One Million Green Fingers  

Building educational gardens for local schools. Between 2004 and 2007 Yorkshire Water ran its Cool Schools campaign, installing over 1400 coolers in schools across Yorkshire.

Cool Schools was a huge success and really tackled the topical issue of dehydration in children.

To continue on this legacy Yorkshire Water wanted a campaign that would engage with employees, be relevant to the business and give something back to the local community; and as a result 'One Million Green Fingers' was born.

To generate interest and create a highly visible launch for the region's media, the team decided to carry out an 'Anneka Rice style' two-day gardening challenge.

The event gave employees, stakeholders, customers and the media a taste of what the campaign was all about. Employees taking part could see the real difference their hard work made to the local community and the smiles on children's faces was the impetus they needed to spur colleagues on to take part in the campaign.

Over 250 employee volunteers and contract partners signed up to simultaneously create five showcase gardens in all corners of the region. 

Once completed, the five gardens would act as a benchmark for future challenges and act as a great example of what Yorkshire Water volunteers could achieve.

Saturday Kitchen's celebrity chef James Martin was brought in to spearhead the campaign and provide a further news hook.  James was chosen because of his strong links with the campaigns aspirations - a born and bred Yorkshire-man, links to good hearty, healthy home cooking and a passion for allotments.

Throughout the two day challenge James visited each of the showcase gardens creating a buzz at the schools as he helped children lay turf, chatted to volunteers about planting vegetables and signed autographs for the swooning mums!

To further spread campaign messages, a mailer was developed to send to consumer gardening magazines, teaching titles and children's newspapers.  Contained inside a plain green box was a daffodil bulb, placed in a cut out shape of a light bulb to signify that the campaign was a 'great idea'.

Information on how to care for the daffodil and about One Million Green Fingers was enclosed in a little booklet. The mailer prompted interest in the campaign, helped achieve coverage in a wider range of titles and subsequently has provided a 'hook' to engage M.Ps with their local schools.

Given the current success of the campaign Yorkshire Water is on a mission to build 350 educational gardens by 2010.