Outdoor ads for CABE's campaign are appearing across Birmingham

The Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment (CABE) is urging businesses in Birmingham to think harder about green issues, as part of a multi-media advertising campaign for the world's first Climate Change Festival.

It has launched a ‘Break the mould' campaign, designed to educate businesses, as well as consumers, as to how they can reduce their carbon footprint and turn Birmingham into a greener city. Collateral from the campaign, which is made up of outdoor ads placed at roadsides, in bus shelters and at train stations, is running in conjunction with the festival, which began on May 31 and ends on June 8. Local radio stations are also promoting the initiative.

During the festival itself, which CABE has organised in conjunction with Birmingham City Council, a number of seminars and masterclasses are being held to educate businesses on topics including minimising waste, recycling and energy performance certificates. CABE says it is trying to foster a positive approach in asking businesses to take a greener attitude, rather than one of ‘guilt and scolding' that it says the majority of environmental campaigns take.

Stella Bland, head of communications at CABE, says, "Threatening people with the apocalypse clearly isn't ever going to become the trigger for serious action on climate change. So our campaign has focused instead on the opportunities to re-imagine and reinvent our towns and cities, to make them more beautiful, more sociable and more competitive."

Bland adds, "Every major business should by now have a clearly defined carbon footprint and know what their output is, yet many still don't know what exactly they have to do, so we're aiming to help educate them. We're also trying to promote the message that with energy prices rising so dramatically, a low carbon city will be so much better to live in. A non-carbon friendly city simply isn't future proof."

CABE says it hopes that the Climate Change Festival will roll out across other cities in the coming year, and globally by 2010.

The design for the creative ad campaign was managed in-house.

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