Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards winners 2024: NGO/Charity
December19 are incredibly proud to have won at the Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards 2024, in the NGO/Charity sector, for our work for Material Focus.
The awards scheme launched in 2022 under a partnership between Campaign and Ad Net Zero, a five-point action programme for UK advertising and media organisations that are aiming to reduce their carbon emissions in line with the Paris Agreement. Supporting partners are the Advertising Association, AdGreen, ISBA and the IPA.
Adam Elman, EMEA head of sustainability at Google, gave a welcome speech in which he talked about how the Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards have built up a "repository" of case studies since launch that are helping the advertising industry build "a sustainable future for all".
Gideon Spanier, UK editor-in-chief, Campaign, said: "We are living in a time when some governments are pulling back from their sustainability commitments. The winners of the Campaign Ad Net Zero Awards are proof that brands can take the lead — with or without the support of politicians.”
The Campaign
We all want to recycle but the process itself can be daunting and even confusing, particularly when it comes to electrical.
The rise of “Fast Tech” - cheap, disposable electrical items like vapes - exacerbated the issue, with these often ending up in bins and causing fires due to their batteries. Recycling these items conserves valuable resources such as lithium, copper and gold, reduces landfill waste and supports a circular economy. If each of the 44 million adults in the UK who recycle items rather than throwing them away, recycle just one cable, we would have at least 40 million one-metre charging cables - enough to circle the earth once.
This campaign, with its consistent prompts on how and where to recycle yielded notable results in the form of the recovery of 7 million kilograms of precious materials. It capitalised on key decluttering moments across the year; the national Spring clean, October’s International E-Waste Day, and Recycling Week and highlighted a 6% year-on-year increase in small electrical recycling.
In just two six-week bursts and a media spend of £1.1m, the campaign registered a 100x search increase for “Recycle Your Electricals”, with 955,000 more people stating they now always recycle their electricals having seen the campaign and millions said it made them reconsider what they do with unwanted electricals.
Campaign judges were impressed; remarking: “Driving sustainable behaviour change is no mean feat, and considering the UK is amongst the highest for e-waste we need more campaigns like this.”