SWITZERLAND. Lagardère Travel Retail has hailed the recent opening of a pop-up store at Geneva Airport in partnership with the United Nations’ Perception Change Project. It aims to raise awareness of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) among travellers.
As we reported from Geneva last month, the pop-up is located in the airport’s new East Wing, close to Aelia Duty Free’s first ‘eco-responsible’ store.
With access to millions of passengers passing through Geneva Airport every year, Lagardère Travel Retail said it has “a unique chance” to contribute to the public’s understanding of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations as part of the 2030 roadmap for Sustainable Development.
Co-created with the Perception Change Project, the pop-up features visuals, reading materials and videos about each of the 17 SDGs to demonstrate how these relate to people’s daily lives and how progress towards achieving them is within everyone’s reach. Awareness starts at the earliest stages, noted the retailer, with a special area for children to draw and play inside the pop-up.
Travellers are invited to find out more about each of the goals and the specific actions they can put into practice in their day-to-day lives to achieve them. They can write their ideas about how to achieve progress towards a healthier planet, which will be presented to the UN and combined into a publication.
Lagardère Travel Retail in Switzerland and the Perception Change Project have also formed a partnership with Geneva-based Caran d’Ache, which specialises in creating drawing and writing materials. As part of this partnership, a box of colouring pencils has been designed, featuring the SDGs on its top cover. The pencil boxes are available for use by travellers stopping by the pop-up.
The International Geneva Perception Change project aims to highlight the impact of the work done by all UN and international organisations based in Geneva. Its efforts are centred around four main axes: making information accessible, changing the narrative, promoting the work of Geneva-based organisations and promoting the Sustainable Development Goals.
Tatiana Valovaya, Director General of the United Nations Office at Geneva, said: “This pop-up results from the cooperation between the United Nations, the private sector, civil society and individuals. It perfectly speaks to the goal 17: Partnerships for the Goals. To tackle climate change, provide food, clean water and energy, education to everyone around the world, we must unite. I hope this cooperation can lead to many other public-private partnerships to advance the Sustainable Development agenda and create a more responsible future for all.”
Lagardère Travel Retail Switzerland CEO Pascal Le Droff said: “We see thousands of passengers passing through our stores every day. This gives us unrivalled access to contribute to increasing their understanding of the goals and most importantly, of what actions they can take to help achieve them, whether big or small.
“We are working hard to convey the message that travel retail can play its part in tackling the social and environmental challenges we are facing. With this pop-up, and with the opening of the first ever eco-responsible store in Lagardère Travel Retail’s network, we want to support Geneva Airport’s ambition to elevate environmental standards in the aviation industry.”
The pop-up space was inaugurated on 3 March, with Tatiana Valovaya, Geneva Airport CEO André Schneider and Lagardère Travel Retail COO for EMEA Frédéric Chevalier in attendance. The East Wing development represents a milestone in the airport’s terminal infrastructure, developed using advanced technologies to meet the highest standards of energy performance.
Lagardère Travel Retail’s CSR strategy is built around four pillars (Planet, Ethics, People, Social, also known as PEPS) and supported by measurable commitments to track progress. More detail about the group’s CSR roadmap is available here.
