Singapore – To mark International Biodiversity Day, global campaigning network Greenpeace has just dropped a cinematically powerful music video, MoneyTrees, in collaboration with rap artist GreedyBoy, that acts as a wakeup call to end the corporate destruction of nature.

Set to the pulsating beat of GreedyBoy’s specially composed track, Heckler Singapore joined forces as VFX partner on the striking video produced by Studio Birthplace – a Singapore-based creative agency focused exclusively on planet-positive projects.

The ‘MoneyTrees’ music video aims to expose the absurdity of how unregulated banks pour billions in investment into the big corporations that are destroying our planet’s natural habitats.

Led by Heckler Singapore creative director Cody Amos, the VFX team got to work setting the forest on fire. They also created some of the forest environment, including a few CG trees and wood embers, along with compositing the eye-catching fire elements that star heavily in the video.

Opening on a disturbing scene of profit-driven bankers destroying a rainforest with their chainsaws, the visuals then flip to the rainforest and bankers’ boardroom scene being engulfed in a frenzy of embers and flames. 

In portraying the forest destruction caused by bankers and corporations, it was crucial to Greenpeace and the creative team that no trees were harmed during filming. The film location features two giant trees that had recently been floored by a storm, creating a natural ‘destruction’ site.

Charu Menon, managing director and executive producer at Heckler Singapore, said, “I think the work Studio Birthplace are doing is essential – as their motto so succinctly puts it, they truly are telling the earth’s most urgent stories. It was a privilege to come on board as a VFX partner. The visual metaphor of a forest fire raging and almost engulfing a board meeting is chilling and unforgettable. The hyperbolic performances and the music track elevate the film.

Singapore – Discovery Channel has recently teamed up with Genshin Impact, a popular action role-playing game from miHoYo, for a documentary as well as a series of online and offline events dedicated to raising awareness for a variety of fragile natural habitats and inspire awe for the beauty of nature.

The campaign is titled ‘Teyvat Nature Discovery Tour’ and is aptly named after the game’s world and continent. First off in the collaboration is a short documentary produced by Discovery Channel. For both brands, this collaboration is driven by their shared passion for exploring the marvels of nature. Their joint efforts aim to raise environmental awareness whilst highlighting the fragile, endangered habitats of planet Earth.

The eight-minute documentary “Voices of Nature” takes a playful approach to various natural landscapes in a simultaneous live session, informing the audience about their respective roles in nature and why they are important to humans, before being shown in the editing room chatting with the film director. Presenting the beauty and profound value of nature, the film ends with informative data about pollution and damage to nature.

The documentary campaign features a lineup of famous actors, explorers, and environmental activists who give a human voice to each of the unique landscapes. They include A-list actor Kit Harrington, environmental activist Lily Cole, elite survivalist Max Djenohan, television presenter Kate Humble, and outdoor explorer Ed Stafford.

Starting March 16, the “Discover Traces, Explore Nature” web event for the collaboration will also offer Primogems–the game’s premium currency–as well as the exclusive Serenitea Pot Furnishing “Let the Desert Bloom” for those who manage to complete online challenges with Kaveh, the spokesperson of the tour. Earlier this week, Genshin Impact also announced five in-game characters (Beidou, Kokomi, Albedo, Tighnari, and Candace), each of whom will represent and discover one of the five habitats in Teyvat side-by-side with fans and gamers.

In addition, the “Teyvat Nature Discovery Tour” Offline Benefit Sale will take place in France, Germany, Italy, Korea, and the UK for a limited time. A wide selection of Genshin Impact merchandise will be sold on a first-come-first-served basis, and revenue from offline merchandise sales will be donated to the rainforest conservation organisation Cool Earth.

Singapore – Popular coffeehouse chain Starbucks has announced that it is scaling its Greener Store program across Asia-Pacific in order to set benchmarks for the company regarding its environmental responsibility.

Five Greener Stores across Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam are amongst the first in the Asia Pacific region to be certified, with over 20 more expected in 2023. With over 3,500 ‘Greener Stores’ certified across 20 markets, Starbucks is on a path towards achieving its goal of 10,000 Greener Stores total by 2025

The new Greener Stores in the Asia Pacific region help reduce Starbucks environmental impact through performance-based standards that incorporate design and extend throughout the life of a store. Each Greener Store has a unique combination of sustainable features that qualify for third-party verification on a quarterly basis. 

This ranges from features like energy and water efficient equipment and appliances, low-emitting paints and sealants, Grounds for Your Garden program, as well as energy efficient HVAC temperature systems and more. Additionally, the new Greener Stores in Asia include elements that go beyond the standard to deliver more robust energy, carbon, water, and waste reductions. 

In support of Starbucks’ goals of reducing carbon, water, and waste footprints by 2030, the open-source Greener Stores Framework was co-developed with the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). The framework includes a set of 25 performance-based standards across environmental impact areas such as energy efficiency, water stewardship, and waste diversion, designed to accelerate the transformation of retail towards lower-impact stores. 

Michael Kobori, chief sustainability officer at Starbucks, said that they are excited to continue expanding their Greener Store portfolio worldwide, which is a key step towards reaching their resource positive goals.

He also added that they have already seen results of their Greener Stores in the United States where they first piloted, as well as seeing significant reductions in energy use as well as water being saved.

“With a company of Starbucks scale – any one action, no matter how small, has the potential for massive impact. We are heartened by our partners around the world who are stepping up to adopt our Greener Store standards. This is testament of their energy and passion for sustainability that continues to drive our innovation,” Kobori said.

Mumbai, India – India was one of those countries globally that have been greatly affected by the pandemic, especially during 2021 when the country had a shortage of hospital spaces to deal with the rising number of COVID-19 cases. Reflecting on these events that shocked the nation, eco-friendly solutions company Eco Eclectic Technologies (EETech) has worked with creative agency Cheil Worldwide India in creating hospital beds out of waste face masks and PPEs.

In a film shown by the company, it stressed that thousands of people have passed away when they could not receive treatment due to the lack of available beds. In parallel, 100 million masks every month are being thrown into landfills. This non-biodegradable waste is littering our streets, landfills and even on our oceans.

The process features in a campaign, called ‘The Novel Bed Project’, showing a hospital bed being lovingly created from scratch, using discarded PPE kits, more than a thousand used masks, coffee waste, eco-friendly laminated paper and scrap materials.

“Exactly one year after the brutal second wave sent ripples through the country, the first bed made has been endorsed by doctors and donated to a hospital in Delhi, serving as a tribute to all the loved ones we had lost during the difficult period,” the agency said in a press statement.

Dr. Binish Desai, founder at Eco Eclectic Technologies, said, “I saw the amount of waste being generated by single use masks and I started experimenting. I don’t see waste as a waste, I see it as a resource. As humans we have created it, so it is our responsibility to get rid of it and so I started this particular project. Coming up with innovation from pandemic-related waste is very important.”

Meanwhile, Emmanuel Upputuru, CCO at Cheil India said, “We needed a novel way to address Covid waste in a way that would benefit society. With the dire shortage of hospital beds in India, we knew of no better way to repurpose the waste than to create much needed hospital beds. Something only possible by collaborating with Dr Desai’s EETech, the world leaders in breakthrough recycling technologies. The first bed produced was presented to a hospital in Delhi as a tribute to the ones we lost.”

The one-minute film, made by production house Epitome, breaks on 27 April in India across digital platforms and aims to educate people about the amount of pandemic waste generated by discarded face masks, how to dispose of it in a way that benefits communities and how it can be used to overcome hospital bed shortages.

Manila, Philippines – The World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in the Philippines, in partnership with Epson Philippines, have launched a 3D virtual museum to raise environmental awareness among Filipinos amidst issues of climate change nowadays.

The virtual museum will provide a platform that allows users from all over the world to have an immersive experience of going to an actual museum in the comfort of their homes. 

In relation with Epson Philippines’ ‘Turn Down the Heat’ campaign, the virtual museum will feature exhibits that will educate users on how they can help to reduce their impact on global warming by keeping track of their energy consumption and carbon footprint from their homes and workplaces. 

Justine Cruz, director for marketing and resource generation at WWF-Philippines, said that they aim at promoting an educational and discovery hub on the current state of the environment amid climate change.

“This virtual museum offers a three-dimensional immersive experience that will guide the people in learning and discovering how climate change affects various ecosystems. It aims to provide environmental awareness and help people reduce their impact on global warming as they actively track their energy consumption and carbon footprint through sustainable changes in lifestyle,” Cruz said.

Meanwhile, Eduardo Bonoan, marketing division general manager at Epson Philippines, commented that the educational features offered by the virtual museum will contribute to the environmental awareness of the youth, the academe, and the general public.

“Visitors can expect to learn about the effects of climate change on plants, animals, and humans as they navigate through the habitats and ecosystems featured in the virtual museum. The experience also includes suggestions on how they can integrate sustainable choices in their daily lives to conserve the environment. Through the virtual museum, EPC hopes to harness positive change as we work towards a greener tomorrow,” Bonoan concluded.

The virtual museum project will feature an audiovisual gallery of different ecosystems that provide users with various information on how these certain ecosystems are affected by climate change.

Singapore – Tech-enabled coffee brand Flash Coffee has partnered with green start-up CleanHub, with the objective of moving their brand towards being a plastic-neutral one. Through the partnership, for every Flash Coffee purchase, the coffee chain works with CleanHub and its global network of plastic collection projects to recover the equivalent amount of plastic before it reaches the oceans.

In November 2021, Flash Coffee embarked on a mission to neutralise its plastic impact for all past, present and future purchases and have committed to recover over 80,000 kilograms of plastic waste to date in collaboration with CleanHub.

Flash Coffee and CleanHub believe that channelling collective power is key to creating long-term positive impact on the environment, and with Flash Coffee’s latest app update, customers can now opt in to play a pivotal role in the coffee chain’s sustainability journey. 

For David Brunier, CEO and founder of Flash Coffee, sustainability is an incredibly important topic for Flash Coffee, and that their CleanHub collaboration that goes beyond plastic neutrality is just the beginning of their journey. He also stated that they are glad to be able to include their customers in their mission, and harness this collective power to create a larger positive environmental impact that recovers more plastic and leads to cleaner oceans.

“Our team remains committed to protecting the environment and minimising our impact wherever possible, and we are consistently reviewing supply chain upstream and downstream processes, product designs, in-store initiatives and beyond to understand how we can do more. We look forward to unveiling more sustainability-focused campaigns and partnerships with like-minded brands in the future,” Brunier said.

Meanwhile, Joel Tasche, CEO and founder of CleanHub, commented, “We are building a future where plastic is too valuable to waste. So far, we have enabled the recovery of over one million kilograms of plastic waste and we are connecting more than 100 brand partners to collection hubs in Asia. By engaging with us, brands are not only making an important environmental commitment, but also having a huge social impact. Thanks to Flash Coffee, we can help set up robust collection infrastructure that not only keeps plastic out of the ocean but also provides dignified jobs for hundreds of people.”

In addition, Flash Coffee Japan will make a move to switch to paper cups for iced drinks this month. These paper cups are thinly coated with recyclable PE plastic to meet stringent quality standards that hold up over time against condensation, and ensure the best possible customer experience. The initiative will be piloted first in Flash Coffee Japan, and rolled out across the wider region this year.

Singapore – In line with the Year of the Tiger and on the rising issue of Bengal tigers being endangered in their natural habitat, non-profit organisation The Corbett Foundation (TCF) has launched its latest non-fungible token (NFT) initiative called ‘Generative NFTs to Regenerate our Tigers’.

Unlike other NFT campaigns that are focused on art and other media, TCF wanted to use NFTs for a meaningful purpose, raising awareness for TCF’s commitment to helping Bengal tigers roam free across greater areas of land so they can repopulate and regenerate their numbers, in turn conserving the vast biodiversity of the nature reserves they inhabit.

Just like how each tiger stripes are one-of-a-kind, and unique to each tiger, TCF and its partners decided to use the original and distinctive tiger stripe patterns of real tigers from The TCF reserve, as inspiration for the NFT to bring awareness to the continued efforts in regenerating the tiger population in India.

TCF worked with partners BBDO Singapore and artist radarboy3000 to create a limited series of 2,967 NFTs based on real unique tiger stripes and put them up for purchase. All proceeds will be donated to TCF.

According to the artist, the generative art of the NFT tigers uses an algorithm which generates unique works of art by taking data from photos of actual surviving tigers in the wild.

“Just like each tiger’s stripes are unique, so is each artwork. Tigers in captivity can never be re-introduced to the wild. So, it’s imperative we protect them and preserve their habitat. I designed the work to be meditative, slowly evolving and revealing – signifying what is broken and lost, but also as a strong message of hope: that these beautiful animals will re-generate in numbers and be allowed to roam freely,” the artists said.

Meanwhile, Kedar Gore, director at TCF, said that working with their partners to create beautifully dynamic pieces of NFT artwork from actual photographs of tigers really helps bring the crux of the issue to life, and with the help of the sale of these NFTs, the rejuvenation of wild tigers.

“The natural world constantly faces evolving threats, and amongst the vast number of species facing extinction includes the five species of tigers left. Having been at the forefront of tiger conservation in India for nearly 30 years, TCF wants to take a modern approach to creating opportunities for the community to bring a new hope to the last remaining tigers in the wild,” Gore said.

The NFTs will be listed on fxhash, an open platform that enables artists to create, mint, and collect generative NFTs. fxhash is powered by Tezos, a power-efficient blockchain driven to provide green, clean blockchain innovation and technology.

Each of the 2,967 NFTs will be sold for approximately 2 tez (equivalent to US$8) and the proceeds raised will be donated towards TCF’s continued conservation work to keep tigers alive, roaming and growing.

Singapore – As the Chinese New Year festivities are focused on the celebration of the Year of the Tiger, the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) in Singapore has launched its latest awareness campaign on how climate change affects tigers in the world, with the launch of its island-wide tiger art trail called “AR-mazing Tiger Trail.”

The campaign, which will be unveiled this February, will feature 33 life-sized tiger art sculptures, designed by a collective of internationally-acclaimed artists in a bid to further awareness of the conservatorship of these magnificent creatures. Each of these sculptures present a unique perspective on the various effects of climate change on tigers.

Using art as an instrument to educate and effect change, WWF-Singapore’s AR-mazing Tiger Trail will explore the future of tiger conservation and ignite hope that positive change is possible if we unite with a common goal.

R. Raghunathan, CEO at WWF Singapore, said that they are delighted to be working with this incredible collective of artists to drive awareness for their tiger conservation mission in a fun, engaging, and approachable way.

“We hope that WWF-Singapore’s AR-mazing Tiger Trail will inspire our fellow Singaporeans and communities around the region to learn more about how our individual actions contribute to biological diversity. I also wish to thank our partners for supporting this important mission,” he said.

The artists hail from various countries, including Singapore, China, United Kingdom, Thailand, Australia, Bhutan, India, Indonesia, Italy, Malaysia, Syria, and the United States.

Meanwhile, Chris Westbrook, curator of Tiger Trail 2022, commented, “The mission of WWF-Singapore’s AR-mazing Tiger Trail was particularly poignant as I connected with the various artists involved around the world. The Tiger is a majestic animal, and the passion for protecting this incredible species is evident through the various works. We cannot wait to unveil the full trail.”

Beijing. China – The Chinese arm of global public relations consulting firm Hill + Knowlton (H+K) Strategies has announced the launch of its strategic advisory services to aid local businesses in creating environmental-friendly business strategies, in line with the upcoming COP15 conference to be held at Kunming, China on 11 to 24, October 2021.

Known as the ‘UN Biodiversity Conference’, COP15 will convene governments from around the world to agree on a new set of goals for nature over the next decade through the Convention on Biological Diversity post-2020 framework process. 

The framework sets out a global plan to implement broad-based action to bring about a transformation in society’s relationship with biodiversity and to ensure that, by 2050, the shared vision of living in ‘harmony with nature’ is fulfilled.

Through the newly-launched services, H+K China encourages the fact that effective communication will be essential for businesses and NGOs to gain recognition from key stakeholders, establish their positions in the global movement for biodiversity conservation, and deliver real impacts both within and outside of their organizations.

Furthermore, H+K Strategies has developed the H+K Better Impact™ offering in response to the challenges that companies and NGOs encounter while pursuing sustainability. Services under this new offering will empower brands and organizations to deliver timely and enduring impacts around COP15 through a holistic approach, which involves a unique score, act, consulting, or partnering process that zooms in on the best areas for targeting sustainability endeavors.

“H+K Strategies encourages all organizations to join in the global movement for safeguarding the natural world. At H+K Strategies, we’re dedicated to empowering and enabling brands and businesses to have a better impact on people and the planet. As a once-in-a-decade biodiversity conference, COP15 offers a fantastic platform for us to help them formulate a performance strategy that will deliver a better impact before, during and after the event,” said Jun Xu, CEO of H+K China.

Manila, Philippines – In a move to merge quirky relevancy to millennial viewers and communicate the brand’s messaging, Philippine oil company Unioil has tapped the talents of independent local creative agency GIGIL to launch a new campaign depicting a ‘mockumentary’ on saving the environment.

Titled ‘You Don’t Have To Go That Far’, the ‘mockumentary’ follows the quirky story of Bart, an environmentally-conscious person who takes his vision ‘seriously’ by storing all of his farts in jars. For him, he earlier learned that our farts, which contain the harmful gas methane, can be bad for the environment.

The ‘mockumentary’ continues with a slew of moments Bart would pause to fart into his prepared jars and place them in a cabinet with other farts he stored. As light-hearted the campaign is, Unioil stresses in the latter part of the campaign that we don’t need to go far in our endeavor to save the environment, and instead paying patronage to environmentally-safe products, like Unioil’s line of clean fuels, is already a meaningful step forward.

The latest spot by Unioil echoes the company’s vision to be more environmentally-aware through its ‘Doing Our Part’ campaign back in 2018, where they vowed to encourage Filipinos to make a difference in society through the small, everyday actions and responsible decisions they make, including the decision to choose a cleaner fuel.

Speaking about the campaign, Jake Yrastorza, managing partner at GIGIL told in an interview with MARKETECH APAC that they are proud of this recent campaign and are quite optimistic that it will create a positive difference for the brand—and its customers.

“Unioil is currently a challenger brand in the Philippines. But they are the oil company that’s probably the most serious with regard to its commitment to the environment and sustainability. However, to communicate a rather serious message to its target audience-the millennials-we all agreed that we needed to make it funny and light so they’d sit up and notice,” Yrastorza stated.

On a similar note, Jeano Cruz, associate creative director and head of social at GIGIL told MARKETECH APAC as well that they admire their client’s willingness to ‘bravely embrace the younger audiences’.

“The creative team just shared to them how millennials and Gen Z’s now really go out of their way to live out their beliefs. We just added a creative magnifier on that insight. Thanks to their risk, their film is now helping them stand out in the gasoline category that just keeps on looking like each other everyday,” Cruz stated.

An independent local creative agency, GIGIL has been well known to create quirky and tongue-in-cheek ad campaigns such as those of local soft drink brand RC Cola and plasticware brand Orocan.