Background

GOOD LIFE 2030

Led by Purpose Disruptors and in collaboration with the Insight Climate Collective, Race to Zero, Stories for Life and over 200 industry professionals, Good Life 2030 is a project for the advertising industry to transform both itself and society in service of halving emissions by 2030 through the process of reimagining and redefining what a ‘good life’ looks and feels like, informed by real everyday people.

GOOD LIFE 2030 HELPS US REIMAGINE THE FUTURE

Good Life 2030 is a Purpose Disruptors project offering a portal into the future, a way to transport people through a felt experience to another place. Together, the advertising industry can create a new vision of a ‘good life’ inspired by both everyday people and the work of others outside the industry. We believe this creation of a new future to move towards (now) is key to enabling the industry to change both itself and society in order to halve emissions by 2030 and stay within 1.5 degrees.

WHAT IS A ‘GOOD LIFE’ TO CITIZENS?

In the citizen research conducted at the beginning of this project, we identified new language was needed to enable everyday people to connect with a version of the future that was meaningful to them. They are turned off by the langage of ‘sustainability’ and ‘green’ it all sounds like less and loss. They can easily imagine and describe what a ‘Good Life’ in the future looks and feels like to them and they have a real desire to move towards this today.

THE BIG PROBLEM: CONSUMPTION AND DEMAND DRIVE CLIMATE CHANGE

The latest IPCC report focuses on the influence of demand and consumption in driving climate change. 

The role advertising plays in driving this demand and consumption is coming into sharper focus. Yet, when it comes to tackling climate change, the industry is currently focused on business operations, production and carbon calculators. The real impact of the industry is our Advertised Emissions associated with the uplift in sales driven by advertising.

THE ROLE OF ADVERTISING

The advertising industry touts many initiatives defining what we must move away from and offering tools to make the existing system better. But the focus is all on business operations and carbon footprint. What is lacking is a positive, inspiring vision of what the industry could become…and the climate conscious society it could help create.

LESS THAN 8 YEARS TO HALVE CARBON EMISSIONS 

The role of advertising is not about tinkering around the edges of the current system. It’s about the desire the ad industry creates for high carbon lifestyles and behaviours which are driving consumption…which is driving the climate emergency. 

The level of change that is urgently needed is cultural – it’s a shift in both our creative output and our industry’s role as an amplifier of change in the world.