Prêt à voter

About the Work Solar Impulse, is a foundation headed by the explorer Bertrand Piccard, it is dedicated to solving the knowing/doing gap when it comes to tackling environmental challenges by collecting and promoting innovative ideas that are pragmatic and economically viable- it leads what it calls “eco-realism” . The issue is that in the clamour of different passionate voices on the the subject of the environment, the calm voice of eco-realism is difficult to be heard. We hear about the problem, but never the solutions. More than adding a voice to the debate, we needed an approach that enabled real change in laws. Over two months ideas were transformed by legal and scientific experts into draft laws that were launched as “prêt a voter” or “ready-to-vote” for the new French Parliament. A limited edition set of books were sent out to 577 newly elected MPs along with these pre-drafted legislation that MPs could use in debates in Parliament and even cut and paste as laws or amendements of laws in the statute book. To keep the democratic pressure on, we made an OOH campaign in strategic places around the National Assembly and a social media campaign to challenge politicians and also to raise awareness among the electorate. The creative idea was called “ Pret à Voter” or “Ready-to-Vote”. Instead of just informing the public about environmental ideas that can help shape the future, we removed one of the barriers to implementation, by actually pre-drafting the legislation to make them happen. These 50 “Prêt à Voter” proposals became the vehicle of the idea both in terms of targeting newly elected MPs but also the general public through OOH and a social media campaign under the slogan “as the climate changes, laws should too”.