Catching the mainstream

Seen those new ads about climate change? Carbon Trust chief executive Tom Delay tells Mark Nicholls where they’re coming from.

Starting in January, on television and in the newspapers, a major advertising campaign is setting out to change how British business thinks about climate change. And how it responds. A ‘hearts and minds’ initiative on this scale is a major undertaking for the Carbon Trust, the government-funded body set up in 2001 with a mandate to help move the UK towards a low carbon economy.

But the reason for doing it, and doing it now, is simple, says chief executive Tom Delay. He feels that the business community is at a ‘tipping point’ in terms of its attitude towards climate change. “This is as good an opportunity as we’ve seen to turn this from a marginal issue into a mainstream one - and, if we can, then the effect of everything we do will increase exponentially.”

The Carbon Trust is already working with business on a range of programmes to help identify sources of emission reductions, to manage risks related to climate change and to exploit potential opportunities offered by a carbon-constrained economy. One big step forward has come from the effort it has put into finding and working with key people within companies. It now has ‘internal champions’, as Delay calls them, in 28 of the FTSE100 - and it’s an approach that is proving highly fruitful in identifying “a whole series of opportunities”.

But the difficulty comes with delivering on them. In a lot of companies, Delay says, hidden barriers inhibit the uptake of many of the energy efficiency or emission reduction opportunities that are identified. Sometimes the internal champions are wary of being branded as cranks for pushing too hard on climate change. Or, if the issue is seen as a long-term one, then action may be deferred. Hence the current high profile advertising campaign.

Its aim is to make companies more receptive to taking action, by building constituencies of support throughout them. “It’s targeted at everyone from the board to the shop floor - and it will be effective if it lowers barriers to implementing action on climate change right across the company.” How the message is pitched is, of course, crucial.

The campaign doesn’t attempt to address the increasingly marginalised fringe that questions the causes of climate change - “our research shows almost everyone believes it is real,” Delay says. Equally, it doesn’t preach, or attempt to scare. Instead, the adverts appeal to notions of responsibility.

“We’ve all benefited from industrialisation, but progress has had unintended consequences. It’s now time to deal with them,” he says. “The campaign also stresses that this is practical, and real - we’ve got to reduce emissions, it can be done, and the Carbon Trust is already working with business to that end. Business is already doing a great deal.” The Carbon Trust did think long and hard before undertaking such a campaign, in view of the costs involved.

“It’s always difficult for government bodies to justify marketing spend,” Delay accepts. But, as he points out, British business is already spending an estimated £1.3 billion a year responding to climate change, and only a tiny fraction of that - he guesses £25 million - is being spent on awareness raising. “This is incredibly low, given the change we’re trying to effect. The government has asked us to maximise our carbon returns, and we’ve got a track record of successful campaigns.”

The ‘Lifeblood’ campaign, which targeted energy efficiency at SMEs, is a recent good example. “The purpose of this campaign,” Delay goes on, “is to position the issue differently in people’s minds. What we don’t yet know is how profound that shift needs to be.” A series of before-and-after surveys will help reveal whether the adverts have hit home.

As will the impact on business demand for the Carbon Trust’s services. Delay is prepared to nail his colours to the mast on this one. “We feel investing in this will make our other programmes more successful.”

Mark Nicholls is a freelance journalist, and editor of Environmental Finance magazine.

26 January 2005

Mark Nicholls