The sustainability marketing and communications team at GoodSense is the first in Aotearoa to join climate communications group, Comms Declare.
The proposition is simple – if you work in comms, stop representing the fossil fuel industry. Comms Declare sees it as the single most impactful move we can take as an industry to move society in the right direction. After operating in Australia for four years, Comms Declare has now launched in New Zealand.
Earlier this year, the United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, asked all governments and businesses to stop advertising the fossil fuel companies he describes as the ‘Godfathers of climate chaos’. More than 40 jurisdictions globally have restricted fossil fuel promotions, including 16 in Australia (thanks to Comms Declare).
“Signing up to Comms Declare is the best way to show you get what’s going on,” said Matt Halliday from Comms Declare Aotearoa. “Kath, Jo and the team at Good Sense are leading the way – they understand the urgency. If you run a business or agency in the comms industry, join them and us. Declare your commitment to do better.”
Kath Dewar, Good Sense Founder and MD said, “We don’t work with any fossil fuel products or high climate-harm services because it would make a nonsense of our other work with brands and organisations making things better for people and the rest of nature.”
“With communities and companies in Aotearoa already being slammed or sunk by extreme weather, we welcome Comms Declare. We want more comms companies to spurn fossil fuels the way they do tobacco companies, because of the massive harm their product does. There simply is no safe burning of more coal or oil, the same way there is no safe level of tobacco smoking.”
In September 2024, Comms Declare published the F-list of agencies in New Zealand and Australia still representing fossil fuel clients.
Comms Declare is now calling on agencies and individuals in the comms industry to take a step in the right direction, heed the UN’s word, and divest themselves of fossil fuel clients.
