Auvray & Associés, France

Specializing in the collection and treatment of hazardous industrial wastes, the CHIMIREC GROUPE was founded in France and has developed multiple international subsidiaries. It has numerous collection and consolidation platforms, processing centres and oil depots.

Integrated into a circular economy and possessing triple ISO 9 001 and OHSAS 45001 certification, the CHIMIREC GROUPE has a workforce of approx. 1,250 employees and in 2019 generated a turnover of 176 million euros.

Auvray and Associés are proud to be a part of CHIMIREC’s success. They organized 12 press events including 34 journalists between March and October, 2018, in the various subsidiaries of Chimirec, to celebrate the 60^th anniversary of the company. Numerous press releases were dispatched by AFP and 177 articles were published over eight months.

Photo credit: Group Chimirec

Located in South-Western France at the crossroads of major European gas flows, Teréga has more than 75 years of expertise in the development of gas transport and storage infrastructures. They research and implement innovative solutions to meet the environmental challenges and demands within the energy sector throughout Europe.

As a true accelerator of the energy transition, Teréga has more than 5,000km of pipelines and two underground storage facilities respectively, representing 16% of the French gas transmission network and 26% of the French national storage capacity. In 2020, the company of more than 660 employees generated revenues of 460 million euros.

Initially, Teréga was known as TIGF, but Auvray & Associés took PR measures to announce the company’s name change, at the national and regional level, in Paris and in Pau, where the company headquarters are located. On March 30^th, 2018, local media were invited to attend the final of the Challenge Cup at Pau Stadium, sponsored by Teréga. Five journalists participated and the PR action generated 16 articles.

On April 4^th, Auvray & Associés hosted a press conference at the Intercontinental hotel in Paris, where seven journalists participated. This action resulted in 18 articles from specialized media and three articles from mainstream media.

Photo credit: Teréga

Prova, England

Prova is a multi-award-winning corporate communications consultancy that specializes in clean technology, sustainability, and the circular economy. Success stories include their client DS Smith, whose growth targets were helped met through Prova’s multi-channel content, which positioned the brand as a world-leading sustainable packaging company.

Prova was also productive in delivering market insight for their client REMONDIS through an integrated programme of creative marketing, industry-leading thought leadership and stakeholder engagement. Prova positioned REMONDIS as a European leader in managing hazardous waste.

“Prova’s content has helped increase traffic to our website, generated leads and significantly raised our global profile.”

Prova positioned Savills as planning experts who could bring clarity to a rapidly evolving energy landscape and provide by-lined opinions and features that put Savills’ expertise in renewable energy centre-stage.

“Working with Prova put the Savills Energy brand in front of our customers and cemented our place within the global Savills business.” 

Moreover, Prova has positioned the food waste recycler ReFood at the heart of the food waste debate through powerful media relations, engaging digital content, hard-hitting thought leadership and visionary lobbying reports.

“Prova’s ideas generate significant media coverage and tangible business results. Prova adds value across our PR, marketing and wider business activities.”

Prova also created industry buzz that put the Home Energy Recovery Unit (HERU) on the map of OEMs and key stakeholders, securing national press coverage and #1 waste technology to watch according to The Guardian.

“As a result of brand building, via PR, social media and a quarterly ezine, Prova secured five major meetings for the HERU with international OEMs and local authorities.”

Photo credit: HERU

Lesensky.cz, Czech Republic

Lesensky.cz was in charge of the PR campaign for Chytré Líchy, a “green city” district project that was developed on the outskirts of the South Moravian town of Židlochovice. The new approach to sustainable urban development is unique in the country and is intended to serve as a model for dealing with modern and sustainable housing in the Czech Republic.

Lesensky.cz started their work on a greenfield site by employing an ecological approach. They look beyond using a strict architectural concept and created a logo inspired by living nature that evokes the interconnection of different elements. The logo resembles a cell and is a grouping and interaction of different elements, both natural and social. Lesensky.cz added an explanatory claim to the logo: The first sustainable urban district in the Czech Republic.

Lesensky.cz received over 110 media outputs in major daily newspapers, key online media and trade publications during the first phase of their campaign. Subsequently, they took advantage of the load-bearing capacity of the graphic documents and the media was intrigued, which was proved by a report on Czech television and by a major article published on Forbes.cz.

open up, Zurich

open up in Switzerland has successfully supported Rothschild & Co Bank – who takes Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (ESG) seriously  –  by providing strategic advice on corporate communications and media relations since 2007. The bank provides wealth structuring, investment management and private banking services to wealthy individuals, organisations and families. It manages assets of approx. 20 billion euros. As a responsible investor Rothschild & Co also advises its client on their ESG compliant investment decisions and helps implement this accordingly. Rothschild & Co strongly believes that simply avoiding non ESG compliant companies is too short-sighted from an investor’s perspective. To have an impact, it selects all stocks carefully and then enters into a dialogue with the management to help the company move towards a more sustainable business model. open up supports Rothschild & Co Bank to position its ESG approach in relevant media as part of a broader communications strategy.

Soluzione, Italy

Soluzione Communication Group in Italy is proud of its success in one of its best PR sustainability campaigns, which includes taking care of Melinda Apples’ Media Relations as well as providing digital strategy and managing its social media channels.

Melinda apples are stored and treasured in the Hypogeal Germination Warehouse – caves carved into the Dolomite rock which allows for natural cold storage. These underground storage cells allow for lower CO₂ emissions and water consumption while avoiding new storage buildings on the ground, paying respect and protection to the environment. This project is globally unique and has yielded an array of major awards, including a prestigious invitation to the European Parliament, where Melinda Apples was given an award for introducing a virtuous model of sustainability for cooperative fruit-growing in the Autonomous Province of Trento.

Melinda Apples uses Mother Earth’s advantages in a method that combines product storage with respect for nature, which we can notice in the parallel reduction of both water and energy consumption. Electricity savings have been calculated at approximately 1.9 GW/h in comparison to epigeal germination storage, which corresponds to electricity used by 2000 people per year. All the energy used by the company comes from renewable sources and over 15% is generated by photovoltaic panels. Melinda Apples has also replaced its sprinkler irrigation systems with drip systems to generate 30% in water savings.

Merken

Perceptions, Bahrain & UAE

With the global COVID-19 pandemic severely impacting and restricting daily social and business activities around the world, traditional education models were also seismically disrupted. The Higher Colleges of Technology (HCT), the UAE’s largest federal, applied higher education institution, was urgently required to consider how it would continue to provide classes and assessments mid-way through a semester, so approximately 23,000 students could complete their respective programs and graduate.

The result was a rapid shift to a virtual classroom model that adopts an Uber-like, service-on-demand, and a smart eLearning strategy. All students, faculty, and administrative staff at the 16 campuses were mobilized and engaged to ensure a seamless transition to a digital learning platform.

The program proved highly successful, with a 91.5% approval rating from students and faculty. Apart from ensuring continuity, the program also makes education more sustainable, inclusive, and accessible, and HCT’s strategies became a role model for other institutions to adopt. Perceptions, with offices in the UAE and Bahrain, supported the college with thought leadership, writing, and transcreation.

Photo Credit: HCT

Milestones in Communication, Austria

BALSA gives contaminated sites no chance

The Bundesaltlastensanierungsgesellschaft (BALSA) – which translates to the federal agency for hazardous waste cleanup – was founded in autumn 2004 as a subsidiary of the Federal Environment Agency. With the wide-ranging expertise of its team, BALSA ensures significant milestones for the environment and society: The company’s task is to clean up areas that have been contaminated with pollutants, so-called contaminated sites, throughout Austria. If the polluters, who are obliged to remediate the environmental damage, can no longer be held responsible, BALSA will carry out the necessary measures on behalf of the Austrian state. BALSA is responsible for project management, project planning and control. In the past 17 years, numerous, sometimes extremely challenging projects have been successfully implemented.

Milestones in Communication has supported BALSA in communicating these environmental milestones since 2008. Their services range from crisis communication to press releases about the various remediation projects and their progress, background discussions and interviews, story placements in selected media to site visits and larger media events.

Contaminated site N16 “Tuttendorfer Breite”: Bacteria eat oil

One project that Milestones in Communication has supported from the very beginning is the so-called “Tuttendorfer Breite” in Korneuburg near Vienna. The remediation work on the 18-hectare site, which started in July 2008, derives from a former refinery and as a result of the Second World War, the soil and the groundwater was massively contaminated with oil residues. Various measures were taken during the remediation, including the microbiological in-situ procedure – at that time for the first time on this scale in Austria. Bacteria that naturally occurred in the soil were optimally supplied with nutrients and oxygen so that they can break down the mineral oil. The natural metabolism of microorganisms effectively and inexpensively eliminated pollutants. Put simply: The bacteria had eaten the oil. In this way, a total of around 1,100 tons of mineral oil was removed. The site is now being used commercially again. Simultaneously, the remediation work continues.

Contaminated site N6 “Aluminium Slag Landfill”: Largest remediation project in Austria

The technically most challenging and to date largest remediation project in Austria is the rehabilitation of the so-called “Aluminium Slag Landfill”. From 1974 to 1990, waste from the wood and metal industry was dumped here, a total of one million tons of material. Above all, so-called aluminium dross dust is among them – a waste product that arises from the extraction of aluminium. The fatal thing about it is that the former landfill site is a few kilometres west of Wiener Neustadt and is located in the middle of the Mitterndorfer Basin, one of the largest groundwater resources in Europe.

Since the materials dumped here threatened to contaminate the groundwater, the area was classified as a dangerous contaminated site. The planning work for the renovation project started in 2005. A modern facility was built with which the waste materials can be disposed of in an environmentally friendly manner. This eliminates the risk potential. At the same time, thanks to innovative technology, it is possible to recycle the valuable raw material aluminium stored in the landfill and to return it to the circular economy.

Aleph Communicacion, Spain

Aleph Communicacion supports the social media channels of Santander bank by managing a blog about financial education and personal economy. They also published a post known as “Choose”, a project in which Santander Consumer Finance collaborates and allows you to offset the CO₂ emissions of your car. The initiative gives every individual the opportunity to participate in different climate projects with the corresponding monetary amount of your CO₂ emissions.

Photo Credits: Santander Bank

Aleph Communicacion also provided communications support to Beneo, a world leader in health and nutrition foods that has invested half a million euros in river transport to reduce its dependence on road transport. With this initiative, Beneo will reduce the carbon emissions associated with inbound transportation of rice from the port to the plant by 20% per year.

Photo Credits: Beneo

Sympra, Germany

Germany-based Dürr is a global leader in mechanical and plant engineering firms with outstanding expertise in automation and digitization. The long-established brand Dürr has been a byword for continuous innovation since 1896, with a wide range of products in robotic, processes and assembly technologies for all areas of vehicle production, focusing on painting and final assembly lines. Dürr also offers the latest system technology, permitting efficient disposal of exhaust gases and residues, reducing energy consumption, and ensuring high process reliability. Their clients benefit from their many years of experience with industrial processes and designing of tailor-made concepts – from the product to the turn-key solution and the design of individual service concepts. Sympra has been supporting Dürr with comprehensive PR services for more than ten years in Germany, alongside 10+ PRN partners in major markets worldwide. Sympra’s scope of work encompasses research, content creation, media relations and much more.

Photo Credits: Dürr

Creative Consulting Group, Singapore

NEFIN Group is a renowned Asian carbon neutrality solutions provider and investor with a unified energy management platform committed to achieving carbon neutrality for organisations. CCG has been working with NEFIN since 2019 as their sole PR and branding agency for Asia. Headquartered in Hong Kong, CCG’s footprint is all over the markets such as Singapore, Taiwan, China, Malaysia, and Thailand.

Alongside partner Asian teams, we provide consultation on their brand strategies and positions and are involved in communicating rollouts and creating milestone actions for various markets.

Hong Kong has announced its Climate Action Plan for 2050, setting out the vision of a “zero-carbon, emissions liveable city and sustainable development,” which outlines the strategies and targets for combating climate change and achieving carbon neutrality. Tagging along with this objective, NEFIN has offered a lot of consultation to the local government on practical actions to attain zero emissions. Meanwhile, CCG is working alongside experts to make sure NEFIN’s efforts and recommendations are made known to the sustainability industry and general public with massive media engagement and PR work.

CCG has launched multiple events for NEFIN throughout different markets. Press releases and media interviews are also regular arrangements to ensure NEFIN’s visibility in the market. Competition in the local market is fierce but NEFIN has shone in all strategic areas allowing them to differentiate from the competition.