Vivienne Westwood helps us go green...

Kari Owers, Managing Director

Last Friday we took part in Green Britain Day by having a team swap of old clothes and Rob started his weekly 25 mile round trip bike ride to work (click here to read the story).

A passing PR stunt or a serious commitment to the environment? You know it started as a bit of fun, but just taking part started me thinking.

Just what is this climate change thing really all about and what can one little business do to help?

After a busy week, I tuned in to the regular Friday night fix of Jonathan Ross and was excited to see my all-time favourite designer Vivienne Westwood on the line up. Love her clothes with a passion (as everyone in the office knows!).

Reminiscent of her activist days in the '70s in this interview she was passionate about the need to tackle climate change. Strange for a fashion designer you might think, with fashion the epitome of unnecessary consumerism.

In just a few minutes of airtime she made me realise that climate change is a real issue for every single one of us. We have just 96 months left to tackle the problem or we face the point of no return.

In case you missed Vivienne on Wossy, read this http://tinyurl.com/kwa7eu.

So, what can one small business really do to stop climate change? Well we are about to find out. Follow us on our journey to understand how our daily 9-5 impacts on the environment, and what small steps we can take to be better global citizens.

And I’ll be doing my bit at home too. Starting with neutral shopping. For every consumer item we buy as a family, we will give one away to a worthy charity. We’re also switching to a more eco-friendly heating system and insulating our home.

I’m sure there’ll be more tips I can share, so follow us as we find out more on www.twitter.com/ocommunications and please RT to get everyone thinking about the little part they can play in the climate change crisis.

Kari Owers

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Ever wondered what Kari's favourite song is, or who Rob's dream client would be, or even what Gemma would spend her last £10 on?

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A busy year...

Kari Owers, Managing Director

I’ve just returned from a week’s holiday and boy was it needed – we spent the week before we left with all hands to the pumps preparing our entries for the CIPR PRide Awards, and it was a tough job deciding what to enter!

When we looked back over the last year we had so many fantastic projects to pick from we really had to be strict on what we put forward.

For example the Prince’s Trust Challenge Trophy was a project that created such a media frenzy, it was the most exciting and – true to its name – challenging media relations exercise we have ever worked on. At one point we were gaining newspaper, TV and radio coverage every single day running up to the charity sporting events. Plus working on a daily basis with the sporting greats from Alan Shearer to Peter Beardsley and Glenn McCrory was great fun. More to the point we did so much of the project pro bono, we felt great when we heard it had hit all its targets to raise money for disadvantaged young people in the North East.

We were also able to think of a case study for almost every category, which shows we’ve really grown into a PR and brand communications agency with a client list of some truly inspirational companies. The freedom our clients give us to develop new concepts for the brand and communications is a real testament to the trust they have in us to deliver a really effective campaign.

So fingers crossed for the PRide Awards, and well done everyone. Looking back at all the work done in the last year made us realise we’ve had some great achievements!

Kari Owers