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Editorial: New look, new website
Forgive us for asking, but… how do we look? As you'll see from the masthead of this newsletter, we've given ourselves a design makeover.
If there's a hint of diffidence in our question, it's because these things can so easily go wrong. The world out there is littered with discarded corporate re-brands – wrong turnings taken by well-known companies that hired expensive marketing consultants. We did most of the work ourselves with just a bit of support from outside, an approach that capitalized on our in-house expertise while still providing an external sounding board at key points in the process. We also took care to achieve buy-in from our whole team, a prerequisite for success because it ensures integrity. Now it's time to launch the results to the people whose opinion really matters: you, our clients. We're certainly pleased; fingers crossed, you will be too.
If you haven't visited our website recently, now's the time to do so. It's had a wholesale rewrite as well as a redesign, so it's now a much better reflection of who we are and what we do. There's heaps of new content: we've gone public with our vision, mission and values; we've included a bit about our ethical and environmental credentials; you can find out more about our logo and its meanings; there's a better description of what we offer, including our new strategic services; you'll find an expanded section on what you've achieved with our support; and an entirely new section is devoted to client resources – tools you can use to improve our work together. Lastly, you can meet our expanded global team and find out what they know about and where in the world they work. Happy touring!
Even if you can't visit our website right now, I hope you'll take the time to glance through this newsletter, which I believe contains plenty of interest. Our feature article treats the vexed issue of print versus digital, a complex subject on which new twists and turns emerge daily (so please let us know what you think). Next come two articles on projects falling under our strategic services – an investigation into the effectiveness of Forest Day, and a bespoke training course for the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). With our support the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) has published a lively booklet on a subject you might think of as dry: the certification of forest produce. We've also helped position the science community for Rio+20 by editing and producing a new series of briefs on key sustainable development issues. Lastly, we've won a publishing contract with the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN), an exciting new initiative that sets out to identify and spread win–win solutions in this area of often conflicting objectives. We end this issue by appealing for authors for titles in the Tropical Agriculturalist series, inviting you to a free consultation with our communication strategist, reliving the dietary discoveries of the Science Forum in Beijing, greeting a new team member and offering our usual production tip.
As that roundup of our contents tells you, we lead busy and varied lives at Green Ink! We look forward to the Christmas break, send all our readers our seasonal greetings, and hope we'll have the pleasure of working with you in 2012.
Simon Chater
Director
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Print versus digital:
Time for a re-think?
A thought-provoking leaflet popped through the Green Ink letterbox the other day. It argues the case for good old-fashioned print as both more effective and, surprisingly, more sustainable than digital media.
The effectiveness argument, which is widely made and accepted, boils down to this: digital materials simply aren't read. Their steadily increasing volume amounts to "cyber noise", leading to a low success rate in attracting and retaining readers' attention. A printed communication has not just more physical weight but also more gravitas – it looks as if it means business. If you're busy, you can set it aside and read it at a more relaxed moment, in the comfort of your armchair. You can also re-read it, keeping it on hand for easy reference without switching on the computer. These qualities make the messages in printed products more likely to be remembered, internalized – and acted on. Research shows that print is still the medium preferred by most readers (see box).
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People prefer print, for now
Anecdotal evidence from a UK research group suggests that most of its readers prefer print. This is especially the case in developing countries, where access to the Internet remains low, and is true across the spectrum of audiences, from villagers to policy makers. While research in Europe shows that readers of all age groups, including 16- to 24-year-olds, continue to favour print, other studies have found that this tendency is especially pronounced in older readers.
This could gradually change, though. As mobile devices become more powerful and spread throughout the developing world, and an Internet-savvy younger generation rises to senior positions, digital could become the preferred medium, even for information on complex or difficult issues. If you're actively searching for information or researching a subject (rather than merely reacting to what you read), digital is already out there in front.
The current recession may accelerate the shift to digital. The strongest argument in its favour, especially for organizations with reduced budgets, is its low financial costs. |
The sustainability arguments are less often heard and, in our opinion, more open to question. As the leaflet points out, research is currently revealing the high environmental costs of computers, mobiles and the Internet: for example, experts have suggested that the UK's PCs and servers may consume up to 50% of the country's energy requirements in the next decade, leaving a sizeable carbon footprint. And a recent article claims that the ICT-related CO2 emissions globally rival those of the aviation industry.
In contrast, paper is a renewable and recyclable product that, if sustainably produced and consumed, can lead to increased areas of plantation forest and hence increased carbon storage. The weasel word here is "if". True, a well-managed forest, used and replanted, absorbs more carbon dioxide than a mature natural forest consisting of older trees. But it is still the case that too much paper is made from natural forest, especially in the developing world (countries like Indonesia, whose paper industry is a factor in tropical deforestation, come to mind). Further questions surround recycling: research conducted a decade ago suggests that by the time you've collected used paper, transported it back to the mill and extracted the ink, you've used as much energy and caused as much pollution as you would in growing and harvesting timber for pulp (though there could be exceptions, see box). Better to turn to sources of paper that are certified by the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC): though not a perfect guarantee of sustainability, FSC certification is as good as it gets – and is getting better all the time, often delivering poverty reduction as well as environmental benefits (see below). You can also choose papers that avoid or at least reduce the use of polluting chemicals such as chlorines.
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Hitching a lift
The arguments against recycled paper are powerful, but they don't always stick. A lot depends on individual circumstances.
For instance, a while back there was a furore in Green circles over the environmental and financial costs of transporting used paper to China for recycling. However, such is the strength of China's exports and the weakness of Western ones that hundreds of ships a day return to China empty from Europe and North America. The ships can be filled with Western waste at no or very low added cost, either economic or environmental. |
The bottom line, on paper as on other supply issues in the print and ICT sectors, is that the jury is still out on what the best sources and solutions are. Because technology and knowledge are advancing so fast, we almost need to "press pause" so that we can take stock of what works and what doesn't. To use that old shibboleth beloved by the science community, more research is needed.
In the meantime, more and more printers are adopting environmental standards and using these to attract the growing number of clients, including Green Ink, who care about these things (see box).
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Environmental standards for printers
When choosing a printer, ask about the following:
- Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS): this is the gold standard, highly rigorous
- ISO 14001, the internationally recognized standard on environmental management
- Greenmark, suitable for smaller companies
- The Environmental Assessment Scheme of the British Printing Industry Federation (BFIP), also suitable for smaller companies.
Paper may be certified by either of the following:
- Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)
- Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC)
To avoid freight costs, choose a printer close to your delivery point. |
Leading the field are those who not only pursue carbon neutrality but also investigate all aspects of their own and suppliers' processes for their effects on natural resources, pollution and waste. These printers tend to be the first to adopt new clean technologies such as waterless printing. And they typically aim for zero waste, recycling everything from old presses to the rags used to clean them – no rubbish bins outside their premises.
If these rigorous measures are still the preserve of a handful of printers, others are more widespread because they are easier to adopt. Almost all printers these days have switched away from petroleum-based inks to vegetable ones, with no perceptible impact on print quality (though questions remain about the use of soya, a crop associated with deforestation, to manufacture these inks). Many seek to minimize the use of water and electricity, to curb the wastage of paper, ink and other consumables, or to adopt the use of fuel-efficient delivery rounds – measures that improve the bottom line as well as benefiting the environment. And some offset their carbon through tree planting or other environmental projects to which staff contribute, either in their own or in company time.
Green Ink keeps a list of such printers from which our clients can choose, if they are prepared to pay the premium (and yes, we're afraid there usually is one). Print remains a popular medium for our clients and is even making a comeback following a dip in demand in the mid-2000s.
We agree with the leaflet that, if you want to persuade people, print beats digital any time. However, there are ways of combining the two and curbing the financial and environmental costs of the print component. For instance, why not publish a full report on the web and a brief in print? All the research details can go in the longer web version, while the brief, directed to senior decision makers, can play the advocacy role – highlighting the key findings and spelling out the implications for policies and programmes.
Lastly, the advice you get on the print versus digital issue depends on whom you listen to. No prizes for guessing where that pro-print leaflet came from. That's right, a printer.
Sources: promotional leaflet from Seacourt (www.seacourt.net); Two Sides (www.twosides.info); Lovely as a Tree (www.lovelyasatree.com/choose_print.htm)
Afterword: this article was prompted by a printed leaflet but was researched on the web and comes to you in digital form!
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Does Forest Day influence climate negotiations?
Forest Day is held annually during the negotiations of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). The idea is to influence the negotiations by raising awareness of forests and forestry issues.
In 2010, the Centre for International Forestry Research (CIFOR), one of the co-organizers, invited Green Ink to assess the day's effectiveness and put forward proposals for improving it. We attended Forest Day 4, held in Cancun during COP 16, designed and implemented a survey of participants, wrote up the initial results, then selected key respondents with potentially interesting stories to tell for a further in-depth interview. The survey data and interview findings served as the basis for our final report and recommendations, which have fed into the design of Forest Day 5, soon to be held in Durban.
The verdict on Forest Day's effectiveness was highly positive. Around 84% of the UNFCCC negotiators who responded to the survey felt that the event had affected their negotiating position or thinking to some extent, while 34% said this effect had been major. UNFCCC negotiators don't necessarily have a forest background, so the day was felt to be especially useful in spreading forestry knowledge.
Pinning down specific effects was difficult, mainly because the influence of Forest Day blends with other influences – the classic "impact pathway" conundrum. However, the day was thought to have had a positive effect on the conceptual development and implementation of the new UN funding mechanism known as REDD – Reduction of Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation. It was also thought to have reinforced donors' perceptions that forestry and REDD activities are worth funding. Participants identified a number of projects that had had their genesis in meetings and contacts made at Forest Day.
Respondents made valuable suggestions for improving the event. Many wanted more emphasis on research findings and practical experience in the field; others asked for clearer policy messages; several said that sessions weren't challenging or controversial enough, suggesting a need to open up debate. The main practical suggestion related to timing: Forest Day is currently held between the two weeks of COP – too late to influence negotiators' positions; moving it forward in the process would make it more effective.
Whatever else it may or may not have achieved, Forest Day is clearly a superb networking event. "Have fun; learn stuff; meet people", answered one participant at Forest Day when asked why they were there. We couldn't have put it better ourselves!
Our final report will be available in Durban as a CIFOR working paper. Look out for it on either the CIFOR or Green Ink stands. We'll be there too, continuing our research on how to make this important event still more effective.
“We think you have done a great job. So we are interested to learn whether Green Ink would be interested in doing a second round of interviews for Forest Day 5.”
– John Colmey, Director of Communications, CIFOR
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 Bespoke training at FARA
Good communication is pivotal to the advocacy and coordination roles of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA). FARA’s communication strategy requires its staff to be effective promoters of African research for development.
In August this year, FARA commissioned Green Ink to provide bespoke training that would strengthen the communication skills of its professionals. Help was needed in developing clear messages and delivering them to a diverse range of stakeholders including researchers, policymakers, development agencies and farmers.
We developed a 3-day training course, tailored to meet FARA’s requirements. The course offered advice on good communications practice, supported by scenarios, communication materials and case studies relevant to the issues and challenges facing FARA staff. It was also designed to be highly interactive: over the first two days participants found themselves distilling the key messages from their projects, characterizing their target audiences, perfecting their policy briefs and delivering "elevator pitches" – 30-second summaries of what they do and why it matters. The third day of the course focused on media relations and, in particular, how to build a media strategy round an institutional event.
The training was delivered in October by our new communication strategist, Elspeth Bartlet. She was joined on the second day by “our man in Ghana”, science writer-cum-project manager Tim Woods, who has recently moved to a house just a few blocks away from FARA’s Accra office. The course was followed by a communications surgery, allowing staff to approach Elspeth and Tim for one-to-one advice on their current communication activities.
FARA participants proved themselves to be keen communicators, who made many valuable contributions on the basis of their own experience and expertise. Feedback forms revealed a strong positive reaction to the course, with the practical exercises proving most popular. It was a pleasure to work with such motivated individuals and we have been told that that they are already putting their new skills to good use.
If you'd like to review your organization’s communications training needs, feel free to contact Elspeth for a no-obligation discussion.
"It was great to have you with us at FARA. The training was appreciated by staff and gave them ideas on how to improve their communications."
– Myra Wopereis-Pura, Director of Access to Knowledge and Technology, FARA
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 Certification with a human face
If certification sounds dull – just so much paper-shuffling – here's a booklet that will change your mind. Celebrating Success: Stories of FSC Certification describes the impact of this badge of sustainability on people and forests worldwide.
The stories are marvellously diverse – they span five continents, cover all manner of species and products, and describe benefits that are not merely environmental but also economic and social. It's invidious to choose, but here are just three examples:
- The African blackwood (Dalbergia melanoxylon) is the perfect timber for making woodwind musical instruments such as clarinets, flutes and oboes – so perfect, in fact, that the tree has become all but extinct in the wild. Now an FSC chain of custody links villagers harvesting the tree in Tanzania with quality instrument makers worldwide. Villagers' incomes have risen and the certified forest area is increasing to meet demand.
- The Amur tiger, one of the world's most magnificent predators, faces a double threat of extinction in its homelands, the forests of the Russian Far East, where it is both hunted by poachers and losing its food supply as logging destroys the habitats of its prey. Certified companies have already agreed to exclude over 125,000 hectares from road building and logging, while certified timber leases now cover nearly 4 million hectares where management will be improved following the FSC model. Besides saving the Amur tiger, the preserved forests will support traditional resource use by indigenous people.
- The Yungas, a subtropical montane forest region of northwest Argentina, is home to 50% of the nation's biodiversity, including several threatened species, but is severely at risk because of over-extractive forest management. In 2007, while all other forestry operations were banned by court order, a local company was allowed to continue its operations with strong backing from local NGOs, because of its commitment to FSC forestation. The certified area is rising and the standards set by the company are being extended elsewhere.
We at Green Ink were proud to be involved in compiling, editing and producing this amazing publication. Don't miss it!
"[The stories] make a real contribution to the promotion of certification. It's been a great project."
– Thomas Colonna, former Communications Manager,
FSC International Center GmbH
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 Planet under pressure
Next June marks the 20th anniversary of the Earth Summit, held in Rio de Janeiro. Rio is to host a second event to review the successes and failures in sustainable development since the 1992 summit and discuss how to tackle future challenges.
In the run-up to Rio+20, the brief is becoming an ever more popular vehicle for synthesizing research findings and drawing out the implications for policy makers. The Planet Under Pressure series, the latest on which Green Ink has been asked to work, consists of nine briefs, each just 8 pages, written to represent the science community's views on the key development challenges facing the world this century. The first five are now out, covering water security, food security, governance and institutions, biodiversity and ecosystems, and interconnected risks and solutions.
The last of these, on interconnected risks and solutions, is particularly interesting, arguing the need for a "new compact" between science and society to deliver the knowledge and action needed for a sustainable future.
The briefs will be formally launched at a preparatory event for Rio+20, the Planet Under Pressure conference, to be held in London 26–29 March 2012. Download those published so far at http://www.planetunderpressure2012.net/policybriefs.asp.
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Climate and development...
and knowledge
Climate-compatible development is a tricky path to tread. National policy makers must deal not only with the many uncertainties surrounding the pace, degree and even the kind of climate change to be expected in different parts of their country, but also with the complex interactions of climate change and variability with different development strategies and investment decisions. The holy grail is the "triple win" – an approach or intervention that simultaneously promotes low-carbon growth, builds resilience to natural disasters and reduces poverty.
The Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) is a new initiative designed to support national decision making by developing and spreading knowledge in this area. Managed by an alliance of six organizations and funded by the UK's Department for International Development (DFID), CDKN works in partnership with organizations in the public, private and non-government sectors.
Green Ink is delighted to have been chosen to provide publishing services to CDKN. Since a successful tendering process in July this year we've been working closely with CDKN's Global Knowledge Management Coordinator, Mairi Dupar, to plan and implement an ambitious publishing programme over the next 6 months.
Early outputs are a revised brochure describing CDKN, a policy brief defining climate-compatible development, another brief on climate change and poverty reduction, a guide to green growth and the first issue of a newsletter. Coming soon is a new series of briefs giving the "inside stories" on policy processes and innovations from which others can learn. Most products will appear in French, Spanish and Portuguese, as well as English.
Besides co-managing and implementing the publishing programme, we're providing support to CDKN's Communications Review Group, which meets quarterly in London, and developing content and ideas for the CDKN website.
To find out more about CDKN and view its knowledge products, visit www.cdkn.org.
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 Appeal for authors: The Tropical Agriculturalist
The Tropical Agriculturalist series, co-published by Macmillan Education and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA), consists of short practical volumes on major agricultural commodities and challenges in the Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries. Green Ink has been involved in the series since foundation in 1998, making it one of our longest-standing relationships.
One of the things we do for the series is prospect for new authors. We currently need authors for titles on pearl millet, maize, cassava, and fruits and vegetables (post-harvest storage, processing and marketing). Other themes that could be covered by the series include biofuels, contract farming, organic farming, and conservation agriculture. If you're interested and would like to draft a sample chapter, please get in touch with commissioning editor Sue Parrott at s.parrott@greenink.co.uk.
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Help yourself to a strategic half-hour
An exciting array of new strategic services is now available from Green Ink, including communications strategy development, communications evaluation, media outreach and capacity development.
To promote these services, we're offering a free half-hour's consultation with our recently appointed communication strategist, Elspeth Bartlet. Whatever the communications issue that's on your mind, write to Elspeth about it (e.bartlet@greenink.co.uk). She'll give the issue some thought, then come back to you with a suggested time for a conversation by skype or phone.
This no-obligation half-hour advisory service is available to anyone, whether or not you go on to become a fee-paying client.
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Let them eat grasshoppers
Two Green Ink team members – science writer Erin O'Connell and communication strategist Elspeth Bartlet – participated in the Science Forum organized in Beijing 17 to 19 October by the Independent Science and Partnership Council of the CGIAR Consortium.
Our new stand, developed as part of our re-branding, attracted plenty of visitors. And Elspeth impressed the sustainable diets expert from World Wildlife Fund by eating a dish of grasshoppers.
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 Comings and goings
We're delighted to welcome Heather Broad to our core team as Finance and HR Assistant. Heather will take responsibility for our bookkeeping and associated tasks, including invoicing clients and paying suppliers. She'll also provide financial information – an increasing need as Green Ink continues to grow. Heather has an honours degree in maths and statistics from the University of St Andrews, in Scotland (her country of origin). She also holds a Level 4 qualification from the Association of Accounting Technicians.
A special word of thanks to Jo Taylor, who has been our bookkeeper for the past 3 years and steps down at the end of this year. Jo is a perfectionist in her work, always taking care to understand her clients' business and to produce the accurate records they need. Jo wasn't actually a member of our core team, but she felt like one because of the commitment she showed to the company and the trouble she took to provide a personal service to each of us. Jo leaves us to provide support to her husband's rapidly growing business. He's a lucky man – all the best and stay in touch, Jo!
"Jo has taught me the enormous value of accurate, timely bookkeeping. It's a humble enough job, but a vital one for the health of a growing company and Jo has done it wonderfully well."
– Simon Chater, Director, Green Ink.
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Production tip:
Be fashionable, choose just one cover pic
Many of our clients ask for a collage for the front cover of their reports. The rationale is comprehensiveness – the desire to reflect all their organization's activities or their report's themes. The fear is that, if you leave something out, people will accuse you of imbalance.
Collages are seldom effective. Too often, the raw ingredients don't fit together well and the eye is left drifting from one fragment to another, unable to extract a coherent message. Much better, in our opinion, to select a single arresting image – perhaps a new activity for your organization or an unusual aspect of the theme; or any first-rate picture that tells a story and excites the reader's curiosity. A caption somewhere in the prelims can tell the reader more about the pic and point them to the relevant page in the report where they can get more detail.
In any case, the collage is so 1980s. Be fashionable, give it up!
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