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Client: In Harmony Sustainable Landscapes

Situation: An experienced landscape company needed to redefine itself in order to better access the growing market in sustainable design/build.

Strategy: Sage Enviro managed the rebranding of In Harmony, including name change, logo, collateral materials and web site.

Results: In Harmony increased its visibility and market share in sustainable landscape design/build, from the Ciscoe show to Street of Dreams. Customers are happy with the company's professional brand and with their healthy, low-maintenance landscapes.

"We have worked with Annette Frahm for many years. Her experience and expertise have allowed us to take our message and marketing to the next level. She cares about our company, and the well being of our business, but above all she cares about us and our people. She is a pleasure to work with and a valuable member of our team."

--Ladd Smith, co-owner, In Harmony Sustainable Landscapes
www.inharmony.com

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Situation: The Seattle Climate Partnership wanted to add new members and provide simple tools to help businesses reduce their climate footprint. The Partnership also needed to show progress and results to save the program from budget cuts.

Strategy: Sage Enviro developed the concept and wrote a progress report, which used stories from business partners to demonstrate results. Sage also rewrote guides for seven business sectors to make them more marketing oriented and more effective at recruiting new members.

Results: Seattle Climate Partnership grew from 75 to 105 members. The sector guides proved useful for training, and they were added to the Partnership’s web site. The progress report was used in meetings with the mayor and founding partners, helping the Partnership survive the budget chopping block.

Click here for a copy of the Seattle Climate Partnership progress report

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Situation: The City of Seattle adopted an ambitious Urban Forest Management Plan. The city’s Office of Sustainability and Environment needed to know which audiences were most important to reach and how to engage them in helping to protect and restore the urban forest.

Strategy:Sage Enviro did key informant interviews to better understand key audiences and developed a comprehensive audience-based communications strategy. Sage also created the program name – Seattle reLeaf – along with a tag line and key messages.

Results: The communications strategy has been used as a model by other city departments. The city has been working to implement the recommended communications, including a tree art contest for children, outreach to tree activists and research with single-family homeowners. Seattle reLeaf is widely recognized, and the city’s tree portal web site is well used.

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Client: Energy Trust of Oregon, BPA, other NW energy agencies, with Dethman & Associates

Project: Green Wave Project

Situation: The Energy Trust of Oregon and other NW energy agencies wanted to assess if and how they should couple energy efficiency with global warming in a regional social marketing campaign.

Strategy:Sage Enviro worked as part of a team to do secondary research on the pros and cons of joining energy efficiency to global warming, including a review of relevant social marketing efforts around the country and interviews with over 25 key informants.

Results: Interactive workshops with research sponsors discussed findings and social marketing strategies. The "roadmap" report included a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats), a social marketing primer and an analysis of exemplary social marketing efforts that could serve as models in the Northwest.

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Client: Thurston County

Situation: Retail hardware and home improvement stores sell a variety of hazardous garden products, such as pesticides. While some stores have increased their sales of environmentally friendly alternatives, bags of weed and feed, insecticides and other products are still piled high in the front aisles.

Strategy: Sage Enviro conducted a series of informal interviews with staff at Home Depot, Lowe’s, Fred Meyer, Ace Hardware, manufacturers and others to assess barriers to selling less-hazardous gardening products and opportunities to make changes. Sage analyzed interview results and provided a report.

Results: The project report discussed the retail market in garden chemicals, assessing decision making, product placement, product choices, vendor support, supply chain dynamics and customer barriers. It provided recommendations for a range of actions Thurston County could take to change the current situation.

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Situation: Restore American’s Estuaries needed to improve its professional image in order to gain more support from corporations and other business funders. The organization works to restore and protect coastal areas.

Strategy: Sage Enviro developed the concept for a corporate funding brochure, wrote copy and managed design and production.

Results: National partners increased from three to eight, and annual funding increased by $200,000.

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Situation: Governments and nonprofit organizations cannot change environmental behavior just by providing information to businesses and the public. They need to develop objectives, understand their audiences, create strategies and evaluate their efforts.

Strategy: Annette Frahm has taught workshops at local, regional and national events about social marketing and creating effective environmental communications. In addition, Sage consults on social marketing strategies for issues ranging from groundwater quality to salmon recovery. Recent clients include the Lake Washington-Cedar-Sammamish Watershed, City of Olympia and City of Seattle.

Recent workshops were for:

• State pesticide program managers, sponsored by US Environmental Protection Agency
• Recycling program staff, sponsored by North American Hazardous Materials Management Association
• City, county and nonprofit staff working on salmon recovery, sponsored by Lake Washington-Cedar-Sammamish Watershed

Results: Governments and nonprofits around the US and Canada have improved their research, planning and evaluation of public education and outreach.

What workshop participants have said:

• "Annette was engaging and knowledgeable."
• "Great overview, good pace, great presenter."
• "Everything presented felt very approachable and attainable and usable."
• "Information was great and thought-provoking."
• "I thought this class was great; it should be a full day class."

Click here for our workshop flyer

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Employer: King County Hazardous Waste Management Program

Project: Stop Before You Spray

Situation: Many people spray pesticides because they think all bugs are bad. But most insects in the garden are actually helpful.

Strategy: To help gardeners learn about the wide range of "good bugs" in the garden, Annette Frahm created Stop Before You Spray. This easy-to-use field guide features photos, descriptions and benefits of 27 common beneficial insects.

Results: Full-page articles in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer and Seattle Times featured the guide, and it has been widely distributed and used. It won a Savvy award from 3CMA, the national City-County Communications and Marketing Association. It is changing the way Northwest gardeners think about insects.

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

"With the help of a new bug field guide from King County, gardeners can begin to appreciate just how much good is going on in their gardens. Predators and pollinators abound."

   --Marty Wingate

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Employer: King County Hazardous Waste Management Program

Project: Show Garden, 2003 Northwest Flower & Garden Show

Situation: How do you educate gardeners about natural methods without preaching to them? How about using actors and humor to entertain them?

Strategy: Annette Frahm created an innovative educational show garden for the 2003 at the Northwest Flower & Garden Show as a collaborative public-private project. She was primary author of the script; she also managed actors and media relations.

Results: The garden won a bronze medal, and drew praise from visitors and garden writers for its creativity, appealing design and groundbreaking use of live theater.

From King County Journal's story about the show:

"Of special note is 'Changing the Garden Perspective: Living in Harmony with Nature.' This garden, presented by Bothell's In Harmony Organic-Based Landscape Services together with King County Hazardous Waste Management Program, features actors discussing and demonstrating natural and chemical-dependent gardening. Guess which one produces a more spectacular, less labor-intensive garden."

   --Carole Beers