How can our children 'get' carbon?
How can we engage children in the climate crisis and the role played by carbon dioxide in a way that makes it personal and real? One option is to use the energy (and thus carbon) data of the school itself to provide insight and learning.
How can we engage children in the climate crisis and the role played by carbon dioxide in a way that makes it personal and real? One option is to use the energy (and thus carbon) data of the school itself to provide insight and learning.
This was the intention of international education specialists Metanoia whose client, a school in mainland China, wanted to help children, teachers and staff engage with the ‘carbon story’ of their own school.
We were fortunate that the school asked their architect to develop a 3D model of its campus. This meant more of our budget could be spent on the animation itself. The animation first shows the ‘footprint’ of the school in real-time as one gram ‘bubbles’ emerging from the ground, then switches to one kilogram (one metre diameter) spheres in the school playing fields representing one day’s emissions. Finally the annual carbon emissions are shown dwarfing the school campus.
If your school, college or university would like to engage staff and students in their ‘carbon story’ the please get in touch. If budget is tight we can create simple images or short animations for social media. A larger budget enables more complex animations that show carbon footprint, savings and targets.
British Land CO2 Sculpture
Carbon emissions are invisible. So if you’re a major property business how do you communicate your impressive carbon reduction story to staff and customers?
Carbon emissions are invisible. So if you’re a major property business how do you communicate your impressive carbon reduction story to staff and customers?
This was the challenge presented to us by Citypress on behalf of their client British Land. Through a team-driven approach, including a creative workshop, we collectively arrived at the solution - to install an eye catching sculpture together with an accompanying explanatory video. Over summer 2025 the sculpture has toured three British Land campuses—Paddington Central, Broadgate, and Regent’s Place—to share the message with all their office customers. It has been a collaborative effort with the teams at British Land, Citypress, and our suppliers, and we are thrilled with the outcome.
“Sustainability is often abstract, super important, but hard to visualise. Easy to dismiss. But not this time. Our customers asked for help explaining carbon reduction to their teams. So we made it physical. Not a deck. Not a dashboard. Something that cuts through. Because behaviour changes when the data gets real. When you can see it. Stand next to it. Feel the weight of it.
By turning carbon data into something physical and public, this campaign brings to life British Land’s mission to create sustainable, future-ready workspaces across its central London campuses.”
See what British Land’s customers think in this LinkedIn Post
TECHNICAL NOTE
28% of global emissions come from buildings just doing what they do every day - heating, cooling, lighting. That’s the carbon we’re visualising here: the operational side that British Land is actively reducing, one system at a time.
We worked with British Land to translate real emissions data - scopes 1, 2 and 3 expressed in CO₂e - into something people can walk through and experience to help spark conversation.
Each cube in the sculpture is the exact volume of one gram of CO₂* illustrating the average daily operational carbon per square metre of British Land office spaces in:
2019 – baseline year
2025 – a 40% reduction!
2030 – British Land goal: 75% down
A timeline on the floor connects each year with real case studies - like lighting upgrades, heat pumps, and smart building systems.
See more, including explanatory video created by Cosmic Joke:
https://www.britishland.com/news/join-our-journey-creating-sustainable-workspace/
* at sea level pressure 15 degC.
Local solar - the carbon link
Locally owned renewable energy sources can provide multiple benefits. But how do you get local people to invest? A key driver is the net reduction in the local carbon footprint but that involves complex numbers and data. This is where our data visualisation techniques can be useful. Particularly if combined with drone photography.
Locally owned renewable energy sources can provide multiple benefits. But how do you get local people to invest? A key driver is the net reduction in the local carbon footprint but that involves complex numbers and data. This is where our data visualisation techniques can be useful. Particularly if combined with drone photography.
Annual CO2 savings from two solar fairms
Yealm Community Energy is a member-owned society that invests in renewable electricity for the local rural community in the South Hams, Devon, UK. They wanted to launch a community share offer to fund the transfer of three nearby operational solar farms into community ownership. The share offer would enable local people who care about climate change to put their money to work to tackle the issue directly.
So in order to engage the local people we created animations that could grab their attention. Working with local drone photography specialist Ed Smit we combined their drone footage with our CGI effects. By turning the annual carbon data into daily emissions, savings totally and emissions per household, we hoped this would galvanise local people into becoming involved.
Daily CO2 savings from two solar farms
Daily CO₂ emissions from five parishes (1)
Daily CO₂ emissions form five parishes (2)
Happily the long awaited share offer was finally completed on the last day of December 2023. More info on Yealm Community Energy here.
Black cabs go green
It’s time to celebrate when an iconic vehicle like the London black cab goes green. Since its launch in 2018 the TX electric cab has prevented more than 200,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering the earth's atmosphere. So we were happy to make a short film for the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) to get across this good news story.
It’s time to celebrate when an iconic vehicle like the London black cab goes green. Since its launch in 2018 the TX electric cab has prevented more than 200,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions from entering the earth's atmosphere. That’s the equivalent to the emissions of more than 111,000 passenger flights from London to Sydney. It has now overtaken the diesel-powered TX4 as the most common black cab operating in London. So we were happy to make a short film for the London Electric Vehicle Company (LEVC) to get across this good news story.
LEVC manufactures the purpose-built, range-extended electric TX at its state-of-the-art facility in Ansty, Coventry. Featuring flexible space for up to six passengers, the vehicle includes an integrated wheelchair ramp enabling the TX to accommodate a forward-facing wheelchair – the only taxi of its kind to do so. The TX’s eCity technology provides a pure EV range of 78 miles and a total range-extended capacity of 333 miles.
In the last six years, LEVC's TX has travelled more than 650 million miles globally, with the company producing more than 10,000 of its revolutionary electric TX taxis, which have been sold throughout the world. More info here.
“I recently took a ride in an electric TX cab in London and the driver was so enthusiastic. I am delighted that our visual imagery is helping tell this good news story.”
NOTES
The saving attributed to LEVC’s TX is 200 thousand tonnes of CO₂, which would fill 42,749 Olympic sized swimming pools.
A stack of thousand tonne sphere with base 5 x 5 spheres would have eight layers, making its total height of 805.44 metres. The height of the stack is just shorter than the tallest building in the world: the Burj Khalifa, which 829.8 metres. It is the same height as:
8.4 x Big Ben’s (96 metres)
1.8 x Empire State Buildings (443 metres)
4.5 x BT Towers (117 metres)
As one big sphere, 200,000 tonnes of CO₂ would be 588.783 metres
It is equivalent to 16 hours of UK transport emissions
It is equivalent to all emissions from transport in London for 10 days.
Think globally, visualise locally
Dedicated people around the world are addressing local needs related to environmental stewardship and sustainability. But many also want to find a way to educate local leaders not just about the consequences of the climate crisis, but also the need for local climate action. This often means turning local carbon data into stories and imagery that people can relate to…
Dedicated people around the world are addressing local needs related to environmental stewardship and sustainability. But many also want to find a way to educate local leaders and citizens not just about the consequences of the climate crisis, but also the need for local climate action. This often means turning local carbon data into stories and imagery that people can relate to…
This animation was created for Emerald Keepers, a non-profit organisation in the City of Coronado, California who asked us to visualise the carbon footprint of the city. According to the City’s Climate Action Plan, daily life in Coronado and bridge traffic add 4 kg CO₂ to the atmosphere every second. (The figure does not include Navy, School District, nor Port properties.)
Emerald Keepers have over the years done a great job in building community-based programs and educational outreach. These initiatives encourage community involvement while fostering pride in the beaches, bays, and parks of their beautiful city. But they were determined to also influence the City Council to make progress on a climate action plan.
We put extra effort into creating the 3D model of Coronado because we know that boring carbon numbers ‘come alive’ by locating CO₂ ‘bubbles’ in a familiar location.
“WOW! It looks GREAT! Thanks for the extra effort. Tackling the climate crisis is not as easy as one might think but we are making progress and your video has really helped. Now I want to spread it to everyone in our city.”
“It’s been a privilege working with Amy and her team at Emerald Keepers to make this video happen. ”
Vimeo version of video here
We like filling stadiums
Most people who live in or near Los Angeles know the size of the SoFi Stadium. So overfilling the stadium with giant CO2 balls seemed like a good way of helping tell a carbon story for a local freight forwarding company.
Most people who live in or near Los Angeles know the size of the SoFi Stadium. So overfilling the stadium with giant CO2 balls seemed like a good way of helping tell a carbon story for a local freight forwarding company.
Rockit-Global are known for supporting the most legendary acts and emerging artists in their tours across the world. They wanted a short animation and image for their annual ESG Report to illustrate the carbon footprint of their domestic trucking emissions.
If you have a carbon story to tell and want to use one of the world’s iconic stadiums do get in touch.
More information on Rockit-Global’s environmental credentials here.
Iconic buildings help tell carbon stories
Carbon stories often make more sense if grounded in a particular place and we therefore like using iconic buildings or landmarks to give a sense of scale. So when we were approached by an organisation based in Blackpool we naturally suggested using using the Blackpool Tower.
Carbon stories often make more sense if grounded in a particular place and we therefore like using iconic buildings or landmarks to give a sense of scale. So when we were approached by an organisation based in Blackpool we naturally suggested using using the Blackpool Tower.
Sustainable Energy First (SEF) is an energy and sustainability consultancy, founded to solve energy management problems in very large, complex commercial estates. Their own carbon footprint is relatively small but they identified sustainable energy opportunities for many clients - some of the UK’s most prominent organisations.
They wanted to set a target of reducing emissions for the clients based on the data their analysts identified, extracted and validated. But the challenge was how to present the potential savings - 327,170 tonnes of CO2e by 2028 - to clients in an engaging and effective way. That’s when they approached us - and this animation is the result!
See the SEF Sustainability web page here.
Do get in touch if you feel something similar could help your organisation.
Helping tell Porsche’s carbon story
How can global car manufacturers show climate change leadership? Phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles alone is not enough as making electric cars uses a lot of energy, particularly in the manufacture of the batteries. So the challenge is to engage with the supply chain and get them also to reduce emissions - primarily by only using renewable electricity.
How can global car manufacturers show climate change leadership? Phasing out petrol and diesel vehicles alone is not enough as making electric cars uses a lot of energy, particularly in the manufacture of the batteries. So the challenge is to engage with the supply chain and get them also to reduce emissions - primarily by only using renewable electricity.
Porsche is now doing this by calling on its approximately 1,300 direct series suppliers to use only renewable energy in new projects for the manufacture of Porsche components. It’s a big ask and requires a huge engagement programme with staff and suppliers.
That is why in 2021 Real World Visuals were approached to make an animation to explain the carbon reduction strategy to employees and selected suppliers, backed up by detailed data. The full video is naturally confidential, but the above is an extract to give a flavour of what can be done to get across the message.
“We did fully utilize the video during our face to face training programs and I feel it added value for our participants.”
Transport emissions come to life
How do you highlight the climate benefits of using electric bikes and e-scooters in cities? This was the challenge set by Beam Mobility, the largest micro-mobility operator in the Asia Pacific region.
How do you highlight the climate benefits of using electric bikes and e-scooters in cities?
This was the challenge set by Beam Mobility, the largest micro-mobility operator in the Asia Pacific region. Public transportation conveniently takes people to and from the general area of their destination. However, there is an issue with completing the first and final parts of their journey and this is where Beam’s electric micro-mobility vehicles come in. Beam’s mission is simple – to turn little drives into better rides and make cities flow better for everyone.
Beam wanted to create eye-catching visuals to dramatise the emissions problems they are trying to solve in major cities in the Asia Pacific Region. So we created a set of short videos and accompanying images showing the transport-related carbon emissions in ten cities.
“The videos starkly illustrate the need to reduce the number of private vehicles on the road and use alternatives with emission-free public transport infrastructure.”
The imagery has been used widely by the company in newsletters and on social media - see here how Beam have used these visuals in their PR campaign, here an example of a Malaysian ‘citizen’s journal’ and below - an example of visual use in a Beam newsletter. https://www.ridebeam.com
