‘Social impact agency’ defends work in UK schools paid for by oil and gas firm Equinor

The creator of a range of oil company-sponsored resources for UK schoolchildren, which have been condemned by climate campaign groups as greenwashing for the fossil fuel industry, has defended his firm’s work, arguing that energy companies have a role to play in moving towards a low carbon future. 

Marketing and brand agency We Are Futures, which describes itself as a ‘social impact agency’, developed a computer game and related resources about energy systems, which have been used in UK schools since October 2023 and were paid for by Norwegian oil and gas giant Equinor. Last July, Equinor said the resources had reached more than 81,400 students across the UK since their launch.

The furore comes as Equinor, which is majority-owned by the Norwegian state, seeks UK government approval to start drilling at Rosebank, the UK’s largest untapped oilfield.

There is also a growing campaign for the PR and advertising industry to refuse to work for the fossil fuel industry, arguing that fossil fuel firms are “the world’s biggest polluters and the biggest greenwashers”.

The game, called EnergyTown, is aimed at 7 to 14-year-olds and is the centrepiece of a broader set of resources called Wonderverse. In the game, players manage a fictional city’s energy sources, housing, businesses and community assets until 2050, with success scored on four metrics: energy supply, money, sustainability and happiness of residents. 

The implicit criticism is that we’re part of brainwashing school children, which is just utter nonsense

Criticism of Wonderverse has come from climate campaign groups Greenpeace, Uplift, Parents for Future and others. In a statement, Mel Evans, head of Greenpeace UK’s climate team, described Wonderverse as “a thinly disguised attempt to greenwash oil and gas by targeting children with fossil fuel propaganda”.

Speaking exclusively to Pioneers Post in response to the controversy, Mark Fawcett, CEO and founder of We Are Futures, said he disagreed with the criticism which he took “huge offence” at, and was “really proud” of the Wonderverse game and resources, which he believed were a “strong educational tool”. 

Fawcett (pictured) said: “The implicit criticism is that we’re part of brainwashing school children, which is just utter nonsense. It’s not any part of the values that we exist to do. If we tried to do that sort of work, we would have been out of business a long, long time ago."

He added: “In my own personal view, the role of energy companies to move us towards a low and zero carbon future is critical, and if we can get them to do more in that area, if we can get them to do activities that get young people thinking about how to succeed in this transition, to get involved in working in this transition, that is a good thing to do.”

Working with Greenpeace, McDonald’s and others

We Are Futures’ website says it “build[s] advocacy for brands amongst young people, through social impact”. The agency’s clients, which include corporates, charities and governments, pay for We Are Futures to deliver what they term “social impact” for young people, which in turn enhances the client’s reputation among people in the target age group.

The agency’s website lists a broad range of clients, including Samsung, McDonald’s and Heathrow airport. Fawcett said priority areas for the agency are social mobility, sports participation, access to the arts and STEM.

Specific examples of We Are Futures’ work include a programme with Sky in 2019 which more than doubled the company’s recruitment of BAME graduates within a year, a Duracell campaign in primary schools which prevented 14.6m batteries going into landfill, and providing more than 1m girls with free sanitary products through a project with P&G.

In 2018 We Are Futures worked with Greenpeace to create educational materials for schools, specifically focusing on the charity’s campaign about deforestation and palm oil. Fawcett said: “I think the work Greenpeace do is really important. I have a huge amount of respect for them. The world needs tough campaigners to shift the dial on all sorts of things.”

They’re describing this as ‘social impact’. I would describe what they’re doing as marketing a harmful product to children

However, including an oil and gas giant in this mix of clients moves an agency away from creating positive social impact, according to Clean Creatives, which is a campaign to encourage PR and advertising professionals to refuse to take on marketing work for fossil fuel companies. More than 1,400 marketing agencies have signed the Clean Creatives pledge to decline any future contracts with fossil fuel companies, trade associations, or front groups. 

Duncan Meisel, executive director of Clean Creatives, said there was no evidence the oil and gas industry was on a path to transition, despite fossil fuel companies having known how harmful to the climate their products are for more than 40 years.
He said: “Saying you’re helping them on a transition shows a deep level of ignorance about the harms that these companies cause and shows you’re not in a position to help because you don’t know what the problem is. 

“They’re describing this as ‘social impact’. I would describe what they’re doing as marketing a harmful product to children. Oil and gas is a product that threatens people’s health. It's as dangerous as tobacco, and marketing that to children is incredibly irresponsible.” 

An unexplained reference to Rosebank in the game’s promotional material 

The criticism of Wonderverse was sparked when Norwegian business newspaper E24 discovered a website run by UK science educator membership body the Association for Science Education, which quality-assured the resources, that contained references to the controversial Rosebank oilfield.

Rosebank is the UK’s largest untapped oilfield, situated in the North Sea, 80 miles off the coast of Shetland in Scotland. It is 80% owned by Equinor. In 2023 the Conservative government granted approval for Equinor to begin work at Rosebank, but in January 2025 Scottish courts ruled that decision unlawful, because it had not taken into account the carbon emissions created by burning any oil and gas produced. 

According to Uplift, the emissions from Rosebank could be more than the combined annual CO2 emissions of the 28 lowest-income countries in the world, including Uganda, Ethiopia and Mozambique. Equinor’s website says it still plans to begin work at Rosebank in the next two years.

Text on the Association for Science Education’s School Science page (pictured below), which has since been taken down, appeared to suggest that Wonderverse was part of a campaign related to approval for Equinor to begin work at Rosebank.

The page said Wonderverse: “aligns with our work to build future talent pipelines and secure permission to operate at a time of sensitivity around fossil fuels, particularly in light of approval for the Rosebank development”.

Meisel from Clean Creatives said the language used on the Association for Science Education’s website matched that of “every internal document that’s been shared from inside the oil and gas industry’s marketing strategy for decades”. 

Pioneers Post contacted Equinor for comment but, at the time of publication, had not received a response.

Equinor told the Bureau of Investigative Journalism it was not aware of the promotional material about Wonderverse on the School Science page until notified by the media. 

Speaking to Norwegian state broadcaster NRK, Equinor spokesperson Magnus Frantzen Eidsvold denied that Wonderverse was part of a lobbying campaign around Rosebank.

Eidsvold said the purpose of Wonderverse was to spark interest in science and technology among young people. He said: “The game is not specifically designed for Rosebank. It is part of our regular activities in collaboration with science centres, student competitions and other initiatives.

“What we agree on is the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To the extent that there is a disagreement, it is about what we believe is a realistic pace for cutting emissions.”

The piece in the copy about Rosebank was never in any original brief

The Association for Science Education said the text used on the page was provided by We Are Futures. Fawcett confirmed the text on the School Science page had been sent by We Are Futures, but said it was “an error” and he didn’t know where it had originated from. According to Fawcett, there had been no discussion about Rosebank or securing Equinor’s “permission to operate” in their meetings with the firm or in the brief for the work.

He said: “I’ve gone into this one. I had a deep look at it and gone: ‘Okay, exactly where did that copy come from? How did it get to them?’ The piece in the copy about Rosebank was never in any original brief.

“It’s inaccurate to say that the reason for the existence of Wonderverse and EnergyTown is linked to any statements or opinions about Rosebank, and it was an error at our end that it fell into a piece of copy.”

Questioning the reliability of renewable energy

Another part of the School Science website that drew specific criticism said: “With over two-thirds of teens believing the oil and gas industry causes more problems than it solves, Wonderverse helps lay misconceptions to rest by exploring some of the challenges involved in a just energy transition.”

Fawcett said he didn’t know exactly what the misconceptions referred to on the web page were, but added that Wonderverse attempted to inform young people about the energy transition, build transferable skills and challenge stereotypes about access to careers in the energy sector.

He said: “One misconception, perhaps, is around the ability to switch off all carbon producing energy sources right now and still be able to run the communities and businesses and way of living we have right now.”

Wonderverse was created using data from the International Energy Agency, said Fawcett, with support from the Association for Science Education. STEM teachers were involved in the creation of the game, before it was tested by teachers and students prior to publication. 

Pioneers Post successfully ran a city in EnergyTown until 2050 choosing only oil and natural gas as energy sources, securing a higher score than a playthrough using only renewable energy sources. 

The latest UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report highlighted the scientific consensus for rapid and sustained reductions in fossil fuel use, with a significant decrease needed by 2030 and near elimination by 2050.

Tips on how to play EnergyTown on the game’s website say: “If you’re relying on electricity from renewable energy resources like wind and solar power, you may have less electricity due to these energy resources being less reliable…You should invest in a more reliable way to generate electricity, such as nuclear, oil, natural gas or hydrogen.”

Meisel from Clean Creatives said the oil and gas industry had shifted its marketing strategy in recent years, from highlighting investments in renewables to emphasising the need for energy security which, fossil fuel firms suggest, could only be delivered by oil and gas.

He said customers were becoming more sceptical of fossil fuel companies’ claims about investing in renewables and accusations of greenwashing were causing reputational harm to the firms.

Instead, the firms were now trying to position themselves as the only affordable, reliable and secure source of energy. He said: “We sometimes call it the ‘bad boyfriend’ strategy — ‘you'll never be the same without me’, kind of thing.

Once you start to scratch the surface, these messages are not credible, and so that’s why they repeat them so often and so loudly 

“They focus on reliability. But I think if people took a second to think about it, we're digging this stuff out of the ground in Iran, it goes through a pipeline through the Balkans, then it has to be refined, and it goes in another pipeline, and at any part along this it could explode. Once you start to scratch the surface, these messages are not credible, and so that’s why they repeat them so often and so loudly.”

Meisel added that fossil fuel companies funding STEM educational resources was common practice. Climate crisis journalism outlet DeSmog reported this week that Equinor spent a total of US$82.7m on sponsorships between 2020 and 2024, with science, education and research as the main focus. 

Earlier this year DeSmog reviewed internal industry documents subpoenaed by the US Congress as part of an investigation into oil industry disinformation. The review found oil companies view educational and cultural sponsorships as crucial tools for deflecting pressure from climate activists, influencing legislation and portraying themselves as gatekeepers to climate solutions. Equinor was not a direct target of the investigation, but is a member of the American Petroleum Institute lobby group, which appeared in the subpoenaed documents.

Bespoke impact reports for clients 

Through a number of networks run by We Are Futures, students, teachers and other educational professionals have the opportunity to input into the agency’s work. Most prominent is the National Schools Partnership, through which more than 125,000 teachers access free teaching resources. The agency also runs a young leaders network, a 130+ organisation partner network (which includes corporates, professional bodies and youth charities) and a parents network. 

Fawcett emphasised that resources produced by We Are Futures only made an impact if teachers found them valuable: “If we produce something, we can tell our whole National Schools Partnership about it. If it doesn’t work, if it’s not suitable, it never gets the light of day. We can’t tell teachers to use this. Teachers use it because they value it, because it’s good, because it helps them do their job, because it engages their students.”

Teachers use it because they value it, because it’s good, because it helps them do their job

Annual impact reports, outlining an organisation’s positive social and environmental outcomes, alongside financial performance, are considered standard practice in the social enterprise sector. Impact reports, made available to the public, promote transparency and accountability and help organisations identify areas for improvement. 

We Are Futures doesn’t produce an annual impact report, but does put together reports for each client based on how they want to measure success. Fawcett said these can range from “lightweight” — constituting just how many young people are using a resource and what teachers think of it — to more in-depth longitudinal studies delivered in partnership with the Institute of Children’s Futures at Manchester Metropolitan University. Whether these reports are made public is up to the clients.

For Wonderverse, Fawcett said Equinor was interested in the impact teachers saw the resources making on their pupils, including metrics such as students’ interest in energy industry jobs and understanding about the energy transition. 

We Are Futures is currently producing an impact report on Wonderverse, so the agency wasn’t able to share one with Pioneers Post, but Fawcett said a key finding was 80% of teachers seeing positive changes in students attitudes towards the importance of renewable energy. 

‘Building advocacy for brands among young people, through social impact’

Since it was founded in 2004, We Are Futures has funnelled half a billion pounds’ worth of corporate investment into education and social mobility, serving more than 40m young people, said Fawcett. 

The agency, which is a private limited company, has offices in London and Edinburgh and 69 staff, according to Companies House records. Asked if We Are Futures had any structures or processes in place to ensure that the delivery of social impact was hardwired into the agency's business activities, Fawcett said: “No, there isn't. It's an interesting question I haven't been asked before. But no, there isn't.”

Outlining how We Are Futures worked with corporate clients to deliver social impact, Fawcett emphasised the commercial argument for businesses appealing directly to young people through his agency’s work.

He said: “We push a lot on reputational pieces. So to say ‘this is how businesses and sectors are getting criticised, and this is where they can not get criticised, and this is the commercial impact of reputational ups and downs.’ We’ve worked with supermarkets in the past on pieces around removing plastic from different elements of the supply chain, because we can demonstrate to them that the attitudes of emerging adults, 16-24 year olds, who are shortly about to become very important customers to supermarkets, [will shift]. 

“If [16-24 year olds] see a supermarket they believe is moving forward in its environmental impact and one that isn’t, half a percent shifts in that age group in terms of intending to shop or not shop with a supermarket are worth half a billion pounds and above on an annual basis. So these are big numbers.” 

There are obviously some sectors that it would be very hard to imagine doing work for

The agency had no written policy on industries or organisations it wouldn’t work for, said Fawcett, rather it based decision-making on any project it undertook on having to provide benefit for three groups of stakeholders: young people, teachers or parents, and the client. 

He said: “There are obviously some sectors that it would be very hard to imagine doing work for. It’s also a bit ‘grown ups in the room’. A lot of us have children as well. We all look at each other [and ask] ‘would you be happy with your kids doing this?’ It’s a set of sensible decision-making processes, rather than a set list that says ‘no’ to these sectors and ‘yes’ to those.”

Equinor has committed to reaching net-zero by 2050, but in February 2025 it told investors it would halve its spending on renewable energies and other low-carbon technologies over the next two years. In December 2023 the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority issued a ruling against Equinor, finding an advert the company ran in The Economist exaggerated its activities in wind power and carbon capture.

Clean Creatives says agencies shouldn’t deliver marketing campaigns for firms which commit more than 50% of their capital expenditures on fossil fuels. Meisel said due diligence on energy companies should focus on what they were doing now, rather than future targets. 

He said: “Renewables get twice the investment of fossil fuels now globally. Are you actually part of this transition that is happening now, not a 2050 pledge? Global demand for oil and gas for the purpose of transportation has peaked. Demand for fossil fuels in the context of buildings has peaked. Oil and gas demand has peaked in Europe. These companies do not have a long runway. They are fighting for scraps.”
 

Images: Screenshots of the Association for Science Education's School Science page and the EnergyTown game
 

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