#YouNeedToKnow: Dufry rolls out global campaign to support UN's Sustainable Development Goals awareness campaign : Moodie Davitt Report

“With over 29,000 colleagues and a footprint in 63 countries, we have a responsibility to ensure that we contribute to a better and more sustainable world for future generations” – Julian Diaz, CEO, Dufry

INTERNATIONAL. Dufry is to promote the United Nation’s #YouNeedToKnow sustainable development awareness campaign at over 80 airports in five continents.

The campaign seeks to raise public understanding of 17 Sustainable Development Goals* (SDGs) as part of a campaign. Dufry struck the agreement with the United Nations following successful trials at Geneva, Zürich and Heathrow airports late last year.

The Dufry project aims to inform 2 billion people by the end of the year about the importance of the 17 goals (see below) and how each individual can contribute towards a more sustainable and fairer world, by making small changes in our day-to-day lives. Dufry, present in 63 countries and supported in many locations by its airport partners, is using its global network of stores to give prominent space and visibility to the campaign.

Starting this month (July), Dufry will roll out the campaign across an initial 80 airports, a list that continues to grow. Dufry, using a variety of mechanisms from print to digital, has designed creative advertising campaigns and engagement activities to bring home to passengers the importance of the 17 SDGs.

Dufry CEO Julián Díaz commented: “With over 29,000 colleagues and a footprint in 63 countries, we have a responsibility to ensure that we contribute to a better and more sustainable world for future generations.

“With over 2.5 billion passengers using the airports at which we operate each year, we have a unique opportunity to work with our airport partners to convey this message to a wide audience of all ages, cultures and nationalities.

“Through this partnership, we want to play our part in raising awareness of the development goals set by the UN and ultimately to motivate people to take responsibility and immediate action.”

United Nations Geneva Office Director-General Michael Møller said: “People around the world need to know about the global goals and how each and every one of us can do something to be part of the solution in creating a safer, friendlier and healthier planet for all its inhabitants.

“It is up to us to spread the word around the world. This is our only home.”

ABOUT #YOU NEED TO KNOW

#YouNeedToKnow is designed to inform the public about the 17 Sustainable Development Goals and offers a starting point for a conversation that will inspire people to contribute towards the goals’ achievement.

The campaign consists of a series of installations and initiatives that started in November 2016 and will build up over the course of 2017 to help inform and mobilise the maximum number of people around the goals. #YouNeedToKnow is part of the global challenge to inform 2 billion people by the end of 2017 to secure the success of the global goals.

[Click on the YouTube icon to watch a short film about #YouNeedToKnow]

Comment: This is Dufry thinking and acting like a genuine industry leader, writes Martin Moodie. Our industry is so often portrayed in negative terms, as a shallow commercial adjunct to international travel. In fact, as the founder of the duty free industry, Dr Brendan O’Regan often pointed out, airports – and the commercial operators within them – play a critical role in encouraging and sustaining the movement of people around the globe, and thereby fostering multi-culturalism and mutual understanding.

Dufry has recognised that big idea – and the company’s central role on that world stage – here. It is a compelling, profoundly responsible initiative that deserves plaudits and support from all sectors of the travel retail industry… no, let’s make that the travel retail community.