Challenge
Given that sustainability is a strategic pillar of the business of MEDWAY, the company seeks to promote rail travel as the most sustainable mode of transport for the planet. In short, rail transport helps reduce CO2 equivalent emissions by some 70% compared with road transport, a reduction that can rise to 74% if rail transport is solely performed with electric locomotives.
Sustainability forms part of the DNA of MEDWAY which has always made a huge commitment to the environment, promoting, among its collaborators, clients and potential clients, the importance of choosing a mode of goods transport that respects the environment. Furthermore, since rail is the main business transport of MEDWAY, which offers integrated logistics solutions, the use of such locomotives to help promote sustainability throughout the country was clear, raising awareness in all regions that trains travel through of the importance of this sector in the development of a country and of a more sustainable logistics industry.
Accordingly, LLYC and MEDWAY invited the Portuguese visual artist and illustrator Kruella D'Enfer to design an illustration of a MEDWAY electric locomotive to allude to sustainability, rail transport, innovation and the future. The work by Kruella D'Enfer begins by paying tribute to the inauguration of the first train in Portugal on 28 October 1856.
2021 is the European Year of Rail, and the importance of this mode of transport for the sustainability of the planet is increasingly clearer, and hence the artistic work includes various aspects that refer to trains, locomotives and railways. The female figure represents equal opportunities – one of the company’s main values.
In reference to a more sustainable mode of transport, the work reflects other objects such as solar panels, and also certain icons of the Portuguese landscape, including the white stork, the cork forests of Alentejo and the livestock in the provinces of Trás-Os-Montes. Lastly, the close ties between the company and its collaborators and families has inspired the creation of a child playing with a train, symbolizing growth, evolution and a future perspective, always committed to sustainability.
To present the locomotive, MEDWAY and LLYC organized an institutional event for employees, collaborators and clients, which was held at the National Railway Museum in Entroncamento – an area historically associated with the railway sector. Following the event, a press release was sent to the sector media and also to the specialized culture media. Various publications were posted on the company’s social media accounts and that of the artist Kruella D'Enfer. The locomotive is now running throughout the country on the goods transport service routes of MEDWAY. In addition, to commemorate the anniversary of the first train that ran in Portugal on 28 October 1856, the locomotive decorated by the artist was again displayed at the National Railway Museum in Entroncamento, so as to be seen by even more people.
Impact.
The communication of this initiative has had 16 impacts in the media and 45 impacts in the social media (LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram) with more than 2,400 interactions.
“MEDWAY has implemented, over the course of the year, numerous actions to promote greater sustainability in its operations, but it had not gone the extra mile and communicated our commitment to show our clients and the whole country that it can count on us. We are market leaders in railway logistics operations, but we seek to project MEDWAY as a brand leader as well in environmental sustainability. This is why the project came about, with a view to joining two different worlds as are railways and art, to show that MEDWAY can also innovate and contribute to raising public awareness about environmental sustainability issues. Despite being a very recent project, the feedback we have received to date has already been very positive, and the “noise” created regarding the subject of sustainability and MEDWAY has been much louder. We are undoubtedly building a much stronger brand founded on such crucial values as sustainability and the environment”
Areas.
Industries
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