HANNAH ENGLAND'S PORTFOLIO
Exertis Sustainability Hub
Initially, the Exertis Sustainability Hub was pitched as a single, two-sided newsletter to inform Exertis employees of the sustainability changes being made throughout the company. However, as our small team of three discussed the project, we set our sights on a larger goal. From the initial idea, we created an entire Sustainability Hub for Exertis - with a quarterly newsletter sent internally - to keep employees, customers, and vendors updated on what strides Exertis is making to become more sustainable.
Collecting content
The first phase in the creation of the Sustainability Hub - and its ongoing success - is collecting content from knowledgeable parties across the business. This often involves reaching out to people identified as potentially having a lead, setting up meetings, and taking detailed notes. This process alone has allowed our small team to have face-to-face with some high-level people within the business - both from Exertis and from other companies within the group - whom we may otherwise have never crossed paths with. It is essential at this stage that we get the right information to form the building blocks of our story.
Creating stories
explore our stories
Once the meetings have been had and the notes collected, my job is to take the content and create an article that is to be distributed onto the Sustainability Hub, and shared in the quarterly newsletter. Notably, the Sustainability Hub has the focus of drawing the 'people' focus out of these stories, and creating a sense of betterment for the whole community, as well as local environments, and the company. The tone for these stories revolves around simple language, approachability, and an optimistic outlook. It's more casual than the general Exertis corporate language, as if to provide readers with a momentary reprieve from 'business speak', and take a moment to read something that's written purely for the 'feel good' factor. Furthermore, contrary to many assumptions about sustainability, the core of the stories written for the Hub aren't singularly about the environment - we also like to cover a base of community spirit, exemplary moments in the business, diversity, mental health awareness, and more.
Trying new approaches
The Sustainability Hub project doesn't follow a stagnant, set format. As we grow and find our feet within this area, our team is excited to try new methods of sharing these stories that can appeal to our audiences, while giving us all the personal opportunity to try something new. For example, we decided that one of our stories would benefit from a companion 'documentary-esque' video. This involved a team effort in storyboarding, and a script written by myself. I then interviewed the relevant people (many of whom I had never met before), while the rest of the team supported in videography, organisation, and more. This is just one of many ways in which the Sustainability Hub project has allowed us to experiment and push our own personal development as creatives.
Staying relevant
The launch of the Sustainability Hub marked a great achievement for everyone involved. As a self-driven project that runs parallel to our day jobs, it was a show of monumental effort, organisation, and perseverance. But going forward, we still have a lot to do.
As Exertis continues to grow their sustainability initiatives, and more areas of the business become aware of our project, the work flow continues. To ensure we stay ahead of the game, and able to provide internal and external audiences with engaging content, we're in constant communication with people from every area of the business, from all over the world - including the UK, USA, and China, to date. Part of the upkeep of this project involves keeping our ears close to the ground, staying in contact with key stakeholders, and looking out for opportunities to share exciting updates.
