Sophie Charles-Barber

BCRC-Caribbean / UNEP · Story 06 / 08

How does a global problem become a local priority?

Plastic pollution crosses borders. The reasons people act are often much closer to home.

A national communications strategy and creative campaign connecting a global environmental ambition with the everyday realities of Trinidad and Tobago.

Role
Communications consultant
Context
Trinidad & Tobago
Scope
Strategy, audience mapping, campaign development, creative direction & work planning
Make Today Plastic Pollution’s Last Day campaign artwork, with a bottle formed from everyday plastic items over a Trinidad and Tobago landscape.
The campaign invitation: Make Today Plastic Pollution’s Last Day.

01 / The challenge

A big issue.
A personal reason to care.

A national roadmap can set the direction. Communications has to make that direction meaningful to the people expected to act on it.

The task was to connect the wider ambition with recognisable stakes: the beach a family visits, the waters a fisher depends on, the packaging a business chooses and the habits a child takes home.

Working with BCRC-Caribbean and UNEP, the strategy brought research, audience insight and creative development together around a shared invitation to act.

The question behind the work

What makes someone
care enough to act?

Start with what matters to them. Then give them a practical place to begin.

02 / Local relevance

One campaign.
More than one reason to care.

The audience map looked at what different groups value, what motivates them and where a message could reach them. That thinking shaped distinct invitations for households, businesses, young people and coastal communities.

It Starts At Home. Reduce. Reuse. Rethink. Campaign post with a bottle symbol over a local landscape.
Households / Make the first step feel possible.
Your Business Can Lead the Change. Make your business part of the solution. Campaign post.
Businesses / Give leadership a practical role.
Young Minds. Big Change. Campaign post showing a young person taking part in a coastal clean-up.
Young people / Turn concern into a sense of possibility.
Inside the strategy: the audience map

A message that hits home.

The communications strategy connects each audience with a motivation, a message and a route to engagement. Community meetings, schools, radio and WhatsApp sit alongside social content and direct stakeholder conversations.

Selected page from the communications strategy, April 2025.

Page 15 of the communications strategy: audience mapping for the general public, coastal communities, fisheries, policymakers and development partners.
Audience mapping / What they care about. What drives them. What to say.

03 / A story people can follow

A roadmap.
Made readable.

Five connected slides move from the scale of the issue to the part each audience can play. The sequence gives a complex national strategy a clear beginning, a reason to matter and an invitation to act.

  1. The scale of the problem
  2. Why it matters
  3. What the roadmap will accomplish
  4. How you fit in
  5. From strategy to action

Swipe through the five-part carousel.

  1. National roadmap carousel, slide 1: The scale of the problem. T&T produces plastic waste every year, while very little recyclable waste is recycled.
  2. National roadmap carousel, slide 2: Why it matters. Plastic pollution affects drains, marine life and livelihoods.
  3. National roadmap carousel, slide 3: What the roadmap will accomplish. The roadmap connects plastic reduction, recycling, waste management, business support and marine protection.
  4. National roadmap carousel, slide 4: How you fit in. Households, businesses, schools and coastal communities all have a part to play.
  5. National roadmap carousel, slide 5: From strategy to action. The roadmap becomes an invitation to reduce, reuse and rethink.

01 / 05The scale of the problem

04 / The message in motion

Big issue.
Everyday moments.

A coffee cup. A takeaway lunch. A discarded net. Four films make the issue tangible, then point towards a practical next step.

Does it really get recycled?0:35

A familiar symbol becomes the starting point for a conversation about recycling and reuse.

What’s hiding in a takeaway?0:39

Everyday packaging makes a complex issue easy to recognise.

What can change today?0:21

The scale of the problem leads to a simple invitation: choose reusable and rethink everyday habits.

What does a lost net leave behind?0:27

Discarded fishing gear connects marine pollution with the livelihoods that depend on the sea.

05 / The marine story

The coast is more
than a coastline.
It’s a livelihood.

“Wave Goodbye to Plastic Waste in Our Seas” gives the wider campaign a marine focus. The messages connect environmental protection with fishing, community pride and the places people call home.

Same ambition. A different reason to care.

We fish here. We swim here. We live here. This is our coast. Let’s keep it that way. Campaign artwork with coastal photographs inside a footprint.
Belonging / Protect the places that make a community.
Lost Gear. Lost Catch. Campaign post showing discarded fishing nets.
Livelihoods / Connect the issue with what is at stake.
Did You Know? Plastic pollution left on the beach can end up in the ocean for centuries. Campaign post with a sea turtle and plastic waste.
Marine life / Make the connection from shore to sea.

06 / The work plan

Attention is a beginning.
What happens next?

The three-year work plan connects awareness, participation and advocacy. Each phase builds on the previous one, keeping everyday choices linked to the wider responsibility of businesses, communities and policymakers.

  1. Year 01 / Awareness

    Make it
    understood.

    Explain the issue through accessible content, local examples and practical alternatives.

  2. Year 02 / Engagement

    Make it
    something to do.

    Build participation through community activity, school and business partnerships, and achievable habits.

  3. Year 03 / Advocacy

    Make it
    part of the system.

    Connect public action with business responsibility, stronger policy and sustained community involvement.

More campaign artwork5 pieces
One Small Change. One Big Goodbye. Campaign artwork connecting everyday action with cleaner coastal communities.
One small change. One big goodbye.
Campaign post highlighting plastic collected during coastal clean-ups in Trinidad and Tobago.
The coast / Collective responsibility.
Did you know? Most plastic pollution starts with everyday habits at home. Campaign post featuring a shopper and a recycling symbol.
Everyday habits / Bring the message home.
Blue and turquoise campaign key visual: Make Today Plastic Pollution’s Last Day, with a bottle symbol formed from single-use plastic items.
Key visual / The campaign language.
Campaign key visual with a bottle symbol over a green landscape and the line Make Today Plastic Pollution’s Last Day.
Key visual / A local setting.

How the idea travels

Some ideas travel
by coming closer.

The journey here runs from global ambition to local meaning. A shared message becomes relevant through the things different people already care about.

The work brings that thinking together in a communications strategy, an audience-led campaign and a plan that connects individual choices with collective responsibility.

Communications strategy and campaign development by Sophie Charles-Barber, for BCRC-Caribbean / UNEP and the Government of Trinidad and Tobago.

A project. A new chapter. A conversation.

What could we
build next?

A brand ready for its next chapter. A business with bigger ambitions. A team looking for creative and marketing leadership.

Discuss a projectDiscuss a leadership role
mscharles@me.comConnect on LinkedIn