by Laura Harrison, head of sustainability, Barley Communications
It’s World Environment Day and it’s almost exactly ten years since we launched Barley’s first environmental campaign, a couple of months after Barley was conceived. Happy Birthday to us! We were teeny tiny when we started (a handful of us sitting round the table wanting to change the world) but our drive for doing good was gargantuan. It’s been an exhilarating ride….
Our first campaign was for Hubbub, a fabulous charity also in its infancy at the time. Our task was to get Londoners to think twice about buying bagged salad. Polling data concluded that a million bags of salad were thrown away each week in London in the summer. The topic was a hard sell to media but nevertheless we landed some great coverage including the Evening Standard. Environmental stories were fairly tricky to land in 2016. But something seemed to shift in 2017-2019. Coffee cup recycling, river pollution, plastic litter, air pollution, fast fashion – these topics started gaining traction and mainstream media suddenly couldn’t get enough environmental stories. “Finally people are waking up to the crisis, they want to take action,” I thought. It was quite a relief.
Then Brexit happened. Then COVID hit. Aside from some remarkable stories on the reduction in carbon emissions from the quiet streets and blank skies, the world and its media had (understandably) more immediate issues to cover. The environment got sidelined and I’m not sure it ever really got back on the playing field in the same way. The bottom fell out of the reuse movement – who wanted to risk getting covid from a fork or coffee cup? New policies and legislation got delayed and delayed. Environmental issues became increasingly politicised and sucked into the culture wars. It divided people and this was reflected in how the media covered (or actively avoided) environmental stories. Some talented environmental editors and writers lost their jobs and the demand for content on how consumers can take environmental action tailed off.
Despite the challenging landscape we continue to land stories and engage audiences with our campaigns; shining a light on micro-fibres, river pollution, peat-free compost, recycling contamination, e-waste, fly-tipping and over-fishing to name but a few. We’ve often chosen to pivot, using cost-savings and local pride to draw in our audiences rather than the environment which is sometimes a topic they’re less likely to engage with.
The media and digital landscape has shifted so much over these ten years. We now make use of many more channels to reach and influence people. Inspiring individuals and organisations are using social media platforms to challenge, call out, shine a light on the ludicrous, igniting important discussions and prompting e-petitions and community action.
Something else is shifting too. More and more people are beginning to experience the impacts of climate change. The floods, the heatwaves, the failed crops. This should be a catalyst for action. And maybe that action is now more focused on resilience and adaptation rather than prevention. Because climate change is already here. The media could play a key role in informing and educating people and I do hope we see the same kind of enthusiasm that we did back in the 2017-2019 “sweet spot” I mentioned previously.
Barley will continue to advocate passionately for the natural world and the fight against climate change. We are privileged to work with some brilliant environmental charities, public bodies and councils and have some really exciting and impactful work lined up over the coming months.
As we plan our birthday celebrations ten years on, we’re putting the finishing touches to a creative campaign for ReLondon to get more Londoners recycling the food they can’t eat. I do wonder how much salad Londoners are still throwing away?