Customer Communication

CONTRIBUTIONS continued

United Way

CNUC made charitable donations to various United Way events throughout the country. During 2021, the donation total was $1,400.

Utility Arborist Association (UAA) Involvement and Industry Support

CNUC receives the Utility Arborist Association’s Partners in Excellence award on an annual basis. This award is given to companies that go above and beyond to support the UAA’s mission by volunteering, sponsoring, advertising, and by being a member.

Urban Forestry and Promotion of Greenspace

Today the benefits of trees are no secret. Trees provide benefits from increasing property values to assisting with storm water management. Particularly in urban settings, trees also provide better public health outcomes. Trees reduce concentrations of particulate matter, the most damaging form of air pollution. They mitigate hot summer air temperatures both providing shade and releasing water into the atmosphere. That’s not all, many studies have also found that presence of trees adds to decreased stress levels and even helps to promote physical fitness. The benefits of trees are so well recognized as an urban asset that they were considered in the latest infrastructure bill. In the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, signed into law in November 2021 (117-58) provides funds for a grant program known as the “Healthy Streets Program”.

The Healthy Streets Program was appropriated $100,000,000 each fiscal year 2022-2026 with a goal of deploying cool pavements and porous pavements and expanding urban tree cover. A major use of these funds is directed at comprehensive tree canopy assessments in urban environments with a focus on low-income communities. These canopy assessments involve the inventory and assessment of trees on public facilities and locations in which trees need to be replaced or added. CNUC has been working with communities across the US in this work through our new Urban Forestry service offerings which are currently focused on urban forest inventories. This service offering is relatively new, but we expect it to grow in the coming years both with focused attention from our R&D team and with a potential increase in available projects through the creation of the Healthy Streets Program.

Fiscal Year Urban Trees Inventoried

Pre 2020 2020 2021 TOTAL

1,167 38,498 12,066 57,731

$100,000,000

APPROPRIATED TO THE HEALTHY STREETS PROGRAM EACH FISCAL YEAR 2022-2026

CUSTOMER COMMUNICATION & EDUCATION

One of the most important roles we play as consulting utility foresters (CUF) for our clients is that of customer communication and education. Through our work, whether through customer notification of planned work, responding to customer requests, or customer interactions following storm events, we are often the primary point of contact for our clients’ customers. In this front-line position, we are often the liaison between the customers, utility, and tree crews. We play an important role in building transparency and understanding of the work to be performed. In addition, we are offered an opportunity to provide education to utility customers about trees, tree biology, UVM, right-tree right-place, and many other important aspects of our work. From helping a customer understand why their tree needs to be pruned, to simply helping a homeowner to learn what tree species are in their yard, we are impacting lives and expanding knowledge of both UVM and the natural environment each day.

Contract Spotlight

ELECTRIC POWER BOARD (EPB) - CHATTANOOGA, TN

CNUC has six employees working on EPB property. In 2021, they planned work on 3,399 properties. Through that work, they made contact or notified 1,218 homeowners. 43% of the notification occurred via door hangers, 2% via telephone, and 53% were done face-to-face. This means that the six-person team at EPB each had in-person conversations with 108 homeowners on average in 2021.