Honduras – Sustainable fish farming firm Regal Springs and ad agency Ogilvy have joined forces with the residents of Yoru to catch hundreds of fish falling from the sky twice a year for 20–30 minutes. The phenomenon known as Lluvia de Peces, the rain of fish, is said to be due to tornado-like columns of air sucking up the fish from the ocean and slinging them onto Yoro.

Regal Springs identified a business opportunity given the number of free tilapia, snapper and bass raining on the city. In April 2023, the company announced a new programme remunerating residents for catching fish. The people of Yoru only earn about £0.80 ($1, €0.92) per day throughout the year, but Regal Springs is paying nearly £4.80 ($6, €5.50) per pound of fish caught and brought to the firm’s centre for cleaning.

The final product, called Heaven Fish, is wrapped in sustainable packaging made from local banana peel before being sent to more than 200 restaurant and grocery partners in Honduras. On top of the money earned by the fish contractors, 80% of the revenue Regal Springs generates from Heaven Fish goes directly to the people of Yoro.

In our Sustainability Series, we analysed how Post-purpose Brands and businesses can respond creatively to similar natural phenomena induced by global warming.

US – Oatly, the world’s largest oat drink company, has launched its Climate Footprint Challenge, calling on big dairy to reveal their products’ climate footprint. The new campaign offers big dairy companies free advertising (paid by Oatly) if they are willing to answer the same 68 questions Oatly had to answer to determine its own climate footprint. The ads will be featured in The New York Times, Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, and on billboards in Times Square and Hollywood.

The campaign aims to advocate for transparency on the impact of products on the planet so consumers can make more informed choices. Oatly has also released data from a flash poll it conducted in the US on milk preferences that revealed that more than 54% of Gen Z and 49% of Millennials prefer plant-based milk to cow’s milk.

Oatly’s campaign strategy not only showcases its own concerted efforts on being sustainable – an important purchasing consideration for younger consumers – but advocates for accountability across the industry. This ties in with research from our Elastic Brands macrotrend that shows how consumers are no longer fazed by brand names, but instead are turning organisations inside out to seek transparency on their inner workings.

US – A healthy work-life balance is only a dream for many mothers. A recent report paints a grim picture of motherhood, revealing how the system fails to support working mums.

For the 2023 State Of Motherhood report, Motherly gathered insights from nearly 10,000 mothers across the US. The findings are sobering – 25% of mothers are stay-at-home mums, compared to 15% in 2022. Many mothers leave the workforce by obligation rather than choice, as 18% of mums changed jobs or left the workforce in the past year. Of those, 28% said they did so to be at home with young kids, but 15% are staying at home due to a lack of childcare.

Among families who rely on outside childcare, one in five aren’t satisfied with the care. A whopping 69% call it a crushing expense, prompting women to put their careers on hold and take on childcare themselves. ‘It’s time for us to re-imagine our workplace cultures around the realities of motherhood and invest in the structural supports mums need to work and have kids,’ argues Reshma Saujani, CEO and founder of non-profit organisation Moms First.

These figures show our collective responsibility to do better for mothers, but also for those who choose to forego motherhood altogether.