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  UNEP website 5 Sep 05
New UNEP Guidebook on Producing Effective Environmental Campaigns

A roving “Environment Train” exhibition in Algeria, a radio series on pesticide pollution in Viet Nam and a novel ozone layer awareness campaign in Costa Rica are among sixteen innovative public campaigns featured in a new guidebook from the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP).

The guide, Communicating Sustainability - How to produce effective public campaign, provides national and local governments with professional advice on how to implement communications campaigns on environment and development issues.

It covers the myths and facts of communications and proposes useful resources as well as offering hints on how to get the best out of communications agencies.

The new UNEP guidebook is being launched today at an international meeting on sustainable consumption and production, taking place in San Jose, Costa Rica.

“The impacts of our consumption patterns are no longer vague and invisible,” writes UNEP Executive Director Klaus Toepfer in his foreword to the guide.

“Public communication has a key role to play to make sustainable development approachable and understandable. Informed, motivated and committed people can help us to achieve our sustainability goals,” he says.

“However, communicating effectively about sustainable lifestyles is a challenge,” Toepfer continues. “One needs to consider not only what to communicate, but how to communicate it. The lesson to be learned is that communication styles have to be positive and tailored to different circumstances and cultural contexts.”

Communicating Sustainably was co-produced with the London-based communications consultancy Futerra, ‘Working with UNEP on this guide, we were impressed at how many professionally-planned campaigns are already happening around the world. We hope that this exchange of international experience will help everyone who reads this guide,’ said Lucy Shea, Director of Strategy at Futerra. Communicating Sustainability is supported by the Ministry of Sustainable Development of Sweden and the French Agency for Environment and Energy Management (ADEME).

Dissemination of information was considered important in promoting sustainable consumption and production and the need for effective use of practical tools, including awareness-raising, education, media and advertising was found to be critical.

UNEP’s new guidebook is responding to this need.

Communicating Sustainability can be downloaded from the UNEP Sustainable Use website www.unep.fr/sustain

Key highlights from the text:
- Myths and facts: what works and what does not in sustainable development communications
- How to develop a communications plan
- Key obstacles to government communications
- Recommendations for seeking expert guidance
- Sixteen case studies from around the world
- Resources: publications and organisations for further help.

or from the Futerra website www.futerra.org/publications.

For hard copies of the guide, contact Solange Montillaud-Joyel at solange.montillaud@unep.fr

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Related articles on Global: general environmental issues

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