Where Good Grows

Joseph Maduma

July 2nd 2013

It’s fair to say we are big fans of Thomas Kolster‘s work on Good Design. Hugely impressed by his book Goodvertising, he took part in our ‘Designed To Innovate‘ series where he gave a sneak peak into his new project ‘Where Good Grows‘ – his plan to launch the world’s first sustainable advertising and communications archive. It sounded great then and now that it has launched it is not an understatement to say it has lived up to expectations.

WWG — Rather than encourage the messy idea of literally driving with a glass of water on the dashboard, Toyota released the ‘A Glass of Water’ app for the iPhone. It uses the iPhone’s accelerometer to mimic the movement of a real glass of water. Users can track their progress and see how much water they have spilled. The information is then uploaded to Toyota’s website, so users can compare their results with those of others.

WhereGoodGrows is the world’s first sustainable advertising and communication archive. The site strives to inspire collaboration and sharing of good practices and sustainable efforts to do greater good. In a world facing massive change, we need to take drastic measures. A lot of the issues at hand from water scarcity to poverty are bigger than any one company, governmental agency, non-profit or foundation can answer. Where Good Grows believes we can solve these pressing problems by sharing what really works and create a better tomorrow for everyone.

WhereGoodGrows (WGG) is more than just a name; it encapsulates a mission statement. They believe that if we all share communication solutions for good we can accelerate innovation and ultimately do greater good for people, the planet and business.

“We believe that if we all share communication solutions for good we can accelerate innovation and ultimately do greater good for people, the planet and business.”

Thomas Kolster

Screen shot 2013-06-26 at 10.36.02 — Built upon the profound belief that communication really can change the world, WGG encourage open sharing of concepts and ideas to be reused and reimagined across the world through their Right To Recycle License.

Building from Thomas Kolster’s recent book Goodvertising: Creative Advertising That Cares, the world’s first sustainable advertising and communications archive, WhereGoodGrows, has been brought to the online sphere. As a hub for creative, sustainable thinking, the website showcases best practices and aims to show that doing good is good business. All work featured on the site shows real results for the issues and causes the work supports and positive results for the brand or business which commissioned the work.

Screen shot 2013-06-26 at 10.42.28 — A selection of the campaigns already in WGG's archive form agencies such as Euro RSCG, Wieden+Kennedy and Ogilvy.

WhereGoodGrows takes this thinking one step further with the Right to Recycle License, encouraging free sharing of sustainable ideas. If a campaign can improve HIV infection rates in India, what is to say it wouldn’t work in Sub Saharan Africa? By sharing these ideas, we can make a real difference with real results.

When you stop and think about it WGG is a very powerful idea, because Thomas Kolster is right, the only way we are going to be able to solve these problems is by working together. This means governments working with NGOs, brands working with sustainability consultants and designers working with manufacturers. It’s time for advertising creatives and agencies to drop the egos and really effect change by sharing their most powerful ideas for social good, thus taking them from local to global.