Sustainability Victoria: Single-Use Plastic Ban Business Engagement.

Challenge

The Victorian Government is implementing a Single-Use-Plastic ban effective from February 2023. Sustainability Victoria (SV) is coordinating face-to-face business drop-ins to prepare SMEs for the ban. As part of this large-scale project, SV recognised there are many CALD-owned SMEs who may have limited English proficiency. SV engaged The LOTE Agency (LOTE) to assist with the CALD business engagement.

Solution

LOTE identified LGAs within metropolitan Melbourne with high CALD populations and likely to have a high number of CALD-owned businesses. LOTE narrowed down the main languages spoken in these LGAs. We then worked with SV to determine the approach and level of engagement required.

The target is to reach 2,000 CALD SMEs within a two-month duration across all target LGAs. To increase efficiency and performance, LOTE has utilised tablets with the digital questionnaire to interview SMEs. This data is then captured in our research database for further analysis and reporting. We have employed 15 bilingual community engagement officers and strategically assigned them to LGAs for maximum engagement. This reduces the chance of language barriers and also builds trust with community members. As part of the drop-in activity, LOTE has worked with SV to produce in-language posters to inform businesses and their customers about the ban. The engagements have enabled insightful conversations with SMEs.

Qualitative and quantitative data is helping SV and other Victorian Government departments further optimise the communication outreach to ensure an easy transition from Single-Use Plastics by February 2023.

Impact

This project has provided a positive impact in several ways, including:

• Empowering the community - LOTE contracted bilingual community

members to execute the campaign, providing them with invaluable experience and knowledge.

• Trust - by going out to the community, we are building trust by

using community members to tell the campaign's story.

• Feedback - this project acts as a hybrid of engagement and research.

LOTE's contracted community members have a translated survey on an iPad that shop owners complete. This delivers an indication of reach, awareness levels and more, which we will use to improve future campaigns.

Demonstrates experience in:

• Multicultural research in the sustainability space

• Ability to leverage research to engage multiple communities across

various LGAs, as a trusted link between communities and SV