DESCRIPTION OF WHY WE ADMIRE THESE PEOPLE

NAME:  Ibrahim Abdul-Matin

POSITION & AGENCY: Lead sustainability advisor and lead consultant at The Frontier Project

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “I felt a deep sense of responsibility to protect the planet. Allah created this space for us to worship Him - destroying it not only prevents us from properly worshipping, but it is disrespectful to His creation.”

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: His book, Green Deen & sustainability consultation work

NAME: Juan Camilo Vásquez Roldán

POSITION & AGENCY: CEO of the marketing agency CVML

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “We were looking at some old photos of Medellín and it made us think about climate change..In photos of Medellín from the 1920s, the people dressed for tierra fría (the cold world). Nowadays, to put on a tie or a jacket is madness...The question of social responsibility is fundamental to us.”

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: Son Rio

NAME: Lee Clow

POSITION & AGENCY: Chairman of TBWA\Media Arts Lab and Director of Media Arts at TBWA\Worldwide

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “It can't be about us versus them anymore...It is simply about all of us coming together to do what needs to be done. The truth is, we need to act to keep nature healthy. And if we don’t Nature will go on without us.”

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: Nature is Speaking

NAME:  Eva Dienel

POSITION & AGENCY: Associate Director of Communications at Business for Social Responsibility

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: 

"Advertisers that raise awareness of sustainable lifestyles, and, on a larger scale, create messages around changing consumption patterns, will be at the forefront of current trends around consumer awareness and will differentiate themselves in the industry."

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: Sustainability Matters and Transparency, Purpose, and the Empowered Consumer: A New Paradigm for Advertising

NAME: Gerry Graf

POSITION & AGENCY: Chief Creative Officer of Barton F. Graf 9000

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “Hurricane Sandy hit Manhattan last year. Hurricanes are supposed to hit Florida which is 1500 miles south, never NYC. After going through that we started talking about the fact that it’s quite obvious that we have completely altered the weather patterns...There are brilliant creative minds in our industry. I think they would like to have a chance to make the world a better place.”

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS:  Climate Name Change

NAME:  Thomas Kolster

POSITION & AGENCY: Director of Goodvertising Agency

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “We, as the communications industry, have a pivotal role to play and may I add, that we, as the communications industry, have helped build and set in motion the wagon of consumerism and capitalism that is now driving us towards the edge of the cliff. We can solve these worldwide problems in a responsible, sustainable and engaging way.”

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: Where Good Grows  & Goodvertising

NAME:  Tim Lindsay

POSITION & AGENCY: CEO of D & AD

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE:   “If the human race is going to make progress, we have to change our behavior. What marketing and communications, advertising and design is good at, is meant to do, is change people’s behavior. I don’t want to make too many claims for the advertising and design business but we can help save the world."

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: Break the Silence on Climate Change

NAME:  Ernie Schenck

POSITION & AGENCY: freelance creative director and columnist

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “For such a creative industry, we’re awfully small thinkers...When we do [work] well, it can be brilliant and inspired and, at times, jaw-dropping. But we could be doing so much more. So why aren’t we?” 

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: BUND guerrilla campaign

NAME:  Sir Martin Sorrell

POSITION & AGENCY: Chief Executive of WPP

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “Today’s business leaders understand that social responsibility goes hand-in-hand with sustained growth and profitability.”

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: Why? Why Not? & helping WPP work towards sustainable business practices

NAME: Kevin Tuerff

POSITION & AGENCY: President and Co-Founder of Enviromedia

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “Companies late to jump on the sustainability bandwagon must take a similar approach of asking simple but hard questions about the way they do business. Addressing global climate change will require cultural changes within companies, similar to other corporate movements like Total Quality Management, Y2K and e-commerce sales via the Internet.”

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS:  Most of their work

NAME: Adam Werbach

POSITION & AGENCY: Former co-founder of Saachi & Saachi, now co-founder of Yerdle, & President of The Sierra Club

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “But I'm no longer professionally engaged with the environmentalism that I championed for most of my career...To its credit, the environmental movement has changed a lot. But environmentalism alone, without citizen or corporate action, is not going to achieve those goals."

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: Yerdle 

NAME:  Jonathan Wise

POSITION & AGENCY: Director of The Comms Lab

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE:  “What I learn about the broader impact of advertising in relation to climate change and my role within it was revelatory.  I found the logic that advertising drives Per Capita Consumption (getting people to buy more stuff) which causes climate change quite easy to get.  What I found incredibly challenging was fully accepting my personal responsibility, as a planner, towards driving climate change.”

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: Looking Up

NAME: Trish Wheaton

POSITION & AGENCY:  President at Young & Rubicam Group INSPIRE

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “Sustainability is of course the umbrella term for a number of issues that roll up under that that really contribute to social good...I think it's not a trend I think it's a fact and it's not going to go away. This is when you really get into looking at what brands are doing particularly around the environment...how they're putting pressure on their supply chain to be more sustainable. that's an investment, an order of magnitude I think we haven't seen in quite some time...we as marketers have to understand what that will be in the future as well."

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: The Central Park Conservancy & Why? Why Not? 

NAME:  Matthew Yeomans

POSITION & AGENCY: Founder of Sustainly

THOUGHTS ON CLIMATE CHANGE: “For companies to create sustainable businesses, however, they need their consumers to buy into buying more sustainable products and services. But consumers don't care about saving the planet, right? That's where sustainability marketing and advertising comes in.”

SUSTAINABILITY PROJECTS: Social Media Sustainability Index