Blog

Purpose Disruptors Climate Crisis Summit, 16th September 2019

19th September 2019

This week one of our founders, Angus Light, attended the Climate Crisis Summit hosted and organised by the Purpose Disruptors https://www.purposedisruptors.org.

Purpose Disruptors are a group of advertising insiders https://www.purposedisruptors.org/people looking to create real change at agency / client level in tackling the climate crisis.

“A network whose goal is to create a visible, large scale, bottom up movement within the industry, what will act in solidarity to meaningfully tackle climate change”.

This was the second summit, having first organised a meet up in June to garner interest amongst industry collegues following an industry wide open letter that included the following call to arms . . .

“We are aware that as an industry, we have at times been complicit, knowingly or unknowingly, in exacerbating our current climate crisis through promoting unsustainable consumption on behalf of our clients. Yet, the very skills that have been used to shape the values, attitudes and behaviours of consumerism can also be used to help shift society to

more sustainable ways of living. What do we need to start, stop and continue doing? What does industry leadership look like in the face of the climate crisis? Our choices now as an industry can help make the difference to the future of life on earth.”

There was a great opening talk from Jonathan Wise, co-founder of the Comms Lab – https://www.thecommslab.com.

Then a presentation by Jeremy Mathieu, a sustainability advisor to the BBC, summing up the science and challenges we face, along with a hope that change can be achieved.

The event concluded with some excellent group brainstorming sessions focusing on what changes can be introduced at client / agency level.

To find out more about Purpose Disruptors and future events you can sign up to their newsletter at the bottom of their website homepage.

 

 

 

Open Letter from Purpose Disruptors . . .

Dear Advertising,

The science is clear. We’ve only got 10 years to transform society to limit climate change to 1.5°C. This will require commitment from all sectors of society, including the advertising industry. Given that as an industry, we are unclear what actions we need to take, we’re inviting others who share our concern and desire to help, to an event on June 25th.

We are aware that as an industry, we have at times been complicit, knowingly or unknowingly, in exacerbating our current climate crisis through promoting unsustainable consumption on behalf of our clients. Yet, the very skills that have been used to shape the values, attitudes and behaviours of consumerism can also be used to help shift society to

more sustainable ways of living. What do we need to start, stop and continue doing? What does industry leadership look like in the face of the climate crisis? Our choices now as an industry can help make the difference to the future of life on earth.

On June 25th, we’re going to be convening industry leaders in London to get practical about how we can tackle the climate crisis together. Join us. Can the industry come together and mobilise to stand up for the climate? Let’s tackle the biggest and most exciting brief we’ve ever been given. Let’s choose which side of history we want to be on.

Signatories:

Tom George, CEO, GroupM UK

Tim Irwin, CEO, EMEA Essence

Paul Hutchison, CEO, Wavemaker UK

Helen McRae, UK CEO and Chair of Western Europe, Mindshare

Marco Rimini, Global Chief Development Officer, Mindshare

Rob McFaul, Co-lead, Mindshare Purpose

Rosie Kitson, Joint Head of Strategy and Co-Lead Mindshare Purpose

Josh Krichefski, CEO, MediaCom UK

Hannah Harrison, Head of Sustainability, WPP

Fergus Hay, CEO, Leagas Delaney

Arlo Brady, CEO, Freud Communications

Bill Scott, CEO, Droga5, London

David Kolbusz, CCO, Droga5, London

Dylan Williams, CSO Droga5

Grace Francis, Chief Experience Officer, Droga5, London

Rebecca Lewis, Joint MD, Droga5, London

Heather Cuss, Joint MD, Droga5, London

Pete Heskett, Strategy Director, Droga5, London

Tim Whirledge, Strategy Director, Droga5, London

Chris Watling, Head of Production, Droga5, London

Toby Allen, Creative Partner, AMV BBDO

Alaina Crystal, Deputy Head of Strategy, AMV BBDO

Mark Graeme, Head of Flare, AMV BBDO

Tom Tapper, Co-founder, Nice and Serious

Alex Lewis, Co-founder, Revolt

Pete Bardell, Co-founder, Revolt

Jonny Madderson, Co-founder, Just So

Jono Stevens, Co-founder, Just So

Natalie Graeme, Co-founder, Uncommon

Jane McDaid, Founder, Thinkhouse

Claire Hyland, Head of The Youth Lab, Thinkhouse

Irene Sandler, VP Marketing, Cognizant

Roy Capon, CEO, Zone, a Cognizant digital business

Adam Fulford, CSO, Proximity London

Michael Hines, Planning Partner, Saatchi & Saatchi

Jenny Howard, SVP Head of Strategy, Sunshine

Simon Hewitt, Business Partner, Engine

Bobi Carley, Head of Media, ISBA

Jonathan Trimble, CEO, And Rising

Sally Weavers, Founder, Craft Media

Jen Smith, Founder, Craft Media

James Hillhouse, Co-Founder, Commercial Break

Will Collin, Strategy Lead, Karmarama

Matt Andrews, CSO, RocketMill

Flo Heiss, Creative Director, Wieden + Kennedy

Iain Tait, ECD, Wieden + Kennedy

Tony Davidson, ECD, Wieden + Kennedy

Ben Armistead, CSO, Wieden + Kennedy

Paolo Salamao, Head of Account Management, Wieden + Kennedy

Helen Andrews, MD, Wieden + Kennedy

Mary Portas, CCO, Portas Agency

Beth Bentley, CSO, Portas Agency

Caireen Wackett, CEO, Portas Agency

Emma Hart, CEO & Founder, Push PR

Hugh Robertson, CEO & Founder, RPM

Jon Forsyth, Partner, Neverland

Jonathan Emmins, Founder, Amplify

Katie Lee, CEO, Lucky Generals

Rob Campbell, CSO EMEA, R/GA

James Drummond, Managing Partner, Uncommon

Martin Beverley, Executive Strategy Director, A&E

Newsletter

Latest Articles

Blog Tags

2014 2015 AbuDhabi adam AdamandEve adamhinton AduDhabiTourismBoard advert advertising agesofus Alasdair Mclellan Albion AlexPasley-Tyler andreaskleiberg AndyGlass angle AOP AOP Awards AOPexposureday Architecture audiR8 auto automobile automotive autumnyard aw15 aw16 award bangbang barnstorming Batterseadogs bbc BBC2 beach behindthescenes benedictredgrove benhanlin BigBen billboard body bonneville boxing bridges Brighton Britain Runs On Rail britishgas bruno bts buildabetterworld bukom Business CADD California campaign car carpark cast celerio changethesystem channel4 character chinesenewyear ChrisFrazer-Smith ChrisFrazerSmith christmas civic Clouds commercial commercials compressed confidence content cowandgate crackers crew Curves cycling data:text/mce-internal davidloftus denday DFT DirectLine documentary drama dream Drone dseries dylancollard earth hour encore esteelauder event EwanSpencer exhibition extras fashion feedtheirpersonalities film filming filminginprogress fishandchips fishing fitness Fleetlights flyovers FOCUSevent football Footballclub fresh fruyo fun getanswers grahamrose halfords Halifax halloween HamptonCourt hangar historychannel Honda house HRPpalaces HSBC Hyundai IanMckellen ident ijigglethereforeiam indents industrial international iplayer ITV Jaguar jessiej jigsaw jimfenwick jinglebells JuliaFullerton-Batten juliafullertonbatten Keep In Touch kerryharrison KevinSimm kidscompany LA LauraPannack library lidl limelight Lines livednotmodelled Locate Productions locateproductions location location house location manager location scout locationlibrary Locations london LookingforLowry lourolley lovely luxury Malaysia management Mango Mannequins matadors matalan MaxMara Mediawork motherlondon multistorey musicmagpie musicvideo nationaltv natwest nevermissamoment Nike offsiderule okini Parkour pauloconnor Peugeot phantom photographer photographers'diningclub photography photography awards pizzaexpress potential‬ pretzel films production Purina rangerover RDG redbull RiverThames RNLI rollsroyce Rooftop Rubicon rugby safe sainsburys savethechildren savingyounglives sayingthankyou Scandinavia scout scouting season sebastiennevols seethechild SergeBlanco ShamilTanna sharethedream shoot shoot house shoot location Shoot Management SimonStock Sky skysports Slate Quarry sneakpeak snowballfight Spain spiral sponsors sportswear staffies SteveHoskins Stills Production StPauls strictlycomedancing sunset Superheroes sure suzuki teamrubiconUK tfl thedudeandnigel TheGoodFilmCompany thelittlepresent TheVoice timeout Todd Antony ToddAntony toddhido togetherwecan‬ TowerOfLondon traffic trailer triumph tucrhythm tv typeR UK Urban vauxhall vindiesel vodafone wales weareblanco‬ weknowfood westend Westminster wheretheentertainerslive Wildfire wimbledon WWF wyattclarkejones

Follow us

In October 2018, the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) announced that we have 12 years to limit a climate change catastrophe. This felt like a huge wake-up call to Locate and as a company, we’re responding to the climate crisis by creating a culture where sustainability is at the heart of all we do.

We’re keeping track of our efforts and teaming up with like-minded companies and suppliers to learn more, share ideas and help find solutions. Here’s an overview of our sustainability journey so far:

November 2018

In order to learn more about what is being done in the industry, we attended our first Ad Green event. Ad Green is an initiative launched by the Advertising Association (AA) in partnership with Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA) and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) that aims to eliminate the negative environmental impacts of production.

January 2019

We became an affiliated member of Albert, a carbon-calculator designed by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) and with their support, we hosted a carbon literacy training day for our staff, freelancers and regular suppliers. Whilst Albert was originally created for the film and TV industry to help calculate the total amount of greenhouse gases emitted into the atmosphere as a direct result of making the programme, we use it for our stills photographic and small moving image shoots.

February 2019

We started using Pedal Me for couriers, which produce 90% less CO2 compared with cars and vans as well as switching to Green Tomato Cars for taxis and cabs, who are London’s first and largest hybrid car service. They also double offset their carbon emissions.

March 2019

We invested in more KeepCups and water bottles to take on shoots (and use in the office). This investment, as well as waste reduction, has been a great conversation starter and helps create a zero waste culture on our shoots. March 2019 also saw our sister company Gripvan invest in a motor-assisted delivery bike to help reduce their transport emissions.

April 2019

Filming on location with Adam Hinton, we helped produce an awareness video for Global Action Plan. The film highlighted the issues of people living in heavily polluted areas and promoted National Air Pollution day (which takes place on the third Thursday of June every year):

 

May 2019

This month, we attended another Ad Green event. Sharing ideas, gaining knowledge, networking and communicating are all essential in helping create positive change in the industry. We also attended an event for sustainable set design at BAFTA. It was great to hear about the work Dresd are doing with recycling and reusing sets.

June 2019

Whilst we’ve always tried to use local caterers who provide seasonal menus, June 2019 saw us make the conscious decision to implement a vegetarian option as standard, on shoots. A vegetarian meal is less than a kilogram of carbon whilst fish and meat dishes can produce anything between 1.6-14 times more.

July 2019

We trialled a 2kw VOLTstack battery systems on a shoot for Jaguar around the UK and on an 18 hour time-lapse shoot in the city to power laptops. As well as being silent, not needing fuel and avoiding cable runs, we think it saved approx 10kg of CO2 per day for 6 days.

August 2019

As per a recommendation from the Creative Energy scheme, we switched our energy supplier to Good Energy. This saves an approximate 3.2 tonnes of CO2 per annum. Which? ranked Good Energy top of their report on UK renewable energy suppliers. Good Energy guarantee all energy is traceable to a UK generation source.

September 2019

We delivered a 2 minute film and a suite of still images for an organisation called The Sailboat Project who are using sail cargo to transport produce around the world. This particular project showed the delivery of olives, olive oil and almonds. Many thanks to Adrian Wolfson and Stephen Ambrose for their help in capturing the arrival of the boat into Newhaven harbour.

 

September 2019 also saw us take part in the Worldwide Climate Crisis Strike. We closed our offices and took to the streets of London and Brighton to join millions of people around the world striking on behalf of the planet. One of our banners quoted Kate Marvel: “We need courage, not hope, to face climate change”.

October 2019

We attended a Purpose Disruptors action event. Purpose Disruptors are a network of advertising insiders whose goal is to: ‘create a visible, large scale, bottom-up movement within the industry, that will act in solidarity to meaningfully tackle climate change’.  This was another key moment in our journey. How to tackle the industry we service has felt like the biggest issue, so to find a group of talented people with great ideas on what can be done to change the ad industry in a way that supports a sustainable planet was brilliant. 

November 2019

We implemented an optional ‘1% for the Planet’ to our invoices to go towards sustainability projects. We don’t feel carbon offsetting is a solution and we don’t have the software in place to accurately calculate our emissions. However, we appreciate that we need to be supporting projects that help absorb carbon from the atmosphere – such as planting trees, growing kelp forests and developing other biodiversity projects. Our present project is a reforestation scheme in Romania called Forests without Frontiers. Thank you to all the clients that have been happy supporting us with this. This scheme has been instrumental in developing conversations we wouldn’t otherwise have had.

November 2019

We attended the one-day Meaning Conference in Brighton. The six core themes to the conference are: Planet Positive Business, Progressive Economics, The Future of Work, Personal Growth, Disruptive Innovation & Modern Leadership.

One of the workshops was run by a group called Business Declares who are helping advise businesses on how they can declare a climate emergency. We learnt about how companies are registering for B Corporation status, which is an alternative way of evaluating the success of a business based on the principles of people, planet and profit.

December 2019

Our monthly newsletter showcased a photographic project we facilitated with a Brighton-based mobile farm shop called The Sussex Peasant. Shot by a wonderful photographer Jack Boniface, the photos help showcase the locally produced, seasonally grown, low meat produce which are essential in order to tackle the climate crisis.

December 2019 also saw us attend a number of talks and meet suppliers at The Green Zone at Focus, the annual conference for international production, held at the Business Design Centre.

January 2020

We switched our web hosting to a supplier that uses renewable energy called Erjjio Studios. Powering the internet is responsible for 2% of global carbon emissions; roughly the same footprint from global aviation fuel emissions. This month, we also hosted a discussion group about developing a wardrobe styling store. Based on the ‘reduce, reuse and recycle’ principle this will help reduce the emissions created from deliveries and collections, as well as cut back on the amount of wardrobe bought and returned on shoots.

February 2020

Valentine’s Day saw our co-founder Angus Light, participate in a sustainable production talk hosted and organised by Sunbeam Studios, the AOP and AdGreen.

April 2020

During the Covid-19 lockdown, our production department did a training session with Albert using their carbon calculator. Using 8 sample productions from the past 2 years the results showed that on average Transport was responsible for approx. 70% – 80% of carbon emissions from our shoots.

May 2020

We participated in the Great Reset initiative; a creative industry movement that aims to embed the positive environmental shifts that have happened during lockdown as ‘the new normal’. It’s estimated that the pause and slowdown of consumption, shopping and flying caused by the lockdown will result in a 7% decrease in global emissions in 2020. The UN states that we need a decrease of 7.6% every year until 2030 to avoid climate and ecological disaster.

November 2020

A summary of our work and efforts so far was included in the Ad Net Zero report. Ad Net Zero is an industry-wide, not-for-profit initiative led by the Advertising Association, the IPA and the ISBA which aims to reduce the carbon impact of developing, producing, and running UK advertising to real net zero by the end of 2030. You can download, read more and sign up to the Ad Net Zero scheme on the Advertising Associations’ website.

 

Learn more