CAN co-founder, Harriet Kingaby sits down with Georgina Bramall, Director of Marketing Strategy at giffgaff to talk about the Up To Good Fund, a partnership between giffgaff, MG OMD and Ecologi that’s turning advertising spend into real-world climate and nature impact. In this conversation, we explore how the fund works, what impact it’s already making, and how other organisations can adopt similar models to embed sustainability into everyday marketing practice. As we outline in our Sustainability Guide, the advertising industry has the power to ensure that the content we create, the media we place, and the organisations and processes which govern them are sustainable. The Up To Good Fund is an example of taking concrete steps towards this goal.
Read on to find out how small, conscious actions in your marketing and media plans can add up to big change, and how your organisation can get involved.
Harriet: What made you want to launch the Up To Good Fund with MG OMD and Ecologi?
Georgina: We launched the Up To Good Fund because we want to use every lever in our business to support decarbonisation – and media is a big one. As a B Corp, we’re committed to Net Zero by 2040 and guided by our Responsible Marketing Manifesto, which means we already think carefully about our impact.
The Up to Good Fund helps to ensure that we make every campaign regenerative – every pound we spend in paid media gives something back to nature.
Partnering with MG OMD and Ecologi felt like the natural next step. We wanted to turn intent into action, to build something that could fund real nature recovery here in the UK while still driving great campaign performance. By collaborating across agencies, media owners, and sustainability experts, we’ve shown that marketing can be part of the solution – helping restore the natural environment that we all depend on.
Harriet: Can you walk us through how the Up To Good Fund actually works day to day?
Georgina: The Up To Good Fund is a really simple idea: a small percentage of all of our brand media spend goes directly into restoring nature here in the UK. So every advert, every placement, does a bit of good for the planet.
We set it up with our agency, MG OMD, and sustainability partner, Ecologi, and it’s supported by Ad Net Zero. Each media owner that’s part of our ecosystem contributes a small percentage (between 0.1 – 0.4%) of campaign-related spend into the Fund. This collective pot then funds and supports high-impact nature recovery projects – from peatland restoration and tree planting to wetland and meadow regeneration.
Harriet: What kinds of climate or nature projects has the fund helped support so far?
Georgina: We chose to work with Ecologi because they have a really rigorous vetting process to make sure every project delivers genuine impact. All carbon projects are independently verified to international standards like the Verified Carbon Standard or Gold Standard – so every tonne avoided or removed is properly measured and monitored. Ecologi publishes full transparency reports and impact data online so that investments can be easily tracked.
To date, the fund has made investments in peatland restoration to enhance carbon storage and restore habitats for birds of prey. It has also supported diverse and native tree-planting to create homes for local wildlife and establish habitats for declining species like the Tree Pipit, Spotted Flycatcher and Willow Tit. We’ve supported investments in restoration of wildflower meadows and ancient woodlands, cultivating biodiversity and strengthening carbon storage.
We’ve also been excited to track the return of endangered wildlife to projects, including Leadloch which has reported fresh sightings of four owl species, alongside the Greater spotted woodpecker, brown hares and red foxes. Sites like Dumyat, where wildflower planting and peatland restoration have taken place, are seeing the return of badgers and otters. The Northern Brown Argus butterfly has also returned to Stirlingshire after 100 years, thanks to the restoration of its food source.
Harriet: How does this initiative and CAN’s Guiding Principles fit with giffgaff’s wider values and purpose as a brand?
Georgina: For us, both the Up To Good Fund and the Conscious Advertising Network’s principles come from the same place – a belief that business should be a force for good. giffgaff’s always been built on community, creativity, and collective good, so we’ve never seen responsibility and performance as opposites.
The CAN principles guide us to make conscious choices about the kind of advertising we create and support – choices that respect people, avoid harm, and reflect our values. The Up To Good Fund builds on that same foundation, extending responsibility beyond content and messaging into the impact of how media is bought and delivered.
Together, they’re part of a bigger journey for us – making sure that every part of our marketing, from the message to the medium, delivers benefits for people, planet and profit.
Harriet: We love to see examples of collaboration. What makes the partnership with MG OMD and Ecologi work so well?
Georgina: I think you learn pretty early on that even with the best of intentions, the efforts of a single brand can only go so far. But when you team up – the possibilities and potential for impact grows. We’ve been so lucky to have brilliant support from our media agency, MG OMD in co-designing the Fund and bringing it to life – alongside the impact expertise of Ecologi and the credibility and backing of Ad Net Zero. Together, we’ve built an ‘off-the-shelf’ solution for regenerative marketing that anyone can use.
The collaboration has also extended to the other brands and media partners who have joined the Fund. We’ve had wonderful support from 14 partners (and counting) including Acast, Global, Immediate, LadBible, Mobsta, Open Media and Pearl & Dean, who have joyfully embraced this collective approach to driving change. Each partner has offered something new – from testing different contribution models to offering greener inventory and helping to shape how we track our impact. By open-sourcing the Fund, we’ve made it easy to join and even easier to build on – and that openness has kept the energy growing.
Harriet: How do you make sustainability part of everyday advertising, rather than it feeling like a separate Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) project?
Georgina: At giffgaff, we’ve never been big on bolt-ons. For us, doing good shouldn’t sit in a separate box marked “CSR” — it should be built into how we work every day. The advertising industry has a big footprint and a big influence, so we saw an opportunity to turn that power into something positive.
The Up to Good Fund lets every giffgaff campaign, no matter how small, give something back to nature. It’s about weaving regeneration into the fabric of marketing itself. It becomes part of how we measure performance and impact — just like reach or engagement. And because we believe good ideas grow when they’re shared, we’re open sourcing the model so any brand or agency can pick it up and run with it. If we all make small changes together, we can drive big change across the industry.
Harriet: How has the Up To Good Fund been received internally and by your wider community?
Georgina: When you build sustainability into the heart of what you do, it can actually strengthen performance. Our media partners and agencies see it as a differentiator; it’s deepened relationships and driven shared innovation. We’re showing that responsible investment in nature can sit comfortably within commercial decision-making – not as a cost burden, but as part of how we build effective campaigns, earn consumer trust and future-proof our industry.
When you put purpose and performance side by side, they feed each other. The campaigns deliver, the partnerships thrive, and together we all play our part for the planet while we’re at it. That’s the kind of win–win we’re here for.
Harriet: Is this something only giffgaff can do, or could other organisations set up their own version too?
Georgina: The whole idea behind the Up To Good Fund is that it was never meant to be just a giffgaff initiative. From day one, we wanted to create something that any brand, agency, or media owner could adopt – because the more of us that get involved, the bigger the collective impact.
Joining the Fund, or creating your own version of it, brings three big benefits. First, it’s a simple way to start embedding nature recovery into everyday marketing decisions – every campaign gives a little back. Second, it strengthens relationships across the media ecosystem – it’s a shared goal that brings agencies, brands, and partners closer together around a shared commitment to nature. And third, it helps future-proof your marketing – showing you’re serious about sustainability and innovation, which matters to customers, investors, and teams alike.
The model itself is fully open-sourced through Ad Net Zero, so any organisation can pick it up, adapt it, and make it fit their business. You don’t need to wait for permission – the framework, guidance, and learnings are all there. We’d love to see more brands take it, build on it, and make it even better.
Harriet: For someone interested in getting involved, what are three simple steps they could take, and why is it important to do so?
Georgina:
- Start small: pick one campaign, one media partner, one pilot. Once you can show it works, that it delivers for nature and for your campaign performance, it’s much easier to scale.
- Collaborate early: we couldn’t have done this without MG OMD, Ecologi and our media partners. Treat it like co-creation – not procurement. Invite your media ecosystem partners in – listen and let the model evolve together.
- Use the Up to Good Fund blueprint and make it better. We’ve open-sourced this approach to make it quick and easy to get started. The basic framework, known as Media in Service of Nature, is in place – so just plug it in, start small and make it your own.
The teams at giffgaff and Ecologi are very happy to explain the Fund in more detail and answer any questions. So get in touch here.
Harriet: Looking ahead, what’s next for the Up To Good Fund, and how do you see it evolving in the wider industry?
Georgina: Imagine if every media plan gave a little back to nature – even 0.1% of spend. Collectively, that could unlock hundreds of millions for UK nature recovery. That’s the kind of ripple effect we’re aiming for.
So, our message to the industry is simple: join in. The more of us that bake regeneration into our work, the faster we can make this the norm – marketing that’s good for people, good for business, and good for the planet.
Thank you to Georgina and the team at giffgaff for sharing their invaluable insights with CAN. Their approach with the Up To Good Fund shows how advertising can deliver real-world climate and nature impact, proving that responsible media is possible for everyone. If you’re looking to embed sustainability into your campaigns, explore CAN’s Guiding Principles here.
