Proving to the world that nature hides a huge power is a must for Allied Irish Bank (AIB), Ireland’s largest bank for farmers. In the North-Atlantic island, where very much of the economy is based on agriculture, there is an urgent need to empower farmers to maximize sustainability by changing the way they see the country’s greatest resource: grass. To support and celebrate the power within natural resources, AIB partnered with creative agency ROTHCO and Teagasc (Ireland’s Agriculture and Food Development Authority) and launched a multi-year campaign to increase grass utilization at Irish livestock farms.
Committed to helping farmers develop their grass business, AIB launched “10 | The Book That Grew,” a rather unusual literacy (and literary!) project that’s made from scratch with natural resources. As a first-of-its-kind, the book’s pages, words, and diagrams are all entirely made of nothing else but grass. Yes, this is a book the grew from seeds and nature’s gentle touch.
The Book That Grew is part of AIB’s latest installment for which the brand closely worked with the Dublin-based agency. Together, the two partners wanted to find a new and profitable way to give local farmers a clever guide for efficiency and sustainability in farming by using the country’s greatest resource.
The grass-made book contains 10 tangible lessons and 10 pieces of practical advice, all specially made to help maximize sustainability and increase profitability. These 10 steps allow farmers to achieve a ‘perfect’ 10 rotations of grass grazing per year and produce 10 tonnes of grass per hectare. These positive numbers shall improve the sustainability of even one of the most efficient Irish farms.
“This is a world’s first, completely rewriting the rules for how books are produced. Not only does this book lay out a practical plan of action, but it also symbolizes in an attention-grabbing way the power of our natural resources. When grass is managed correctly, it can work wonders,” claims the creative team behind this project.
To ‘write’ the book, the agency reached for the help of German artist Diana Scherer’s, who sketched templates which molded the pages, pictures, and words into different shapes that ultimately grew during February and March this year. Then, Jaime Murphy, a letterpress printer and bookbinder in Dublin, got involved in the project, being responsible with designing interleaves from the grass itself. The result is a book that’s now on a country tour at AIB-partnered agricultural events such as the National Ploughing Championships.
Also, those who are not so lucky to see the unique book with their own eyes can visit the bank’s website, which contains each lesson from the book’s pages, allowing farmers to implement what they have learned. Video and photography of the process will be available online across the brand’s social channels. Once applied, these lessons shall help increase profitability and efficiency and also contribute to reducing carbon emissions on a national level. What a way to present such a complex topic!