5 digital campaigns that made a splash on World Environment Day

June 5 is marked by the United Nations as World Environment Day, a day set aside since 1974 to promote “worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment.”

This year’s theme was plastic pollution - a first for the UN and huge win for the movement which has gained momentum over the last 12 months.

Global awareness days, such as World Environment Day present a huge opportunity for organisations to tell their story and reach a wider audience by harnessing the power of digital channels such as social media to join global conversations.

Here are 5 of the best digital campaigns we spotted on World Environment Day.

• #BeatPlasticPollution

As the founders of the campaign the UN had to get a mention for this year’s campaign, which we think was beautifully executed and had phenomenal support worldwide. The theme was #BeatPlasticPollution and they launched with an online, global game of tag. Seeded with a high impact, celebrity-led film including Arnold Schwarzenegger, Moby and Rachel Dratch, the campaign gave consumers 24 hours to tell the world how they were going to #BeatPlasticPollution and tag a friend to get involved.

We loved the campaign mechanism - by asking consumers to not just publicly tag someone, but also talk about the issue and what they were going to give up, they ensured the campaign not only went viral but also retained its key message and call to action.

• #OnePlasticFreeDay

In the UK, another campaign that made a lot of noise was ‘A Plastic Planet’s’ #OnePlasticFreeDay. Similar to the UN, they invited consumers to ditch plastic on World Environment Day and share how they were getting on via social media.

We loved their use of eye-catching assets, consumer generated content and a fantastic interactive website providing tips and busting myths about plastic.

A few weeks ago, A Plastic Planet went one step further in the fight against plastic by launching the very first plastic-free label, which is already used by retailer Iceland.

• #PassOnPlasticEmoji

The Sky Ocean Rescue team took a totally different approach and launched a petition asking Unicode to remove their single-use plastic cup emoji from our keyboards to raise awareness of the need to stop the normalisation of single-use plastic. The motivation - “If we don’t remove the cup with straw emoji, we might soon have to remove the whale, fish and marine wildlife emojis.”

The move came as part of their ongoing campaign which inspires people to make simple, everyday changes to stop our oceans from drowning in plastic.

• Wastebuster & The Plastic Planet Challenge

Wastebuster is an environmental education campaign designed to inform, engage and inspire children to care for the environment. The Plastic Planet Challenge, led by Wastebuster and Recycle now, launched on UN World Environment Day 2018, to invite young people from across the globe, to use their secret weapon - pester power - to beat plastic pollution.

Targeted at children, the campaign uses Captain Busta and its Wastebusters to entice children onto their virtual spaceship where they can learn about the impact of plastic through videos and interactive resources.

• Keep Cup’s #everydaychangemakers

Reusable cup brand Keep Cup, took to the streets on World Environment Day to ask people what they’ve been doing do to reduce single use plastic in their daily lives.

Using the hashtag #everydaychangemakers, they shared their customers’ personal stories and tips.

“One of the simplest things I do? Say no to plastic straws! Using my KeepCup means I also avoid disposable cups, and I’ve also found it’s a great conversation starter. People see my Brew Cork, and before you know it we’re discussing reuse!”

Do you have a favourite that didn’t make our list? Find us on LinkedIn and let us know.

We work exclusively with ethical organisations, developing communications campaigns that have a positive impact and add real value to the company. If you are an ethical business looking for PR or digital support, we would love to hear from you.