Background

London suffers from some of the poorest air quality in Europe. Having an adverse effect on the health and quality of life for those who live, work in and visit London.

During an independent study in 2006, King’s College London found that on all 30 sites tested in London levels of the toxin Nitrogen Dioxide (NO2) where at concentrations (40 µg/m³ or above) that the World Health Organisation (WHO) said would cause ‘adverse health effects if exposed to for long periods’. The majority of NO2 evident in cities is produce by combustion engines.

In 2007 to bring London’s air quality in line with EU directives the major of London confirmed the scheme for the introduction of a Low Emissions Zone (LEZ). This meant that any large engined vehicle wanting to drive within the M25 would need to pay additional charges. The aim being to discourage the most polluting diesel engine heavy good vehicles (HGVs), buses and coaches from driving within the Greater London area.

K International were brought on board by the Transport for London (TfL) to help them to communicate the scheme to all stakeholders.

Communication Strategy

In order to guarantee stakeholder buy-in and to make the introduction of the new scheme as straight forward as possible a clear communication strategy was formed.

The primary target audiences were identified as,

• drivers/owners/operators of HGVs,
• LGVs,
• Buses,
• Coaches, and,
• mini-buses.

Other communications were sent to the general public in and around the area to keep them informed of the developments of the scheme.

Translated Communication

Due to the diversity of London’s population in terms of both its population, workforce and visitors fully translated versions of all communications were necessary.

The translated leaflets were used at the face-to-face meetings and presentations that were conducted at ports, ferries, Euro Tunnel, motorway service stations, trade shows, events, markets and racecourses.

The campaign was translated into 20 languages. 12 for the home market and 8 for visitors from abroad. To save costs additional languages would be translated when requested.

We also produced braille, audio (with CD cover artwork) and Large Print copies of all forms of communications.

Contact K International

If you have a project that involves communicating with large amounts of people in many different languages, K International can help you. To discuss your project call us on 01908 572600, email info@k-international.com or use our contact page.

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