Stakeholder communications and engagement strategy

Protium Green Solutions is a green Hydrogen Energy Services Company (HESCO™) focused on designing, developing, and operating green hydrogen solutions to help industrial and manufacturing businesses achieve net zero energy emissions.

As part of their overall net zero mission, Protium are seeking to develop a green hydrogen production facility – named Tees Valley Net Zero – at Port Clarence on the River Tees. Recognising Teesside as an emerging green economy hub, as well as a region with a rich industrial and manufacturing heritage and an array of businesses well-suited to hydrogen off-taking, Protium are proud to be investing in the North East.

Our Approach

Cool Blue provide overall marketing and comms support for the Tees Valley Net Zero project, as well as undertaking an ongoing stakeholder communications and engagement strategy.

We have facilitated and organised a series of meetings with key stakeholders in the Tees Valley area, explaining the project in detail and how it will benefit the local community, economy and environment.

Results

While the project is still in the planning stage so key results are still to be determined, our ongoing stakeholder briefings have been very positive. Attendance at the public meeting was positive, with a number of useful conversations happening between the project team and local residents, local businesses, interested organisations and others.

We have also helped to secure speaking slots for Protium at high-profile regional events, such as the North East Development Conference, which has helped to enhance awareness in the North East of Protium’s plans and vision, while cementing Protium’s position as thought leaders in the hydrogen sector.

Delivery

From liaising with environmental groups to local primary and secondary education providers, our outreach activity has included a launch event in Middlesbrough, attended by representatives from most of the groups listed above, as well as a formal public consultation event.

The aim of the public consultation event was to engage local businesses and people with the objectives and specifications of the Tees Valley Net Zero project, utilising a number of marketing assets to bring the site to life at this event.

It was important to publicise this event to the local community and to hold it in a location as near to the proposed site as we could which allowed as many people from the local area – Port Clarence – to attend.

We put in place a hyper-local PR campaign in the weeks leading up to the meeting, which included press releases to all local newspapers and media outlets, a broadcast interview on BBC Radio Tees with Protium’s chief executive about the event and messaging on the company’s social media feeds using well-followed hashtags such as #Stockton and #NEbusiness.

We also designed and produced a double-sided A5 leaflet publicising the meeting and with information about the proposed production facility which we sent to every household in the Port Clarence area.

We also conducted a hyper-local Facebook advertising campaign alerting social media users in the area to the meeting and to the free transport facilities available, including a web page for people to sign up to use the minibus.

For the event itself, we produced a series of illustrated A1 boards which showed the plans in more detail, including CGIs supplied by Protium of what the proposed facility would look like ‘in situ’, as well as printed feedback forms for people to fill in at the event itself or afterwards online.

We also attended the event to provide guidance and further information to attendees on the plans, to liaise with the Protium project team on issues arising from various conversations at the event on the night and to ensure that the transport from High Clarence Primary School to RSPB Saltholme and back ran smoothly.