Green & Black’s CDP preparations!

Sleeping mats have been bought, walking boots are being worn in and Spanish is being practised, as in just over two weeks Phipps’ Lucie will be joining ten intrepid explorers from the UK and the US on Green & Black’s first ever Community Development Programme (CDP) expedition to the Dominican Republic.  The CDP has been set up by Green & Black’s to help the local cocoa farmers establish sustainable livelihoods and communities through agricultural and social programmes, and what lies ahead for the project team is two weeks living and working with the local Dominican Republic community to help build a gravity fed water system to provide three villages with running water in what promises to be a truly unforgettable experience.

After receiving hundreds of applications we’ve got a great team made up of five UK and five US participants who all caught our attention with their understanding of sustainability and Fairtrade and by generally being adventurous, energetic and all round fantastic!

Lucie will be keeping her Twitter updated with all the Dominican Republic happenings, so make sure you keep an eye out – www.twitter.com/loociep

G&B goes global with Fairtrade announcement

Our first project under our new global consultancy remit for Green & Black’s was to announce Green & Black’s intention to take the full range Fairtrade globally. Whilst Fairtrade is by no means new news in the UK and as Green & Black’s is already perceived by many as being Fairtrade, the focus for us was to support Green & Black’s emerging markets (America, Canada, ANZ) in their communication of this news. In these emerging markets, Fairtrade certification gave the brand a point of difference from competitors and in some cases made the difference of being listed or not in key retailers. Our brief, quite simply was to make that announcement happen.

In the midst of the Kraft takeover of Cadbury, we worked very closely with Cadbury, Green & Black’s and the Fairtrade Foundation to develop global press kits, brief spokespeople and cascade communications plans to local markets to ensure an aligned announcement as well as manage media relations, including social media activity in the UK. The result? Over 150 news items, reaching over 110 million people. Click here for coverage example (http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jan/28/fair-trade-ethical-living)

Posted by Jo Vyvyan Robinson