Andy Hobsbawm, founder of Online Magic, the UK’s first Internet agency, now part of Agency.com, has a new eco-project called Green Thing.

The Green Thing team is using creative communications to reframe environmental issues for consumers in a bid to bring about behavioural change.

Speaking at Thinking Digital in Gateshead today Hobsbawm said that individuals are typically motivated by green issues but find it difficult to take meaningful action in their lives.

Hobsbawm advocates that communication lies at the core of reframing the issue.

“So often the environment al change is pitched as a form of abstinence. We need to move people from they ought to do, to what they want to do, and inspire them to do the green thing,” he said.

Hobsbawm cited examples of this approach in three Green Thing projects.

• Driving music? How about walking music? Walkcast is a downloadable soundtrack tuned to the walking pace of 105 beats per minutes. Stick it on iPod and hit the streets with a beat to your step.
• Glove Love brings together misplaced gloves sourced from lost property outlets from across the UK. Single gloves are united with a partner and branded label and sold by Green Thing for £5.
• Nothing is a retail concept whereby consumers satisfy their need for a retail experience literally by purchasing nothing via a website wittily branded Amazero for nothing. A purchase generates a series of purchase and delivery emails aimed at mimicking a purchasing experience.

Each project is intended to prompt reflection and scrutiny of personal eco issues. Job done I think.