Sky has announced the winners of its Sky Zero Footprint Fund

Cristina Blanaru Business, Creativity

 Sky has announced the five winners of its Sky Zero Footprint Fund, a £2 million advertising fund set-up to accelerate and amplify business initiatives which are driving positive behavioral change for a more sustainable world.  

The five winning brands each displayed both the desire and creative capacity to inspire change, along with values aligned to Sky’s own. Sky has committed to go net zero carbon by 2030 and inspire others to join the journey. 

Each of the winning businesses has been awarded £250,000 in media value. They will now move into ad production, ahead of a final stage of judging in October which will see the most compelling creative securing a total of £1 million in media value.  

All five winning campaigns will be revealed as part of an advertising celebration of sustainability across Sky Media’s channels in the run up to the COP26 Climate Change conference in November, of which Sky is a Principal Partner and Media Partner. 

Debbie Klein, Group Chief Marketing, Corporate Affairs and People Officer, Sky, said: 

“Business has a key role to play on the journey to a zero-carbon future and at Sky we’re using our platform to support those who are working hard to drive positive change.  

“The Sky Zero Footprint Fund entries showed how many inspiring brands are committed to making a difference. Each of the winning campaigns will captivate audiences whilst delivering a critical message: the world cannot wait.”

The five wining businesses are (alphabetically): 

  • Here We Flo 
  • OLIO 
  • OVO Energy 
  • Path Financial 
  • Pura 

The winning campaigns were selected by a broad panel of credible and knowledgeable judges with strong views on advertising, creativity and sustainability. Each brand was judged on merit on their creativity (ability to inspire the nation into action), possible impact (the potential to drive behavioural change) and sustainable credibility (commitment as a business to improve future sustainability). 

Judges included advertising legend Sir John Hegarty; Su-Mei Thompson, CEO of the Media Trust; Juliet Davenport, Founder and Director of Good Energy; Lindsey Clay, CEO Thinkbox; Stephen Woodford, Chair of the Advertising Association; Jo Coombes, Founder of AdGreen, Gideon Spanier, UK Editor-in-Chief of Campaign and Karen Blackett OBE, Country Manager at WPP & GroupM UK CEO.   

Tim Pearson, Managing Director of Sky Media commented, “We know that each of our winners can play a key role in encouraging the nation to make small but significant changes. It’s exciting that through the process we’ve unearthed new and disruptive brands giving them a platform to amplify their message through the power of TV.” 

  • Here We Flo – Founded in 2013,Here We Flo believes that what we put in our bodies should be as natural as possible, kind to our bodies and kind to the planet. From biodegradable pad liners to organic tampons, all products are vegan and cruelty free and made from 100% organic or natural materials. 

Tara Chandra, Founder, Here We Flo, said: 

“Here We Flo and Hatch London are beyond proud to be one of the five Sky Zero Footprint Fund winners! Here We Flo’s mission is to make people feel crazy confident about life’s messiest moments (hello, periods!) in a cheeky, empowering and shamelessly natural way. So bringing that approach into millions of homes in the UK is an unprecedented achievement for us, especially as people are becoming more and more conscious of the environmental impact of the products they buy. As companies, we’re also proud to be part of an initiative that truly celebrates brands who go above and beyond in their sustainability and social impact efforts, offering a platform for products like FLO to gain momentum and be true agents of change in their categories. It’s time for healthier, eco-friendlier, adorabler period care to become the norm.” 
  • OLIO – OLIO is a free app tackling the enormous problem of waste in our homes by connecting people with their neighbours, so that surplus food and other household items can be given away, not thrown away. OLIO has grown to over 4 million users in five years, and its impact has been widely recognised, most notably by the United Nations who highlighted OLIO as a “beacon” for the world in terms of being a scalable solution to the climate crisis. OLIO’s community of users have successfully given away over 25 million portions of food and 3 million household items; this has had an environmental impact equivalent to taking 75 million car miles off the road, and has saved 3.8 billion litres of water. Half of all food added to the app is requested in under 21 minutes, and half of all non-food items are requested in under four hours. 

Tessa Clarke, Co-founder & CEO of OLIO, commented: 

“We’re absolutely ecstatic to be a Sky Zero Footprint Fund Winner. At OLIO we firmly believe we can make a difference. It was billions of small actions that got us into the climate crisis in the first place, and so surely billions of small actions can help get us out. Working together with Sky, we can’t wait to bring OLIO’s hard-hitting but empowering message into homes across the UK, and to unleash a clarion call that TV is uniquely placed to deliver.” 
  • OVO Energy – OVO Energy was founded in 2009 and redesigned the energy experience to be fair, effortless, green and simple for all customers. Today OVO is on a mission through its sustainability strategy Plan Zero to tackle the most important issue of our time; the climate crisis, by bringing our customers with us on the journey towards zero carbon living. OVO has committed to being a net zero carbon business and achieve bold science-based carbon reduction targets by 2030, while helping members halve their carbon footprint at the same time..  

Adrian Letts, CEO, OVO, said: 

 “We’re thrilled to be one of the Sky Zero Footprint Fund winners. Creating a world without carbon is the driving force behind our Plan Zero strategy, but can only be achieved if we inspire people to take action. The Sky Zero Footprint Fund will help us use the power of TV to encourage people to make real changes, transform attitudes and work together to combat climate change.” 
  • Pura – Born in the family home of Guy, Abi and Ezra Fennell in 2020, Pura is driven by the desire to leave a better legacy for all children. Pura is on an urgent mission to “democratise eco” by making high quality,100% plastic-free baby wipes and eco-friendly nappies affordable and accessible to all. The world’s first carbon neutral baby care brand, Pura is challenging greenwashing in baby care and pioneering nappy recycling in the UK. Pura has also recently launched a petition campaigning for a UK ban on all wet wipes containing plastic.   

Guy Fennell, mypura.com CEO and founder, said: 

“It’s no understatement to say that the whole Pura team is absolutely overjoyed to be selected as one of the five Sky Zero Footprint Fund winners! Pura was born to empower parents to make small changes that will, collectively, have a big environmental impact. Our win guarantees us reaching a mass audience via the formidable medium of TV, allowing us to inspire positive change and support the UK on its Net Zero mission.”  
  • Path Financial – Path Financial (www.thepath.co.uk) are the first and only national financial advice and wealth management firm to be set up with the express purpose of tackling climate change. Path Financial are on a stellar growth trajectory as individuals start to realize that moving their pensions and investments is the single most powerful action they can take to make a difference in the world. Path Financial helps people align their money with their values.” 

David MacDonald, Founder, The Path Financial, remarked: 

“We are beyond thrilled to have made it to the final five companies chosen by Sky and that the judges have recognised the urgency of the climate crisis and the need for big ideas and transformational change. Most people simply do not know the power that is in their pension or how to move their money to benefit the planet and with Sky’s support we’re now going to be able to help change that. They have recognised that – far from being boring – pensions have the potential to generate a mass movement of change with genuine Net Zero impact.  

“Sky is exerting massive effort to lead and innovate, not copy or follow. It’s inspirational, just like the companies they have chosen to back to save the planet. We applaud its powerful, deliberate vision and that it is helping take a lead here. Sky has picked a pension company for goodness sake, how much more visionary can you get!! 

“We set up Path Financial specifically to tackle the climate crisis – it’s not a sideline for us – it’s what we do all day, every day. ‘Believe in better’ is the perfect catch-phrase – let’s get positive on this en masse and we CAN drag ourselves back from the brink. We just need to pull together and behave deliberately.”  

All five winning ads will be produced using insights, tools  and learnings from AdGreen. Part of the Advertising Association, AdGreen supports the ad industry shift towards net zero, eliminating the negative environmental impacts of production. Established by Sky, the Footprint Fund is part of the Sky Zero campaign to be net zero carbon by 2030. 

Sky is Europe’s leading media and entertainment company and is proud to be part of the Comcast group. Across six countries, we connect our 23.4 million customers to the best entertainment, sports, news, and arts including our own award-winning original content. 

Our technology, including the market leading Sky Q, connects people to everything they love – with entertainment from Sky TV, Netflix, Disney+, Amazon Prime Video and BBC iPlayer, and apps like Spotify, YouTube, BBC Sounds, Highbrow, Peloton, Fiit, and more, in one place, easy. Our streaming service NOW brings viewers all the enjoyment of Sky with the flexibility of a contract-free service. Through our new B2B broadband provider, Sky Connect, we offer superfast broadband with business-grade 4G back-up to small businesses in the UK. 

Sky Media is the advertising sales arm of Sky, helping businesses of all shapes and sizes to grow. Through world-class premium content & channels, combined with market leading data-driven innovations like AdSmart, Sky Media gives brands access to audiences wherever they are, however they watch.  Reaching over 95% of the UK population, Sky Media represents over 130 channels including all of Sky’s quality channels and sites including Sky Sports, Sky News, Sky One, Sky Cinema, Sky Arts, Sky Atlantic, Sky Crime, Sky Comedy, Sky Witness, Sky Nature, Sky Documentaries and Sky HISTORY. Sky Media also sells on behalf of a range of renowned broadcasters including Viacom (Channel 5, MTV), Discovery, FOX, Sony, A+E Networks, AMC & Star TV.