On 25th June I attended Reset Connect as part of London Climate Week at the London Excel. It wasn’t without irony that I listened to the keynote speech of ‘Why we need nature at the heart of decision making’ on one of the hottest days of the year so far in the UK and heard the constant drumbeat of the message throughout the day of, we are not doing enough, and nature is disappearing fast.
Another key message that came through in all the talks, was one of collaboration and a growing sense of the fact that resilience is critical. Organisations, leaders, teams and individuals all need to pull together and share a common goal or as Andrew Lever at the Carbon Trust put it “we all need to be part of the Acceleration, Collaboration and Innovation that needs to take place for societal change to occur. Fast”.
The final panel on day one was centered around ‘Customer Centric Brands & Propositions’ with a great panel of spokespeople from Lush Cosmetics, Abel & Cole, Green Element, Danone UK & Ireland and Antenna Group and was moderated by the ESG & Sustainability Partner at White & Case LLP. Discussion was varied and lively and agreement from the outset was had by all, that ‘brands are the new storytellers’ and that there is ‘a triple bottom line of people, planet and profit for all organisations’, with sustainability being key to that for any brand. There was agreement amongst the panellists that ‘there is a convergence of awareness & opportunity, with the public & private sector working together’ and that we (as storytellers) ‘need to help consumers feel they are making a difference to some of the really big issues’.
And that was a key takeout for me; which is that, if we don’t bring every aspect of an organisation or a community along on this journey, then we won’t succeed and ‘an incremental approach needs to be taken to ensure you don’t put your audiences off’. In these days of climate crisis awareness, before we reach that tipping point, those that tell stories and create narrative need to be bold, but not reckless or scaremongering.
It’s a fine balance, and one that can be walked, but educating our clients and organisations on how to do this well is an imperative part of how agencies can contribute to the needs of the planet.
My overall takeout from day one of Reset was one of positive action, togetherness and a shared goal, no matter if the organisations there were competitors – this call to regenerate nature is bigger than that. A spokesperson from Danone left the last panel of the day with the sentiment of ‘be braver, but have integrity and be humble’ which struck me as something we can all strive to take forward, as leaders, organisations, agencies and individuals, as we try to take measurable action towards the climate crisis we are facing.
Suzie joined the Oxford HR Group in January 2019 as Communications Director. She holds a BA (Hons) in Journalism from Cardiff University and has worked in Marketing for over 15 years.
Prior to working for the Oxford HR Group, Suzie has developed through the line advertising campaigns and worked on the global strategies for companies such P&G, Nissan, Delta Airlines, Barclays, COI, World Horse Welfare, Vodafone and VTECH. Suzie is particularly interested in how technology and digital innovation can contribute to the global UN goal of ending hunger and poverty by 2030.
Suzie is a Trustee on the Board of the charity CMV Action, endeavouring to support awareness and fund vaccine research for this virus.
