Climate Mayors
DECODING CLIMATE POLICY
Challenge
For most people, acronyms like ZEAs, EVs, and the IRA are enough to make their eyes glaze over. Climate advocacy is packed with technical jargon, dense data, and policies that often feel far removed from daily life. Add in messengers the public doesn’t know or trust, and it’s no wonder support stalls or never materializes.
For this engagement, our challenge was to help big-city mayors cut through the noise and make local climate solutions resonate with the people they serve.
Approach
The heart of our work was working to understand our audience. We looked at who they trust, what motivates them, and what barriers prevent them from taking action.
Our audience insights, in turn, led us to frame climate action around an optimistic vision for the present day, showing people not just what the world could look like decades from now but how today’s policies improve health, safety, and quality of life. In short, topics that often appear abstract and complex became relatable and relevant to what our audience already valued most—affordable housing, public safety, and a healthier environment for families.
Further, we encouraged a flexible application of our message framework, allowing each city to adapt messaging to its local culture, values, and priorities.
By shifting the conversation from “what the policy is” to “why it matters to people’s lives,” we helped cities position climate action as a common-sense solution that residents could understand and support.
Related Work
Translating complex issues for a general audience is our bread and butter. We’ve done this in a range of contexts—from decoding inclusive policymaking with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to partnering with the California Wellness Foundation to reduce HIV/AIDS stigma. We also created Ship It Zero, a consumer campaign to de-wonk and make the complex science of zero-emission shipping (dare we say it?) fun.