It was getting late at World Animal Protection’s International HQ in London. I’d stayed behind to finish a task and popped into the kitchen for a quick break. There, at the watercooler (yes, really), I struck up a conversation with a colleague from our US office.

He was in London for meetings about the upcoming Rio+20 UN Conference - the event that would lay the groundwork for the Sustainable Development Goals. His challenge: how to make animal welfare relevant to policymakers and the general public in a way that would stick.

That conversation stayed with me. Back at my desk, an idea struck me. A few months earlier, I’d come across a digital campaign called The Slavery Footprint - an interactive tool that calculated how many modern-day slaves were involved in producing the goods you consume. It was a spinoff of the well-known Carbon Footprint concept.

I realised: we could do the same for animals. Create a Pawprint - something that helped people visualise how their lifestyle choices affect animal welfare.

I shared the idea with my boss. She was all in. And a year later, I found myself in Rio launching the campaign at the UN conference. The Pawprint became the organisation’s first global campaign - something every country office could rally behind.

Takeaways

1. Borrowing is strategic, not lazy
Sometimes the best ideas are sitting right in front of you - they just need translating into your context. We didn’t invent the concept of a footprint - we repurposed it. And it resonated far and wide.

2. Be open to "non-process" moments
That campaign started not in a strategy meeting but at the watercooler. The freedom to explore ideas informally - and act on them - is often what enables innovation.

3. Create a culture that says "yes"
I wasn’t on the Rio+20 team. But I shared an idea, and it was welcomed. When you make it easy for people at all levels to contribute, you unlock game-changing ideas that don’t require procurement processes or committees to surface.

4. Clarity scales
The Pawprint was instantly understandable. A clear, visual metaphor. If you want your ideas to spread, make them easy to repeat.

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Transformation doesn’t always require high-tech tools or months of planning. Sometimes, it’s about combining curiosity with courage - taking what works elsewhere and repurposing it with purpose. For anyone trying to build momentum within their organisation, this is an idea worth trying.

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