Awards:
Overview
Credits
Background
The Project Dandelion wants to build a community of Dandelions willing to stand up against the climate crisis. However, even though 89% of people want stronger climate action from governments today, most underestimate the power of unity and don’t mobilize to fight for the environment.
Also, as concerns for the planet’s future grow, people are starting to develop climate guilt and feel the weight of the climate crisis on their shoulders.
But how can they feel such individual responsibility when 80% of carbon emissions come from 57 companies? It turns out, these companies have been telling us we’re responsible for solving the climate crisis when they’re the ones to blame.
We must show people they’re not the problem but can be part of the solution.
Describe the creative idea
We will create a platform that compares people’s individual impact on the environment with the one that big Oil, Gas, and Concrete companies have, and allow them to pass their guilt onto those companies.
By writing something as simple as “I use disposable plastic bottles every day”, an AI interpreting algorithm will calculate the % of climate guilt one has compared to a big company, based on their carbon footprints. With a call to action, we’ll urge people to pass that guilt onto said company through a pre-written email where they pledge to be a Dandelion and manifest their disapproval.
Describe the strategy
As many companies have developed Carbon Footprint Calculators that inflict climate guilt onto the general public (removing themselves as responsible for the climate crisis), we will flip the script and let people pass their guilt to these companies with a similar tool.
Pass The Guilt will be an intuitive page where people will be able to see how their negative impact is so small next to the impact of big companies, relieving them of some of their climate guilt. Additionally, it will have a shareable feature so every Dandelion can post their participation on Instagram stories, Facebook posts, and different social media platforms, increasing our reach.
Describe the execution
After launching the Pass The Guilt page, we will moderate the subreddit Am I The Asshole, for a month and incentivize the community to share something they did that negatively impacted the environment. Then we’ll reply to every testimony with a link for our Pass The Guilt page, urging people to call out the companies responsible for the climate crisis.
Many creators, such as podcasters and tiktokers, currently base their content on the testimonies of the Am I The Asshole subreddit. They will help spread our message through organic media and word of mouth.
The more dandelions we recruit, the more guilt we send to these companies. Every time we reach 100% of each company’s guilt, we send our Dandelions a message showing them how, together, they’ve matched the power of these big players. Hopefully, by COP30 we’ll have enough Dandelions around the world to match them all.