Microfibres, Macro Problem: reducing microplastics in our oceans

featured news, news, Sustainability

Did you know that more than 1 in 3 primary ocean microplastics come from washing textiles?  

Synthetic fabrics like polyester, nylon and acrylic make up the majority of our wardrobes. In fact, 60% of all clothing made contains polyester. These fabrics are actually a type of plastic and due to friction, when washed they shed tiny strands of plastic less than 5mm long, called plastic microfibres. Like microbeads, they are a type of microplastic pollution, ending up in our rivers, oceans and food.  

Microfibres are released from synthetic clothes every time they’re washed and we’ve been supporting environmental charity Hubbub to inspire and empower consumers to help reduce microfibre pollution. The #whatsinmywash campaign provides simple steps that can be taken at home to help clean up our oceans, including: 

  • Only using the washing machine when needed and alternative washing techniques 
  • Choose better quality clothes – will it get 30 wears? Check the label too and look out for clothes made from organic and well-sourced fabrics 
  • Wash clothes the gentle way by checking care labels. Softer washes will reduce friction, reducing the release of microfibres and helping keep clothes in shape for longer. This includes washing at 30°, using a full load and avoiding tumble dryers. 

The campaign generated 170 pieces of national and regional coverage, including Metro and ITV News. Reaching our target audiences where their interests lie is essential to behaviour change, so we were particularly delighted to place these important messages in the weekly fashion round up in The Sun alongside Love Island beachwear! 

Pioneering #FoodSavvy campaign launched to tackle food waste in East Anglia

Food and Drink, news, Sustainability

With the average East Anglian family wasting £810 of edible food per year, a pioneering campaign has been launched to help combat the issue of food waste in the region.

Norfolk and Suffolk councils have joined forces with environmental charity Hubbub to launch Food Savvy, a campaign that aims to take significant steps towards cutting food waste across both counties. The initial stage will run for two years and then Food Savvy’s most successful elements will be scaled up to meet the seven-year target of reducing food waste by 20% by 2025 in line with national framework, the Courtauld Commitment and the global Sustainable Development Goals.   

The campaign marks the first time Norfolk and Suffolk councils have come together on a food initiative of this scale and its ambitious vision puts the region at the forefront of the UK’s efforts to combat food waste. Food Savvy’s uniqueness also lies in the way it will bring together an entire cross section of the community to tackle the issue, involving businesses, schools, community groups, as well as influencers like chefs, food celebrities, lifestyle bloggers and vloggers. 

Kicking off this week, Food Savvy will include a range of exciting activities and programmes designed to raise awareness of the impact of food waste and give people the tools they need to make a difference.  

 A taster of the initiatives to come over the next two years: 

  • Seasonal food waste campaigns to help households save during peak times of waste. Activities will include Halloween-themed Pumpkin Rescue, community cooking programme Kitchen Love in collaboration with NEFF, Christmas campaign Festive Freeze and pre-holiday food saving campaign Travellers Check. These seasonal campaigns will use peak times of wastage throughout the year and fun hooks to talk about food waste year–round.  
  • Entertaining educational initiatives focused on key behaviours relating to waste, such as date label confusion and food storage dos and don’ts. 
  • Fun, family-friendly events centred on specific highly wasted items and showcasing the counties’ food producing heritage. 
  • Food Savvy challenge where residents will be encouraged to save £70 a month by preventing food waste. 
  • Innovative trials with householders, bloggers and vloggers. 
  • Cross curricular school resources to help educate young people on food wastage.  
  • Employee engagement campaigns to spur workplace involvement. 

To find out more and get involved in Food Savvy people can visit www.foodsavvy.org.uk and follow #FoodSavvy on social media. While the campaign is initially launching in Norfolk and Suffolk, how-to guides will be created so other UK counties can create and scale their own campaigns. 

It is expected Food Savvy will strike a chord with East Anglian residents. A recent poll of those in Norfolk and Suffolk showed the majority (86%) are worried by food waste and 53% admit they feel guilty when they throw away food. A further 39% say they’d like help reducing the amount they waste.

Quick tips for households wanting to cut food waste straight away, based on habits revealed in the poll:  

  1. Plan ahead – more than six in 10 residents don’t plan their meals before shopping.  Take a moment to think about the week ahead and when you’ll be eating at home. Plan a couple of meals ahead, make a shopping list and buy only what you need. 
  1. Check your fridge – 30% don’t look in the fridge before shopping. Give your fridge the once over before you get groceries to ensure you don’t double up. 
  1. Store food carefully – 31% don’t store potatoes in a cool, dark place, meaning they go off quicker. Research how to store fresh items to keep them at their best. 
  1. Make the most of your leftovers – Four in 10 East Anglian residents love banana bread, a great way to use up over-ripe fruit. If you cook too much or can’t finish a meal, pack it for lunch. Even if you’re eating out, ask for a ‘doggy bag’. 
  1. Love your freezer – many residents don’t realise that popular fridge staples can be frozen – for instance, 41% have never frozen milk and 46% didn’t know it’s possible to freeze cheese. If you cook too much or forget to eat something near its use by date, chances are you can freeze it and eat it later.  

Trewin Restorick, CEO of Hubbub said: “The impact food waste has on average family budgets is incredible.  It’s also costing councils millions and is bad news for the environment.  We hope that by showing people the impact of food waste and helping them to make a positive change, the campaign will benefit not only the community and the wider environment but individual’s own pockets, too. We’re not talking about massive lifestyle changes – small changes really can make a big difference.”  

Martin Wilby, of Norfolk’s Environment Transport and Development Committee said: “After the success of our own county–wide food waste initiative Plan Eat Save which launched in 2016, we’re aware that people’s interest in reducing food waste is growing. We’re delighted to be partnering with Suffolk Councils and Hubbub so we can build further on this initiative and encourage even more people to be smarter with their food and help cut waste across the whole region.” 

Cllr David Bowman, Chair of the Suffolk Waste Partnership said: “Suffolk households throw away a staggering 50,000 tonnes of food every year. As a rural county producing many delicious foods and drinks, this is terrible wastage and something we must tackle. We are therefore thrilled to be launching this collaborative project with Hubbub and our colleagues at Norfolk County Council.  We are also inviting local people, community groups and businesses to join us on this innovative journey that will help save families money and protect our beautiful region.” 

Barley appointed by Borough Market

Charities, Food and Drink, news, Sustainability

Borough Market is London’s oldest food market, having been established over 1,000 years ago.  Today it is a vibrant, diverse market renowned for its exceptional produce, which is run as a charity for the benefit of the community.

Borough Market puts sustainability at the heart of its operations and Barley has been appointed to support with sustainability communications.

www.boroughmarket.org.uk

Barley named Green PR Company of the Year

Awards, featured news, news, Sustainability

Last night we were honoured and delighted to be named Green PR Company of the Year at the BusinessGreen Leaders’ Awards.

We set up Barley just over a year ago with a clear mission – communication that matters – and there can be no doubt that the fight to tackle climate change fits that mission.  Over the last year we have been thrilled to partner with the sustainability charity Hubbub to deliver behaviour change campaigns to:

  • reduce food waste – supporting Unilever in a series of seasonal campaigns encouraging gifting of unwanted food with Travellers Check, getting kids cooking for Grandparents’ Day with Cook Something Grand and encouraging people to eat their Halloween pumpkin carvings with Pumpkin Rescue. These campaigns also saw Hubbub pick up the award for Marketing/Advertising Campaign of the Year, earning praise from the judges for the “impressive media reach” achieved.
  • tackle textile waste – working with Mothercare on the Gift a Bundle campaign to get used baby clothes out of lofts and back into circulation and launching Bright Friday, Brighton’s alternative to Black Friday
  • combat litter – getting to the source of ocean litter by tackling littering in the Thames with For Fish’s Sake
  • recycle coffee cups – collaborating with the City of London Corporation, Network Rail, Simply Cups and major coffee retailers and paper cup manufacturers to launch the Square Mile Challenge, the UK’s first large scale initiative to address coffee cup recycling

The judges said: “This new venture on the green PR scene impressed the judges with their vibrant entry and their high profile Bright Friday festival and Square Mile Challenge coffee cup campaigns. After only a year in business, the company has emerged as an exciting new player in the environmental communications market who look poised to go from strength to strength.”

It really has been a fantastic first year.  As well as the sustainability work that won us this award, we’ve worked on communications programmes across a range of important issues – helping Stoll to tell the stories of vulnerable Veterans, giving local people a voice with the NHS and getting women active with the World Heart Federation to name just a few.

There have been so many highlights, but across all of our work we’d say there are three things that drive our success:

A laser focus on making a difference

Everything we do is focused on IMPACT. Every piece of work starts with a deep understanding of our clients and their business goals and each campaign has a clear thread from strategy through to delivery.

A sheer love of what we do

As we only work on the things that matter to us, we approach every piece of work with gusto and work tenaciously to delight our clients.

An utterly brilliant team

By setting aside the shackles of a full time office and a requirement to be at a desk all day everyday we’ve been able to bring together a crack team of smart, strategic experts in behavior change, communications strategy, stakeholder engagement, content development and media relations.

We hope that this is the first of many awards as we continue to build Barley. Next up we’re shortlisted for New Consultancy of the Year at the forthcoming PRCA Dare Awards.

If you’d like to discuss how we can help you achieve your business goals, do contact us, we’d love to hear from you.





Barley blog: There’s more to food waste than wonky veg

featured news, Food and Drink, news, Sustainability

[narrow_col]

*Big sigh*

*Eye roll*

*Silent weeping*

On Saturday the cross-party Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Select Committee released a report on food waste and it was a fairly depressing read. Food waste reductions have stalled.

How is it that 10 years on from the launch of Love Food Hate Waste – when the front pages of national newspapers were screaming out about the shocking levels of UK food waste – we’ve made such little progress? And why is it only now that a recommendation for a formal national food waste target is being put forward?

What I found particularly interesting is that aside from the BBC, practically every other national media outlet reporting on the launch of the report this weekend led on the angle about the sale of wonky veg in supermarkets.

Households produce 71% of post-farmgate waste, whilst retailers produce 2%. Yes, retailers do have a very important part to play and there is a lot of work to do in terms of supply chains and distribution but by far the media focus has been here and not on households.

We love blaming businesses but it’s imperative we look closer to home. Our homes. Where we chuck out hundreds of pounds worth of food every year.

Food Waste is a topic very close to my heart – I helped launch the Love Food Hate Waste campaign for WRAP back in 2007.  Part of this campaign’s success is that it didn’t wag the finger. Instead it provided positive and practical solutions and worked in collaboration with many other organisations, an approach we take with our client Hubbub on #PumpkinRescue and other engaging seasonal food waste campaigns.

I was pleased to see the select committee recommend that “the Government examine how lessons on food and food waste can be incorporated as part of the school curriculum”. But is a “lesson on food” the same as cookery? Many adults now don’t have the basic cookery skills or knowledge to use up leftovers themselves, so what hope does the next generation have? In my view, we need to get kids cooking in school and in the home and that’s supported by the research we conducted for Hubbub’s #CookSomethingGrand campaign, which found that a shocking 45% of 16 year olds have never cooked a family meal.  Perhaps we need a little less focus on nutritional theory and a little more on bubble and squeak.

The EFRA report also highlighted that whilst there was high awareness around the issue of food waste, it’s not being translated into action by households. I’m encouraged to see that WRAP has a new strategy for the campaign but with such huge cuts in funding from Central Government and the Devolved Administrations over the past few years, they have a monumental challenge ahead to achieve their goals. With such a wide variety of audiences and reasons for wasting food, more investment is needed to ensure they have a hope of actually changing these entrenched habits.

More than ever WRAP needs its partners to deliver and help spread the message to consumers. To innovate, to inspire collective action and to incentivise.

Whatever the outcome of the upcoming election, let’s hope the new Government prioritises the issue of food waste and in another 10 years I’m feeling a little more positive. And my teenage boys are cooking me dinner.

Laura Harrison, Associate, Barley Communications

Squaring the circle on coffee cup recycling

featured news, news, Sustainability

Did you know that the UK gets through a staggering 7 million disposable paper cups a day – that’s 2.5 billion cups every year – yet less than 1% of these are currently recycled?

We’ve been helping sustainability charity Hubbub launch their #SquareMileChallenge initiative to tackle the issue in London’s Square Mile. This pioneering collaboration with Simply Cups brings together the City of London Corporation, Network Rail, coffee cup manufacturers and major coffee retailers – Caffè Nero, Costa, Marks & Spencer, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Pret A Manger and Starbucks. Over 250 new recycling points are now in place across the City – on the streets, in stations, in coffee shops and in offices.

We developed a two phase media strategy aligned with the strategic objectives of the campaign. The first phase in January 2017 raised awareness of the initiative and targeted businesses around the City to sign up to workplace coffee cup collections. The story was covered in The Times, The Guardian and The Daily Mail, along with extensive reach in London and specialist media and wide sharing on social media – leading to a further 34 major businesses signing up to take part in the challenge.

The second phase launched on 3rd April 2017 with the goals of engaging consumers in the City of London to recycle their cups, along with continued awareness raising on a national level to pave the way for a wider roll out of the scheme.

In the run up to the launch we worked with Hubbub on creative ideas to engage City workers and residents.  Check out Hubbub’s behind the scenes vlog, for more on this…

 

These were also used as a backdrop for our media activities and helped achieve fantastic coverage, including interviews on BBC Breakfast and articles in The Times, The Guardian, The Independent and The Sun. We were also delighted the story was picked up in virtually every London media outlet from BBC London TV news and radio to the Evening Standard, Metro, City AM and Timeout. Social media sharing was extensive, supported by engaging video content, with #SquareMileChallenge trending in London on the day of the launch.

We look forward to sharing more good news when the cups are counted.

Barley shortlisted for BusinessGreen Leaders Award

Awards, news, Sustainability

We are absolutely delighted to share the news that Barley has been shortlisted for Green PR Company of the Year at this year’s BusinessGreen Leaders Awards.

We’ve only been up and running a year, but we’ve been privileged to work on some fantastic behaviour change campaigns in conjunction with Hubbub and a diverse group of corporate partners.

We have been shortlisted for our work across a range of environmental campaigns, including:

  • Mothercare’s #GiftABundle campaign to get outgrown baby clothing back into circulation.
  • Seasonal food waste campaigns, such as #PumpkinRescue, with Unilever.  We’re equally pleased to see Hubbub shortlisted for Marketing/Advertising Campaign of the Year for these.
  •  #SquareMileChallenge – the UK’s biggest initiative to date to tackle coffee cup recycling – in conjunction with a wide group of well known coffee retailers, the City of London, Network Rail and Simply Cups.

To mark the 10th anniversary of BusinessGreen later this year, the theme of this year’s BusinessGreen Leaders Awards will celebrate the immense progress the UK’s green business community has made in recent years, as sustainable business models and clean technologies have forced their way into the mainstream.  We’re looking forward to celebrating this progress with clients and collaborators at the awards on 28th June.

Launching the Square Mile Challenge

news, Sustainability

This week we’ve been delighted to support Hubbub in launching the Square Mile Challenge, a new campaign to tackle the tricky issue of coffee cup recycling.

This April will see the launch of the UK’s biggest push to date to tackle the issue of disposable coffee cup recycling. The initiative launches in London’s Square Mile, which holds the UK’s biggest concentration of office workers, many of whom are fuelled by coffee. The City of London, Network Rail, national coffee retailers and some of the Square Mile’s biggest employers, including Lloyd’s and Eversheds, are joining forces in a scheme led by environmental charity Hubbub, in partnership with recycling company Simply Cups, to introduce coffee cup recycling facilities across the city.

Every day up to seven million coffee cups are thrown away across the UK, with less than 1% of these cups thought to be recycled. The tricky issue to date has been the plastic film on the inside of the paper cups, which means that the cups can rarely be recycled with other mixed recycling. The recycling methods used for the Square Mile Challenge will process the cups to create either a plastic or recovered fibre material which is made into new products.


This initiative has been made possible with the support of Bunzl Catering Supplies, Costa, Marks and Spencer, McDonald’s, Nestlé, Pret A Manger, Starbucks and a group of the leading coffee cup manufacturers. It follows the launch of the Paper Cup Manifesto in June 2016, which garnered over 40 signatories from companies involved in the coffee industry, committing to improve recovery and increase recycling of paper cups.

The first 30 businesses with over 500 employees to sign up to the Square Mile Challenge will receive a year’s free membership to collection services provided by Simply Cups, and all other businesses involved can take advantage of discounted rates for collections. The coffee cups collected can be remade into a range of items, from pencils to park benches, which will be donated to local community projects and schools and used to reward those contributing the most to the recycling effort during the challenge.

Coverage collage - SMC phase 1

Support for the launch has been fantastic, with media coverage including The Daily Mail, The Guardian and The Times, in print and online.  The story was also covered on BBC Radio London and on BBC London Evening News and has already generated extensive coverage in trade media.

If you’re based in the City of London and are interested in signing up to the Square Mile Challenge, you can find out more at www.squaremilechallenge.co.uk

Stimulating the litter debate in Scotland

news, Sustainability

INCPEN coverageWe’ve recently been supporting INCPEN (the Industry Council for Research on Packaging and the Environment) with the release of the results of a new study on litter in Scotland, with terrific results.

We highlighted the increase in Scotland’s litter, framing this in the context of Scottish Government investment in a new litter strategy two years earlier, generating coverage across a range of Scottish media, including the Scottish editions of the Daily Mail and Metro, the Scotsman and the Herald.

Barley’s Laura Harrison speaks at Discovery Communities event

Food and Drink, news, Sustainability, Uncategorized

Laura Sainsbury'sBarley’s Laura Harrison was delighted to join with speakers from Sainsbury’s and others today at a Discovery Communities event at the Custard Factory in the heart of Birmingham’s creative quarter.

The day gave an opportunity for participants to learn about the innovative food waste campaigns being tested by Sainsbury’s and environmental charity Hubbub in Swadlincote, Derbyshire, to hear about the best campaigns from around Europe, to be informed of the latest behaviour change research and to gain insight into future food trends.

Laura talked about what makes an inspirational PR campaign, drawing on her experience of food waste campaigns for Hubbub and Love Food Hate Waste, amongst others.

Saving smashing pumpkins with #PumpkinRescue

Food and Drink, news, Sustainability

coverage-collageWow, what a week we’ve had!  On Wednesday we launched new research from Hubbub and Unilever highlighting the number of pumpkins going to waste as they were carved but not eaten – a whopping 15 million of them in the UK last year.

Launching on National Pumpkin Day we used the survey results to secure coverage across national media – broadcast, print and online.  By tailoring releases for each region and major city of the UK, we also achieved fantastic regional coverage – highlighting the food waste issue and directing consumers to their nearest #PumpkinRescue events.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2-41CdYw9JM

Meanwhile, we secured the support of Celebrity Masterchef champion and mum, Lisa Faulkner, who took part in a packed day of radio interviews and the day’s #skydebate on Sky News.

We’re now nearing 100 pieces of coverage across broadcast, print and online and looking forward to totting up how many pumpkins we’ve helped save from a spooky end.

Happy Halloween!

Launching #CookSomethingGrand with Hubbub and Unilever

Food and Drink, news, Sustainability

hubbub_grandparents-day_infographic-04Today we’re delighted to launch #CookSomethingGrand with Hubbub and Unilever, the latest in a series of seasonal campaigns to tackle food waste in the home as part of their Joint Ambition for a Zero Food Waste Britain.

The campaign highlights the decline in cooking skills over the generations and calls on grandparents to pass on their kitchen skills to their grandchildren this Grandparents’ Day, Sunday 2nd October.

https://www.hubbub.org.uk/Event/cook-with-your-grandchild