In this episode of Can Marketing Save the Planet, we are joined by Fiona Ball, Group Director of Bigger Picture and Sustainability at Sky. She shares an unparalleled, 20-year insider’s view of how a major media company can authentically embed sustainability into its core, from operations to storytelling, and use its unique platform to educate and inspire millions.

Fiona’s work at Sky isn’t a recent endeavour, it’s a deep-rooted journey. Beginning in 2005 with measuring their direct impact, they became the first carbon-neutral media company by 2006. This foundation of getting their “house in order” approach has been what Fiona describes as the “critical license to operate”, enabling ambitious, audience-facing campaigns like the six-year Sky Rainforest Rescue partnership with WWF and the transformative Sky Ocean Rescue initiative, which spurred them on to eliminate single-use plastic from their products and packaging by 2020.

A key to their credibility is structural integration. Sustainability planning now runs parallel to financial and commercial planning, with those all-important detailed life-cycle assessments for products enabling future-proofed design decisions. As Fiona notes, “this isn’t just ethical, it’s smart business resilience, we're future proofing it, and it has a good positive story. Consumers do want to buy products that aren't high energy users and don't have a negative impact on the environment."

Sky is a power storyteller. And Fiona takes us through examples of how they have weaved sustainability into narratives across genres, from using characters in the comedy Brassic to highlighting green productions, embedding climate activism in dramas like Temple, and creating children’s content with characters like Obki. The strategy is constant, multi-channel, and tailored: "We don't have a one thing fits all approach, we talk to people's passion points. Somebody will be passionate about family, fashion, sport, whatever. We talk through those personal lenses."

Looking ahead, Fiona sees collaboration as the next chapter, with Sky deepening its work by opening its sustainably built studios to others and fostering sector-wide partnerships to fast-track progress, ensuring the narrative of hope and solutions never stops.

Tune in as we talk to Fiona about:

🌎 How a 20-year timeline of authentic action has built the credibility needed for influential public campaigns.

🌎 Why integrating sustainability data with commercial financial planning is essential for future-proofing products and business resilience.

🌎 The art of mainstream storytelling to keep the message constant and engaging.

🌎 The critical shift from working in isolation to leading through collaboration.

🌎 Using Sky’s platform and resources to elevate the entire media sector.

For more information:

Visit https://www.skygroup.sky/impact

Connect with Fiona via LinkedIn

Enjoy - and if you love the podcast, share with your friends, family and colleagues.

Plenty more to come in 2026…

________________________________________________________________________

About us…

We help Marketers save the planet. 🌍

Join the Marketers and organisations who have signed our manifesto, engage with our newsletter and training and, work with us to communicate sustainability more effectively. Sign our Sustainable Marketer Manifesto, and join us on our mission. Get in touch to chat.

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.

Welcome back… our first episode of 2026 - and in this episode of Can Marketing Save the Planet, we are joined by marketing strategist Florian Schleicher.

Florian shares his experience and provides a compelling insight into how marketing acumen can be the driving force behind a major city’s sustainability transformation.

In an exciting project with Vienna’s policymakers, Florian demonstrates how marketing’s role transcended traditional campaigns, integrating strategic storytelling directly into urban planning and civic engagement.

An approach rooted in the immense, tangible impact cities have on our collective future, Florian was guided by the data that “70% of all the future infrastructure investment will be decided in cities,” framing the work as a crucial lever for global good. A key philosophical decision was moving beyond guilt to focus on emotional resonance and belonging, guiding city counsellors to “finding initiatives that we can take, and then bringing them into execution whilst always having in the back of our minds that we want create an emotional link. We have to excite them.”

The project followed a disciplined, “Up, Down, Create” method: first brainstorming ideas globally, then filtering them down to 18 viable initiatives that fit Vienna, and finally creating one integrated concept. This process ensured initiatives like exploring white rooftops to cool the city were both impactful and communicable. To crystallise the vision, the team crafted a ‘future press release’, which acted like a “North Star” for how they wanted the city’s progress to be felt and talked about, focusing on the benefits.

For Florian, marketing’s potential in this space is undeniable. “Marketing definitely was and is part of the problem that we're in right now, but I think it also has the possibility and the capabilities to pull us out of it,” he argues. He sees a critical need for new roles like a “climate communications manager” in cities to bridge the gap between sustainability experts and the public, using the core skills of marketing, creating memories and driving behaviour change. His ultimate hope is that “we don't talk about sustainability anymore, but just about liveability.”

Tune in as we talk to Florian about:

🌎 How a marketer’s strategic process (“Up, Down, Create”) can structure a city’s path to a sustainable future.

🌎 Why focusing on emotional resonance and “liveability” is more effective for mainstream engagement.

🌎 Using a “future press release” as a North Star to align complex city initiatives around a single, inspiring vision of success.

🌎 The critical need to bridge sustainability and communications within city governments, and why marketing must be part of the solution.

For more information:

Visit www.future-strategies.com

Connect with Florian on LinkedIn

Enjoy - and if you love the podcast, share with your friends, family and colleagues.

Plenty more to come in 2026…

________________________________________________________________________

About us…

We help Marketers save the planet. 🌍

Join the Marketers and organisations who have signed our manifesto, engage with our newsletter and training and, work with us to communicate sustainability more effectively. Sign our Sustainable Marketer Manifesto, and join us on our mission. Get in touch to chat.

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.

In this final episode of 2025, we talk to Glen McDermott, CEO of Red Rock Branding and a leader in the conscious business movement. Glen shares his personal journey from retail marketing to founding a purpose-driven agency focused on "healthy people and planet," driven by experiences with public health and Australia’s devastating bushfires.

We delve into a subject close to our hearts, the critical role of language and leadership in shifting business paradigms. Glen talks us through the important work and mission of the Conscious Business Collaborative, which educates future leaders by putting students "shoulder to shoulder" with pioneering CEOs. He argues that while sustainability has “suffered tremendously in the greenwashing movement,” forward-thinking communicators are now leaning into more proactive terms and framing actions around what makes solid business sense.

A core theme which we’ve been exploring for years is Marketer's or marketing’s evolving identity and role from being seen, as Glen explains, “marketing in its old sense, traditional sense, you could argue is a dirty word” to becoming essential "change agents" and educators. We explore how strategic marketing, when aligned with a genuine purpose, can build "brands with backbone," influence consumer behaviour positively, and prove that doing good is a viable business model. On the shift in marketing's role, Glen shares how “when talking at a conference in Berlin, I reframed it to be more education. And that was a really interesting flip to the audience who were all incredibly bright researchers and professors. One of the messages I left was asking them to spend more time in public facing operations rather than internal facing.”

On finding purpose in work we don’t need to overhaul everything at once. Glen's advice is, “do lots of micro experiments until you find what it is, that number one, you're good at and number two, that you can demonstrate some impact in - impact being in terms of improving people's lives (And that's the sticky bit, vs. sell, sell, sell)." It’s about finding what we’re good at that creates tangible impact, and from there we can build momentum.

Tune in as we talk to Glen about:

• Language being a critical lever and moving beyond jargon and tired terms.

• Bridging the generational leadership gap.

• Marketing’s evolving role from driving mindless consumption to becoming strategic change agents who use creativity to solve human and ecological challenges.

• Measuring impact beyond profit, like whether your team feels "jazzed" by their work and social impact, such as improved public health outcomes.

For more information:

Visit: www.redrockbranding.com

The Conscious Business Collaborative

Enjoy - and if you love the podcast, share with your friends, family and colleagues.

That’s a wrap for 2025 - but rest assured plenty of great conversations will continue through 2026.

Stay tuned…

________________________________________________________________________

About us…

We help Marketers save the planet. 🌍

Join the Marketers and organisations who have signed our manifesto, engage with our newsletter and training and, work with us to communicate sustainability more effectively. Sign our Sustainable Marketer Manifesto, and join us on our mission. Get in touch to chat.

You’ll find the Podcast on all the usual pod platforms - and also on The Global Player. If you love it, do share it and spread the word. Talking about climate change and the role we play is one of the most important things we can do. So join the conversation. We’re all in this together.

Our podcasts are recorded purely via online conferencing platforms, we apologise for any minor sound quality issues.