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Barbara Whitchurch
Each year, Renewable Energy Vermont (www.REVermont.org) hosts a conference that explores how we in Vermont can best accomplish the transition to renewable energy.
Some of the workshops are extremely technical, but this year two of the workshops were about outreach: specifically, how professionals in the renewable energy industry can present the concepts and tools effectively, and how to use one’s personal and professional “clout” to inspire the general public and draw them in. Below are some ideas shared during the workshops.
1. Use “backwards design.” When preparing a presentation, talk, or even a conversation, ask yourself, “What is my end goal? What do I really want them to know? What is the BIG IDEA?”
2. Start by asking questions. For example, if you are talking about switching from gas to electric cars or electrifying your school bus fleet, ask “Do you drive a gas or hybrid car?” Remember that they are the experts on how they move around: car, public transportation, bicycle, scooter. Some of them will be conscious about their energy usage and exhaust, and some won’t. Those are the main learners.
3. Meet them where they are. If you are talking one-on-one about cooking, ask them what they know about induction cooktops. Focus on THEIR concerns, such as the cost of buying new pots and pans.
If you arrange to go to someone else’s event, ask to present for five minutes. If there are information hurdles to get past, have a fact sheet to distribute. Validate their concerns. Know how hard you can push people without losing them. How far can they go toward changing their behavior?
4. Avoid jargon, acronyms and anything that might make them feel ignorant. Written materials should be kept to the eighth-grade level. If you are using a slide show presentation, remember that some people are slow readers. Do not talk while there are other words on the screen; they cannot read and listen to you at the same time!
5. Help people identify what they are doing well. Celebrate successes! Look for positives. After your initial engagement with them, check in with them on a personal level. Ask them, “How are you doing with your switch to electricity?” Their well-being and comfort are important on their path toward green energy.
6. Be sensitive to how well they are understanding you. Are they now empowered to make changes or do further research? Suggest specific things they can do: “Can I put you in touch with _____?”, “Let me get you a demonstration”, “Google ‘induction cooktop benefits’.”
7. Prepare like crazy and know your audience. If you will be addressing a group, send out an email with questions about what they want to accomplish. Then, meet the goals that THEY identify. Do a lot of pre-work, right down to checking out the facilities. Know your data thoroughly. Video yourself or practice in front of a mirror.
8. Build trust with your audience. Maybe you will be chatting with your town snowplow driver. Find a way to identify with him, however basic. (We all live in Vermont; we all have to get around somehow; we all have to deal with snow; whatever!)
Tell stories. Stories are “sticky” (memorable). One power of storytelling is peer influence: other people are doing this, and this. Suncommon, a company with 10 thousand customers, wanted to promote residential solar. How did they engage the public? They hired a storyteller!
Our story? We were driving our Prius back from Canada after visiting our kids and grandkids in 2019. Realizing all the pollution we were creating that would harm them and their future, we vowed right then we would not do it any longer. We bought a new 2019 Kia Niro EV (electric vehicle) — which we could NOT afford. (We could not take the federal tax incentive, because we do not have enough income to pay taxes; so, we leased to get the $7,500 and borrowed funds from a parent to make the monthly payments. Four years later, it is ours!)
Get people to let their guard down. (For example, one of the conference’s opening speakers remarked, “Americans love to burn s—t!” We howled with laughter and really listened to him after that.) The messenger (you) is as important as the message.
9. Approach your legislator, town selectboard, or planning commission member. But remember that they are lay people. They might need you to explain things to them. If you are testifying before a committee, be brief and bring a draft with specific wording, especially for a proposed legislative change. If there is a related project, invite your legislator to come see it.
10. Repeat important things. You cannot do too much of that. Repeat important things.
11. Youth are the idealists; WE are the problem. Remember that. Apologize for the fix we have put them in and listen to them.
12. Get involved with your allies. When you show up at their event, people know you care about their issues.
13. Businesses, large and small, already have marketing engines. It could be an “ad” on Public Radio or a letter to the editor of your local paper. Ben & Jerry’s started out selling ice cream. Later, they decided to expand their business model to include progressive social change. They are a powerful marketing corporation, and corporations can advance ideas. Their internal global campaign team created the “Reimagine the Workhouse Project” (renovate and repurpose a St. Louis local jail for social good).
Grassroots Solar, a much smaller company, organized a giving campaign to donate to www.350Vermont.org. Their advice: ask people to do something specific. If stuff is already being done, plug into it. Keep it fact-based and always be honest. People will be attracted to your reputation, and that’s something that money cannot buy.
Maybe you have a friend or neighbor who owns a small business. Ask her about her company. Then you can talk to her about renewable energy, saving the planet, donating to a fundraising campaign, getting an electric delivery car, and so on. Use a light touch.
14. The “Yeah, buts….” There are risks in taking a political position as a business. Suncommon calls them “guard rails:” what we care about and what we WON’T engage in, despite the benefits. Know clearly what that line is and make sure all your employees know it, too. For example, “Don’t worry about climate deniers; deny them.”
Ben & Jerry’s recommends having clear, transparent values and remembering that being political is part of being a member of a civil society.
15. And finally, whether you are at your house or a larger setting, no meetings without food!
If you are inspired to use these techniques to reach out, VEEP (https://veep.org/) sponsors training workshops.
Barbara Whitchurch is a frequent contributor to G.E.T., which she and her husband Greg distribute using their electric cars, which are charged by their solar PV, outside of their Net Zero+ Passive House home.
Captions
Vermont Lt. Governor, David Zuckerman, inspires the rank and file. (Whitchurch)
No tailpipe on this baby! (Whitchurch)
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