Executive Summary
Scholz & Friends put the spotlight on nature and biodiversity towards a green recovery after the pandemic by implementing a visual identity and a holistic media strategy around EU Green Week.
Challenge
Scholz & Friends was tasked by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for the Environment to develop and implement a visual identity for various communication materials and a holistic media strategy around the most prominent event in the European environmental calendar. Eu Green Week, 2020 took place from 19th to 23rd October and brought together policy makers, NGOs, associations and civil society took place from 19 to 23 October in Lisbon and Brussels.
Solution
In line with this year’s developments, the Scholz & Friends team strategically guided and led DG Environment through an adaptation process of the communication strategy as well as visual identity that had been developed for the originally planned EU Green Week in June.
Among others, Scholz & Friends also organised exclusive media briefing sessions for journalists across Europe – in collaboration with UNEP, the United Nations Environment Programme – focusing on biodiversity on the EU’s and international agenda.
Impact
This year’s fully virtual event attracted more than 1600 participants to online discussions, underlining the contribution biodiversity can make to society and the economy, and the role it can play in stimulating recovery in a post-pandemic world. Partner events linked to Green Week were organised in more than 30 countries in the EU and beyond.
This year’s conference acted as a milestone on the path to the COP 15 Biodiversity Summit now planned for 2021, where world leaders will adopt a 10-year action plan for biodiversity – a new global deal, the ‘Paris moment’ for nature.
As new beginnings unfold, the strategic approach and set-up of EU Green Week focused on the question of how to make most of new opportunities after Covid-19 and how protecting and restoring nature can support the (green) economic and societal recovery.
This year’s EU Green Week therefore symbolised “A new beginning for People and Nature” pathing the way to a new EU and global biodiversity framework leading to concrete action plans at COP 15 in Kunming, China, 2021.