Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef get colourful with new environmental online initiative

By signing up to citizengbr.org, individuals can claim their own colour of the reef and encourage friends, families, supporters and clients to do the same.

Andy Ridley, chief executive of Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, said: “Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef is inspired by the Reef’s annual coral spawning event that sees billions of tiny gametes and spawn - colourful lifeforms - flying into action and working as one to ensure its survival.

“We need humanity to do the same. We are asking the world to unite as one – like the Reef does – to protect one of the most beautiful natural assets the world has to offer. As the Reef bursts to life in all its beauty below the surface, we’re going to flood people’s social media feeds with it above the surface – renaming every colour of the Reef after the Citizens who pledge to protect it.”

The movement was created to show that individual action does matter and that, when scaled-up, an action on one side of the planet can make a difference for the whole planet.

“The issues facing the planet can be perceived as far too big for any individual to make a difference. This initiative aims to show that small, local actions taken on a global scale can create real and meaningful change. While we initially start with six, simple actions that Citizens can join, the site will be opened up to allow Citizens and organisations to initiate and add their own tangible actions all around the world.”

Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef will also support real reef management and conservation projects along the 2,300 kilometres stretch of Queensland’s coastline. These include tackling outbreaks of coral-eating crown-of-thorns starfish, protecting endangered loggerhead turtle habitat and supporting graziers to decrease sediment runoff into Reef catchments.

Developed and launched by With Collective and Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, the campaign aligns with the agency’s mission to transform brands, businesses & people’s lives with the creative use of digital.

Dom Hind, chief operating officer and co-founder of With Collective - Linked by Isobar, said: “We’ve been doing lots of things to reduce the agency’s environmental footprint. It's something I’ve become particularly passionate about. So when Andy got in touch about Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, and spoke to us about their ambition of creating meaningful change for the Great Barrier Reef, we jumped at the chance.”

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Find out more about Citizen of the Great Barrier Reef at citizensgbr.org.