Some of the world's most-recognizable brands flourish in the nonprofit sector. Household names with rich histories include the Red Cross, the Salvation Army and the American Cancer Society; by comparison, Greenpeace, founded in 1971, is a mere stripling, yet it has already achieved worldwide recognition as a campaigning, environmental brand with unmistakable core values.
That a Greenpeace campaign featured at the 2014 Sustainable Brands conference in London wasn't a surprise; the focus of the presentation from Andrew Hatton, Head of IT, was Greenpeace's increased deployment of social media as one of its day-to-day campaigning tools. Some of the facts behind #ClickClean, a campaign that targets owners of large cloud-based resources, raised a few eyebrows, mine included.
If the global cloud-computing industry was a country, reported Hatton, it would rank sixth in the list of international energy consumers, behind only China, the United States, Japan, India and Russia. Cloud computing consumes nearly 700 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year - most of it from "dirty," non-renewable sources.
How Clean Is Your Cloud?
That makes Greenpeace itchy. And when the biggest offenders are some of the biggest brands, including Amazon, eBay, IBM and Microsoft, there's a solid foundation for one of Greenpeace's hard-hitting, in-your-face campaigns.
But #ClickClean is different; fewer banners strung across office buildings and corporate headquarters - although those still feature - and more digital "outing." In 2014, Greenpeace fights fire with fire ...
In partnership with VIA, an agency based in Portland, ME, Greenpeace developed a series of off-the-wall campaign videos featuring comedian Reggie Watts; the objective, says Hatton, was "to partner with a cult figure who already has a significant online following. Taking a lighthearted approach increases the chances of going viral - essential for getting our message in front of the largest possible audience."
With close to a quarter of a million views in the three months since they launched, the #ClickClean videos are certainly getting attention. But is the campaign a success? Have companies changed their behaviors as a result? Hatton was happy to answer these and other questions I put to him in the week following the conference.
It's Not All of Our Making, But...
"Some high-profile businesses, including Google, Facebook and Apple, are already adopting renewable energy sources to power their cloud-computing facilities. While we can't claim direct responsibility for their actions, there's no doubt that we helped get the issue on their respective corporate agendas," Hatton told me. "When thousands of customers tweet a company or email the CEO asking for change, it has a huge impact. Social media amplifies the voice of the 'man-on-the-street' massively, and the idea of using the Internet itself to campaign for a cleaner Internet is highly appropriate."
Such has been the success of #ClickClean that Greening the Internet, a 2013 Greenpeace forum on the sustainability of the IT sector, saw speakers from Box, Facebook, Google and Rackspace sharing a platform and proclaiming their shared commitment to power operations with 100 percent renewable energy. "It's no coincidence," says Hatton, "that these leading Internet companies made key senior figures available for our event. Among the laggards, Amazon was conspicuous by its absence."
So is social media usurping Greenpeace's traditional activist activities - banner-hanging, nonviolent occupation and other forms of direct intervention? "Not at all," responds Hatton. "In 2014, Greenpeace makes no distinction between social-media campaigns and traditional activism; each is a critical part of a campaigner's toolkit."
Social Media Energizes Campaigns
"We believe it's essential to bring 'dry' campaigns to life," he continues, "and in times when a large commercial brand typically maintains a heavy online presence with a huge reach, social media is the ideal channel - particularly when it's mixed with a healthy dose of humor. Virality is key, and it doesn't require huge amounts of money; it's highly cost-effective."
I suggested that an advocate network among Greenpeace's supporter base would be an excellent means of spreading the word; an organization that relies on volunteer activists needs to mobilize every pair of hands, and that's a task made for advocacy. Hatton agrees - in principle at least.
"The Greenpeace culture is one of encouragement and of activism at local, national and international level," he explains. "We don't have formal communication chains, but many areas have dedicated Facebook groups or Twitter communities which serve the same purpose."
"Our new activist networking tool, Greenwire, is still in development, but I've seen very encouraging results. It shares a number of features with a typical advocacy platform, but it's structured to serve Greenpeace's specific purposes."
What is the Future of Digital Activism?
What does the future hold? Have Hatton's plans for future social-media-based campaigns changed as a result of #ClickClean's success?
"Greenpeace will continue to innovate as fast as technology allows," he says. "We have already implemented a raft of digital campaign tools; they're embedded throughout the organization, and every campaigner understands how to use them to best effect. "
"We're generally early adopters, and we go where the most active online communities congregate. In practice, our plans remain flexible and we intend to increase our social-media usage as new platforms develop."
Hatton is clearly a committed member of the cause; social media gives him campaigning capabilities that surpass anything available to his predecessors. But are environmental campaigners like Greenpeace becoming too dependent on the (still) largely fossil-fuel-powered Internet they want to eliminate? Or is this the only way to compete?
Share your thoughts with us by commenting below - whether you're an activist or an armchair observer, we'd love to hear from about your experience of social technology in campaigning of any type.
Image Credit:
#ClickClean Electricity Demand: Greenpeace