Restored peatlands, new forests and saltmarshes around our coasts can all store carbon and provide habitats with good biodiversity. They make great sense as part of our efforts to mitigate climate change and restore nature.

The British Ecological Society was uniquely placed to bring together the latest research evidence with the best experts to offer assessments of policy options and trade-offs. It published a comprehensive report in 2021 aimed at policymakers.

Working at the Society, alongside the report authors, the policy and comms teams, I designed a campaign to ensure the report had the impact it deserved. We needed to go beyond our regular research community and reach policy and public audiences as well. The project included designing, producing and distributing the report to policymakers, a media briefing for the nationals, and a range of content adapted for different platforms – from blogs and animations to author interviews and webinars.

Thanks to our analytics, we could see that those downloading the report and going to the launch event were the audiences we wanted. But the real outcome was the number of meetings the Society’s policy team got invited to by Defra and the devolved nations.