Climate Lab

universityofcalifornia.edu/climate-lab

Let's face it: thinking about climate change and sustainability—and what to do about these pressing issues—can be downright depressing. People don't want to hear about starving polar bears on melting ice floes or feel guilty about how their deleterious habits are affecting the environment. 

So, the University of California's Marketing Communications team, in collaboration with Vox Media, took an innovative approach to support the UC president’s Carbon Neutrality Initiative: just own up to this "elephant in the room" and break down overwhelming topics into very relatable, short segments designed to engage and inspire viewers into action.

Climate Lab is a video series that follows conservation scientist, UCLA visiting researcher and UC Santa Cruz alum M. Sanjayan as he explores surprising ways to change how we think and act about climate change.

By partnering with Vox, a growing, respected media outlet that is known for its video program and social channels, UC was able to reach a larger, more diverse audience. Vox's social media channels and website prominently featured UC's content, research and experts, which not only positioned UC as a leader in the dialogue around global warming but demonstrated our ability to produce quality and entertaining content. 

Climate Lab series

Our single-use items aren't helping the fight against climate change but there are easy hacks to reduce and reuse.

Eat your peas! It’s the easiest way to fight climate change.

What’s the environmental impact of online shopping and what are the solutions to make it more sustainable?

Digital

The Climate Lab website is a "one-stop shop" to showcase the video series along with other articles, quizzes and infographics. Each episode of Climate Lab ended with a call-to-action to visit the page and the link was prominently displayed on Vox’s channels, which made the website a destination for new audiences to discover UC content.

Awards

CASE District VII 2018: Video – Silver
CASE Circle of Excellence 2017: Video – Silver
UCDA 2017: Video – Excellence