Saving Jane

Charity creative agency REWRITING EARTH partnered with Make My Money Matter, Global Witness and Global Canopy to use the power of storytelling to raise public and media awareness for the link between pensions and deforestation, to put pressure on the pensions industry to drive change and take more ambitious steps on climate change.

A staggering £300 billion of UK pension funds are propping up businesses that decimate 10 million hectares of forest every year to fuel agricultural expansion for commodities like beef, soy, palm oil and timber. Deforestation affects the lives and livelihoods of 1.6 billion people, while accelerating the climate and nature crises that affect us all. Cue Saving Jane, the moving animation that follows the lifelong dream of a saver – inspired and endorsed by Dr Jane Goodall DBE - to visit the Sumatran Jungle with her retirement money, only to discover that her pension provider used her savings to destroy the jungle for palm oil. The story urges viewers to share the video and apply citizen-led pressure on pension providers to remove deforestation investments from their portfolios. Saving Jane was co-directed by Rewriting Earth founder Paul Goodenough and Jeanette Norgaard, commissioned from animation production studio Strange Beast. Thanks to Real World Music Ltd., the animation features a specially re-recorded version of RED Rain, Peter Gabriel’s haunting 1980s hit. The video ran on YouTube, Vimeo, across partner websites, their socials and newsletters. It exceeded expectations, amassing 56 million organic views and extensive media coverage.