Have you caught our new advert on TV yet? If you haven’t — or want to see it again — watch the advert now.

This is an exciting first for us, and we hope you like it just as much as we do. We wanted to share why we chose a message of climate action for our first ever TV ad, along with some behind-the-scenes details about the filming.

Why have we released an advert now?

We know, 2020 has been a very hard year. Why would we want to add reminders about the climate crisis to everything else we’re facing?

Well, the pause in ‘normal’ life caused by the COVID-19 pandemic has thrown into sharp relief the many ways humans affect the world. During the first 6 months of 2020 when many countries were in lockdown, the world experienced an 8.8% reduction in carbon emissions compared to the same period in 20191.

This is a huge, unprecedented drop — but won’t solve the climate crisis on its own. To meet the Paris Climate Agreement, high carbon emitting countries like the UK need to keep bringing emissions down.

What’s more, studies have shown that despite the pandemic, concern about the climate crisis has increased2. With campaigns such as Build Back Better, people are hoping that economies can rebuild in a way that is greener and fairer.

With our advert, we want to remind people that the climate crisis is impacting our world already, and that through supporting practical solutions like green, renewable energy, we all have the power to help tackle it.

Read more about the research that backs up the ideas explored in our advert.

Behind the scenes at the film shoot

Our advert was created together with Bristol-based purpose-driven marketing agency, Enviral. They share our commitment to having a positive impact on the world, and work with companies that are committed to providing solutions to social and environmental challenges.

Limiting the environmental impact of filming

Enviral are committed to making the production process as sustainable as possible. Their general sustainable shoot requirements include:

  • Recording and offsetting crew travel
  • Where possible, sourcing equipment and hiring crew and talent from the area around the shooting location
  • Sustainable catering, from no single use plastic to providing locally sourced vegan and vegetarian options
  • Filming in studios powered by 100% renewable electricity, or using generators with high eco credentials for filming on location.

Being Covid safe

The Good Energy advert was filmed in one day at a community centre near Bristol. It was filmed before the introduction of the tier system and the November lockdown, and utmost care was taken to limit the risk of transmission.

The creative agency had a full Covid safety procedure in place, with the production crew including a Covid safety officer to make sure all measures were kept to. These included, but were not limited to:

  • Temperature checks on arrival and again at lunchtime
  • Maintaining social distancing. The parent and child actors featured in the advert were family members and so did not have to socially distance from each other
  • Enhanced hygiene measures, including regularly washing hands and sanitising all equipment and surfaces, with crew wearing personal protective equipment including face coverings, face shields and gloves where necessary
  • Staggered call times to limit the amount of people on set, with crew and talent put into bubble groups to limit contact
  • Everyone being responsible for their own food, drinks, equipment and travel.

Footnotes

 1 Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact, reported in Science Daily on 14.10.20
2 ”Concern about climate change has gone up, not down”, Climate Outreach, 10.8.20