Miljögiraff AB: building an expert community and brand awareness to support growth

Background

Miljögiraff AB is a consultancy  based in Gothenburg, that provides services related to environmental life cycle assessment (LCA) and life cycle design. The company’s multidisciplinary team of experts helps organizations understand the environmental impacts of their products and services. In practice they help customers navigate industry standards like 14040, 14025 and 14067, regulations like CSRD and ESPR and management practices.

Miljögiraff is the exclusive representative of the SimaPro software in Finland and Sweden. SimaPro is an internationally used tool utilized by, among others, industrial companies, universities and research institutes for conducting life cycle assessments.

The company wanted to strengthen the SimaPro network in Finland and grow the software’s user base. The goal was to increase awareness, build an active expert community and bring together Finnish and Swedish customers and partners.

Mailand became a partner supporting Miljögiraff in communications, marketing and stakeholder collaboration, while also helping bridge the language barrier between Finland and Sweden.

Solution

The collaboration focused on building an active expert community around Life Cycle Management and the LCA tool SimaPro in Finland and Sweden. Webinars played a key role, bringing together customers, partners and experts from both countries to share knowledge and insight as part of a growing community. Webinars quickly became a central element in building the SimaPro community.

“Organizing webinars together with Mailand has been very successful. Previously we had maybe 10–20 participants, but with Mailand the number grew to around 100. That is a remarkable improvement,” says Marcus Wendin, CEO of Miljögiraff.

“We can clearly see the impact in the discussions that take place after the webinars. Interest in metrics for sustainability has grown visibly,” Wendin adds.

Additional communication activities were built around the webinars. Mailand relaunched Miljögiraff’s newsletter on SimaPro, enabling regular updates on SimaPro developments, training opportunities and current topics such as upcoming events and webinars.

Community building was also supported through events and trade fairs. Miljögiraff participated in the Subcontracting Fair in Finland for two consecutive years, with experts and network members present at the stand. One year featured a panel discussion and the other an expert presentation. Mailand’s consultant was responsible for the overall exhibition marketing and also moderated the panel discussion.

Media visibility was strengthened through opinion pieces published in Kauppalehti ahead of the trade fair, ensuring Miljögiraff’s expertise and key industry topics reached a broader audience.

Communication was further strengthened through a LinkedIn community and customer stories. Photo and video content was produced to support these stories, with visual storytelling playing a key role in highlighting expert perspectives.

“Using images in the right way is essential in storytelling. The way visual elements are used strongly affects how the message is conveyed. In the customer stories, we wanted to portray our customers as heroes in the photos as well, and Mailand helped us capture that atmosphere perfectly,” Wendin says.

During the collaboration, Mailand’s consultant also actively facilitated stakeholder collaboration by bringing network experts and customers into webinars, media contributions, panel discussions and events.

Results

The collaboration delivered a wide range of communications and marketing activities on a turnkey basis. Mailand’s consultant was responsible for concept development, content production and event planning.

During the project, an active SimaPro community was built, connecting Finnish and Swedish stakeholders. At the same time, Miljögiraff strengthened its position as a trusted partner in the Finnish market.

Although the collaboration took place largely remotely between Helsinki and Gothenburg, it worked smoothly from the beginning. Mailand was able to quickly identify the core of Miljögiraff’s expertise and way of working and bring it to life across channels and content. At the same time, Mailand gained a new and valuable perspective on developing sustainable business in leading companies.

“Working with Mailand has been very successful. Together, we have been able to develop our communications and build an active community around SimaPro,” Wendin concludes.

Cover photo: Laura Vesa