A convincing narrative and building new alliances - these two skills of the Profeina team turned out to be crucial during the implementation of an almost two-year PR and advocacy campaign to popularize clean transport zones in Poland. What actions have we taken and what conclusions can we draw from them for the future?
This was symbolically demonstrated by the noisy and unsubstantive session of the Warsaw City Council in December 2023, during which councilors adopted a resolution on the implementation of SCT. Other examples were attempts to block the citizens' meeting on this matter in Wrocław in the summer of 2023, as well as the Krakow SCT being appealed to court by the Voivode of Lesser Poland and the emotions surrounding his decision (January 2024).
Conducting an information and educational campaign on a topic that is (gradually) becoming political and arousing (often justified) fears and emotions is difficult. The belief that the facts speak for themselves and that this is a sufficient argument to gain public support is wrong. This prompted us to remodeling the campaign from informational to more narrative, including more open communication not only of the benefits (especially health ones), but also to include clean transport zones in a broader discussion about the vision of the cities in which we want to live. Importantly, on an ongoing basis we drew conclusions from the campaign and adjusted our involvement to the changing political environment and social mood.
TL;DR, briefly about the campaign
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Detailed description of the campaign
Context and challenge
From December 2021, Polish law allows local governments to limit vehicle traffic due to exhaust emissions, i.e. to create clean transport zones (SCT) similar to European cities, where the most toxic cars do not enter the city center.
At the same time, the provincial Air Protection Programs obliged Warsaw and Kraków to establish SCT by the end of 2024. Is three years a long or short time for such a project? Contrary to appearances, not much.
Experts estimate that the implementation of the zone itself should take local authorities about 2-3 years. At that time, pioneer cities still had to plan SCT in detail, organize public consultations and convince councilors to adopt a resolution on this matter.
But how to consult on a solution whose name means little to people outside the group of clean-air experts, about which there are many myths, and few residents of the cities where the zones would be created fully understand how they would work?
The information campaign was needed literally "yesterday".
Actions and effects
We launched the campaign for clean transport zones in late spring 2022 as a continuation of the successful one a project promoting the TRUE report on real exhaust emissions in Warsaw. Our actions can be divided into three complementary stages, which we define as: information, consultation and narrative. Although these phases sometimes overlapped, it is important that in each of them we emphasized slightly different issues related to clean transport zones and used different PR tools.
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| INFORMATION (spring 2022 – autumn 2022) | getting to know the players involved – allies – a series of workshops and meetings to identify who has what resources, goals and needs, and who could best be helped by our support. public opinion survey -clarifying the starting point (scale of knowledge and support for SCT and other green urban projects). information hub – construction websites for the media and officials with the most important reports, information and data on SCT. media relations & paid cooperation with opinion leaders – launch of a coordinated information campaign on clean transport zones in traditional and social media (cooperation, among others, with Kasia Gandor, Tomasz Rożek). |
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| CONSULTATIONS (winter 2022 – summer 2023) | PR support for Krakow, Warsaw, Wrocław – creating information materials for residents about the planned clean transport zones (FAQ, detailed technical and substantive explanations, infographics, posters, animations) and materials for city councilors (so-called arguments). public consultations – substantive and communication support for teams working on SCT in Warsaw and Wrocław, so that as many residents as possible learn about the consultations and take part in them. media monitoring and analysis – constant monitoring of the media, social media and the sentiment of the social debate around SCT, sharing analyzes with cities and NGOs. animating support for SCT – encouraging those involved in social initiatives to participate in social consultations on SCT and demand an ambitious transport policy. |
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| NARRATIVES (fall 2023 – spring 2024) | soft actions for the air – 1) an anti-smog radio spot parodying a cough syrup advertisement, 2) a mini campaign "What does your street breathe" raising awareness of the health consequences of daily inhalation of smog, 3) popularizing the results of scientific research on pollutant emissions (including from ICCT, ECAC and doctors from the Polish Smog project), 4) a podcast series with eco-educator Paulina Górska, in which experts on green urban policies appeared. facts and myths – communication and substantive support for people active in the debate around SCT in Warsaw and Krakow (including texts debunking the most common myths about SCT), so that the voice of supporters is more heard. pre-election debates – candidates for city councils in Warsaw and Wrocław, and the presidential election in Kraków. |
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Conclusions and learnings
The essence of implementing advocacy campaigns aimed at social change - in our case, building social support for clean transport zones - is continuous analysis and adaptation of tactics to evolving political and social conditions.
The conclusions we draw after two years of campaigning for clean transport zones:
- Clean-air organizations enjoy quite high social (and media) trust in Poland, but they often do not have the resources to run large campaigns themselves. A good effect is achieved by combining the strengths and reach of several different organizations and activist groups.
- Local governments often lack time and resources to communicate effectively with residents. Many cities are open to using external substantive and expert support, as long as they trust social partners.
- Support for green changes in Polish cities reaches 50-70% depending on the proposed solution, but a significant part of the group supporting the so-called silent majority. Meanwhile, opposition to pro-ecological policies turns out to be good "fuel" for some political forces to build a loud narrative, for which hate and disinformation are often used. In order for progressive changes not to be stopped, the voice of social movements and residents themselves - and not only experts - supporting the change must also be heard in the debate around clean transport zones (and related topics).
- The media and public opinion are usually less interested in reports and social campaigns, and more specific decisions of the authorities that affect the everyday life of residents. Each such "event" (such as the start of public consultations or a debate at a city council session) triggers a wave of discussion. It is good to have information materials prepared in advance, written in simple language, including those that answer the most common human fears and debunk emerging myths.
- Media messages are governed by viewership and click-through rates. Therefore, it is important to create objective information resources on planned changes on official city and government websites.
- False ideas can easily arise about unprecedented changes (both negative and positive), which are difficult to verify because they concern the future. The fact that similar solutions exist in other countries and we know their effects is not an argument for many people. A substantive debate then turns into a conflict of values.
- Even such a "technical" issue as conditioning the right to enter the zone on the basis of car exhaust emission standards may have an important socio-cultural context. It is worth thoroughly examining it and keeping it in mind, both when planning solutions and communicating them. You cannot ignore the concerns and emotions of people who may actually lose from changing the regulations. But first, this group of residents must be properly diagnosed. The next phase of the campaign will therefore focus on better mapping their concerns and frustrations and developing clear and honest messages that respond to these concerns.
Grzegorz Dzięgielewski
Zuzanna Szybisty
Sophie Peck
