Level
Shaping a global brand that balances climate and community
Carbon Tanzania is a social enterprise that has demonstrated just how effective nature-based conservation can be. Buoyed by this success, the company founders asked us to create a new brand that could take them beyond carbon and beyond Tanzania.
People often say that nature heals itself. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to help.
Carbon Tanzania was an early mover in the development of verified carbon offsets based on the protection of forests that might otherwise have been lost to agriculture and other development. Their pioneering business model empowers communities and local governments to realise value from the sustainable management of the natural resources around them.
After achieving great success within Tanzania, the founders saw an opportunity to share their expertise and expand the role and impact of nature-based conservation elsewhere in Africa and around the world.
Our brief was to design and deliver a name and a brand for the new business.
Rethinking conservation
Our interviews with stakeholders across the business and its partners underlined the importance of the commitment the team has to the local communities that Carbon Tanzania empowers as stewards of the local environment.
It was this experience and commitment – backed by an unwavering belief in a new paradigm in which the global economy truly values nature – that would prove to be the driving force behind the brand we created. Ultimately, we realised that we needed to build on the idea of equity, both in the Western capitalist sense and its other essence of fairness and balance.
The new business will be known simply as Level.
Level invokes the balance the company strives to create between people and nature, between those prepared to invest in the environment and those best placed to protect it, between the drive to increase investment and decrease the level of human impact on the environment. A simple word that carries a lot of weight.
Inspired by nature
Creatively, we developed a colour palette inspired by levels in nature. From the stratosphere, through cities, to plants, animals and people, to soil, roots and water.
The colours also reference the warm, earthy tones of the natural world that inspired them and the cooler, corporate world Level is looking to create balance with.
We paired this with authentic citizen-led and nature-inspired photography and messaging that celebrates the work being done now and the important work still to come. The visual identity embodies a sense of balance and bringing things onto the same level.
The result is a future-proof brand that is true to the vision of its leadership and reflective of the opportunities that innovative approaches to nature-based conservation unlock.
Our involvement with Level continues as we help the leadership team develop and explore new strategic possibilities for the business. Another Level story coming soon...
