San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
MARKETING TASKFORCE MEETING SUMMARY NOTES May 6, 2013 | 11:00am-1:00pm Attendees: Trisha Whitfield, City of Tulare Betsy Garcia, City of Visalia Kim Loeb, City of Visalia Gail Henry, County of Tulare Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO
Maureen Hoff, SJVCEO Michael DeSousa, SCE Mark Okino, SCE Cam Maloy, PG&E
Location: Tulare County RMA, 5961 S. Mooney Blvd., Visalia, CA 93277
SUMMARY OF DISCUSSION Green Building Codes & Standards
CPUC direction says to look at green building codes and standards. VIEW partnership will incorporate this into Strategic Planning efforts but will also tie into marketing and outreach Cam Maloy noted that PG&E provides training/education out of Fresno and would look to see it that can be opened up to other jurisdictions The Southern California Regional Energy Network (SoCAL REN) has been directed by CPUC to direct some of its funds to the Central Valley for a green building certification program. Not sure at this point what the program will look like or how much funding will be directed to this area. Courtney will send out an explanation that helps to clarify all of the green building codes/standards – Title 24, Build It Green, CALGreen Research, marketing, focus groups in order to determine what the benefit/advantage is to builders for adhering to codes and standards – what will get them to buy in?
Outreach Events
SCE’s Mobile Education Unit (MEU) is too expensive to utilize at all partnership events like we have done in the past. Need to shift the focus, find alternatives. Door to door for unincorporated businesses ‘Task Rabbit’ – find an active community member to help fill the role of outreach. Kim Loeb liked this idea and thought it would be beneficial to train the individuals and bring them up to speed. Cam suggested using interns. Several concerns and comments regarding interns were the following: o The partnership need for these types of roles is on an as-needed/on-call and not on a regular basis. Would not be a consistent schedule. City of Visalia hires
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
water conservation and education coordinators and these hourly employees could likely fill the role. o Training – could likely send individuals to the Energy Education Center (formally known as AgTAC) for additional education. People at community events usually ask about solar and utility bills so it would be helpful if the interns could address these questions. o Liability/insurance and other utility restrictions – will need to evaluate each utility’s policies o Payment – Courtney suggested going through PESC, the association management company where the SJVCEO is housed. o Cam suggested using utility call center individuals because they are already well versed and knowledgeable. o Community colleges in territory could also be source for interns – College of the Sequoias, West Hills Lemoore. Cam will provide a contact at West Hills. o CSET is also a great resource. o Fresno Pacific University also could be source for intern o Retired/former IOU employees could also assist with events October is Energy Awareness Month – ideas for community awareness during this time o Begin green building challenge around this time o Mark Jewell from Energy Efficiency Funding Group (EEFG) to possibly reach out to unincorporated areas for education. This would likely be a costly option and maybe not right for the unincorporated areas. See below for more information on this under ‘Roadshow’. o Unincorporated areas – Cam and others agreed that these are the areas with the greatest need and they usually do not have the exposure to programs. Cam gave the example of Allensworth and Alpaugh where PG&E implemented programs to touch every segment of the communities. Betsy added that it is also still important to bring outreach to the larger communities like Visalia if it will help with the take rate for programs like Direct Install. o Direct Install – SCE DI will not be coming through in 2013 but PG&E’s program could be used to reach Cutler Orosi area in Tulare County.
Roadshow (2014)
Potential to utilize Mark Jewell for a larger group meeting Actual visits to the smaller communities is what works best because they can’t typically leave their businesses to attend events/educational sessions/meetings. Bringing Mark Jewell to smaller areas would likely be too costly. It was noted that a good way to reach people in smaller communities is to go through schools - providing information to kids that they can bring home to their parents or at events like Back to School night. Mark Okino will need to connect with the specific schools utility representative since schools are out of his jurisdiction. Other locations/groups to target: Kiwanis, Rotary, Chambers of Commerce Organizations to partner with: USGBC Central California chapter
Courtney made it a point that no matter what efforts the partnership decides to do, it should be as cost effective as possible. The goal is to align PG&E, SCE, and SCG programs and to pick and
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
choose like offerings to promote in all areas. A targeted message is also key in getting people to attend events.
Building Challenge (2013)
Coordinate this to start during October 2013 – Energy Awareness Month Courtney gave example of Kilowatt Crackdown (Betsy suggested using a ‘k’ in crackdown – Kilowatt Krackdown) in Louisville. The idea is to get 12 months of energy use data from businesses, track and see who is making the biggest reductions. There are a series of awards so everyone gets recognized for efforts. A barrier of the building challenge may be the release of utility data, but this is why the program would be voluntary. VIEW would operate the program in both Tulare and Kings Counties, including unincorporated areas. It would be open to all businesses. Another challenge might be that businesses that are unfamiliar with EPA Portfolio Manager could be intimidated to participate. Betsy suggested that as encouragement to take part in the program/challenge the partnership could do a drawing for 10 winners to get free benchmarking. In order to avoid penalizing early energy efficiency adopters you could have an award that recognizes those businesses who have already made EE improvements at their facilities and/or facilities that already have a high benchmarking score. Category for municipalities – could pick 6 to 10 types of facilities to use for the competition (e.g. fire houses, WWTP). Might want to do a baseline of a few years back to see changes. Building challenge is also a good opportunity to highlight great stories of EE.
BIG PICTURE: Overlaying outreach plans and the green building labeling/codes and standards efforts that are being direct by the CPUC. Tie all activities back to the Program Implementation Program (PIP).
Energy Education Center in Tulare for ‘on location’ trainings o Challenge is getting the attendance. Oftentimes these department heads/inspectors/plan checkers/etc. think they already know the information. o Brown bag events might be better than a long day of training. o Put the emphasis/market the event as more of a roundtable or knowledge sharing event. Don’t want to sound offensive as if we think they don’t know what they are doing. o The first session should be a challenging topic with advanced content in order to draw people in for future sessions. This will make people perceive the training as valuable and new information. o Start with every other month or so for these trainings. o Will need buy in from municipalities to encourage the right people to come.
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Market the trainings to organizations these people belong to such as the AIA, USGBC, etc. SJVCEO has the ability to do outreach to these groups through PESC. Summary of new approaches to ‘Energy Fitness’ o Phone follow-up o $100 end point coupon => continue sticker: Energy Upgrade California o Advanced tech o Task-Rabbit-esque approach o Roadshow – Energy Month Involve supervisors, health and safety o Employee Education Lunch and learn o “You are VIEW” o Facility competition o Ugly sweater competition Targeted Populations o Residential – home improvement Easy to reach DIYers Promote Energy Upgrade California o Hard to Reach – business and residential, isolated communities Unincorporated Business County Supervisors / State Assembly members SCG – EE starter kit / mailers or cards HESS – mail-in, phone, online Customer EAP / Ways to Save Livingwise, Energenius – schools programs School districts – OBF, audits o Block walks with elected officials o KEMA – data collection Goals from original planning meeting with IOUs o SCE – get 2 cities to Gold, 1 to Silver o SCG – familiar with territory, demographics; marketing and outreach o PG&E – engage cities in self-promotion, engage elected o SJVCEO – getting jurisdictions excited about what they do