Case study: North Somerset Council
We're working on establishing what we call the Big Conversation around transport, and we are using Britain Talks Climate insights for it.”
Victoria Barvenova, North Somerset Council
How is North Somerset Council using insights from Climate Outreach?
North Somerset Council is using Britain Talks Climate (BTC) to help communicate on climate-related issues
The BTC insights are used in a variety of ways by the Council. For example, general advice on what frames to avoid and prioritise is used in general climate communications. The Council is also working with the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) to use mapped BTC data to engage residents on rooftop solar projects.
The insights are primarily used by the Climate Emergency and Transport teams
Training has been provided to a range of teams at the council, as well as the councillors.
Victoria Barvenova, the Climate Emergency Programme Manager, feels the insights are in line with what she knows about the people of North Somerset, following her previous work in economic development. This has helped her embrace the advice.
We are working towards our ambitious 2030 target and realise the importance of behaviour change and public support. As a result we started looking at different ways of putting these messages out. We’re now talking a lot more about resilience, which resonates more.”
Victoria Barvenova, Climate Emergency Project Manager, North Somerset Council
The insights on what frames do well with all segments, and what language to avoid, are used to build support and prevent polarisation on future climate projects.
The Council is also testing how targeted communications for BTC segments could support rooftop solar uptake
North Somerset Council recently received a small grant to boost solar installations, linked to the Solar Together scheme. The BTC maps, developed in collaboration with CSE, are at the heart of a targeted messaging trial. The council and CSE selected two neighbourhoods to target using the BTC map data, demographic data (to identify wards with some disposable household income), and SolarWizard solar viability data . The council created separate communications campaigns for each neighbourhood using the BTC toolkit insights and advice.
It's been exciting. We were targeting really small areas, a couple of streets in two different wards - one is a majority Established Liberals ward, and another one is Loyal Nationals. We've used a variety of approaches. Knocking on doors with the community, with the kind of a neighbour message, leaflets, Facebook ads. We’re still waiting for the results of the actual rooftop update, but we can already see the engagement level, there were a lot more clicks than our average. It really does work”
Victoria Barvenova, North Somerset Council
Being a trusted messenger is key in reaching different audiences. The segments place their trust differently. As such, the tailoring included both tailoring the message and tailoring how the message was delivered.
For the Loyal Nationals, we worked with community-based representatives - we had a volunteer from one of the streets knocking on doors. For the Established Liberals we used Centre for Sustainable Energy as the conveyor. They would come in as an established organisation that supports people with the energy transition.”
Victoria Barvenova, North Somerset Council
What’s next for North Somerset Council using these insights?
The initial data on engagement and registrations is promising
The final results will be available at a later date, as solar panel installations have considerable lead times, but registrations and engagement data are showing increasing uptake. The team is already excited about what this pilot might be able to teach the Council and other similar councils about targeted messaging.
BTC used beyond the Climate Emergency team
The North Somerset Council Transport team is currently working on an engagement project related to increasing bus travel. The project is linked with the development of the Joint Local Transport Plan 5 with the West of England Combined Authority. The plan includes using BTC to train staff and community champions to talk to different segments about sustainable transport.
The Climate Emergency team is working closely with the transport team because this is the biggest challenge, 45% of our area's emissions are from transport. And for transport, behavior change is the number one blocker, barrier or driver, depending on how you want to look at it. The transport team is working on establishing some community champions [...] trained to be able to talk to different segments within their communities about their transport choices.”
Victoria Barvenova, North Somerset Council
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