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More and more environmental messaging is flying around every day. You can’t do anything or go anywhere without seeing or hearing the word ‘green’. But while the amount of messaging is on the rise, it’s clear that most of it is failing to have the desired effect. You’ve only got to look at the way that ‘green’ is increasingly used in conjunction with the word ‘fatigue’.

With some people switching off their attention instead of their lights, ‘green fatigue’ is becoming a serious issue. It’s not really a question of boredom or cynicism, though. Analysts agree that the vast majority of people accept that climate change is a reality and acknowledge that it represents a threat to the future of the world, but there’s a growing sense of helplessness in the face of the enormous scale of the problem. And given the sort of doomsday scenarios that the media likes to paint, it is little wonder that there are doubts about how much real difference a single individual can make, however radically they might modify their behaviour.
   
Getting the messaging right – and making sure it has the right impact – is particularly important for a company like Royal Dutch Shell. As one of the largest energy corporations in the world, Shell realise they have to work harder than most when it comes to talking about the environment. They also know that, as well as pursuing ethical environmental policies and practices, and explaining these through effective and appropriate external communications, they also need to carefully consider what goes on internally within the company.

A short time ago, Shell asked Rufus Leonard to create a campaign to help their employees be more mindful of the amount of carbon dioxide they generate during their daily working lives. The result was eMission, one of the most unique internal communications projects we’ve ever been involved with. What made eMission so special was that, as well as fostering awareness, the inclusion of pledge charts and progress boards gave people the tools they required to change their habits and demonstrated the effects of those changes in a way that was both exact and straightforward. The campaign’s strapline – ‘The power’s in your hands’ – spoke volumes. 

It’s crucial that internal communications are kept simple. Everyone should be able to engage with what is being said quickly and easily. In this instance, we chose the kind of language somebody might use when they are talking to a member of their family. It wasn’t patronising or evangelical or alarmist. It was open and honest and straight. The accompanying visuals combined chunky and rounded shapes for inanimate objects such as computers and cars with stick people drawn in chalk. The chalk people echoed the idea of scientific equations scratched on a blackboard and were almost like children’s drawings. As with the copy, it was important to keep it basic.

We wanted the eMission campaign to inspire people to discuss it with their fellow workers while making a cup of coffee or standing beside the photocopier. To find the spark we needed to do this, we adopted a traditional advertising approach to the project. In doing so we realised that, whatever their job was, most of the people who worked for Shell regularly thought and spoke in terms of barrels of oil, so we took this notion and used it as the basis for a common currency that all members of staff could relate to.

By pointing out that a barrel of oil produces 1.7 mwh (megawatt hours) of power and releases 416 kg of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere in the process, the campaign showed just how many barrels of oil could be saved by humble actions such as switching off computers and photocopiers in the office or not using a car to travel to and from work. If 15,000 members of staff shut down their PCs at the end of each day, for instance, it would save 18,568 barrels of oil a year and stop 7,000,000 kg of carbon dioxide spilling out into the atmosphere.

When it came to launching eMission, Shell were eager to stay true to the energy-saving ethos of the campaign. So rather than making the material available as a printed document, Rufus Leonard produced a small Microsoft Word file which was distributed as an email attachment and placed on Shell’s intranet. And as the campaign spread out to different sectors of the company in different parts of the world, the flexibility of the format and the simplicity of the copy meant that it was easy to replicate in a range of languages. 

The eMission project has been a tremendous success for Royal Dutch Shell, with the company’s employees readily embracing the campaign and eagerly adopting the energy saving measures that it outlined. Part of the reason for the strong interest was undoubtedly the very straightforward messaging. The fact that the campaign showed what could be accomplished by joining in, and it did so in a way that was both tangible and easy to understand, were also important factors.

Setting corporate responsibility at the heart of your business and integrating it with your everyday work practices has a range of benefits for your company, as well as for the wider world. The Shell project is a great example of this. It has invigorated and motivated Shell’s employees, generating a sense of broader purpose and achievement. It really has put power into people’s hands.

Despite the range and scope of the environmental problems we are facing and the often complex nature of the issues involved, Shell has proved that the equations can be pretty simple. A few thousand people plus a bit of effort from each of them adds up to a big difference.

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