Creative Environmental Education Campaign for Surfrider Foundation Canada

Overview

Surfrider Foundation Canada is a national environmental nonprofit dedicated to protecting oceans, coastlines, and waterways through conservation, advocacy, education, and community action. Through science-based initiatives and public engagement, the organization empowers people to protect the environments they depend on.

A cigarette butt or disposable vape may look small, but its environmental footprint is easy to overlook. Surfrider Foundation Canada wanted to bring those hidden consequences into the classroom for students in Grades 7–12. Working alongside an experienced curriculum developer, Yulu developed Clouded Judgement, a creative campaign platform that turned evidence-based lessons into engaging visual storytelling, a hero educational video and classroom resources designed to help students connect everyday choices with the health of oceans and waterways.

The Challenge

With support from Environment and Climate Change Canada, Surfrider Foundation Canada set out to develop an innovative classroom program that would help students understand the often-overlooked environmental impacts of smoking and vaping.

The curriculum was developed by an experienced educator to ensure it aligned with classroom learning objectives and was practical for teachers to deliver. Surfrider partnered with Yulu to bring that curriculum to life through strategic storytelling, creative design, and engaging visual communications that would resonate with students in Grades 7 – 12.

Rather than creating standalone educational materials, the goal was to build an integrated learning experience that connected curriculum, creative communications, and environmental action.

The Strategy

Yulu worked alongside Surfrider Foundation Canada and the curriculum developer to translate evidence-based educational content into an engaging communications campaign for youth audiences.

One Creative Idea, Multiple Ways to Learn

Clouded Judgement linked the visible waste from cigarettes and vaping products with the less obvious ways these behaviours affect the environment. Rather than relying on guilt or alarm, the creative was designed to spark curiosity and make scientific information more accessible. Yulu translated the educator-developed curriculum into a consistent narrative and visual language for video, classroom handouts and supporting campaign assets.

The engagement included:

• Strategic communications planning
• Creative campaign development
• Narrative and scriptwriting for a hero educational video
• Storyboarding and creative direction
• Design of curriculum handouts and classroom resources
• Visual identity and supporting campaign assets

At the heart of the campaign was the creative concept Clouded Judgement. The concept reflects both the physical pollution caused by cigarette butts and vaping waste, and the unseen ways smoking and vaping can cloud our understanding of their broader environmental impacts. By pairing this metaphor with accessible storytelling, the campaign encouraged students to see familiar behaviours through a new environmental lens while inspiring informed action rather than guilt.

Throughout the process, the focus remained on making complex environmental issues accessible, engaging, and empowering for students while preserving the educational integrity of the curriculum developed by the subject-matter educator.

Impact and Results

The project equipped Surfrider Foundation Canada with a cohesive creative system designed for classrooms, connecting evidence-based curriculum with engaging video and print materials.

Outcomes included:

• Creative Campaign Platform: Developed Clouded Judgement as the unifying idea across educational video and classroom resources.
• Hero Educational Video: Created video narrative, scriptwriting, storyboards and creative direction to help students engage with the environmental consequences of smoking and vaping.
• Classroom Resources: Designed handouts and supporting materials to complement the curriculum developed by Surfrider’s education partner.
• Consistent Visual Identity: Created a recognizable design system to connect the video, handouts and supporting educational assets.
• Adaptable Communications Foundation: Delivered creative materials designed to support Surfrider’s ongoing environmental education efforts.

Why it Matters

Environmental education is most effective when it helps people understand how individual actions connect to larger environmental systems.

For environmental nonprofits, educators and public-interest organizations, meaningful creative work does more than make research look approachable. It connects expert knowledge with the experiences of the audience expected to use it. Surfrider’s Clouded Judgement campaign shows how Yulu combines communications strategy, copywriting, video storytelling and visual design to turn an educational objective into a cohesive, audience-centred experience.

Services Provided

• Strategic Communications
• Environmental Education Campaign Development
• Creative Strategy
• Campaign Narrative Development
• Curriculum Branding
• Animation Storyboarding
• Visual Communications
• Environmental Communications

FAQ

What is an environmental education communications campaign?
It turns environmental evidence into clear, engaging stories and resources that help audiences understand an issue and take informed action.

How can communications support environmental behavior change?
Behavior change communications helps move audiences from awareness toward action through relevant messaging, storytelling, engagement, and clear calls to participate.

How did Yulu support Surfrider Foundation Canada?
Yulu turned educator-developed curriculum into an integrated campaign for students in Grades 7 – 12, including strategy, video, branding, classroom resources, and creative assets.

What is the Clouded Judgement campaign?
Clouded Judgement is the creative platform Yulu developed to connect cigarette and vaping waste with their less visible environmental impacts.

How can environmental campaigns engage young people without fear or guilt?
Focus on evidence, relevance, agency, and practical actions rather than fear as the primary motivator.

Does Yulu work with environmental nonprofits in Canada?
Yes. Yulu works with environmental nonprofits and conservation organizations across Canada and North America.

Does Yulu develop behavior change campaigns?
Yes. Yulu develops behavior change campaigns that combine behavioral insights, strategic communications, creative development, engagement, and measurement.

How should environmental education campaign impact be measured?
Useful measures can include participation, resource use, knowledge or attitude shifts, engagement, intent, and behavior signals

Can Yulu turn expert-developed curriculum into an educational campaign?

Yes. For Surfrider Foundation Canada, an experienced educator developed the curriculum, while Yulu created the communications and creative system around it. Our contribution included campaign concept development, video scriptwriting, storyboarding, visual identity and classroom support materials.