10,000 Londoners die prematurely every year due to toxic air. The Mayor of London has declared it a public health emergency.

Air pollution has recently been linked to infertility, premature mortality and Covid-19 fatalities - to name but a few of the grisly consequences.

But air pollution is an invisible killer. Its particles are so small, you cannot see it. Unseen, ignored, and all the more deadly as a result. The data is there if you bother to look, but indecipherable to the general public. How could we get Londoners to see the problem, and care enough to do something about it by demanding government action?

Previous campaigns focusing on the health risks only, hadn’t hit home. So, to make Londoners open their eyes to air pollution and demand action, we tied it to something they care and talk about a lot: property prices.

Working with King’s College London, we took raw data, accurate to 20msq and used it to build a 5 tier air quality rating system. The system linked the levels of the deadly pollutant, nitrogen dioxide, to any London address. To get it out there we built a website, addresspollution.org. The site not only revealed the health impacts of the property, but also the costs to their pocket - the higher the air pollution the bigger the financial impact.

Shocked homeowners could then demand action at the click of a button from their local council or the government. We launched the website with a multi-channel guerrilla campaign that infiltrated the property industry.

Focusing on the health risks alone hadn’t worked previously - people just told themselves ‘this won’t happen to me’. So, to make Londoners open their eyes to the perils of air pollution and demand action, we reframed it into something they care and talk about a lot: property prices.

Using the Air Quality Rating system we created with KCL, we built a website (addresspollution.org) where any Londoner could find out the ugly truth of air pollution and the potential impact on the value of their home. Shocked homeowners could then demand action at a local and national level with the click of a button.

The London pilot was launched with a multi-channel guerrilla campaign that infiltrated the property industry.

By crunching the data we noticed that the most expensive areas were also the most polluted. These areas were the homes of some of the most influential landowners, with a direct line to Westminster. In areas like Chelsea we ran spiky billboards that warned well-connected locals of the pollution.

We got even more targeted and projected ratings onto London’s most polluted residential buildings: including ‘Park Modern’, the most expensive development in the city.

We ran 650 real-time responsive DOOH at times of air pollution spikes, to make the dangers feel more immediate.

We ran small-space classified ads in the property listings, to get people in-market thinking about air pollution.

And we ran a direct mail campaign to warn estate agents of their legal obligations to disclose our information, since it could materially impact health.

WE MADE HEADLINES

We reached over 36 million people and were discussed on the likes of BBC, Good Morning Britain, Channel 4, Sky News, and made the front page of The Times twice.

WE DROVE ACTION

Over 465,467 London households have generated an Air Quality Report. Far more than double the number of properties changing hands in London in any year.

WE GOT FUNDING TO EXPAND THE SYSTEM

The European Climate Coalition awarded us funding to launch nationwide including two more pollutants.

WE CREATED SYSTEMIC CHANGE

Estate agents now have a legal obligation to disclose our information. Zoopla has made our system available. Another portal, Search Smartly, now use our API to produce Air Quality Ratings for every listing.

Local councils have adopted the measures homeowners petitioned. Most importantly, we achieved the policy change we lobbied for: to bring forward the ban on petrol and diesel cars from 2040.