The project
Introducing a Low Emission Zone (LEZ) transforms a city’s everyday mobility. It brings in new access and traffic conditions, affects citizens, businesses, companies and hauliers in different ways and, above all, needs to be understood for the change to happen reliably.
The LEZ marks out an area of the city center where access for the most polluting vehicles is progressively restricted, with the aim of reducing traffic-related emissions and helping improve air quality. Its rollout responds to Spanish and Catalan regulations on air quality and sustainable urban mobility.
Spora approached the project comprehensively: strategy and narrative, creative concept and campaign identity, development of informational materials, communication of the different rollout phases and proximity actions with the sectors directly affected.
The challenge
¿How do we communicate a mobility restriction so that it is understood as a city-wide transformation?
A LEZ is a complex public policy to communicate. Environmental badges, vehicle types, tonnages, phases, schedules, exceptions, authorizations and control systems coexist with a much simpler question on citizens’ minds: “How does this affect me?”
The challenge was to make this complexity understandable without losing sight of the reason behind the measure.
We needed to inform precisely about the new traffic conditions while also building a narrative able to place the LEZ within a broader framework: reducing traffic emissions, improving air quality and moving toward more sustainable urban mobility and a more livable city center.
The rollout was progressive. The first phase focused on the most polluting vehicles over 12 tonnes and included a trial period before the restrictions took full effect; the regulation was then set to extend to vehicles with no environmental badge.
This wasn’t just about making a new regulation known. It required accompanying a process of change, anticipating doubts, segmenting information and specifically reaching the groups most directly affected.
The approach
First understand. Then change. The LEZ communication was approached from a dual dimension: educational and operational/awareness-raising. This combination of city narrative and practical information shaped the entire campaign rollout.
Results
The project made it possible to build a comprehensive communication system to support the LEZ rollout, combining awareness-raising, practical information and proximity work.
Manlleu was given its own concept and identity to communicate the LEZ, able to unfold across the different phases of the process; regulatory content was turned into understandable information on impacts, timeline, badges, exceptions and authorizations; specific materials were created to explain the affected area and control points territorially; and a narrative was put in place capable of connecting the regulation with its environmental and urban objectives.
The campaign also included mechanisms so each person could move from general information to their own specific situation.
And, in particular, in-person work with economic activities made it possible to bring the public policy onto the ground, identifying doubts and real situations that rarely surface through a conventional campaign alone.
Urban transformations don’t just need to be communicated: they need to be accompanied.
Learnings
The implementation of a LEZ demonstrates that, when faced with public policies that modify everyday habits, providing information is necessary but not sufficient.
It is necessary to explain the why before the what; differentiate messages according to the degree of impact on each audience; turn regulatory complexity into understandable decisions; and combine mass communication channels with local spaces that allow for listening, responding and detecting unforeseen situations.
The project confirms the value of working on communication as an infrastructure for change: a tool that helps transform a regulatory obligation into a process that the city can understand, anticipate and incorporate.
Because a city with fewer emissions doesn’t start when a restriction comes into force. It starts when we understand why we need to change the way we move.