In recognition of Earth Day this year, we took a look at some of the best news brand campaigns encouraging change.
On 22 April every year, the world comes together to recognise Earth Day.
As governments, businesses and individuals continue to set goals to cut their emissions, it is up to every one of us to challenge our behaviours and inspire action.
Ahead of the day, we have put together an overview of some of the most impactful environmental campaigns and activities – both editorial and commercial – our national news brands have been working on.
The highlighted work is only a snapshot of the activities our news brands are doing around climate change. In addition to this, they have published an amazing array of articles, resources, studies, graphics and opinion pieces that tell the story of our climate emergency.
Daily Express’ ‘Green Britain’ crusade
Editor-in-chief Gary Jones has revolutionised the title’s climate change narrative with the launch of its ‘Green Britain’ campaign earlier this year. “Join our Green Britain revolution” read the front page of the paper in February, asking readers to sign a petition to boost the tax system to fight climate change.
The news brand recently published issue two of its ECO2 magazine. It provides readers with a “fresh spring guide to sustainability” featuring eco-solutions and green figureheads such as Prince Charles and Richard Curtis. The magazine is carbon neutral and biodegradable and produced bi-annually.
The title published a climate edition of its paper with the headline ‘The climate issue is everybody’s issue’ to help address readers’ need for insight and information on the environment and how climate change is impacting them.
Evening Standard: ‘Future London’
The ‘Future London’ campaign aims to make London the best place on Earth. The campaign’s ‘Clean Air’ project tackles one of the city’s biggest challenges – air pollution – by raising awareness of alternative modes of transport, air quality and in the coming months will highlight the city’s need for a greener recovery.
Adapting to new ways of living isn’t easy, last year Honda utilised the full range of ad opportunities the i has on offer by producing branded content about electric vehicles and what it means for drivers, taking the time to provide readers with context. The content was also accompanied by display ads showcasing Honda’s new e-car.
The Independent landmark wildlife agreement
The news brand hosted 20 world-leading conservation organisations on the urgent actions needed to avert another pandemic. The declaration, which was brokered as part of the news brand’s ‘Stop the illegal wildlife trade’ campaign, was delivered to G20 leaders as they joined their annual summit in Riyadh.
Guardian Weekend’s climate special
The title vowed to change its language when talking about climate change to better describe its urgency. In line with this, it published a dedicated climate edition of Guardian Weekend featuring a conversation with two icons, Greta Thunberg and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, along with 100 ways to make a difference.
One of our favourites! The news brand partnered with Smart Energy to create a cover wrap that looked like a Metro front page but had key words redacted to highlight that energy efficiency was the missing piece in tackling climate change.
The paper encouraged its readers to join its eco revolution the ‘Green Team’, which urges people to reduce their waste, meat consumption and plastic use. It gives readers the option of signing up to seven pledges and then uses a special calculator to work out how much carbon they have saved. Tap here to pledge.
The Telegraph’s real-time climate tracker
By the time you finish reading this paragraph, 10 rugby pitches of forest will have been destroyed. The news brands’ real-time data tracker gives an insight into the difficulties the world is facing and our impact on the planet, giving readers a very genuine sense of urgency.
The Times: ‘Clean air for all’
Designed to help save lives, the campaign is putting pressure on the government to update its Clean Air Act. It recently resulted in a landmark judgement that ruled that the death of Ella Kissi-Debrah’s was due to the failure to reduce pollution levels to legal limits. Updates can be found on its newly launched Times Earth digital channel.
Looking to the future,The Guardian, Daily Mirror and i have partnered with Covering Climate Now, calling on newsrooms across the globe to address the need for greater climate change coverage – watch this space.
This article will be updated throughout this week. If you want to know more about Earth Day and the organisation behind it, click here.
