Background

Sustainability is baked into Volvo’s brand DNA. As a founding member of the UN Global Compact and an active supporter of the UN Environments Clean Seas Campaigns, we were asked to help Volvo activate this property and drive environmental credentials for the brand locally on World Environment Day with a Beach Clean-up.

Tension

How can a plastic clean up happening on one beach on one day have a meaningful legacy?

Approach

More than half of Sydney’s shoreline is artificial. Rich, vibrant habitats have been replaced with seawalls and degraded by plastic pollution.

There are always new angles to view sustainability problems from. We decided to look from the best view of Sydney, the ocean. We created a partnership with the Sydney Institute of Marine Science and Reef Design Lab to create the Living Seawall.

The Living Seawall adds complexity to the existing seawall structure and provides a habitat for marine life. This aids biodiversity and attracts filter-feeding organisms that actually absorb and filter out pollutants The more organisms we have, the cleaner the water.