We’re staring a climate emergency in the face. Only systemic transformation can deliver the huge cuts in global CO2 emissions we need. Transport accounts for 25% of those emissions.

Leading European energy company Vattenfall is on a mission to remove fossil fuels from society. They already have one of Europe’s largest electric vehicle charging networks.

While electric vehicles don’t emit CO2 when used, they create emissions when manufactured, assembled and transported. These can be 70% higher than petrol models.

So when Vattenfall asked us to inspire the automotive industry to change by showcasing their expertise in decarbonising production chains, we proposed more than a campaign, we proposed a product. We recommended producing the first truly fossil free vehicle, in partnership with electric motorcycle manufacturer CAKE.

Our objective isn’t just to remove emissions from the production chain of one bike, but to inspire the entire automotive industry to do the same.

To get the industry to go truly fossil free, we need to create a ‘ripple effect’ which reaches beyond this one bike, attracting the attention of big automotive brands and inspiring them to action.

So we decided to communicate with radical transparency, turning competitive thinking and company secrets on their head for the climate, and instead open sourcing all the data from the project. For anyone to use, for free.

In the launch campaign, we showed the bike’s current emissions in the space they actually occupy – a cube measuring 637m3. The bike is suspended in the cube as it fills with smoke to dramatise the total emissions and then empties to dramatise our objective.

This cube is designed to be the foundation for all communications: from video to physical events to interactive tools. We’re showing it shrinking as we work towards our goal of zero emissions.

The project started with a data driven challenge – according to the UN, transport accounts for a quarter of global CO2 emissions. Vattenfall is committed to partnering with the transport sector to help reduce those emissions.

The automotive industry is making progress, with global electric vehicle (EV) sales growing from 4% in 2020 to 14% in 2022. But EVs also have a hidden carbon cost – emissions from their production can be 70% higher than petrol models. If we want to stay on the 1.5°C climate pathway, Polestar estimates the EV industry needs to reduce manufacturing emissions by over 80% by 2032.

This challenge is too big to take the usual approach of closely guarding technical innovation data. So our strategy was to open source all the data from the project. For a relatively small manufacturer like CAKE, it’s the only way to create the impact we need.

We ran the launch campaign from 31 August to 18 September 2022 in Sweden, Finland, Germany and The Netherlands. The main film ran on YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and the partners’ websites. There is also an in-depth project film, featuring interviews with key stakeholders from Vattenfall and CAKE.

The campaign was covered in Fast Company and Sweden's leading business publication Dagens Industri. It also got picked up by the World Economic Forum’s Twitter account, with 4.2 million followers.

Since launch, we’ve used the cube concept on the website, events and marketing materials to show our progress. As new partners come on board, they can use the cube to show how they’re contributing to reducing the bike’s emissions.

We’re also sharing all our breakthroughs, setbacks, learnings and data in a regular newsletter and social media for anyone to use.

In post-tests, the campaign outperformed previous benchmarks for Vattenfall’s brand image in its two brand differentiator metrics: “Leads the development towards a sustainable future” (+19%) and “Takes a broader responsibility” (+20%).

But the real impact is the change the project is already inspiring across the industry. We now have seven new partners on board, from sustainable material start-ups to world leaders in suspension. The potential reach of these collaborations is huge.

Öhlins, the leading suspension manufacturer who provide over 3 million components annually to Ferrari, BMW and Volkswagen, said “We supply some of the world’s top car brands. This project is the perfect opportunity for us to future-proof our suspension.”

PaperShell, who manufacture carbon-free materials, said “This has made the automotive industry aware of our plastic replacement, resulting in no less than 20 new enquiries.” This includes discussions with Polestar about removing plastics from the 51,000 EVs they sell annually.