OPINION:

Given the unprecedented circumstances of the past year — growing economic and social instability and a world-altering pandemic, we are more in need than ever before of truthful, transparent media that can provide context for the world we are living in.

As consumers, we depend on media and advertising to inform us about where to responsibly channel our money. Making thoughtful consumer choices is challenging, since most of us rely on burning fossil fuels and creating waste just to function in our daily activities. We know that our individual choices have an impact on accelerating climate deterioration, but we don’t always have the information we need to make alternative, sustainable choices.

To combat the rapidly changing climate and its catastrophic impacts with a solution-oriented mindset, we need to fully understand our options for alternatives to our current systems. That’s why we want to take a moment to shine a light on those who are making a truly positive impact and paving the way for a sustainable future.

It’s important to recognize that as individuals, we all have choices about the media we consume and create, be it on the news, social media, or the ventures we support. As a writer and artist, I understand the impact of media in shaping our society. Passionate people sharing truthful and empowering information can truly sway public opinion and impact civic engagement. That’s why I’m thrilled to align with de Castellane Creative — a media company who truly champions transparency, ethics, and impact; and who is working alongside the companies and individuals we will be highlighting today.

The de Castellane Creative Group is a Next Generation- multi-industry alignment of forces within digital broadcasting, consumer media and lifestyle, technology, policy, and consumer advancement. The de Castellane Creative’s staff not only serve as creative consultants, but they take a unique stance in the marketing world. Their unique culture and approach come from uniting a group of exceptionally talented, committed, diverse, and hardworking individuals, working all under one umbrella — de Castellane Creative.

Each of de Castellane Creative’s clients is purposefully selected because of their desire to create real-world positive change and impact.They are selective about their clients, and even turn down clients who they don’t see aligning with their core values or having a net-positive impact on the world around them. With that in mind, recently de Castellane Creative announced that they’re evolving into specialized subsidiary branches, which will allow them to support a variety of niche markets and businesses at all market levels.

At the core of de Castellane Creative’s work is supporting clients who are truly making a positive change in the world.

As a media company, de Castellane Creative could easily profit from propping up “alternative facts,” but instead they do their due diligence to find and amplify the truth behind the advertising.

Today, being a part of the de Castellane Creative’s team, I decided to highlight a few of the change-makers we have recently crossed paths with who are working towards scalable, sustainable solutions to the planet’s issues. We want to shed a light on these individuals whose actions are truly in alignment with their values, in an effort to fight the misinformation rampant in the media.

Daniel de Castellane, the founder of de Castellane Creative Group, is an entrepreneur, philanthropist, sustainability advocate, and consultant to the UN. His stance is, “there’s a role to play at every level. It’s the consumer demand that defines which markets are more palatable, who’s going to dominate which market. Consumers must get educated on a deeper level about what they really want and why. We cannot always take companies’ “Green” initiatives at face value. The perception we often get from the media or marketing companies about “Green” energy is not always accurate.”

The “GREEN” Misinformation

Indeed, given the recent public pressure for “Green” initiatives, many corporations are performatively signaling their new “commitments to renewable energy.” With oil industry giants hit by billions of dollars of losses in 2020, companies like B.P. and Shell announced their new sustainable initiatives, like B.P.’s announcement to become net-zero carbon emissions by the year 2050 (CNN). But are these announcements just damage control?

The overall system can’t just be overhauled, in that we currently don’t have any scalable substitutes for oil and gas, with more than 70% of our daily products including cars made from plastic, which is an oil byproduct. However, many activists have asked for deeper transparency about the future of these companies and their pledges to move towards renewable energy.

The overall system can’t just be overhauled, in that we currently don’t have any scalable substitutes for oil and gas, with more than 70% of our daily products including cars made from plastic, which is an oil byproduct.

“Many of the pledges are misleading and misrepresent how much the oil giants are changing. Most glaring is that not one of the companies has committed to cut its oil and gas output over the next decade, the simplest and most reliable way…to cut emissions.” (InsideClimate News). Even for those companies announcing their hope to eventually transition to renewable energy, their fossil fuel investments have largely remained the same, while promoting a “kinder, gentler image.”

All of the large oil and gas corporations have also, “retained membership in the American Petroleum Institute (API), which has lobbied against incentives for electric vehicles, supported the Trump administration’s rollback of methane regulations, and backed expanded drilling in the Arctic.”

Some companies signal their awareness of climate issues, but behind closed doors

donate heavily to climate deniers pushing negative policies in Congress. For example, Visa’s recent public commitment to sustainability, “stands at odds with the company’s political donations. In the 2020 election cycle alone, Visa’s political action committee gave tens of thousands of dollars to lawmakers, like Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO), who has Luetkemeyer dismissed climate science, he has sponsored legislation to pull US funding for the U.N. climate change agency” (Nexus Media News).

Extreme global and meteorological events like the recent energy shutdown in Texas show our urgent need to change our approach to energy. As one Texas citizen who experienced the outages described it, “Texas politicians and private power companies didn’t weatherize after the 2011 freeze, and the continued deregulation of the grid with no federal oversight led to people dying.” There must be more of a concerted federal effort to meet the changing energy and power needs of the nation.

We need to be aware of corporate media manipulations baked in misinformation and look for opportunities for the government to support truly scalable renewable energy, not band-aid fixes. That’s why we want you to know about Diamond Infrastructure Development, Inc.