While our favourite brands are great at getting us to buy their products, can they really encourage us to live more sustainable lives? It goes without saying that most of us are keen to protect our environment, but now, 29 major brands have teamed up to persuade us further.

The initiative is a digital media platform called Collectively, and, with the help of some of the world’s biggest companies, aims to inspire global change. Brands including Coca-Cola, Twitter, Facebook, Unilever, BT, and M&S, have joined together to launch the platform, following discussions at the World Economic Forum about inspiring and accelerating sustainable ways of living. The scheme’s target audience is Millenials, whom it is hoped will be persuaded into making sustainable living the norm. With this in mind, the site is also keen to attract youth organisations and other sponsoring brands who speak to younger audiences. The platform will also be updated daily with stories, blog posts and information from the fashion, food, design, architecture and technology industries, while viewers will be encouraged to submit their own ideas.

So which brands have already highlighted sustainability in their campaigns? Nike, for one, has created its “Making App”, to provide free information on 22 different product materials, and how we can create sustainable products from them. The tool is particularly intended to inspire designers to make better choices, but anyone who downloads the app can access information as to how the materials they use impact the environment. In line with its products, M&Ms uses its Facebook page to tell fans what goes into producing them. The brand cleverly uses its characters to tell stories and give examples of sustainable cocoa production, environmental practices, and carbon emissions. Walmart also promotes its green initiatives through its Pinterest page, showing fans the work it has done to make its products and supply chain more sustainable.

But one of our favourite campaigns has to be Cheerio’s “Spoonful of Stories.” The Facebook campaign, which has been running for 12 years, promotes the brand’s partnership with First Book, an NGO that connects book publishers and community organisations to provide new books for children in need. Each year, Cheerios issues around 8 million free books in its cereal boxes, and throughout the campaign, the brand has donated more than $4.1 million to First Book. The company also uses its Facebook page to promote other areas of sustainability such as different types of crops and their environmental impact, and other projects it sponsors through crowd-funding site, Indiegogo.

While brands can individually work towards their own sustainability goals, the aim of Collectively is, as the name suggests, for brands to move towards the same purpose; educating individuals and creating change. The project will initially be launched in the US and UK, and the aim is for it to spread to Asia and Latin America in the future. We’ll certainly be keeping an eye on how the companies involved go about promoting change, whether that be through Collectively’s digital forum, or on their own social channels.

Do you think that Collectively will be successful in transforming the way we live and view sustainability? Which brands do you feel are already doing a good job in promoting environmental and social consciousness?  We’d love to hear your thoughts, so please tweet to us @PracticeDigital, and share your comments on our Facebook page too.