Clean Air Fund: What does it take to clear the air?

THE BRIEF

Air pollution kills millions each year, yet remains stubbornly absent from government policies and agendas.

For the UN International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, the Clean Air Fund needed more than an awareness campaign. They needed to document how clean air can transform communities, and the people working to make that happen.

THE CREATIVE

Rooftop developed five films across four countries. We leaned into personal testimony, letting the changemakers speak in their own voices. Emil in Rybnik, running through smog so thick it left him coughing for months. Aza in Ulaanbaatar, watching her nephew take his first breaths in a city blanketed by coal smoke. Jemima in London, pushing a pram along one of the city’s most polluted roads. Each location carried its own story – coal-mining in Poland, a fight for open data in Mongolia, journalist accountability in Ghana, parents refusing to wait for slow-moving legislation in London.

THE FILMS

THE IMPACT

The series launched on the International Day of Clean Air for Blue Skies, reaching funders, policymakers, and the public simultaneously. Pollution anywhere is pollution everywhere – these films helped make that truth impossible to ignore.

THE AWARD

THE DETAILS