This week we were delighted that Barley was recognised by the judges at the BusinessGreen Leaders Awards for the second year running. Following our win as PR Agency of the Year in 2017, we were Highly Commended in the category of Communications Agency of the Year for the impact delivered by our campaigns – tackling a range of environmental issues including single use plastics, litter, food waste and textile waste
We were equally thrilled that two of those campaigns were Highly Commended in their own right.
Hubbub won recognition for the Square Mile Challenge in the hotly contested Environment Awareness Campaign of the Year. The campaign piloted the first large-scale paper cup recycling facilities in offices, coffee shops, stations and on the streets in the City of London. It recycled 500,000 cups in the first month and has now gone on to recycle over 4 million cups. Hubbub’s pioneering role in this has seen them give evidence to the Environmental Audit Committee and form a partnership with Starbucks to trial a 5p ‘latte levy’ to encourage more uptake of reusable cups. We generated over 200 pieces of coverage for the launch in 2017, raising awareness and funding and helping position Hubbub as a go-to commentator for media on coffee cup reuse and recycling – with over 600 pieces of media coverage for them on the subject so far this year.
Borough Market‘s installation of drinking fountains and plans to stop the sale of single use bottled water in the Market saw them Highly Commended in the CSR, Marketing and Advertising Campaign of the Year. Borough Market and its traders put the environment ahead of profit and over 100 articles across a range of high profile media helped sales of bottled water drop by a third, with the fountains being used 6,000 times per week. Bottled water has now been phased out and Borough Market are regularly cited as an example to follow as more and more businesses and local authorities offer drinking fountains.
It was a pleasure to see these campaigns honoured and to celebrate the incredible work done by all those shortlisted for the awards.