, to drive collaboration, investment and action. Greenhouse devised a multi-platform communications campaign to launch Mission Innovation campaign on breakthroughs, from strategic message framework to a hero film broadcast at COP26 events, to global media engagement, inputting world leaders' speeches and media, for each new mission.
Global media campaign with 394 articles, including BBC, Forbes and Reuters, plus broadcast interviews with Sky and CNBC, reaching a combined audience of 1.88 billion, with 2.47 million views across 18 countries. Across digital achieved a 789% increase in profile visits, 2,255% increase in engagements and up to 41% increase in followers, with over 138,300 views of the hero film. Mission Innovation messaging was also included in at least five speeches and media releases by world leaders. Mission Innovation and its key message on the importance of collaboration and innovation was highlighted by world leaders throughout COP26 as a key lever of change this decade. The campaign demonstrated vision and commitment to clean energy innovation and cemented partnerships with global NGOs and private sector leaders, achieving significant momentum to 2022.
“Thanks to the support of Greenhouse, we were able to make the case for clean energy innovation throughout COP26. Their tireless efforts integrated Mission Innovation with world leaders, governments and climate influencers, helping cut through the noise at a critical moment in climate diplomacy. Discussions on innovation and technology to reduce carbon emissions were embedded throughout COP for the first time, and Greenhouse were essential to maximising that impact.”
Dr Jennie Dodson
Head Mission Innovation Secretariat
The science is clear: if we are to ensure the future of humanity on this planet, we must all enable the halving of global emissions within this decade and reach net zero by 2050. However, most companies in the world’s major economies are failing to make climate pledges that can be measured against meaningful yardsticks, such as the 1.5°C temperature goal set at the Paris Agreement. Greenhouse supported the launch of SBTi’s data factsheet, which found that although growing numbers of companies in the G20 are setting climate targets, only 20% align with climate science. We compiled a data table which applauded companies from the best-performing countries, and encouraged those in the worst-performing countries to step up. It revealed that some of the world's heaviest emitters – such as Indonesia, Russia and Saudi Arabia – do not contain a single company to have submitted an approved science-based target.
We secured over 80 media articles worldwide in 13 G20 countries. Top news agencies Bloomberg, IANS (India), EFE (Spain), ANSA (Italy) and AA (Turkey) spread the story far and wide, whilst key international and national media such as Forbes, BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme (UK), New York Times (US), Business Standard (India), La Vanguardia (Spain) and the Korea Herald brought the subject onto the domestic news agenda. The launch of SBTI’s research during NYC Climate Week, while world leaders were focused on climate action at the UN General Assembly, put corporate climate action under the spotlight. Much of the media attention emerged alongside coverage of leaders’ key speeches and pledges. It increased pressure on companies worldwide to align with climate science, ahead of the G20 Summit in October.
“Thanks to Greenhouse for these wonderful results and beautiful report! The team have done a fantastic job of getting this out and we’re really impressed. Incredible to see the spread of international coverage – thank you for your hard work.”
Rosie Williams
Communications Lead, SBTi
There is currently just one public-access on-street charger for every 52 EVs on UK roads. As a result, those without off-street parking or a dedicated parking space with domestic power supply – accounting for 62% of drivers – are being left behind in the EV transition. Greenhouse launched Connected Kerb’s ambitious £1.9bn plan to install 190,000 on-street EV chargers by 2030 to revolutionise access to EV charging for the tens of millions of drivers without off-street parking.
Generated almost 400 articles, viewed by more than 20 million people. Highlights include coverage in The Times, Sky News, Telegraph, Mail Online, The i, Mirror, Express, Yahoo, AOL and multiple high-value trade media titles. Connected Kerb was positioned as the leading provider of on-street EV charging overnight, with a spike in new partnership enquiries and immediate interest from multiple international institutional investors.
“The support of the Greenhouse team has been fantastic. They are totally aligned to our mission and values and the media results their work has delivered is beyond anything we have seen before. Greenhouse took the time to understand our business priorities and delivers communications that directly supports them. As a result, we've been contacted by major investors directly off the back of the media campaign Greenhouse delivered.”
Chris Pateman-Jones
Designer
The sale of all new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars will be banned from 2030. It is crucial that electric vehicle (EV) drivers are supported with reliable, accessible and affordable public charging, especially on longer journeys. Installing EV charging at UK motorways will be key to enabling an EV future. Greenhouse announced GRIDSERVE's plans to revolutionise EV charging at UK motorways through the rollout of high-powered charging hubs and Electric Forecourts® across the country. GRIDSERVE has invested tens of millions of pounds in its UK wide network of chargers representing a major boost to the countries EV infrastructure.
We generated over 200 articles, including in The Telegraph, The I, City AM, Daily Mail, BBC and ITV. The coverage reached more than 1 billion people. Created substantial awareness and positive engagement from EV drivers, as well as driving significant website traffic to GRIDSERVE's page. Following the media launch, the project was praised in an Early Day Motion by an MP in the House of Commons for recognition of the project and its impact on the UK's EV charging infrastructure.
“Greenhouse insight, advice and impact, has made a huge difference in our ability to communicate our vision and attract investment to help GRIDSERVE scale. Awesome tenacity and results achieved. Greenhouse is the best green PR agency on the planet!”
Toddington Harper
Founder and CEO, GRIDSERVE
Develop zero emissions infrastructure and systems that will enable the uptake of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts, such as cargo drones and air taxis. Greenhouse devised and delivered a communications campaign to announce the launch of Small’s Air-One, the world’s first airport and charging hub for eVTOL aircrafts, due to open in Coventry in late 2021. Urban Air Port was selected as the winner of the UK government’s Future Flight Challenge.
We delivered over 400 pieces of broadcast, national, international, trade and regional coverage and reaching over four billion people. Highlights include coverage in The Times, ITV News and World Economic Forum. The campaign sparked interest and conversation around the world about the future of transport, while positioning Urban Air Port as a key player and innovator within the urban air mobility infrastructure space.
“Greenhouse make it happen – they are professional, focused and ambitious. The results were beyond our wildest dreams, and the phones have been ringing off the hook ever since.”
Ricky Sandhu
Founder of Small
Preparing our electricity grids for an energy future with more flexibility and distributed renewable generation, while delivering a just transition for customers, is a hefty responsibility. Greenhouse helped Northern Powergrid convey how it plans to meet this responsibility by producing its business plan, detailing £3.2bn investment to enable decarbonisation across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire. Delivering the 200-page draft and final documents, Greenhouse led the production process: offering narrative support to create a clear and cohesive narrative for the complex plan, expert design and painstaking proofing. We also led a photography project to refresh image resources, produced two key supporting documents, offered narrative support for stakeholder engagement summaries, and delivered a media campaign that secured a combined readership of 22 million and 162k digital impressions.
Northern Powergrid ended a pivotal year for their future planning with a business plan that is brimming with information about how they plan to take eight million people in their region on the journey to net zero. At Greenhouse, we were immersed in every aspect of these plans being communicated in a clear, cohesive and impactful way.
The perceived difficulty of reaching net zero is often an impediment to action. Opponents of the energy transition regularly cite cost and technical infeasibility as reasons for delaying change. The truth is far more positive. Our challenge was to convey that for Wärtsilä and drive real change towards renewable energy. Greenhouse devised, developed and launched a report that demonstrates the opportunities and benefits of accelerating the transition to net zero. Utilising unique modelling and regional expertise, the report provided strong evidence to demonstrate that net zero is not just possible, but it is achievable – quicker than currently planned, for less money and using the technology already available at scale.
We delivered global media launch, which generated 155 articles, including Forbes, Der Tagesspiegel, BNAmericas and S&P Global Platts, with an estimated 204m online readership. Supported media launch with a high-impact social media campaign that drove traffic towards the bespoke landing page, designed assets and videos, producing 61,274 impressions across Twitter and LinkedIn. The launch put pressure on governments to accelerate the transition towards net zero by demonstrating the tangible impacts of a rapid shift towards renewables. The modelling helped to frame the debate around net zero at COP26 and drove a broader campaign within Wärtsilä, forming the key pillar of the communications at COP26 and beyond.
“The Greenhouse team pushed us to be bolder in our approach and really demonstrate industry leadership. The result is a genuinely innovative report that combines unique analysis from our power systems modelling with regional expertise from across the world to highlight the vast opportunities that front-loading net zero can unlock for economies. Greenhouse conceptualised the campaign and led the production and global launch of the report, working as an extension of our team to drive real impact and make the project a huge success.”
Isabelle Thibault-Ahlström
General Marketing Manager, Wärtsilä Energy
Decarbonising electricity is critical to our collective efforts to tackle the climate crisis. Rather than simply offsetting emissions, we need to work together to focus on eliminating carbon from the electricity sector entirely. That’s why Sustainable Energy for All and Google launched Go Carbon Free 24/7 – a campaign transforming global energy consumption to 100 per cent carbon-free sources by galvanising global businesses, governments, cities and other organisations to act together. Greenhouse supported the campaign with a new campaign identity, hero films, paid advertising campaign, stakeholder toolkits, campaign landing page and conducting influencer outreach.
We achieved 2.3 million impressions with our hero film seeing a 25-29% completion rate across channels, showcasing the high level of engagement from our target audience. The #GoCarbonFree campaign hashtag reached 790,000 users globally and the landing page received more than 4.5k sessions with a high 26% conversion rate. Over 50 high profile signatories have joined the energy compact, including the US government –the world's largest energy purchaser. 112 individuals from 101 organisations across seven sectors signed up to the database via the landing page including Mitsubishi Electric, General Motors, Alstom and Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure Dubai.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNOjKZEhtBE
Young people are among those who will be most impacted by decisions made today but they are also among those who lack access to these important dialogues. With this in mind, EIT Food’s ‘Our Food, Our Food System’ campaign set out to find out how young people feel about the current – and future – food system, and what urgent changes they want to see from policymakers and food sector stakeholders.
Greenhouse worked with EIT Food to send out a call for applications from young people to become ‘FutureFoodMakers.’ We also launched the Menu for Change to pan-European media outlets and across social media channels, with coverage in publications such as Dagens ETC, AgFunder and Food Navigator as well as praise from influential changemakers such as the EU Agriculture Minister, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and the European Commission’s Deputy Director General of Health and Food Safety.
Using the power of design, playful asset creation and high profile changemaker engagement, the campaign hashtag #FutureFoodMakers has been used over 700 times since the launch of the campaign’s first phase in mid 2021. Take a look at the Menu for Change launch posts on EIT Food’s Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook channels.
“You’ve made us sit up, stand up, and listen. We are all part of the solution… keep using your voices in this way; be active and be part of the change we all want to see.”
Claire Bury
Deputy Director General of Health and Food Safety, European Commission
With heightened media and public interest in sustainable agri-food systems following the UN Food Systems Summit, COP26 provided a significant opportunity to amplify the Just Rural Transition’s policy recommendations to promote fair outcomes for food producers. Greenhouse produced a comprehensive digital toolkit featuring an explainer video, infographics and other key assets to present the vision, mission, concepts and policy recommendations of the Just Rural Transition, to be showcased during the COP26 summit and beyond.
The assets were showcased at the COP26 Presidency event on Nature Day and the campaign hashtag #JustTransition2030 was delivered to an estimated 280k timelines. JRT’s posts received a total of 120k impressions, with 44k impressions on Nature Day alone. The announcement of the Policy Action Agenda was re-posted by key stakeholders including UN Special Envoy Agnes Kalibata, UK Environment Minister Rebecca Pow and the British Embassies of the Philippines, Sierra Leone and UAE. Awareness and support for a just rural transition has increased, with momentum building towards having a specific focus on a food systems transformation that advances prosperity and equitable livelihoods at COP27.
“Thank you for everything you did to help advance our mission. We are so grateful for your poise and helpfulness and expertise throughout COP26. Heroic efforts by the whole Greenhouse team.”
Christian Man
Policy Action Lead, Just Rural Transition
Lower demand for fossil fuels and decreasing prices will mean that the world's biggest oil- and gas-producing nations (or petrostates) risk collectively losing US$9 trillion over the next 20 years, threatening global economic and social stability. Greenhouse supported Carbon Tracker with the strategy and development of Beyond Petrostates, a report urging petrostate governments to urgently diversify their economies away from fossil fuels and avoid stranded assets. The report also emphasised the importance of richer nations providing the necessary climate finance to assist the economic transition towards renewable energy.
We delivered extensive global media coverage with more than 600 articles across 50 countries. Highlights included news agencies Bloomberg, AFP (France), EFE (Spain), PAP (Poland), Lusa (Portugal), ČTK (Czech Republic), IANS (India), BBC international and domestic bulletins, Financial Times, Washington Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), La Vanguardia (Spain), Economic Times (India). Media coverage reached several of the world's biggest petrostates across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, including Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. The report provided ammunition to investors and campaigners ahead of COP26, where climate finance for major petrostates and the Global South were high on the agenda.
“Carbon Tracker has worked closely with Greenhouse as our media advisor and it’s been a fun, productive and supportive relationship. The strategy of working together with a focus on framing climate risk through the lens of international investors, capturing the attention of financial media, has been a tremendous success.”
Mark Campanale
Founder & Executive Chairman, Carbon Tracker
Pensions have a huge role to play in tackling climate change, with the combined total assets of occupational pension schemes reaching £2 trillion. Yet several ex-public pension funds’ current investment portfolios are opaque and ambiguous, incompatible with net zero targets. Greenhouse provided strategic counsel and media relations support to Friends of the Earth Scotland to launch the report: Polluted Pensions? Clearing the air around UK pensions and fossil fuels. We finessed the report’s narrative and helped to strengthen media materials through additional datasets and findings, to create the strongest possible story for target UK media.
We delivered 30 pieces of media coverage in the UK and Europe, including a front-page headline print article in the Sunday Times Scotland the day before the start of COP26. Other coverage highlights included international news agency AFP, which was syndicated in French national Le Figaro, as well as POLITICO, Euronews, and regional titles The National and Edinburgh Evening News. The report reached a wide audience, consequently raising public awareness and influencing policymakers. The report reignited activity on the Divest Parliament campaign, and shortly after its release, more than 130 cross-party MPs signed a letter calling for the Parliamentary Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuels.
The UK is the second-largest oil and gas producer in Europe and provides more subsidies to the fossil fuel industry than any country in the EU. The government has a legal commitment to ‘maximising economic recovery’ (MER) of offshore oil and gas. It has refused to rule out licensing new oil and gas exploration although the International Energy Agency says no investment in new fossil fuel production is justified if the world is to limit global heating to 1.5°C. We supported Uplift in launching the Paid To Pollute campaign, taking the government to court over its oil & gas strategy. The claimants argue it is unlawful because it supports production that is only economic due to huge public subsidies; and irrational because it conflicts with the UK’s 2050 net zero target. We launched the legal claim, case permission and High Court hearing, released polling results ahead of the G7 Summit, and research showing the UK government gifted £14bn to the oil & gas industry since the Paris Agreement.
We delivered extensive UK and Scottish media coverage with more than 350 pieces in total. Highlights included articles in Reuters, The Guardian, The Observer, FT, Sky News, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Euronews, top Scottish titles The Herald, The Scotsman, The National, and an interview for claimant Mikaela Loach on BBC Radio 4. Articles were shared on social media almost 6K times. The campaign was shared on social media by Greta Thunberg, and Mikaela Loach’s campaign video received over half a million views.
“Greenhouse secured us phenomenal coverage for our media launch. We wanted to extend our deepest thanks to the entire team for all their hard work in preparing and pitching this story. It's fantastic to see that the story has had such wide reach.”
Gabriel Davalos
Head of Communications and Campaigns, Uplift
Tackling the climate crisis cannot be left to our leaders alone, civil society has a crucial role and must have their voices heard and be empowered to act. At COP26, AVAAZ sought to do so by campaigning across four themes: (1) monitoring climate disinformation; (2) increasing climate finance; (3) platforming Indigenous rights; (4) and increasing public pressure. We provided strategic media relations support to AVAAZ during the two-week COP26 period to achieve their four goals and propel their mobilisations/stunts into the media. Greenhouse gave expert counsel, managed media briefings and press conferences, coordinated spokesperson interviews and ensured global media outreach to ensure the highest quality and quantity of media coverage. We were able to coordinate and promote six separate campaigns within the two-week period.
We secured over 1,000 pieces of coverage across the two weeks and across six continents. Our coverage hit all top-tier publications, including international agencies and publications (PA, Reuters, Forbes, the New York Times), top UK outlets (Financial Times, the Guardian), broadcast (BBC, CNN, Sky News) and picture desks (Getty images, PA). Through both traditional and social media, the various mobilisations which AVAAZ organised were showcased to a global audience, bringing crucial issues such as the urgent need for climate finance for vulnerable nations, or the impact of air pollution on human health, has been brought to the attention of high-profile policy and decision-makers.
“What a wonderful team at Greenhouse – so easy to work with and they delivered such amazing results. From meeting at the first inspiring Climate Betrayal stunt by the river to placing incredible surrogates on live TV almost every day, managing the Mothers’ Press Conference, ensuring that the media attended all our stunts, communicating the key messages, and more – Greenhouse did an amazing job.”
Sarah Morrison
Senior Campaigner, AVAAZ
The COVID-19 pandemic and unfair distribution of vaccines meant that many key voices from the world’s most vulnerable communities would not be heard during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Greenhouse developed an integrated campaign to amplify ActionAid’s EarthWalk, calling on people everywhere to walk, run, cycle and wheel to demand climate justice, and collectively reach the target of covering the Earth’s circumference.
500 tweets using #EarthWalk were delivered to over five million Twitter timelines. We secured 45 pieces of broadcast and online media coverage for EarthWalk and ActionAid's spokespeople from the Global South, including interviews with Sky News, BBC Radio 4, and Euronews TV, as well as features in Forbes and The New York Times. Thousands of people across the world took part in EarthWalk, collectively marching over 43,000km. Through our digital and media amplification of EarthWalk, spokespeople from the Global South were given the opportunity to make their hopes, concerns and demands for the conference known to a global audience.
In the UK, plastic production has been forecast to grow by 60% by 2030 and to treble by 2050, yet plastics consistently make up 80% of all marine debris studied. The plastic pollution in our oceans has led to the loss of vital marine wildlife and ecosystems and it is crucial that the crisis is tackled. Greenhouse helped Surfers Against Sewage launch the UK’s biggest plastic clean up initiative, inspiring 100,000 people to clean up 10 miles of local area resulting in one million miles of blue or green space cleared by the end of 2021. Greenhouse managed a visual stunt and national media campaign to platform SAS as a leading voice on plastic pollution, increase awareness of the plastic pollution crisis and to drive the public to register.
Secured over 300 pieces of coverage across national broadcast and print outlets including BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4, Sky News, The Guardian, Daily Express, Independent, The Times, The Mirror and The Daily Telegraph, platforming SAS as a leading voice on plastic pollution. The total reach was 80.7m and articles were also shared over 1k times on social media. The launch of the Million Mile Beach Clean, and nation-wide media coverage, significantly increased the visibility of Surfers Against Sewage and the campaign. On the day itself, 841 members of the public registered to do a clean, within the first week, 575K miles had been committed to by the public.
“The results from the launch were spectacular. Greenhouse understood our mission and our aims from the start, delivering a standout media campaign which resulted in nationwide coverage and hundreds of people signing up to take part. We look forward to continuing our work with the team to keep the momentum going.”
Jack Middleton
Campaigns Manager, Surfers Against Sewage
A lack of accountability and transparency in the finance sector has resulted in top institutions investing in commodities that are fuelling deforestation, destroying one of the world’s most valuable natural resources and threatening progress on climate action. Challenge the market forces fuelling deforestation with the Forest 500 report, which assessed the largest companies in forest-risk supply chains. Media materials exposed how major financial institutions, such as BlackRock, are failing to have deforestation policies in place, and urged for legislation to hold companies accountable.
We secured interviews on Sky News and national French broadcaster France24 reaching an audience of 5M. The report was covered in eight nationals and 15 key financial trade publications such as The Independent, Tagesspiegel (Germany), BusinessGreen and The Banker. Industry leaders, including Tanya Steel, Greenpeace and the Sustainable Food Trust, shared media articles on social media. Several companies provided comments to journalists because of the report including BlackRock, Heinz and Yakult. Since the report launch, BNP Paribus has also announced a deadline of 2025 for its clients in Brazil to achieve zero deforestation and full traceability in their production and supply chains
“Greenhouse has done a great job in securing coverage for the Forest 500 report launch and reaching our target audiences. The team's feedback after launch was really valuable – it’s great to feel that they want your work to make as big an impact as possible.”
Helen Burley
Communications Lead, Global Canopy
Nature-based solutions can provide one-third of cost-effective CO2 mitigation needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2030. Despite this, nature-based solutions only receive 8% of public climate finance and are included in just 10% of climate media coverage. To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, we need to put nature at the heart of the climate conversation. Greenhouse worked with Nature4Climate to create the Nature Zone at COP26, bringing together the top nature NGOs to unite them around a core message framework, developed by Greenhouse. We coordinated and mapped all nature-related announcements and set up a press office on the ground in Glasgow, acting as the main point of contact for journalists throughout the two weeks. Throughout the conference, we placed key nature spokespeople at the forefront of media coverage, ensuring that diverse voices were heard, including those of youth activists and Indigenous Peoples.
COP26 was deemed the ‘Paris moment for forests’, with over 5000 pieces of coverage from the top 300 global news outlets mentioning nature. Issues such as deforestation were a key focus for world leaders and the unprecedented pledges made up 12% of all COP coverage across top broadcast, international and national publications. Our nature spokespeople were featured across 40 outlets, including Sky News, France24, Deutsche Welle, BBC World Service, CBC, Forbes, Financial Times and others. COP26 was the first time nature was mentioned in the final text and the conference saw unprecedented financing to halt deforestation. Policy makers engaged with the issue, such as Zac Goldsmith who launched the FACT Roadmap to tackle deforestation in supply chains and COP26 President Alok Sharma also acknowledged the inter-relationship between climate and nature during the conference.
“We are so happy that we decided to work with Greenhouse to lead our PR effort at COP26, the results were mind-blowing. Their team were amazing, very professional, working tirelessly throughout the whole campaign, while still being full of energy and fun to work with. They fit in seamlessly to our project, spinning many different plates, from coordinating with 100s of key stakeholders and coalition partners, to producing messaging frameworks and talking point and to securing quality media opportunities and leading our press office.”
James Lloyd
Coalition Lead, Nature4Climate
For global restoration to happen at scale we need to connect people to restoration projects globally and locally. The public launch of Restor – a science-based platform supported by Google –needed to reach, connect and support the global restoration community. To grow the movement and connect everyone, everywhere, to local restoration, Greenhouse developed a global digital campaign to support Restor and maximise the impact of its announcement as a finalist in the high profile Earthshot Prize. We created campaign messaging, social media assets, social advertising, and a toolkit, to engage the entire community via peer-to-peer recommendation.
The six-week campaign resulted in 28k users visiting the website (approximately 5k per week). The engagement on social media resulted in 6.1m impressions and 646k click throughs via social advertising on Twitter and Facebook, 7.5k organic engagements on LinkedIn and Twitter, and 5k new social media followers. More than 6,000 restoration projects across the world, from Brazil to India, signed up to the platform, enabling them to share restoration projects and impact globally. Over 7,000 restoration polygons were made public, establishing Restor as a leading voice and platform within the global restoration community, with NGOs and high-profile influencers engaging with social content.
"Thanks to Greenhouse’s beautiful digital content, tailored social ads campaign, and well-timed community engagement, we exceeded our community and awareness goals. It is a pleasure to work with this enthusiastic, generous, and knowledgeable team!"
Clara Rowe
CEO, Restor
https://twitter.com/Restor_eco/status/1448242529435062279
Mangroves are under threat but are vital nature-based solutions to the climate crisis, protect our coastlines and support livelihoods for local communities. The "Save Our Mangroves Now!" initiative was launched by WWF, IUCN, Wetlands International and BMZ to mobilise action to reverse the loss of mangroves globally. Greenhouse launched a new #RootsOfHope campaign on World Mangrove Day to inspire political decision makers and influencers to take action to restore these precious ecosystems. We developed unique assets to showcase the guiding principles for sustainable mangrove ecosystem management at the IUCN World Conservation Congress and developed a white paper with case studies from the Western Indian Ocean region at COP26.
The #RootsOfHope hashtag has now had over 4.4 million timeline deliveries with a reach of over 2 million. There have been 437 contributors and the SOMN! Twitter account has grown by 400 followers. The campaign was supported by influencers across the political and conservation sphere. The #RootsOfHope has struck a chord with our target audience, achieving cut-through during key international events. Top engagements include Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, TV personality and environmentalist, Nigel Topping, UN High Level Climate Action Champion, Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for the Ocean, and Dr Maria Nera, Director of WHO.
“The creative flair and digital expertise Greenhouse have brought to the Save Our Mangroves Now! initiative has been incredibly impactful. From launching the mangrove principles at the IUCN Congress, to our white paper at COP26, Greenhouse have been instrumental to the success of our campaign. Political advocacy for nature-based solutions is now higher on the global agenda and we are excited to continue working with the Greenhouse team to drive impact for mangroves.”
Julika Tribukait
WWF Germany
And that’s a WRAP on an exhilarating and impactful 2021. If you’d like Greenhouse Communications to be part of your story in 2022, please get in touch by emailing info@greenhouse.agency.
See more of our favourite campaigns:
Our top 21 environmental campaigns of 2021:
- World Leaders Summit: launching global collaboration on the big innovation breakthroughs at COP26
- Mission Innovation: unlocking the billions to drive innovation globally
- SBTi: advancing the adoption of science-based targets in the G20
- Connected Kerb: ‘levelling up’ EV charging across the UK
- GRIDSERVE: creating the biggest motorway EV charging upgrade in UK history
- Urban Air Port: launching the world’s first airport for flying EV taxis
- Northern Powergrid: unlocking £3.2 billion to enable regional decarbonisation
- Wärtsilä: front-loading net zero
- Sustainable Energy for All: transforming global energy consumption to 100 per cent carbon-free to #GoCarbonFree
- EIT Food: amplifying young voices in food systems transformation
- JRT: supporting farmers across the supply chain
- Carbon Tracker: highlighting the economic instability of major oil states
- Friends of the Earth: campaigning for fossil-fuel free pension funds
- Uplift: taking the government to court over subsidising fossil fuels
- Avaaz: supporting youth and Indigenous peoples at COP26
- ActionAid: bringing voices from the Global South to COP26
- Surfers Against Sewage: launching the UK’s biggest plastic clean-up initiative
- Global Canopy Forest 500: exposing the trillions of dollars of investment fuelling deforestation
- Nature4Climate: putting nature at the heart of the climate debate at COP26
- Restor: accelerating restoration globally with the launch of innovative science-based platform
- WWF/IUCN/Wetlands International: launching #RootsofHope – Save Our Mangroves Now!
Innovation campaigns to accelerate decarbonisation
1. World Leaders Summit – launching global collaboration on the big innovation breakthroughs at COP26
Greenhouse was instrumental in launching the Glasgow Breakthroughs at COP26 – a special moment and one that will have real impact for years to come. More than 40 world leaders signed up to the new Breakthrough Agenda, representing more than 70% of the world’s economy, to make clean technologies in each of the most polluting sectors the most affordable, accessible and attractive choice globally for all by 2030. Progress will be tracked across sectors including power, steel, road transport, hydrogen and agriculture. Greenhouse provided comms support for the launch, from drafting the narrative to working with stakeholders to develop a Breakthroughs brand and event staging visuals, digital and social toolkit, as well as major short films that were broadcast at the event to an audience of world leaders. And our team was there on the ground working with BEIS, Cabinet Office and Number 10 teams to reach and engage leaders, businesses and investors across the world. https://youtu.be/LdjRHJN9Kw42. Mission Innovation: unlocking the billions to drive innovation globally
Reaching global climate goals requires innovation on a huge scale this decade to make clean energy technologies affordable and accessible for all. Mission Innovation – the coalition of 22 governments and the EC – wanted to ensure that innovation was seen as a crucial lever of change at COP26, to drive collaboration, investment and action. Greenhouse devised a multi-platform communications campaign to launch Mission Innovation campaign on breakthroughs, from strategic message framework to a hero film broadcast at COP26 events, to global media engagement, inputting world leaders' speeches and media, for each new mission.
Global media campaign with 394 articles, including BBC, Forbes and Reuters, plus broadcast interviews with Sky and CNBC, reaching a combined audience of 1.88 billion, with 2.47 million views across 18 countries. Across digital achieved a 789% increase in profile visits, 2,255% increase in engagements and up to 41% increase in followers, with over 138,300 views of the hero film. Mission Innovation messaging was also included in at least five speeches and media releases by world leaders. Mission Innovation and its key message on the importance of collaboration and innovation was highlighted by world leaders throughout COP26 as a key lever of change this decade. The campaign demonstrated vision and commitment to clean energy innovation and cemented partnerships with global NGOs and private sector leaders, achieving significant momentum to 2022.
“Thanks to the support of Greenhouse, we were able to make the case for clean energy innovation throughout COP26. Their tireless efforts integrated Mission Innovation with world leaders, governments and climate influencers, helping cut through the noise at a critical moment in climate diplomacy. Discussions on innovation and technology to reduce carbon emissions were embedded throughout COP for the first time, and Greenhouse were essential to maximising that impact.”
Dr Jennie Dodson
Head Mission Innovation Secretariat
3. SBTi: advancing the adoption of science-based targets in the G20
The science is clear: if we are to ensure the future of humanity on this planet, we must all enable the halving of global emissions within this decade and reach net zero by 2050. However, most companies in the world’s major economies are failing to make climate pledges that can be measured against meaningful yardsticks, such as the 1.5°C temperature goal set at the Paris Agreement. Greenhouse supported the launch of SBTi’s data factsheet, which found that although growing numbers of companies in the G20 are setting climate targets, only 20% align with climate science. We compiled a data table which applauded companies from the best-performing countries, and encouraged those in the worst-performing countries to step up. It revealed that some of the world's heaviest emitters – such as Indonesia, Russia and Saudi Arabia – do not contain a single company to have submitted an approved science-based target.
We secured over 80 media articles worldwide in 13 G20 countries. Top news agencies Bloomberg, IANS (India), EFE (Spain), ANSA (Italy) and AA (Turkey) spread the story far and wide, whilst key international and national media such as Forbes, BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme (UK), New York Times (US), Business Standard (India), La Vanguardia (Spain) and the Korea Herald brought the subject onto the domestic news agenda. The launch of SBTI’s research during NYC Climate Week, while world leaders were focused on climate action at the UN General Assembly, put corporate climate action under the spotlight. Much of the media attention emerged alongside coverage of leaders’ key speeches and pledges. It increased pressure on companies worldwide to align with climate science, ahead of the G20 Summit in October.
“Thanks to Greenhouse for these wonderful results and beautiful report! The team have done a fantastic job of getting this out and we’re really impressed. Incredible to see the spread of international coverage – thank you for your hard work.”
Rosie Williams
Communications Lead, SBTi
Energy campaigns to enable electrification
4. Connected Kerb: ‘levelling up’ EV charging across the UK
There is currently just one public-access on-street charger for every 52 EVs on UK roads. As a result, those without off-street parking or a dedicated parking space with domestic power supply – accounting for 62% of drivers – are being left behind in the EV transition. Greenhouse launched Connected Kerb’s ambitious £1.9bn plan to install 190,000 on-street EV chargers by 2030 to revolutionise access to EV charging for the tens of millions of drivers without off-street parking.
Generated almost 400 articles, viewed by more than 20 million people. Highlights include coverage in The Times, Sky News, Telegraph, Mail Online, The i, Mirror, Express, Yahoo, AOL and multiple high-value trade media titles. Connected Kerb was positioned as the leading provider of on-street EV charging overnight, with a spike in new partnership enquiries and immediate interest from multiple international institutional investors.
“The support of the Greenhouse team has been fantastic. They are totally aligned to our mission and values and the media results their work has delivered is beyond anything we have seen before. Greenhouse took the time to understand our business priorities and delivers communications that directly supports them. As a result, we've been contacted by major investors directly off the back of the media campaign Greenhouse delivered.”
Chris Pateman-Jones
Designer
5. GRIDSERVE: creating the biggest motorway EV charging upgrade in UK history
The sale of all new petrol, diesel and hybrid cars will be banned from 2030. It is crucial that electric vehicle (EV) drivers are supported with reliable, accessible and affordable public charging, especially on longer journeys. Installing EV charging at UK motorways will be key to enabling an EV future. Greenhouse announced GRIDSERVE's plans to revolutionise EV charging at UK motorways through the rollout of high-powered charging hubs and Electric Forecourts® across the country. GRIDSERVE has invested tens of millions of pounds in its UK wide network of chargers representing a major boost to the countries EV infrastructure.
We generated over 200 articles, including in The Telegraph, The I, City AM, Daily Mail, BBC and ITV. The coverage reached more than 1 billion people. Created substantial awareness and positive engagement from EV drivers, as well as driving significant website traffic to GRIDSERVE's page. Following the media launch, the project was praised in an Early Day Motion by an MP in the House of Commons for recognition of the project and its impact on the UK's EV charging infrastructure.
“Greenhouse insight, advice and impact, has made a huge difference in our ability to communicate our vision and attract investment to help GRIDSERVE scale. Awesome tenacity and results achieved. Greenhouse is the best green PR agency on the planet!”
Toddington Harper
Founder and CEO, GRIDSERVE
6. Urban Air Port: launching the world's first airport for flying EVs
Develop zero emissions infrastructure and systems that will enable the uptake of electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircrafts, such as cargo drones and air taxis. Greenhouse devised and delivered a communications campaign to announce the launch of Small’s Air-One, the world’s first airport and charging hub for eVTOL aircrafts, due to open in Coventry in late 2021. Urban Air Port was selected as the winner of the UK government’s Future Flight Challenge.
We delivered over 400 pieces of broadcast, national, international, trade and regional coverage and reaching over four billion people. Highlights include coverage in The Times, ITV News and World Economic Forum. The campaign sparked interest and conversation around the world about the future of transport, while positioning Urban Air Port as a key player and innovator within the urban air mobility infrastructure space.
“Greenhouse make it happen – they are professional, focused and ambitious. The results were beyond our wildest dreams, and the phones have been ringing off the hook ever since.”
Ricky Sandhu
Founder of Small
7. Northern Powergrid: unlocking £3.2 billion to enable regional decarbonisation
Preparing our electricity grids for an energy future with more flexibility and distributed renewable generation, while delivering a just transition for customers, is a hefty responsibility. Greenhouse helped Northern Powergrid convey how it plans to meet this responsibility by producing its business plan, detailing £3.2bn investment to enable decarbonisation across the North East, Yorkshire and northern Lincolnshire. Delivering the 200-page draft and final documents, Greenhouse led the production process: offering narrative support to create a clear and cohesive narrative for the complex plan, expert design and painstaking proofing. We also led a photography project to refresh image resources, produced two key supporting documents, offered narrative support for stakeholder engagement summaries, and delivered a media campaign that secured a combined readership of 22 million and 162k digital impressions.
Northern Powergrid ended a pivotal year for their future planning with a business plan that is brimming with information about how they plan to take eight million people in their region on the journey to net zero. At Greenhouse, we were immersed in every aspect of these plans being communicated in a clear, cohesive and impactful way.
8. Wärtsilä: front-loading net zero
The perceived difficulty of reaching net zero is often an impediment to action. Opponents of the energy transition regularly cite cost and technical infeasibility as reasons for delaying change. The truth is far more positive. Our challenge was to convey that for Wärtsilä and drive real change towards renewable energy. Greenhouse devised, developed and launched a report that demonstrates the opportunities and benefits of accelerating the transition to net zero. Utilising unique modelling and regional expertise, the report provided strong evidence to demonstrate that net zero is not just possible, but it is achievable – quicker than currently planned, for less money and using the technology already available at scale.
We delivered global media launch, which generated 155 articles, including Forbes, Der Tagesspiegel, BNAmericas and S&P Global Platts, with an estimated 204m online readership. Supported media launch with a high-impact social media campaign that drove traffic towards the bespoke landing page, designed assets and videos, producing 61,274 impressions across Twitter and LinkedIn. The launch put pressure on governments to accelerate the transition towards net zero by demonstrating the tangible impacts of a rapid shift towards renewables. The modelling helped to frame the debate around net zero at COP26 and drove a broader campaign within Wärtsilä, forming the key pillar of the communications at COP26 and beyond.
“The Greenhouse team pushed us to be bolder in our approach and really demonstrate industry leadership. The result is a genuinely innovative report that combines unique analysis from our power systems modelling with regional expertise from across the world to highlight the vast opportunities that front-loading net zero can unlock for economies. Greenhouse conceptualised the campaign and led the production and global launch of the report, working as an extension of our team to drive real impact and make the project a huge success.”
Isabelle Thibault-Ahlström
General Marketing Manager, Wärtsilä Energy
9. Sustainable Energy for All: transforming global energy consumption to 100 per cent carbon-free to Go Carbon Free
Decarbonising electricity is critical to our collective efforts to tackle the climate crisis. Rather than simply offsetting emissions, we need to work together to focus on eliminating carbon from the electricity sector entirely. That’s why Sustainable Energy for All and Google launched Go Carbon Free 24/7 – a campaign transforming global energy consumption to 100 per cent carbon-free sources by galvanising global businesses, governments, cities and other organisations to act together. Greenhouse supported the campaign with a new campaign identity, hero films, paid advertising campaign, stakeholder toolkits, campaign landing page and conducting influencer outreach.
We achieved 2.3 million impressions with our hero film seeing a 25-29% completion rate across channels, showcasing the high level of engagement from our target audience. The #GoCarbonFree campaign hashtag reached 790,000 users globally and the landing page received more than 4.5k sessions with a high 26% conversion rate. Over 50 high profile signatories have joined the energy compact, including the US government –the world's largest energy purchaser. 112 individuals from 101 organisations across seven sectors signed up to the database via the landing page including Mitsubishi Electric, General Motors, Alstom and Ministry of Energy & Infrastructure Dubai.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNOjKZEhtBE
Food systems campaigns to create systems change
10. EIT Food: amplifying young voices in food systems transformation
Young people are among those who will be most impacted by decisions made today but they are also among those who lack access to these important dialogues. With this in mind, EIT Food’s ‘Our Food, Our Food System’ campaign set out to find out how young people feel about the current – and future – food system, and what urgent changes they want to see from policymakers and food sector stakeholders.
Greenhouse worked with EIT Food to send out a call for applications from young people to become ‘FutureFoodMakers.’ We also launched the Menu for Change to pan-European media outlets and across social media channels, with coverage in publications such as Dagens ETC, AgFunder and Food Navigator as well as praise from influential changemakers such as the EU Agriculture Minister, the UN Assistant Secretary-General and the European Commission’s Deputy Director General of Health and Food Safety.
Using the power of design, playful asset creation and high profile changemaker engagement, the campaign hashtag #FutureFoodMakers has been used over 700 times since the launch of the campaign’s first phase in mid 2021. Take a look at the Menu for Change launch posts on EIT Food’s Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook channels.
“You’ve made us sit up, stand up, and listen. We are all part of the solution… keep using your voices in this way; be active and be part of the change we all want to see.”
Claire Bury
Deputy Director General of Health and Food Safety, European Commission
11. Just Rural Transition: supporting farmers across the supply chain
With heightened media and public interest in sustainable agri-food systems following the UN Food Systems Summit, COP26 provided a significant opportunity to amplify the Just Rural Transition’s policy recommendations to promote fair outcomes for food producers. Greenhouse produced a comprehensive digital toolkit featuring an explainer video, infographics and other key assets to present the vision, mission, concepts and policy recommendations of the Just Rural Transition, to be showcased during the COP26 summit and beyond.
The assets were showcased at the COP26 Presidency event on Nature Day and the campaign hashtag #JustTransition2030 was delivered to an estimated 280k timelines. JRT’s posts received a total of 120k impressions, with 44k impressions on Nature Day alone. The announcement of the Policy Action Agenda was re-posted by key stakeholders including UN Special Envoy Agnes Kalibata, UK Environment Minister Rebecca Pow and the British Embassies of the Philippines, Sierra Leone and UAE. Awareness and support for a just rural transition has increased, with momentum building towards having a specific focus on a food systems transformation that advances prosperity and equitable livelihoods at COP27.
“Thank you for everything you did to help advance our mission. We are so grateful for your poise and helpfulness and expertise throughout COP26. Heroic efforts by the whole Greenhouse team.”
Christian Man
Policy Action Lead, Just Rural Transition
Environmental campaigns to end fossil fuels
12. Carbon Tracker: highlighting the economic instability of major oil states
Lower demand for fossil fuels and decreasing prices will mean that the world's biggest oil- and gas-producing nations (or petrostates) risk collectively losing US$9 trillion over the next 20 years, threatening global economic and social stability. Greenhouse supported Carbon Tracker with the strategy and development of Beyond Petrostates, a report urging petrostate governments to urgently diversify their economies away from fossil fuels and avoid stranded assets. The report also emphasised the importance of richer nations providing the necessary climate finance to assist the economic transition towards renewable energy.
We delivered extensive global media coverage with more than 600 articles across 50 countries. Highlights included news agencies Bloomberg, AFP (France), EFE (Spain), PAP (Poland), Lusa (Portugal), ČTK (Czech Republic), IANS (India), BBC international and domestic bulletins, Financial Times, Washington Post, Süddeutsche Zeitung (Germany), La Vanguardia (Spain), Economic Times (India). Media coverage reached several of the world's biggest petrostates across Africa, Asia and the Middle East, including Algeria, Angola, Azerbaijan, Kuwait, Nigeria and Saudi Arabia. The report provided ammunition to investors and campaigners ahead of COP26, where climate finance for major petrostates and the Global South were high on the agenda.
“Carbon Tracker has worked closely with Greenhouse as our media advisor and it’s been a fun, productive and supportive relationship. The strategy of working together with a focus on framing climate risk through the lens of international investors, capturing the attention of financial media, has been a tremendous success.”
Mark Campanale
Founder & Executive Chairman, Carbon Tracker
13. Friends of the Earth: campaigning for fossil-fuel free pension funds
Pensions have a huge role to play in tackling climate change, with the combined total assets of occupational pension schemes reaching £2 trillion. Yet several ex-public pension funds’ current investment portfolios are opaque and ambiguous, incompatible with net zero targets. Greenhouse provided strategic counsel and media relations support to Friends of the Earth Scotland to launch the report: Polluted Pensions? Clearing the air around UK pensions and fossil fuels. We finessed the report’s narrative and helped to strengthen media materials through additional datasets and findings, to create the strongest possible story for target UK media.
We delivered 30 pieces of media coverage in the UK and Europe, including a front-page headline print article in the Sunday Times Scotland the day before the start of COP26. Other coverage highlights included international news agency AFP, which was syndicated in French national Le Figaro, as well as POLITICO, Euronews, and regional titles The National and Edinburgh Evening News. The report reached a wide audience, consequently raising public awareness and influencing policymakers. The report reignited activity on the Divest Parliament campaign, and shortly after its release, more than 130 cross-party MPs signed a letter calling for the Parliamentary Pension Fund to divest from fossil fuels.
14. Uplift: taking the government to court over fossil fuel subsidies
The UK is the second-largest oil and gas producer in Europe and provides more subsidies to the fossil fuel industry than any country in the EU. The government has a legal commitment to ‘maximising economic recovery’ (MER) of offshore oil and gas. It has refused to rule out licensing new oil and gas exploration although the International Energy Agency says no investment in new fossil fuel production is justified if the world is to limit global heating to 1.5°C. We supported Uplift in launching the Paid To Pollute campaign, taking the government to court over its oil & gas strategy. The claimants argue it is unlawful because it supports production that is only economic due to huge public subsidies; and irrational because it conflicts with the UK’s 2050 net zero target. We launched the legal claim, case permission and High Court hearing, released polling results ahead of the G7 Summit, and research showing the UK government gifted £14bn to the oil & gas industry since the Paris Agreement.
We delivered extensive UK and Scottish media coverage with more than 350 pieces in total. Highlights included articles in Reuters, The Guardian, The Observer, FT, Sky News, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, Euronews, top Scottish titles The Herald, The Scotsman, The National, and an interview for claimant Mikaela Loach on BBC Radio 4. Articles were shared on social media almost 6K times. The campaign was shared on social media by Greta Thunberg, and Mikaela Loach’s campaign video received over half a million views.
“Greenhouse secured us phenomenal coverage for our media launch. We wanted to extend our deepest thanks to the entire team for all their hard work in preparing and pitching this story. It's fantastic to see that the story has had such wide reach.”
Gabriel Davalos
Head of Communications and Campaigns, Uplift
Activism campaigns to support climate justice
15. AVAAZ: supporting youth and Indigenous peoples at COP26
Tackling the climate crisis cannot be left to our leaders alone, civil society has a crucial role and must have their voices heard and be empowered to act. At COP26, AVAAZ sought to do so by campaigning across four themes: (1) monitoring climate disinformation; (2) increasing climate finance; (3) platforming Indigenous rights; (4) and increasing public pressure. We provided strategic media relations support to AVAAZ during the two-week COP26 period to achieve their four goals and propel their mobilisations/stunts into the media. Greenhouse gave expert counsel, managed media briefings and press conferences, coordinated spokesperson interviews and ensured global media outreach to ensure the highest quality and quantity of media coverage. We were able to coordinate and promote six separate campaigns within the two-week period.
We secured over 1,000 pieces of coverage across the two weeks and across six continents. Our coverage hit all top-tier publications, including international agencies and publications (PA, Reuters, Forbes, the New York Times), top UK outlets (Financial Times, the Guardian), broadcast (BBC, CNN, Sky News) and picture desks (Getty images, PA). Through both traditional and social media, the various mobilisations which AVAAZ organised were showcased to a global audience, bringing crucial issues such as the urgent need for climate finance for vulnerable nations, or the impact of air pollution on human health, has been brought to the attention of high-profile policy and decision-makers.
“What a wonderful team at Greenhouse – so easy to work with and they delivered such amazing results. From meeting at the first inspiring Climate Betrayal stunt by the river to placing incredible surrogates on live TV almost every day, managing the Mothers’ Press Conference, ensuring that the media attended all our stunts, communicating the key messages, and more – Greenhouse did an amazing job.”
Sarah Morrison
Senior Campaigner, AVAAZ
16. ActionAid: bringing voices from the Global South to COP26
The COVID-19 pandemic and unfair distribution of vaccines meant that many key voices from the world’s most vulnerable communities would not be heard during the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. Greenhouse developed an integrated campaign to amplify ActionAid’s EarthWalk, calling on people everywhere to walk, run, cycle and wheel to demand climate justice, and collectively reach the target of covering the Earth’s circumference.
500 tweets using #EarthWalk were delivered to over five million Twitter timelines. We secured 45 pieces of broadcast and online media coverage for EarthWalk and ActionAid's spokespeople from the Global South, including interviews with Sky News, BBC Radio 4, and Euronews TV, as well as features in Forbes and The New York Times. Thousands of people across the world took part in EarthWalk, collectively marching over 43,000km. Through our digital and media amplification of EarthWalk, spokespeople from the Global South were given the opportunity to make their hopes, concerns and demands for the conference known to a global audience.
17. Surfers Against Sewage: launching the UK’s biggest plastic clean-up initiative
In the UK, plastic production has been forecast to grow by 60% by 2030 and to treble by 2050, yet plastics consistently make up 80% of all marine debris studied. The plastic pollution in our oceans has led to the loss of vital marine wildlife and ecosystems and it is crucial that the crisis is tackled. Greenhouse helped Surfers Against Sewage launch the UK’s biggest plastic clean up initiative, inspiring 100,000 people to clean up 10 miles of local area resulting in one million miles of blue or green space cleared by the end of 2021. Greenhouse managed a visual stunt and national media campaign to platform SAS as a leading voice on plastic pollution, increase awareness of the plastic pollution crisis and to drive the public to register.
Secured over 300 pieces of coverage across national broadcast and print outlets including BBC Breakfast, BBC Radio 1, BBC Radio 4, Sky News, The Guardian, Daily Express, Independent, The Times, The Mirror and The Daily Telegraph, platforming SAS as a leading voice on plastic pollution. The total reach was 80.7m and articles were also shared over 1k times on social media. The launch of the Million Mile Beach Clean, and nation-wide media coverage, significantly increased the visibility of Surfers Against Sewage and the campaign. On the day itself, 841 members of the public registered to do a clean, within the first week, 575K miles had been committed to by the public.
“The results from the launch were spectacular. Greenhouse understood our mission and our aims from the start, delivering a standout media campaign which resulted in nationwide coverage and hundreds of people signing up to take part. We look forward to continuing our work with the team to keep the momentum going.”
Jack Middleton
Campaigns Manager, Surfers Against Sewage
18. Global Canopy Forest 500: exposing the trillions of dollars of investment fuelling deforestation
A lack of accountability and transparency in the finance sector has resulted in top institutions investing in commodities that are fuelling deforestation, destroying one of the world’s most valuable natural resources and threatening progress on climate action. Challenge the market forces fuelling deforestation with the Forest 500 report, which assessed the largest companies in forest-risk supply chains. Media materials exposed how major financial institutions, such as BlackRock, are failing to have deforestation policies in place, and urged for legislation to hold companies accountable.
We secured interviews on Sky News and national French broadcaster France24 reaching an audience of 5M. The report was covered in eight nationals and 15 key financial trade publications such as The Independent, Tagesspiegel (Germany), BusinessGreen and The Banker. Industry leaders, including Tanya Steel, Greenpeace and the Sustainable Food Trust, shared media articles on social media. Several companies provided comments to journalists because of the report including BlackRock, Heinz and Yakult. Since the report launch, BNP Paribus has also announced a deadline of 2025 for its clients in Brazil to achieve zero deforestation and full traceability in their production and supply chains
“Greenhouse has done a great job in securing coverage for the Forest 500 report launch and reaching our target audiences. The team's feedback after launch was really valuable – it’s great to feel that they want your work to make as big an impact as possible.”
Helen Burley
Communications Lead, Global Canopy
Nature campaigns to create impact
19. Nature4Climate: putting nature at the heart of the climate debate at COP26
Nature-based solutions can provide one-third of cost-effective CO2 mitigation needed to limit global warming to 1.5°C by 2030. Despite this, nature-based solutions only receive 8% of public climate finance and are included in just 10% of climate media coverage. To meet the goals of the Paris Agreement, we need to put nature at the heart of the climate conversation. Greenhouse worked with Nature4Climate to create the Nature Zone at COP26, bringing together the top nature NGOs to unite them around a core message framework, developed by Greenhouse. We coordinated and mapped all nature-related announcements and set up a press office on the ground in Glasgow, acting as the main point of contact for journalists throughout the two weeks. Throughout the conference, we placed key nature spokespeople at the forefront of media coverage, ensuring that diverse voices were heard, including those of youth activists and Indigenous Peoples.
COP26 was deemed the ‘Paris moment for forests’, with over 5000 pieces of coverage from the top 300 global news outlets mentioning nature. Issues such as deforestation were a key focus for world leaders and the unprecedented pledges made up 12% of all COP coverage across top broadcast, international and national publications. Our nature spokespeople were featured across 40 outlets, including Sky News, France24, Deutsche Welle, BBC World Service, CBC, Forbes, Financial Times and others. COP26 was the first time nature was mentioned in the final text and the conference saw unprecedented financing to halt deforestation. Policy makers engaged with the issue, such as Zac Goldsmith who launched the FACT Roadmap to tackle deforestation in supply chains and COP26 President Alok Sharma also acknowledged the inter-relationship between climate and nature during the conference.
“We are so happy that we decided to work with Greenhouse to lead our PR effort at COP26, the results were mind-blowing. Their team were amazing, very professional, working tirelessly throughout the whole campaign, while still being full of energy and fun to work with. They fit in seamlessly to our project, spinning many different plates, from coordinating with 100s of key stakeholders and coalition partners, to producing messaging frameworks and talking point and to securing quality media opportunities and leading our press office.”
James Lloyd
Coalition Lead, Nature4Climate
20. Restor: accelerating restoration globally with the launch of innovative science-based platform
For global restoration to happen at scale we need to connect people to restoration projects globally and locally. The public launch of Restor – a science-based platform supported by Google –needed to reach, connect and support the global restoration community. To grow the movement and connect everyone, everywhere, to local restoration, Greenhouse developed a global digital campaign to support Restor and maximise the impact of its announcement as a finalist in the high profile Earthshot Prize. We created campaign messaging, social media assets, social advertising, and a toolkit, to engage the entire community via peer-to-peer recommendation.
The six-week campaign resulted in 28k users visiting the website (approximately 5k per week). The engagement on social media resulted in 6.1m impressions and 646k click throughs via social advertising on Twitter and Facebook, 7.5k organic engagements on LinkedIn and Twitter, and 5k new social media followers. More than 6,000 restoration projects across the world, from Brazil to India, signed up to the platform, enabling them to share restoration projects and impact globally. Over 7,000 restoration polygons were made public, establishing Restor as a leading voice and platform within the global restoration community, with NGOs and high-profile influencers engaging with social content.
"Thanks to Greenhouse’s beautiful digital content, tailored social ads campaign, and well-timed community engagement, we exceeded our community and awareness goals. It is a pleasure to work with this enthusiastic, generous, and knowledgeable team!"
Clara Rowe
CEO, Restor
https://twitter.com/Restor_eco/status/1448242529435062279
21. WWF/IUCN/Wetlands International: launching #RootsofHope – Save Our Mangroves Now!
Mangroves are under threat but are vital nature-based solutions to the climate crisis, protect our coastlines and support livelihoods for local communities. The "Save Our Mangroves Now!" initiative was launched by WWF, IUCN, Wetlands International and BMZ to mobilise action to reverse the loss of mangroves globally. Greenhouse launched a new #RootsOfHope campaign on World Mangrove Day to inspire political decision makers and influencers to take action to restore these precious ecosystems. We developed unique assets to showcase the guiding principles for sustainable mangrove ecosystem management at the IUCN World Conservation Congress and developed a white paper with case studies from the Western Indian Ocean region at COP26.
The #RootsOfHope hashtag has now had over 4.4 million timeline deliveries with a reach of over 2 million. There have been 437 contributors and the SOMN! Twitter account has grown by 400 followers. The campaign was supported by influencers across the political and conservation sphere. The #RootsOfHope has struck a chord with our target audience, achieving cut-through during key international events. Top engagements include Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall, TV personality and environmentalist, Nigel Topping, UN High Level Climate Action Champion, Peter Thomson, UN Special Envoy for the Ocean, and Dr Maria Nera, Director of WHO.
“The creative flair and digital expertise Greenhouse have brought to the Save Our Mangroves Now! initiative has been incredibly impactful. From launching the mangrove principles at the IUCN Congress, to our white paper at COP26, Greenhouse have been instrumental to the success of our campaign. Political advocacy for nature-based solutions is now higher on the global agenda and we are excited to continue working with the Greenhouse team to drive impact for mangroves.”
Julika Tribukait
WWF Germany
And that’s a WRAP on an exhilarating and impactful 2021. If you’d like Greenhouse Communications to be part of your story in 2022, please get in touch by emailing info@greenhouse.agency.
See more of our favourite campaigns:
