The climate magazine that's winning awards - and trust

Show, don’t tell. A classic phrase and guiding star for many communicators. But, like many other things in life, it’s one thing to theorize and a whole other thing to actually put it into practice. Peab – community builder of the Nordics – contacted Spoon with the humble will to address the overall challenges facing the construction industry today.

The construction of Swedish houses and buildings, roads and bridges amount to around one fifth of Sweden’s total emission of greenhouse gasses. At the same time, the Swedish Parliament has decided that Sweden must reach net zero emissions of greenhouse gasses by the year 2045. This will happen at the same time as the country grows. By 2025, the population is estimated to have reached eleven million citizens. Houses will need to be built. Roads and railroads need to be established and renovated. We need to keep up with our growing society, while reducing our climate footprint at the same time. How, and to whom, should this be communicated?

During the initial conceptual work, it became clear that the primary target audience for this communication would be future business clients of Peab, as well as politicians and other decision makers whom Peab would like to maintain or establish a good relationship with. Spoon was also able to design a “message house” consisting of a superstructure summarized with Peab working towards climate smart construction. This main message was then carried by three pillars: 1) Peab adheres to the criticism and allows skeptics to speak up, 2) Peab is led by a bright future vision, and 3) Peab takes initiatives in the right direction.

From this, Spoon was able to develop a concept. The answer was “Vägskäl” (“Crossroads”), a one-hundred page climate magazine carrying the tagline “68 initiatives for a better tomorrow”. The magazine was built around three different chapters – Develop, Construct, and Live – an editorial interpretation of the from-start-to-end process called the Peab model. The magazine was supplemented by a microsite and social media posts in order to reach maximum effect with the target audience. At the site, Spoon published a selection of the magazine’s content, usually in a somewhat condensed form, together with a form where readers were able to order their own copy of the magazine.

Hundreds of people in the relatively new and narrow target market have up until now ordered their own copy of the magazine at magasinvagskal.se. During Fall 2022, “Vägskäl” was nominated at the Swedish Design Awards, in the category Editorial customer magazine and the same fall the magazine won gold in the Publishing Award in the category Customer magazines B2B. The justification for the award made it clear in black and white that the magazine had succeeded in its ambition to be a positive voice in the climate debate: "Too high visual quality in a fun and well-made customer magazine that breathes optimism".