Green Crew Heroes, Victoria Harvey and Rachel Smy, Cofounders of Advertising Environmental Consultancy, Clima.
Green The Bid Crew Heroes is a series that highlights individuals who bring sustainable practices to any area of the production process, and seek to inspire others to do the same. Production can’t happen without all crew-members (both on set and off), and the same is true of their support of Green The Bid.
This week Green The Bid’s Jessie Nagel spoke with Victoria Harvey and Rachel Smy, Cofounders of Advertising Environmental Consultancy, Clima, about their work supporting companies in reaching net zero, the vital need for better climate crisis reporting and communications, and how we need to take action on climate as fast as we did Covid.
J.N. How did you meet?
V.H. We met at some industry events on sustainability, I really liked the way Rachel was super well informed and always spoke her mind but also had a wicked sense of humour.
R.S. Yep we realised early on that we shared a similar no nonsense straight talking approach with sustainability.
J.N. What made you decide to form a partnership to create Clima?
R.S. Our skill sets and work experience are quite different, so we realised that to collaborate would offer clients a unique service to help achieve their environmental goals. I enjoy working with Victoria; she has a brilliant work ethic, excellent environmental knowledge and good energy. It made sense for us to team up.
V.H. Yes we were getting approached by potential clients but felt we could offer a more substantial service if we worked together. Also, I’m super picky and there are not many people I could form a consultancy with so when I met Rachel, I knew she’d be an amazing business partner.
J.N. Describe the nature of your work together with Clima?
V.H. We specialise in the agency/production sector and the overarching aim is to guide organisations towards a net zero by 2030. We make sure we include all scopes in that figure and dig deep into the very end of the scope 3 so nothing is missed.
I specialise in carbon measuring, mapping and reporting the figures and Rachel creates the whole environment management system that enables this.
R.S. The two processes work really well together and enable an effective structure that produces a clear roadmap to low carbon operations. We customise ops to each client and continually run ideas and processes past each other, so we end up with a really effective system.
J.N. What most concerns you about the climate crisis?
V.H. I think the most concerning thing about the climate crisis is that people in general are still not taking it seriously. We need to remember that we didn’t see covid coming and when it hit, no one could have imagined the world having to totally shut down. It was a complete and total shock to the system. Climate change is like a ‘slow covid’, the only issue is that there is no vaccine, we need systematic change now, not in a few years’ time before it’s really too late.
R.S. Reporting of the climate crisis in the media, in general, is inadequate. Our industry is guilty of this; it certainly is not a front page issue yet and consequently many organisations are unaware of their responsibility to create a carbon reduction strategy to improve their environmental performance.
J.N. How did your backgrounds prepare you for what you do today?
R.S. I’ve worked in the Media for over 30 years in various production roles. More recently I spent 12 years at Ogilvy UK, where I built and maintained their Environmental Management System which was ISO14001 certified.
V.H. My background is mostly post-production and digital media. Working with Film Locker on sustainability issues for 9 years has been amazing as they are so genuine with their low carbon creds and offering. Academically my M.A. was in international development economics, which takes into account the macro drivers of climate change, and really fired up my interest in the UNs development goals. My current PhD take a social science perspective on the climate issue through research on values and behaviours which is fascinating.
J.N. What do you see as the biggest areas of impact that our industry should adopt as soon as humanly possible?
R.S. Switching to a renewable energy supplier is an easy win. Next, tackle travel. Air Miles is our industry’s most significant aspect and has the biggest negative impact on the environment. Business travel is a contentious issue for organisations who are global. However, lockdown has shown us that the majority of organisations can carry on without flying, and indeed thrive in some cases. Our industry needs to be braver and open the conversation with clients on minimising flights. A change in culture is required along with client collaboration which must come from the top down.
V.H. I agree on the flights issue. Who took the train to Cannes festival this year? Not many, so that’s a major shift in behaviour change that’s needed. In the production space it’s overlooked practices like the long-term storage of creative assets (on the cloud or on single use hard drives) that can be a massive creator of carbon that’s not recognised (but is hopefully soon to be included on the industry calculators!).
Industry wide the overarching worry for me is when adverting enables brands to greenwash their products by declaring them low carbon or carbon neutral. That really incenses me as its fooling the public, and it’s something that advertising should make sure it doesn’t accept as a brief from its clients. Thankfully in the UK that’s now monitored by the CMA Green Claims Code, but I still see many cases slipping through the net.
J.N. What are some key resources you’d like to share?
V.H. I really like Carbon Brief for proper daily updates on all sustainability topics. The BBC’s ‘The Climate Question’ is a great podcast and easy listening. I’m currently reading George Monbiot’s Regenesis, which is really amazing so far. Anything by Berners Lee is obviously amazing if you’re new to the carbon issue.
R.S. Outrage!+Optimism is brilliant, also check out Client Earth.
J.N. Who are your heroes?
V.H. Dr. Katherine Hayhoe. Brilliant atmospheric scientist and professor of political science at Texas Tech. She now concentrates on behaviour change because she feels this is the most crucial way to tackle the climate crisis.
R.S. I’m a fan of Christiana Figueres.
----- Are you a crew hero or do you know one? We want to hear from you!
