UN´s Global Goals Back on Stage in Zurich and Basel

For the fourth year in a row, the United Nations in Geneva has collaborated with Dufry Group to bring the campaign #YouNeedToKnow back to Zürich Airport.

Installed prominently in the open space at Check-in 2 (in front of the departure boarding pass scanning), the campaign visuals remind passengers that there won’t be a second chance to save the planet for future generations. It urges them to rally around the Global Goals and think about how to rid the world of poverty, provide quality education, guarantee gender equality and foster economic growth, among the many challenges the world must swiftly tackle. The campaign encourages people to take pictures at the photo booth and share them on social media using the hashtags #YouNeedToKnow, #ActNow, #GlobalGoals. The campaign was back at Zürich Airport and Basel-Mulhouse EuroAirport from 15 January to 14 February, in time to welcome people attending the World Economic Forum in Davos. An average of 80,000 passengers travel through Zürich Airport daily.

The story of the collaboration between Dufry and the United Nations for raising awareness about the Global Goals – also known as Sustainable Development Goals – goes back to 2016 when Dufry managed to take the campaign to 35 airports worldwide, reaching around 55 million passengers.

Since that initial collaboration, the #YouNeedToKnow campaign has evolved towards a more consumer-oriented messaging, featuring individual actions that each of us can adopt in our daily lives to help the nations achieve the 17 Sustainability Goals that world nations agreed in 2015.

Airports are a very interesting location for the United Nations for this campaign, as they reach a very broad audience and different nationalities. At the presentation of the campaign, attended by the Director-General of the United Nations Office in Geneva, Tatiana Valovaya, she highlighted the importance of partnerships like the UN and Dufry one. Talking about the #YouNeedToKnow campaigns, she commented: “Today, progress is being made in many places, but, overall, action to meet the Goals is not yet advancing at the speed or scale required. We need to deliver concrete results for those most in need and speed up concrete actions to deliver the Goals by 2030. Continuing to bring the Goals to passengers from all around the world is part of the Decade of Action which calls for accelerating sustainable solutions to all the world’s biggest challenges.”

During 2020, Dufry will continue its collaboration with the UN and the company is currently working on a campaign that will give visibility to the #YouNeedToKnow campaign in our stores. Stay tuned!