Utilities today are increasing their efforts to connect with the communities they serve. When most people think about their relationship with their utility company, it’s about them providing power and sending a bill. In reality, utilities offer much more support for customers.
As part of the work we do with utilities, Evergreen’s Community Outreach Team focuses on engaging customers and teaching them about
- Clean energy
- Which behaviors impact energy consumption
- How to save energy
- Incentives available for energy-efficient upgrades
By partnering with local organizations, our outreach specialists are happy to share their energy efficiency knowledge.
Outreach Success Story: Rural Wyoming
Situation: An outreach specialist met a senior center manager who invited him to look at their facility. The specialist noticed that both interior and exterior lights were in poor shape.
$$$: Our specialist found that the senior center qualified for incentives from their local utility and a grant from the state!
Phew! The senior center manager was relieved because they didn‘t have a budget for upgrades. After the incentive and grant, the new lighting was basically free.
Customer Win: Members of the senior center were thrilled with the new, brighter lights. And the exterior lights made it much safer at night.
Utility Win: When customers learn to save energy, the utility saves from less peak power demand.
Community outreach is a step beyond traditional advertising – it builds relationships with customers and gets the word out to everyone. Often, outreach efforts are focused on connecting with customers who lack the resources to make energy-efficient improvements on their own. Helping and educating customers without expecting anything in return makes this work rewarding for our outreach specialists. In addition, they assist the utility company to
- Build relationships with those who have a voice in the community
- Positively impact organizations
- Improve the environment
Community Outreach Results are Game Changing
Our Outreach Team recently worked with a small, minority-owned convenience store in a highly impacted community* that had old fluorescent lighting with poor performance. An outreach specialist swooped in to help the owner find a local vendor to provide a lighting upgrade and apply for incentive money. With the store’s long operating hours, the estimated savings for this business is over 40,000 kWh and more than $2800 annually from this upgrade!
Without the support from our outreach specialist, the store owner would not have known how to apply for a Small Business Lighting (SBL) incentive or that it was even available. Now, the store owner is set up for success with savings that will carry into the future.
To learn more about Evergreen’s community outreach services and how they can benefit your company, contact us today!
*A highly impacted community is one where a disproportional share of environmental risks is present.
