RUN Aotearoa featured as Creatives for Climate launches Creative Integrity Playbook at COP30
The power of the creative industry to accelerate climate action is recognised as a climate solution at COP30 today.
On the COP30 Presidential stage, Creatives for Climate, the world’s largest network of communicators for climate action, today launched The Creative Integrity Playbook, a first-of-its-kind action guide to help agencies and brands align their influence with climate science and integrity. It is available in both English and Portuguese.
Building on the Oxford Net Zero Serviced Emissions Framework, The Playbook focuses on actionable, practical solutions offering science-backed recommendations to embed climate integrity into creative work, from client selection to campaign delivery.
The Playbook introduces tools such as The Agency Integrity Curve, a step-by-step model for agencies to progress from “participant” to “pioneer” status, alongside case studies from New Zealand, the UK, US and the Netherlands, demonstrating how independent agencies are leading the charge.
RUN Aotearoa is featured in the Playbook, with a case study on their Te ao Māori in Marketing workshop. RUN’s work exemplifies how cultural governance and Indigenous perspectives can directly influence how brands communicate and, by extension, the environmental and societal impact of those communications.
Says Laura Cibilich (pictured below), RUN Co Founder: “Creating space for cultural learning is, in itself, an act of environmental leadership. Te ao Māori, the Indigenous Māori worldview, teaches us that everything is connected – people and the environment – and that true sustainability comes from reciprocity and respect.”
The Playbook also introduces the Brief for Better Initiative, a brand pledge and procurement toolkit that connects clients with fossil-free agencies and offers a blueprint for aligning marketing spend with climate commitments.
Released during the official COP30 Presidential Event on Culture, the Playbook marks a turning point: for the first time in history, CULTURE has formally been included on the UNFCCC Global Climate Action Agenda, and within it the creative sector is formally recognised as a critical lever of change.
Says Lucy von Sturmer, the Kiwi Founder and CEO of Creatives for Climate: “For the first time, our industry’s influence is being recognised as a climate solution on the COP30 Presidential stage. The Creative Integrity Playbook turns that recognition into action — offering the clarity, tools, and pathway for agencies and brands to transform. What we say, how we say it, and who we choose to amplify shapes the world, and the future we all share.”
Insights presented in the Playbook have been generated with members of the Ethical Agency Alliance, a cross-border coalition of agencies in 10 countries, and feature contributions from agencies RUN Aotearoa, Lucky Generals, The Onlii, Studio Birthplace, Nice and Serious, Blyde PR, Profile, Worth Your While, Enviral, STRIKE.
Their award-winning fossil-free creative work was showcased on the COP30 Presidential stage today demonstrating that integrity doesn’t mean compromise, but creative excellence.
The Playbook drops amidst ongoing controversy that many clients, while claiming climate leadership, are still hiring agencies that represent oil and gas firms. This includes the COP30’s appointment of Edelman, and revealed last week, The EarthShot Prize hiring LLYC Brasil, a PR firm under contract to Petrobras, Brazil’s state oil company.
One year after the UN Secretary General’s public call out in support of a fossil fuel ban, through the Playbook and engagement with the UNFCCC process, Creatives for Climate enhances its efforts to offer solutions and a clear pathway for change.
The Playbook builds on Creatives for Climate’s suite of tools and training resources aimed at shifting the influence of creativity from driving pollution to scaling solutions, including The Anti-Greenwashing Guide developed in collaboration with Client Earth and Communicating Climate Change Course.
Ethical Agency Alliance Showreel Credits
Campaign: ‘Benedict Lumberjack’
Agency: Lucky Generals
Client: Make My Money Matter
Campaign: Plastic Change
Agency: Worth Your While
Client: Plastic Change
Campaign: Deforestation Is Not A Fiction
Agency: Strike Paris
Client: Greenpeace
Campaign: Ray the Rug feat. Ray Winstone
Agency: Worth Your While
Client: Save Wild Tigers
Campaign: The Chocopocalypse
Agency: Nice and Serious
Client: Tony’s Chocolonely
Campaign: Skip the Shortcuts
Agency: Nice and Serious
Client: By-Way
Campaign: Everyday Plastic
Agency: Enviral
Client: Greenpeace
Campaign: Blah Blah
Agency: Strike Paris
Client: Greenpeace
Film: ‘Oblivia Coalmine’
Agency: Lucky Generals
Client: Make My Money Matter
Editor: Miles Rouse
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