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| SmartPower
to Present at Northeast Climate Action Conference |
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| Over 400 students from all over the
northeast will convene at Harvard University on February
20-22, 2004, at a conference sponsored by The
Climate Campaign, a coalition of eight student environmental
networks in the region. SmartPower will present a workshop
on the challenges inherent in advertising clean energy,
with a case study of the advertising campaign being developed
through SmartPower and CESA (see article, Multi-State
Clean Energy Advertising Campaign, right.) The conference
includes three days of skills workshops, state strategy
sessions and panels of speakers addressing all facets
of climate change. Students will meet other climate activists
in their area, get the skills they need to organize in
their communities, share success stories and have fun.
It’s not too late to register - for more information,
see the Climate Campaign website at http://www.climatecampaign.org.
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| SmartPower,
CERC to Show Democratic National Convention Delegates
Clean Energy in Action |
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| The Democratic
National Convention comes to Boston in July, presenting
a perfect opportunity to showcase area accomplishments
in clean energy. SmartPower recently awarded a grant of
$5000 to the Coalition
for Environmentally Responsible Conventions (CERC)
to support a Boston Harbor cruise to the Hull wind turbine
for Democratic National Convention delegates and media.
Once there, a presentation about the merits of wind energy
will take place on the grounds of the site. The boat ride
and wind energy presentation helps fulfill CERC’s
mission to illustrate environmental best practices to
the delegates and the general public through the media.
It is an opportunity to draw their attention to a working
wind turbine that is both beautiful and popular with local
constituents and to the benefits and practicality of clean
energy choices. |
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| More
Faith Groups Join Clean Energy Efforts |
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| The
Interreligious Eco-Justice Network (IREJN), a SmartPower
collaborator, continues to build momentum in religious
communities for clean energy purchases. Several newcomers
to IREJN’s efforts, including representatives of
two Catholic churches and two synagogues, attended the
Hartford Green Strategies meeting convened by IREJN in
January at the Hartford Seminary. In particular, the presence
of synagogues is evidence the campaign is engaging people
of diverse faith traditions. IREJN will continue to work
together with these members of faith communities to support
the development of renewable energy markets and products.
These activities are part of IREJN’s larger vision
to help religious communities reclaim their ancient traditions,
to live as faithful stewards of life, transforming to
an ethic of environmental responsibility. For more information,
see IREJN’s website at http://www.irejn.org. |
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| SmartPower
Mailing Wins Advertising Award |
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| SmartPower’s direct mail piece
in the eye-catching shape of a light bulb has won a Silver
award in the Utility Services group, Direct Mail category,
in the First Annual Services Industry Advertising Awards
(SIAA). A panel of eight judges that included marketing
and advertising executives from across the country chose
170 Gold, 114 Silver, and 78 Bronze recipients from nearly
1,000 entries in ten groups and twenty-five categories.
The winning mailer, which described Massachusetts Electric’s
GreenUp program and directed interested consumers to SmartPower’s
website, was designed for SmartPower by Creativenergy
of Bristol, CT. |
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| New
Educational Materials on Clean Energy Released |
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| The Union
of Concerned Scientists recently released
Renewables Are Ready: A Guide to Teaching Renewable Energy
in Junior and Senior High School Classrooms. This newly
revised and updated teacher's guide provides an ideal
background for teaching a unit on renewable energy. It
can be used to illustrate basic scientific principles
and includes hands-on activities, games, action projects,
and a resource guide. It is available free of charge online
or you may order printed copies for a small fee on the
UCS
website. |
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SmartPower |
phone: 860-249-7040 |
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Volume 2;
Issue 2, February 2004 |
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Mayor
DeStefano Announces
Major Citywide Purchase of Clean Energy |
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| New Haven to be Among Largest Northeast
Cities to Purchase Renewable Energy |
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| New Haven Mayor John DeStefano announced
on February 17th that the City
of New Haven would commit to a 20% purchase of
clean, renewable energy by the year 2010. |
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| "This commitment means we are
taking the lead in providing cleaner air, fighting asthma,
and building sustainable communities,” said Mayor
DeStefano. “The leadership on this issue comes not
from me, though I am proud to champion this commitment,
but from activists like the ones who have fought for cleaner
air in Fair Haven." |
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The purchase by the City of New
Haven will be the end result of a yearlong effort between
the City of New Haven and the 20% by 2010 Campaign.
The Campaign is a collaborative effort initiated by
SmartPower, The
Clean Water Fund, Environment
Northeast and the Interreligious
Eco-Justice Network to get all Connecticut consumers,
municipalities, institutions and businesses to commit
to having 20% of their energy come from clean renewable
sources by the year 2010. The City of New Haven is the
first city in Connecticut to announce plans for 20%
renewable energy use by the year 2010 and follows the
resolution passed last summer by the New Haven Board
of Aldermen that committed the city to the concept of
20% by 2010. |
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“This is an unprecedented
event that constitutes one of the largest purchases
of clean, renewable energy in Connecticut and the Northeast,”
said SmartPower Executive Director Brian F. Keane. “It
signals that clean energy is here, it is available and
it is strong enough to power a major city such as New
Haven.” |
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SmartPower Executive Director
Brian Keane, Clean Water Fund Connecticut Director
Brooke Suter, New Haven Mayor John DeStefano Jr.,
Interreligious Eco-Justice Network Director Rabbi
Andrea Cohen-Kiener, and Environment Northeast
Policy Analyst Derek Murrow.
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| The city of New Haven is looking to
purchase energy that comes from sources including wind,
water, the sun and other renewable sources, all of which
will help America become energy self-sufficient. |
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| "This commitment is affordable,”
continued Mayor DeStefano. “In its first year, it
will cost less than 1% of the $4 million we are saving
annually from energy conservation in New Haven - and it
is too important to wait. Our City understands that we
can provide the leadership to a better way of doing things." |
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| Central to the decision making process
by city officials was the dedicated work of the Clean
Water Fund, Environment Northeast and the Interreligious
Eco-Justice Network. To help build the grassroots support
for the decision by the Mayor and the Board of Aldermen,
these organizations worked with their respective constituencies
to build public support for renewable energy use and a
city commitment of 20% by 2010. |
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| "We are at a crossroads, and New
Haven's mayor and citizens should be applauded for choosing
the path of clean energy and clean air,” stated
Brooke Suter, Director, Clean Water Fund Connecticut.
“We look to other leaders in the state to also commit
to clean energy purchases to promote a better quality
of life for people in their towns and across the state."
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| “It’s great to have public
officials showing leadership on clean energy,” said
Michael Stoddard, Deputy Director of the non-profit advocacy
group Environment Northeast. “New Haven was both
bold and methodical in its approach to setting a goal
and evaluating the best way to achieve that goal. It set
a terrific example for other large electricity customers
to follow, and groups like ours stand ready to help.” |
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New Haven City Hall |
Support of other institutions in New Haven and the surrounding
area has already been demonstrated by separate purchases
of clean, renewable energy from the Yale School of Forestry
and Environmental Studies as well as a number of religious
institutions in the area. |
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| “The faith communities are very
keen on clean energy. We view this new energy development
as a way of using our creativity and resources to enhance
the common good,” according to Interreligious Eco-Justice
Network Director Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener. “Electricity
fuels everything we do. In faith communities we want that
power to be consonant with our deeply held values.”
According to Cohen-Kiener, a dozen houses of worship in
greater New Haven have committed to or are considering
clean energy purchases. |
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| According to the Environmental Protection
Agency (EPA), buying as little as a dime’s worth
of wind power a day for a year will save 1,200 pounds
of coal and keeps 2,400 pounds of carbon dioxide, the
chief greenhouse gas, out of the air. That's like planting
half of an acre of trees, or not driving your car 2,500
miles the EPA says. The purchase by the City of New Haven
will keep thousands more pounds of carbon dioxide out
of our air and out of the lungs of children. |
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| “SmartPower intends to follow
the Tuesday announcement with a significant paid and earned
media campaign coupled with public appearances and other
marketing strategies,” SmartPower’s Keane
concluded. “We believe that the purchase by the
City of New Haven should be publicly applauded and the
general public should be made aware of their city’s
dedication to clean air, healthy communities and energy
independence.” |
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| Hotchkiss
School Becomes Leader in Clean Energy -- Announces Wind
Purchase |
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| Earlier this month, The
Hotchkiss School in Lakeville, Connecticut announced
the purchase and support of wind energy equivalent to
7.5% of its electricity needs over the next three years.
The wind power certificates were purchased from Community
Energy, a leading marketer and developer of wind
energy that offers wind-generated energy for purchase
by schools, businesses and residents in the Eastern
U.S. The wind energy Hotchkiss purchased is produced
at the Fenner Wind Farm in Fenner, New York, where 20
windmills produce enough electricity to power more than
13,000 homes per year. |
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Hotchkiss is the first secondary school in the U.S. to
make a commercial-scale purchase of clean, non-polluting
wind energy. Hotchkiss also becomes the first secondary
school partner of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Green Power Partnership.
The purchase of clean energy is one component of the school’s
Environmental Initiative, which strives to educate students
about environmental concerns and to reduce the institution’s
impact on natural resources. |
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| "A strong commitment to the environment
is an important aspect of our teaching and community life
here at the school,” said Hotchkiss School CFO John
Tuke. “Our wind power purchase places Hotchkiss,
a secondary school, among the ranks of colleges and universities
such as The University of Pennsylvania (11 percent of
electricity needs purchased from wind energy), Carnegie
Mellon (six percent), Yale's School of Forestry (20 percent)
and The University of Buffalo (four percent) that have
led the way in supporting local wind projects through
significant wind energy purchases." |
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“The Hotchkiss effort is an incredible demonstration
to its students that the school seriously accepts its
responsibility as a steward of clean air, healthy communities
and energy independence,” stated SmartPower spokesperson
Jonathan Edwards. “This purchase makes Hotchkiss
a true leader in our state, and is a tremendous contribution
towards the overall SmartPower goal for Connecticut of
20% renewable energy use by the year 2010.” |
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| Jeff Keeler, New England Director
for Community Energy, said, "Hotchkiss’s
wind energy purchase ensures that clean, emission-free
power generated by the wind is delivered into the power
system, and helps make possible the development of new,
community-supported wind projects in the region. Hotchkiss
is making a positive environmental impact on the power
we all consume, as well as the power ultimately consumed
by the school." |
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| Connecticut
Transit Turns On Clean Solar Energy |
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| New Haven and Westport Purchase
Renewable Energy |
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| Connecticut
Transit (CTTRANSIT) is now generating pollution-free
electricity with Connecticut’s largest solar electric
system on the roof of the maintenance garage at its Hartford
Division. The $324,600 project was made possible with
the support of the Connecticut
Clean Energy Fund, which covered approximately 40%
of the installation cost, together with Select
Energy Services and PowerLight
Corporation. The system is comprised of 210 photovoltaic
modules covering 3,745 square feet that can generate 23,100
watts of clean electricity, enough to power over 25 homes.
The solar energy will be used to power the lights in the
CTTRANSIT maintenance shop and storage garage, reducing
the company’s annual utility costs. The project
also helps reduce electricity load demand on the power
grid during critical summer months. |
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Arthur Diedrick, Chairman of the Connecticut Clean
Energy Fund
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| “We’re delighted that CTTRANSIT
is setting an example for companies and governmental agencies
throughout Connecticut by deploying solar power,”
said Arthur Diedrick, Chairman of the Connecticut Clean
Energy Fund. “Surprisingly, Connecticut is one of
the sunniest regions in the country, making solar power
an even better resource.” |
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| “The CTTRANSIT photovoltaic project
… demonstrate[s] the reality and economy of developing
home-grown renewable energy initiatives in solar, wind
and fuel cell technologies right here in Connecticut,”
said Charlie Moret, Managing Director of Investments at
the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund. |
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CTTRANSIT also unveiled a new statewide public awareness
program educating residents and businesses throughout
Connecticut on the benefits of powering Connecticut with
solar energy. A total of thirty CTTRANSIT buses -- fifteen
in Hartford, ten in New Haven, and five in Stamford --
will be promoting the solar message. The solar photovoltaic
array project at CTTRANSIT is just one of many clean energy
projects being funded by the Connecticut Clean Energy
Fund, which was established by the Connecticut General
Assembly in 2000. The Fund, supported by a surcharge on
Connecticut ratepayer’s electric bills, invests
in clean energy technologies such as biomass, landfill
gas, fuel cells, solar, wave and wind. |
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| SmartPower,
Multi-State Clean Energy Advertising Campaign In the Works |
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| SmartPower has joined the Clean
Energy States Alliance (CESA), a nonprofit consortium
of seventeen public clean energy funds in the United States,
and is serving as the co-chair of CESA’s public
education effort. In this role, SmartPower and CESA have
hired Gardner - Nelson &
Partners, Inc., a New York City advertising agency,
to create new messages and media materials to support
clean energy efforts. When completed, the advertising
campaign will be used in Connecticut, Massachusetts, New
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. This is the first
time that a group of states has agreed to explore common
messages around clean energy. |
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 “Clean
energy technology, such as solar and fuel cells, is important
to our environment, our national security and to the economy
of our country,” said Lewis Milford, Executive Director
of CESA. “New jobs, companies and technology innovation
are all part of the emerging clean energy agenda, but
some people tend to think these technologies are only
relics of the 1970s. If we are to move clean energy into
the 21st century, we need to create new public awareness
of how these technologies could meet the challenging economic,
security and environmental demands we are now facing.”
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| “We asked a number of the region’s
top advertising agencies to submit proposals about how
they would approach the challenge of marketing clean energy,”
said Roger Clark, Project Manager of CESA. “The
Gardner Nelson team demonstrated the strategic capacity
and the creative firepower to help us solve a very complex
marketing task.” |
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| The five state funds involved in this
project are SmartPower (funded by the Connecticut Clean
Energy Fund), the Massachusetts
Technology Collaborative’s Renewable Energy Trust,
the New
Jersey Clean Energy Program (with joint support from
the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection),
the Pennsylvania
Sustainable Development Fund, and the Rhode
Island State Energy Office. |
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| The advertising project has already
completed a research phase involving polling, in-depth
focus groups and other tools that explored how the public
views clean energy given the recent electricity blackouts,
the security concerns that have arisen after September
11, current economic uncertainty, electric utility restructuring
and persistent environmental problems. Recent opportunities
to bring about more economic development and environmental
benefits from these technologies were explored as well. |
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| Gardner Nelson is now working with
the states to develop common media materials, including
print, radio and television spots. The assignment –
which involves defining common nomenclature, branding
tools, and communications messages for clean energy –
is a six month project. |
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| The campaign is designed to provide
the five state funds with a common approach to branding
clean energy in a way that best resonates with the American
public so that they understand that clean energy is important
and desirable. Public education about renewable energy
technologies (such as solar, wind and hydro) and about
advanced clean energy technologies (such as fuel cells)
is an important part of the mission of these state clean
energy funds. The states and SmartPower provided significant
grants to CESA to organize this public education effort,
one of several coordinated joint activities among the
public energy funds. |
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| CESA members are from twelve states
that have established sustainable energy funds to help
promote the growth of renewable energy and advanced clean
energy technologies. More information about CESA and its
member funds is available at www.cleanenergystates.org. |
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Paul
Steven Stone Joins
SmartPower’s Board of Directors |
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| Advertising guru, humorist, novelist,
philanthropist, environmental advocate and a man of many
and varied opinions – all ways of describing the
newest member of the SmartPower Board of Directors, Paul
Steven Stone. |
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| “As SmartPower grows regionally,
it becomes important to us to bring marketing expertise
from other New England states to our Board,” said
SmartPower Executive Director Brian F. Keane. “To
be sure, Mr. Stone brings a wealth of experience in marketing
and messaging to SmartPower.” |
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| A fixture in Boston advertising since
1967, he was previously creative director and principal
at Baldwin & Stone,
and is currently advertising director for W.B.
Mason, whose well-known advertising and branding
campaign was originally developed and launched by Stone
in 1986. |
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| Today, in addition to his work for
W.B. Mason, he devotes his writing talents and much energy
to encourage conservation, positive land use and long-range
planning to help preserve New England's unique character
and quality of life. He writes a twice-monthly column,
"A Stone's Throw,” which appears in a variety
of suburban newspapers. |
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| A founding director of Road
to Responsibility, a Massachusetts-based organization
offering educational, housing and recreational programs
for the developmentally disabled, Stone has also helped
develop marketing positioning and materials for various
political candidates in Massachusetts. He is active with
the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. |
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| The father of three children, Stone
lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and has recently written
an unpublished novel and is working on a second. He was
born in the Bronx. |
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