The Green Network

On the 21st of May Liberty hosted its third Green Network Luncheon at the Hilton Hotel. The Green Network is a Liberty Resources initiative, bringing together a community of individuals and corporate organisations who are committed to working towards a more environmentally sustainable future.

Liberty initiated this quarterly event in 2009 to differentiate the Underground Coal Gasification (UCG) industry from traditional coal mining. UCG provides inherent environmental benefits as it eliminates the need to ‘mine’ the coal.

For this event we launched a rebranding that had been done pro bono by the designers that we use for Liberty. I’ve inserted the old logo and the new logo so you can see the difference.

My initial reaction of the new logo was that it was too harsh, but once I heard the justification it grew on me. Knowing what the logo stands for, and knowing that our target audience will be able to relate to it, makes a big difference.

The key promotional tool for the Green Network is social media, primarily LinkedIn and Twitter. Both myself and my colleague, Alex, have well established networks on Twitter and LinkedIn. Alongside some advertising in WA Business News (through a sponsorship arrangement) and some positive word of mouth thanks to very successful previous events we managed to sell 60 tickets to the May event. Our goal was 50, it was an overwhelming feeling to reach 60!

Here are the invites that were sent out for the event;

All of the promotional material used for the Green Network event had an organic theme which was chosen to appeal to the target demographic.

The Green Network is more than just an excuse to get together for lunch and Liberty work hard to make the event environmentally friendly. For the May lunch we launched the Green Network Tree Plantation with 100 trees planted by our major sponsor to carbon offset the event. We also arranged an environmentally friendly menu using locally sourced produce, and details of the menu were printed on seed paper which guests could take home and plant! Guests also took home a goodie bag full of environmentally friendly products, including hemp socks and eco-pens that were donated by our sponsors.

Liberty relies heavily on sponsors to donate products and services, and we were lucky enough to have a local photographer donate him time to take professional photos at the event. Using the photos we created this YouTube clip:

I remember having a very heated debate in PR Corporate last semester about whether BP’s corporate rebranding in 2002 was in fact green washing. Particularly in regards to the sale of toy stuffed animals at BP petrol stations to raise money for the National Wildlife Federation (NWF). Is it responsible of BP to partner with the NWF to increase awareness of endangered animals?

There is a risk that Liberty could become victim to the same debate. It is important that the company established a clear mission and vision for the initiative so that it can be easily justified. I think that when people understand the difference between the energy production that Liberty is involved in, compared to traditional mining they accept the company as the founder of the initiative.

I believe the initiative will be long-lived!