Keep Britain Tidy is a leading independent environmental charity that works to inspire, educate and enable everyone in this country to value the environment on their doorstep. This means more to them than just picking up litter.
Through national campaigns, programmes, research and innovations, Keep Britain Tidy aim to support and galvanise communities to reduce resource use, waste, litter and live more sustainably, as well as improve the quality of public spaces.
The charity do this through programmes – including Eco-Schools, the Green Flag Award for parks and green spaces and the Blue Flag/Seaside Awards for beaches – and annual campaigns, which include the Great British Spring Clean and Buy Nothing New Month.
Keep Britain Tidy asked us to develop the brand and creative assets to deliver a bold and engaging social media campaign for Buy Nothing New Month — an initiative aimed at challenging consumer habits and promoting more sustainable lifestyles.
The campaign encouraged people to pause before purchasing new items and instead consider more environmentally friendly alternatives such as borrowing, repairing, upcycling or buying second-hand. The objective was to also increase understanding that waste prevention is a key lever for cutting carbon emissions.
We worked with Keep Britain Tidy and Barley Communications to define a campaign tone that would be both positive and empowering – avoiding guilt-based messaging in favour of a fun, inclusive, and action-focused approach. From this foundation, we developed a vibrant visual identity for the campaign, incorporating playful illustrations, warm colour palettes, and bold typography to create content that would stand out on busy social media feeds.
We crafted an uplifting visual identity and a suite of dynamic social assets that encouraged people to pause before buying new and explore more sustainable alternatives. The result was a campaign that captured attention, invited participation, and made conscious consumption feel rewarding, doable and fun.
The campaign included a series of short, shareable animations, static posts, and story formats tailored for platforms including Instagram, Facebook, and X (formerly Twitter). Each asset was designed to reinforce key campaign themes – such as fast fashion, consumer waste, and the environmental benefits of reuse – while offering practical tips that audiences could adopt immediately. We also created editable templates so the Keep Britain Tidy team could easily localise or update content throughout the month.
The final result was a lively, people-focused campaign that captured attention and encouraged reflection – sparking conversations online and helping shift behaviours around everyday consumption. Through creative storytelling and strong visual cohesion, Carbon Creative helped Keep Britain Tidy and Barley Communications bring Buy Nothing New Month to life in a way that resonated with diverse audiences and drove meaningful engagement.
More than 65% of participants reported buying nothing new during January 2023, and 80% said as a result of the campaign they will think more about the things that they buy. Paid social delivered over four million impressions with a click-through rate more than three times the industry average. PR activity generated over 2.5 million opportunities to see the campaign, including national coverage in The Sunday Telegraph.
