Single-Use Plastic Ban Engagement.

Challenge

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

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

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

Impact

This project 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 built trust by using community members to tell the campaign's story.
• Feedback - the project acted as a hybrid of engagement and research.

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.