Brighton's new media community might emit great quantities of hot air and leave slicks of dirty coffee cups in trendy cafes, but it has never done the environment any harm.

Then again, melting ice caps and shrinking forests have not kept many of the town's internet gurus awake at night.

But one member of this scene has launched a drive to catch a few green issues in the internet - and build a decent business along the way.

Nick Gallie is no wide-eyed undergraduate campaigner with a tree house and a laptop computer.

The 60-year-old has worked on DVDs for two of the most important British films in the last four years.

But this was only after 13 years as head of communications for Greenpeace in the UK.

He has earned a reputation for big-name new media work and the ability to bring polish to a protest group.

Mr Gallie turned his back on a successful career as an advertising creative in 1983.

With work for Unilever and Gillette under his belt, there was no reason to jump ship, other than his personal concerns about the environment.

He said: "I brought a sense of style and business attitude to Greenpeace.

"It did influence how they did things."

Applying the techniques behind selling razor blades to the Greenpeace message had an impact.

The organisation became arguably the world's most media-savvy non-governmental organisation.

Mr Gallie handled the British media campaign when the Chernobyl disaster occurred and also when the French government bombed Greenpeace's Rainbow Warrior ship.

He left Greenpeace to set up his own firm, Navajo2, to use new media to get a campaigning message across.

But some major contracts came before green initiatives.

Vinnie Jones is not everybody's idea of the public face of environmentalism.

But producing the graphics for the Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Trainspotting DVDs made the name of Navajo2 and helped bankroll the rest of Mr Gallie's work.

Navajo2 created the menus and title screens for DVDs seen by film fans across the world.

The firm also worked on DVD re-releases of movies such as A Night to Remember, the classic 1958 Titanic film.

With film work behind him, Mr Gallie was free to start on his green intiatives.

Mr Gallie has started constructing an internet-based rural development think tank with the help of a number of major environmental groups and big-name businesses.

The site will draw together examples of good practice in rural regeneration and produce policy proposals.

Mr Gallie said online work like this could draw on wide support and help green groups to pull in the same direction - something they have not always managed in the past.

He said: "Before, it would be complicated to get these organisations to work together.

Every organisation will have its special interest and ideological concern.

"Now you can get groups with different remits together. The paradigm has changed."

He would not say much ahead of the site's official launch in late October but yes, those involved were major players, and no, the site would not be Swampy online.

It would try to influence Government policy.

Mr Gallie did not intend to scale the mock oil rig off Brighton beach with a banner between his teeth to get his message across though.

He said: "Confrontation can get agendas up but after a while it doesn't go anywhere."

Mr Gallie said he knew programmers and designers who shared his concerns and who would be willing to offer their services for the cause.

Terrifying though the thought of coding websites for a perceived greater good might be to many new media bosses, a demand has grown for new media with ethics.

Just as Sussex-based Bodyshop has built an image on environmentalism, so renewable energy firm unite launched with a major green theme.

It asked Mr Gallie to coordinate its marketing campaign.

He has also completed work on Natural Collection, a website selling environmentally friendly goods ranging from organic beers to hemp clothing, for a Bath-based firm.

With small producers finding it easier to sell online than to break into retail supply chains, similar projects could well come up in the future.

Recently he has been working on the launch of a mobile phone information service which will build its campaign around ethical issues.

Ethics and big business have been happily married in the past and Mr Gallie is slowly tempting new media firms to add high idealism to their high-tech know how.

He said he wanted new media to impact on ethical campaigning in 2000 just as corporate advertising left its mark on the Eighties.

Mr Gallie was well placed to make the point but it was also clear there was money to be made in the rush for ethical business online.

He may yet prove environmental campaigning online does not necessarily pollute the revenue stream.

www.navajo2.com
www.naturalcollection.com