Communications Hub a loud Success at Futuresource
The Futuresource 2010 Communications Hub, run by Sauce Consultancy in partnership with Chartered Institution of Wastes Management (CIWM) and the Associate Parliamentary Sustainable Resource Group (APSRG), was a resounding success again this year, with a series of hard hitting debates around key communications challenges facing the industry.
Panel Debates put the ‘Communication’ in ‘Communications Hub’
With a strong line-up of industry insiders, journalists and politicians, the debate sessions tackled a wide range of topics from public engagement to bad science and building ties with protest groups.
The result was truly exciting and dynamic exchanges with robust participation from the audience which provided the opportunity to go behind the press releases and newspaper articles and hear what the experts really think of the issues facing the sector. It proved that informed discussion and engagement with the public are the building blocks for the future of the environment sector.
All panel debates were recorded and will be available to view on Sauce Consultancy’s newly launched multi-media website: www.environmentalcommunications.tv.
How to give the perfect TV interview
To give the perfect TV interview it is important to get only a maximum of three key messages across quickly, stresses ex-BBC journalist and media consultant Steve Bustin.
Steve said: “Average radio interview lasts 20 seconds and average speech speed is 3 words per second, which means that you have to get your message across in 60 words.”
Opening the Communications Hub on all three days, Steve was able to give the audience an insight into how a journalist thinks including the importance of speaking to different audiences as a Sky News interview will need to have different language and content to a CBBC Newsround interview and to have confidence in what you are saying as the journalist asked to interview you for a reason.
We need to de-demonise waste as a party political issue
Reversing the current demonising of waste and sparking real debate among politicians of different political parties on the matter is extremely important for the future of the waste industry, argued SITA UK’s Gev Eduljee at the ‘What are the politics, polls and opinion surveys telling us?’ panel debate at the Communications Hub hosted by Sauce Consultancy, in partnership with APSRG.
The event was chaired by former Shadow Secretary of State for Defra Peter Ainsworth who agreed with Gev Eduljee’s sentiments and suggested that unfortunately waste was “not an issue that is an argument between politician and politician but politician and the public.”
Ipsos Mori‘s Ashley Ames added to this presenting surveys showing that the public didn’t see any difference between the three main political parties in tackling climate change. Director of Icaro Consulting Phil Downing warned that the policy of rewarding for recycling was effectively replacing social norms with market norms and it is hard to go back once this has happened.
However, Editor of ENDS Report Nicholas Schoon offered more hope for the future by stating he believed the Coalition Government’s Programme for Government was a “fairly exciting document” and that if everything was implemented then the “environment will be in better shape.”
The Internet is not our friend in transmitting the truth
The “internet was not our friend” in transmitting the truth about waste infrastructure and there was a “fundamental shift in power from Government to locals in local waste planning” were two strong statements by Chairman Peter Ainsworth ‘Policy in Practice – delivering new infrastructure’ panel debate at the Communications Hub, who added that the sector needs to start to accept the power of the community more in planning issues if it is going to grow in the future.
Peterborough Renewable Energy Ltd MD Chris Williams was also speaking at the event and agreed the waste industry still fails in public engagement stating: “We will never move forward unless the industry stops blaming planners, local & national governments or quangos for constraining public consultation practices.”
Lib Dem MP for North Cornwall and representative of APSRG Dan Rogerson furthered the point of engagement to find the best waste solutions for specific areas stating: “We believe people should be more and more engaged in waste projects and their voices must be considered by all governmental bodies and agencies”
Let them eat cake…and then get another later
Emphasising the money the public can save by not wasting food and introducing Buy One Get One Later schemes are the two main ways to stimulate behaviour change regarding food waste according to the ‘How to get the food waste message across’ panel debate.
Richard Swannell, Environment Policy Advisor for British Retail Consortium, focused on the large amounts of food waste that was disposed in the UK this year costing each household approximately £480pa and that food waste was very different from recycling behavioural change.
Environment Policy Advisor for British Retail Consortium Bob Gordon spoke of the commitments from large supermarkets to send zero waste to landfill by 2013. Retailers were said to be working closely with suppliers to influence their behaviour, working to optimise packaging and introducing other offers such as the Buy One Get One Later Schemes. David Ingham from the London Borough of Richmond and Joy Blizzard from LARAC summarised that the food waste message must be simple; complexity was a hindrance.
Social media is crucial in presenting “the message you want to give”
Social media is becoming more important in the successful engagement of local communities when it comes to new waste infrastructure and the environment sector needs to embrace it more and stop worrying about newspaper articles alone argued Sauce Consultancy’s John Twitchen at the ‘New Media- Breaking the Mould’ panel debate at the Communications Hub.
John was joined by social media expert Janine Honour who spoke about MyTVe which is an environmental video system that tailors environmental video content for company’s websites. She stated that Linkedin was the most useful social media site but Youtube had been extremely important to MyTVe and social media was essential to controlling “the message you want to give.”
John presented the Environmental Communications TV website as a method of bringing to life press-packs that “helps people understand the content” through video, picture and explanatory material.
Don’t be fooled by Internet science bearing gifts
Science has gone from a precise fact-based process to a tool to back-up peoples long held beliefs they already hold and this is a major problem for the environment sector, argued the Chartered Institute of Waste Management’s Steve Lee at the ‘Good versus bad science- how to encourage informed debate’ question time event at the Communications Hub. He added that the internet gave people the ability to find anything in terms of science and urged people not to be fooled.
Michael Warhurst of Friends of the Earth was also participating and suggested that the commercialisation of media is having an effect with fewer journalists doing more work. Steve Othen of Fichtner Consulting added to this by criticising the media for their sensationalised stories on science and always making danger the main headline not the potential safety of most technologies.
Liz Parkes of the Environment Agency said that it is important to have evidence based policy in making the case to change behaviour and that the waste industry needs to push informed knowledge and give a consensus on many of the technologies they have.
Financial Times Journalist Fiona Harvey, who chaired the event, spoke of the difficulty for journalists to provide balance as sometimes the scientist and the sceptic do not have the same knowledge and giving weight to a minority view can be dangerous. There was also agreement that the decrease in scientists in government and the rise of PR men taking their place was worrying.
Middle Earth comes to Futuresource
Speaking at the ‘Fundamentals of engaging people in a green society’ panel debate, Director of Giraffe Innovation Ltd Rob Holdway spoke about the system they designed to make people aware of their carbon footprint called ‘The Habbit’; these are hobbits that represent people’s habits.
‘The Habbit’ is a representation of one’s environmental habits measured and built as the limbs and body part which represents a different type of environmental burden. The feet- transport, hands- home energy, mouth- water, stomach- consumption, bottom- waste, eyes/head- reflects overall CO2 burden. Through this model, companies are offered prioritised tips on how to reduce energy use.
Also speaking at the debate, Ruth Bond of the National Federation of Women’s Institutes spoke about the ‘battle green living’ which has successfully engaged members with environmental issues.
Lucy Yates from Consumer Focus argued companies needed to ensure they developed campaigns which have clarity, credibility and comparability to make green issues “aspirational not sacrificial.”
Consultation is an Art not a Science
The average local authority goes to consultation 200 times a year and this will likely to increase as the new Government plans to extensively consult on new planning and climate change strategies, claims Rhion Jones and Elizabeth Gammell of the Consultation Institute in their ‘The Art of Consultation’ presentation at the Communications Hub.
Rhion Jones and Elizabeth Gammell, who have recently published a book called ‘The Art of Consultation’, believe that in a society where everyone wants to say what they think consultation has become an art not a science and that the UK is heading in one direction towards greater public engagement and the industry needs to accept and embrace this.
Elizabeth Gammell said “There are amazing things you can now do with consultation to inspire people and Sauce Consultancy really does use creative innovation when consulting people.”
“Councils have lost the confidence to make the difficult decisions”
Clarity and decisiveness by local councils is crucial if the UK is to build sustainable waste management structures, suggests External Affairs Manager of Viridor Dan Cooke, but he lamented the trend of councils making short-term vote winning decisions and believed that local authorities have lost the confidence to make the difficult and sometimes controversial decisions.
Speaking at the ‘Protests- the good, the bad and the ugly’ panel debate at the Communications Hub alongside Principal Waste Manager for Devon County Council Annette Dentith and Chairman John Twitchen of Sauce Consultancy, Dan Cooke added it is of great importance to utilize social media and the use of videos of what is proposed can “blow the myths out of the water.”
Annette Dentith of Devon County Council stated that the success of the campaign to bring waste education to Devon over the past 5 years had helped when it came to consultation on residual waste and allowed for a better understanding and less protest when an energy-from-waste facility was built. Both agreed that scare stories need to be engaged as they are just that, scare stories.
Jane Davidson wants to avoid “very large, unsustainable” treatment of residual waste in Wales
Whilst giving her keynote address about the launch of the “Towards Zero Waste” strategy for Wales published on Monday 21st June 2010, Minister for the Environment, Sustainability and Housing Jane Davidson announced that more resources would go to AD technology and that she wanted to avoid “very large, unsustainable ways of dealing with residual waste.”
She also stated there would be more consistency among welsh councils methods of waste management and that kerbside sort is the best option for recycling collection. In addition, landfill bans would be introduced and a 7p levy would be put on every plastic bag which in turn would be given to charitable organisations. She thanked the citizens of Wales for their enthusiasm for change and that waste had become the “beating heart of Government in Wales.”
Poll shows communication most important for infrastructure planning
Sauce ran a poll of visitors to the Communications Hub throughout the three days of the exhibition. Over 90% believe that communication of the potential benefits of waste technologies is crucial to achieving community buy-in for new developments and 87% believe that future strategy on waste should have a stronger focus on commercial and industrial waste.
Cycling for a good cause
The Global Action Plan Energy Bike on the Communications Hub gave visitors a brisk work-out whilst also providing an insight into the true cost of powering an iPod or computer screen. It was in support of Sauce Consultancy’s John Twitchen, who is cycling the 500km Le Tour de Force in aid of the William Wates Memorial Trust. If you would like to lend your support to this fantastic cause please visit: www.bmycharity.com/V2/JohnTwitchenTdF
Thank You for making the Communications Hub a big success
Caroline Macdonald, Director of Sauce Consultancy, said: “Sauce would like to thank all the people that made the Communications Hub a huge success again this year. In particular, we would like to thank the CIWM and APSRG for their close working partnership which helped make the event possible and to the many high level media and environment experts that helped make our panel debates and discussions so riveting and an essential part of Futuresource.
“The interest and participation we received by visitors to the Communications Hub across the three days has been overwhelming. The underlining message we found from visitors is that the future success of the waste industry relies on engagement and commitment to getting the message to the public about the benefits and service this industry provides. This is what Sauce Consultancy believes in and is working hard to achieve.”
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