• Stop Waste
• Water Saving Heroes
• Coal Ash
• Stop Soot

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cause environment

organization StopWaste.org

website www.stopwaste.org

highlights

• Post campaign, two-thirds of residents in the service area had heard of food scrap recycling.
• Those residents who had heard about it were more likely to recycle their food scraps.

Make it Second Nature

Bay Area residents are recycling-savvy when it comes to products like soda cans and takeout boxes. But what about the food inside those containers?

StopWaste.Org’s food scrap recycling program had the potential to take millions of tons of food out of the waste stream and turn it into compost California’s farms. But first, they had to get people to think differently about their leftovers.

Underground created a community ad campaign, “Food Scrap Recycling. Make it Second Nature.” To determine how best to leverage the campaign to change peoples’ habits, Underground conducted moderated brainstorming sessions with staff and over a dozen participating municipalities, wrote questionnaires and surveys, and facilitated one-on-one in-depth interviews. The result was a communication and outreach plan that positioned StopWaste.Org as one of the most innovative and efficient government agencies in the country. Our brand identity, campaign work, and collateral resulted in higher participation in StopWaste.Org’s programs and statewide visibility.

In 2008, StopWaste.Org contracted with opinion research and public policy analysis group Fairbank, Maslin, Maullin & Associates to conduct an impact evaluation of the Food Scrap advertising campaign. The results were impressive: Those who reported seeing the food scrap advertising campaign say they started to recycle or increase their food scrap recycling as a result. These findings coincided with an increase in food scrap recycling in Alameda county following the release of the food scrap recycling advertising campaign. StopWaste.Org’s food scrap recycling campaign continues to be one of the most successful in the industry.

• Stop Waste
• Water Saving Heroes
• Coal Ash
• Stop Soot

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cause environment

organization San Francisco Public Utilities Commission

website www.watersavinghero.com

highlights

• Created a suite of alternative media materials including comic book-style brochure, fridge magnets, and sponges to give away at events.
• SFPUC service area reduced water usage by more than 13 percent.

Be A Water Saving Hero

When the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission approached us in 2007, California’s water situation looked grim. If people didn’t reduce their water usage, the drought was predicted to escalate to crisis-level come summer.

We needed to capture our audience’s attention with a sense of urgency. But we couldn’t simply lay on a doom-and-gloom message or we’d risk alienating our audience.

We created a campaign that honored “Water Saving Heroes” – ordinary individuals whose small actions are making a big difference to the water crisis. Through outdoor advertising, radio, and TV commercials, the campaign emphasizes simple tips for saving water at home, at work, and outside. To support these messages, Underground created a water saving heroes website to provide comprehensive information about how to save water, and links to rebates on water-saving home appliances.

The campaign was a measurable success in terms of water conservation in the Bay Area. Throughout the campaign, the SFPUC’s service area reduced overall water usage by more than 13 percent over historic consumption in similar dry year conditions. These results showed that easy, simple directives, delivered in a friendly and positive tone, can be immensely effective in changing personal behavior.

• Coal Ash
• Stop Soot
• Water Rest Shade
• La Colectiva

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organization Earthjustice

website www.earthjustice.org

highlights

• Campaign generated over 450,000 public comments to EPA.
• Creation of posters and buttons for use at all eight EPA public hearings during summer 2010.

Coal Ash Contaminates Our Lives

In the aftermath of the Tennessee Valley Authority coal ash spill of December 22, 2008, citizens and advocacy groups across the country were outraged. Earthjustice wanted to leverage that outrage into positive action, rallying the Obama administration into enacting harsher regulations on this dangerous material.

Underground helped position Earthjustice at the forefront of the movement to regulate coal ash, where it was able to organize and lead grassroots groups to use public comments to push the EPA towards regulations that declared coal ash hazardous waste.

“Coal Ash Contaminates Our Lives” features a series of print and outdoor ads and video stories highlighting coal ash’s unwelcome intrusion into our homes, our livelihoods, and our leisure activities. The strength of the campaign is the jarring juxtaposition of coal ash with scenes of comfort and familiarity. We also created a series of short documentary-style videos featuring those whose lives were directly affected by the TVA spill.

The combined result of these materials generated over 450,000 public comments to the EPA – far greater than Earthjustice’s initial target of 50,000 comments. Despite the epic response, the EPA has continuously postponed the date of their ruling on coal ash, and no decision has yet been reached. To maintain pressure on the EPA, Earthjustice is considering re-running the campaign in the summer of 2011.

• Stop Waste
• Water Saving Heroes
• Coal Ash
• Stop Soot

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cause environment, public health

organization EarthJustice

website www.stopsoot.org

highlights

• Underground secured a spot for “Little Things” as YouTube’s featured nonprofit video at the outset of the campaign.
• In the two weeks after it was first released, “Little Things” was viewed almost 10,000 times.
• The campaign received over 16,000 signatures.

stop soot

Too often, environmentalist narratives are heavy on guilt and light on empowerment. In crafting an action campaign around black carbon, Earthjustice knew that the right message would be a welcome respite from global warming’s barrage of doom and gloom.

Black carbon, commonly known as soot, is a potent warming agent and global health nuisance. But unlike its better-known cousin, carbon dioxide, it can be cheaply and easily curtailed with technology available today.

So in the spring of 2009, just before the Arctic Council Ministerial meeting where black carbon was on the agenda, Earthjustice approached Underground for help crafting a captivating story that would motivate action. Working with a small budget and a tight timeline, Underground created “Little Things,” an animated short that tells the story of black carbon. In a light-hearted and whimsical tone, “Little Things” tells of tiny particles wreaking global havoc, but also of individual people accomplishing great good.

The “Little Things” video was embedded in a stand-alone micro-site for the campaign, www.StopSoot.org, which features further information on the science behind the black carbon threat and a “Take Action” page where readers were encouraged to urge Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to take the lead on reducing black carbon. Earthjustice also highlighted the video in an email to their members, driving traffic directly to their own site where members could also take action.