Kestrel has undergone a few changes recently and I  felt it was time to share the news.

As some of you may be aware John Dresser first established the company way back 1973 – year of big hair, big heels, glam rock, Watergate and The Exorcist.

Anyway late last year, John decided that he wanted to ease his workload somewhat. Following this decision John and I entered into extensive negotiations, the result of which is that I am now the very proud owner of Kestrel Worldcom.

Rather than totally hanging up his spurs John is continuing to work for a number of long term clients and remains involved with the business on a consultancy basis. One of the consequences of this change is that Kestrel has moved. Our new address and details can be found on the Contact Us page. The phone number and email address remains the same as does our membership of the Worldcom PR network.

It is now my job to build on all the good things John put in place over the past 37 years and move Kestrel forward to the benefit of the business, our clients and suppliers. Rest assured that we remain committed to excellence and ‘exceeding expectations’.

Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.

Here’s looking forward to another 37 exciting years!

Well it’s 2010. Just two more years until the end of civilisation as we know it.

Whether you are a believer in the imminent apocalypse or not, we here at Kestrel would like to wish our clients, suppliers, friends, families and everyone else a happy and prosperous new year.

The attached image was taken from the terrace here at Kestrel towers this morning. As it’s appropriately seasonal we decided to attach it for your viewing pleasure.

While snow isn’t that uncommon elsewhere in the world it is still a bit of a novelty for Londoners like us (which is probably why the entire city tends to grind to a halt whenever we get some).

Here’s looking forward to a great year!

Kestrel has spent the past few days promoting the launch of the latest online element of the EU’s ‘HELP – for a life without tobacco’ campaign. A unusual trio of anti smoking superhero ‘Helpers’ have been created by our Worldcom partner Ligaris Europe in order to enhance the reach of the campaign amongst young people.

These ‘Helpers’ will be appearing in a series of 11 viral  ‘Helpisodes’ that will be broadcast online via Facebook, Bebo, Youtube and a partnership with the Daily Motion video sharing website.

In each ‘Helpisode’ the characters (Chuck, Loona and Skinny) will be helping others with a variety of tobacco related issues – offering crazy and original solutions. This solutions based approach ties into the HELP Campaign’s ‘tips to quit’ strategy and leads people to view ‘real’ tips on the main HELP website.

Over the course of 2009 young people across Europe have been contributing their own video ‘tips to quit’ either directly through the HELP website or at a roadshow events across the Continent. In the UK Kestrel organised HELP roadshows at a number of youth and sports oriented events including NASS (an action sports and music festival), the British Beach Volleyball Championships and the Edinburgh marathon.

As part of our launch of  ‘Helpisodes’ Kestrel organised an online interactive webchat featuring HELP Campaign partners Professor Gerard Hastings, Director of the Institute for Social Marketing, and Alison Walsh, Youth Presenter and Advisor for the charity Quit. The interactive web chat invited viewers to contact the show with questions and their own stop smoking tips and was broadcast live on Webchats TV and 16 other health and youth related websites. You will be able to view a recording of the show on the Web Chats TV website shortly.

And now, for your viewing pleasure, please find the pilot ’Helpisode’ which provides a backstory for the three ‘Helpers’ and how they were transformed into superheros.

Spotted some interesting figures on consumer attitudes towards recycling thanks to an article by Liz Gyeke at Materials Recycling Week.

According to Defra’s ‘2009 Survey of public attitudes and behaviours towards the environment’ there has been a significant shift in public attitudes towards recycling with 91% stating that they prefer to ‘recycle items rather than throwing them away’. This is a big improvement on the 70% that was achieved the last time this question was asked in 2007.

In addition 56% of people interviewed as part of the research stated that they ‘always recycle’ with a further 19% recycling ‘very often’ and 11% ‘quite often’. More revealingly 88% of respondents agree with the statement that ‘people have a duty to recycle’ – up by 10 points from 78% in 2007.

Whilst much change in the recycling and waste industry has been driven by legislative pressure from Westimister and Brussels the survey seems to indicate that general public attitudes seem to be ‘catching up’ with developments in the industry. There has always been an extremely active ‘green’ lobby but on the evidence of this survey many of their views have been adopted by the mainstream.

It is interesting to speculate about the reasons for this recycling attitude change. No doubt some of it is due to PR ‘education campaigns’ funded by organisations such as WRAP and local authorities keen to reduce their landfill tax burden by persuading their residents to opt in and participate. The recession will also have played its part in changing attitudes as people think more carefully about what they are consuming and throwing out.  And, of course, deeper concerns about the state of our environment will also have had an impact.

On the basis of this survey there certainly seems to be a much larger enthusiasm for recycling than the impression you may get from reading the Daily Mail – but is this simply a sign of the times or a real ingrained change in public attitudes? Is it safe to assume the battle to persuade people to  recycle has been won?

Source: Materials Recycling Week

Barry Walton and I (Niall Dologhan) will be attending the exhibition on Tuesday 15th September and we will be accompanied by our partner Keith Harper (the former Biffa UK marketing director). If you are interested in meeting up with any or all of us then please feel free to get in touch on 07740 733 303 or via email at: kestrel@kestrelcomms.co.uk

The RWM show is the UK largest waste management and recycling sector exhibition and is held at the Birmingham NEC. You can find out more here: RWM Exhibition

According to Letsrecycle.com East Lothian Councillors have rejected planning permission for a new Energy from Waste facility – despite the proposed facility being described as the ‘best practical environmental option’ by the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and local Planning Officers recommending its approval.

The decision to turn down applications can be a risky for Councillors, particularly when their Planning Officers have already recommended approval. Council taxpayers can end up paying significant costs (upwards of £100,000) if the developer chooses to appeal the decision and can demonstrate at the public inquiry that they were put to unreasonable or unnecessary expense and delay.

While opposed residents living in the vicinity of such facilities may be perfectly happy for the Local Authority to shoulder such costs in an attempt to block development progress, Councillors have to remain aware of their responsibilities to local taxpayers across a much wider area. The position of a Councillor on a planning committee can be a difficult one as they have to balance a political ‘need’ to represent resident views with the requirement to ensure their decisions are reflective of planning law.

This can be complicated further when local Councillors are often members of political parties who may, at least at national level, be advocating such developments as part of their broader energy and waste strategies. For example the Conservatives recently published an Energy Policy Paper which highlights the importance of Energy from Waste as part of a decentralised energy generation system.

Balancing residents’ views with their legislated responsibilities as planners and then reconciling this with the national ‘party’ line can be quite the juggling act for local Councillors – and it doesn’t always work…

Source: Letsrecycle.com

According to recent provisional figures released by Defra the household recycling rate in England reached 36.9% for the year ending December 2008. This compared to 34% for 2007/08.

A Defra spokeswoman hailed the provisional figures, and she said:  “These results are encouraging, as despite the economic downturn, England’s recycling rates stayed strong and less waste was sent to landfill.  It shows that local authorities and the public remain committed to recycling, and cutting the annual amount of waste sent to landfill by 22kg per person is a tremendous achievement,” she added.

The final official statistics are set to be published in November 2009 in the annual National Statistics release.

The findings of this report highlight the ongoing trend towards increased recycling, composting and energy-from-waste at the expense of landfill.  While UK waste infrastructure is changing to meet national and EU targets, progress is being slowed by the planning system .

We can apply our expertise to help our clients achieve successful planning outcomes for new waste and recycling facilities by building positive relationships with local residents and stakeholders.

Source: Letsrecycle.com

Sorry, but we couldn’t resist the headline.

It seems that the Metropolitan Police is doing its bit for the environment with the announcement that 42 of its buildings (with another 58 being assessed) are being retrofit by Dalkia with a view to creating substantial energy savings.

Work has started on the first police station in Wembley. The station will be fitted with solar panels, energy-efficient lighting, newer boilers and solar film on windows to reflect light and reduce the need for air conditioning. Hopefully its occupants (at least the law-abiding ones) will appreciate the difference.

Boris Johnson, the London Mayor, initiated the scheme to make public buildings more energy efficient and save on fuel bills.  Boris recently announced a series of other green plans for London, including the planting of two million additional trees by 2050.

We wonder where they will all go!

Source: Click Green News

According to a report in LetsRecycle.com the recession is one of a number of factors which is reducing the amount of waste being generated in the UK.

Apparently DEFRA is going to reduce its baseline assumption of future waste growth to under 1% per annum. This figure was already reduced from 1.5% in January.

According to a DEFRA spokesperson the economy, population, household growth, consumer spending and waste prevention measures have all had an impact on waste arisings.

Whilst a reduction in predicted waste volumes is good news for the environment it may not seem quite as positive for companies investing in, and managing, waste and recycling infrastructure.

However, DEFRA is (quite rightly) erring on the side of caution and points out that some over capacity is preferable to not meeting EU landfill targets and suffering huge penalties.

Similarly, businesses planning long term investments in waste and recycling infrastructure will be looking beyond the current downturn.

Source: Letsrecycle.com

Spotted an interesting US study thanks to a tweet by Worldcom colleague Marijean Jaggers at the Standing Partnership in St Louis.

According to research conducted by wiki resource Wetpaint and the Altimeter Group, there is a direct correlation between social media engagement and financial success.  The study indicates that the brands that were the most engaged saw their revenue grow  by 18% over the past year  (despite the downturn) while the least engaged brands saw losses of 6%.

Of course,  reports like this are pretty useful for people like us who are constantly talking about the importance of customer ‘engagement’.

While the report cannot definitively prove that ‘engagement’ is the direct cause of good revenue and profit performance, the large number of companies analysed and the consistent findings, make it probable that strong social media engagement has had a major impact on these companies’ financial success.

Source: Read Write Web