Seen and Heard at AESP

By Karen Healey, PECI Associate Director, Marketing Services

I am fortunate enough to be attending this year’s AESP conference in San Diego, California.  The rain kept us all inside today, but that was okay – there were some fascinating presentations.

One of the sessions I went to had some particularly great info.  Called “Feet on the Street” it was a review of community based approaches to residential programs (and specifically direct install programs).  Some of the insights:

• DTE found that community networks were the fastest and most costs effective way to get the word out about their Energy Efficiency program
• Roughly half of their participants now learn about the program through Word of Mouth
• Progress Energy found that the details matter – they provide a meal at their community kick-off meetings, using a local caterer
• When they discovered that people weren’t attending because they did not have child care, they partnered with groups like 4H to provide child care
• Opinion Dynamics has evaluated a number of community-based programs and found that sometimes programs are launched with unclear goals
• They also found that organizations often don’t account for the significant up front planning and coordination required for these programs to be effective
• However, community based programs can be very effective when appropriately scoped

In response to an audience question, panelists said that these programs can be cost-effective, and usually fall in the mid-range compared to other residential programs. 

There was a lively question and answer and people were quick to share insights and experiences on what has worked in other situations.  This is the reason I love to come to these conferences – to learn from my peers about effective ways to increase adoption of energy efficiency.