SBS launches sustainability challenge for brands and agencies

SBS has launched the SBS Media Sustainability Challenge, offering $500,000 in advertising inventory to the best TV campaign that promotes sustainable behaviours and highlights environmentally responsible consumer practices.

The initiative, which is open for submissions until March 31, invites brands and agencies to submit a 30-second TV script that effectively normalises sustainability in everyday life. Entries will be judged by a panel of industry professionals, with a winner announced in the third quarter of 2025.

Kate Young, national manager of SBS CulturalConnect, said the challenge is designed to encourage brands to rethink how sustainability is represented in advertising.

“In launching the SBS Media Sustainability Challenge, we’re asking brands and agencies to work with us to drive positive change to protect our planet by rethinking how they authentically represent sustainability in their marketing campaigns,” Young said.

“SBS has made serious inroads in measuring and working to reduce our environmental footprint, but we know change only comes about when we work together, and through this initiative, we’re providing a platform to elevate creative ideas that normalise sustainable practices to Australian audiences,” Young said.

Young noted that SBS Media has a history of using such challenges to drive positive change across the industry.

In 2017, SBS launched the Diversity Works Challenge designed to encourage Australia’s advertising industry to rethink how diversity is represented in their marketing campaigns.

“We’ve seen the impact inclusive marketing has had in Australia, and we are again putting up significant inventory to help drive creativity and innovative thinking in normalising sustainable behaviours.”

The jury for the challenge will include Adam Liaw, host of SBS’s The Cook Up and co-chair of Sustainable Screens Australia; Jane Palfreyman, SBS chief marketing and commercial officer; John Pabon, sustainability author and consultant at Fulcrum Strategic Advisors; Abigail Thomas, SBS head of sustainability; and Kate Young, national manager of CulturalConnect.

The winning campaign will also receive consulting services and training through Sustainable Screens Australia to ensure best practices in sustainable production.

“As co-chair of Sustainable Screens Australia, I know this is such an important initiative,” Liaw said.

“The Cook Up with Adam Liaw is the first Australian television program to have its carbon footprint approved by Sustainable Screens Australia, and we want to encourage more productions and advertisers to be thinking about the carbon footprint of their productions.”

Submissions for the SBS Media Sustainability Challenge are open until March 31, with shortlisted entries to be announced in April.