Howatson+Company’s Charlotte Berry has proven that creativity and science can be powerful allies in the fight against climate change. As a senior creative, she has embedded sustainability into the work of global brands while simultaneously spearheading industry-first initiatives that drive policy and behavioural change.
Her standout projects over the past year include Voice of the Sea, which transformed marine biology into music and lessons for schools, winning an ARIA alongside a John Williamson classic and driving policy change to protect endangered species. She also helped rebrand a vulnerable shark species to Fantastical Sharks, mobilising 110,000 museum visitors and leading directly to new laws restricting commercial fishing and enhancing monitoring.
Most ambitiously, Berry has launched mAd Science, a program that unites scientists and creatives to translate critical climate research into campaigns capable of shifting public and corporate behaviour. Partnering with the University of Sydney’s Net Zero, the initiative is already working to commercialise innovations such as natural acid-eating microbes for mineral recovery.
For all these reasons, and so many more, she was awarded the Sustainability Champion award at B&T’s Women In Media Awards.
Catching up with B&T after her win, Berry reflected on the state of sustainability in advertising, calling efforts “not good enough”.
“We need to make a huge collective effort, not as individuals, but actually as an entire industry, as a planet, to simply survive,” she said.
“Growth metrics are completely wrong. Growth needs to take into account how a business actually impacts people being able to survive on the planet, and currently, that’s not what growth metrics align with.”
Berry believes that the industry’s influence can drive systemic change.
“Our industry is really good at showing the economic benefit when you change supply chains… what I would love to see is a transformed supply chain driving economies of scale so that we can all live in a world that is actually sustainable and that the end cost doesn’t land on a consumer, which means that nothing will change”.
For the next generation of changemakers, Berry recognised that it is “really easy to just want to give up”.
“You just everything, and you’re like, the world is fucked,” she confessed.
“Watch how the world closed down in one day because of COVID. If everyone actually acts together, and if everyone does the same thing at the same time, we can drive huge momentum,” she said.
“So I would say, if you care about the future, then just do one thing every day, one thing, have one conversation, make one decision. We’re in huge positions of power, and you have to use your influence”.
