About Us: Overview

For years, dedicated and committed environmental groups have been telling the American public about the harmful effects of emissions from fossil fuel power plants, including their impact on climate change. As a solution to these effects, these groups have been promoting the positive impact clean, renewable energy can have on health and the environment. What is the result of these communications?

Surveys continue to show that 80 to 90 percent of the public agrees that energy from renewable sources is better than energy produced from fossil fuels. Furthermore, they would be willing to pay $5 or $10 more per month for that clean energy.

Unfortunately, despite this overwhelming public awareness, the market penetration of renewable energy products remains below 5 percent.

This is where SmartPower comes in.

SmartPower was created by forward-thinking, private foundations and the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund, who believe that renewable energy solutions require the same consumer marketing approaches as traditional brands. “Market it like its Coca-Cola” has been the charge. Consequently, SmartPower has become the nation’s award winning, non-profit marketing organization on clean energy and energy efficiency. In under a decade, SmartPower has become known as the “Got Milk” organization on clean energy.

Here’s what we do:

• We uncover consumer barriers that the American people face when considering a clean energy or energy efficiency purchase. We use innovative research approaches that help us pinpoint the most effective messages to our customers;

• We build partnerships with stakeholders, utility companies, state agencies and clean energy funds to develop ground level approaches that connect interested consumers and prospective customers with our message;

• We provide marketing tool kits for local use that deliver the clean energy message in a compelling, breakthrough way; and

• We spread the renewable energy message through the latest traditional and new media approaches to help build a strong voluntary market.

Recently, we expanded our focus to include energy efficiency and conservation. We not only want consumers to make smarter choices about the energy they use in the future; we also want them to be smarter about the energy they are already using.

Simply put . . . Our mission is to help build the clean energy marketplace by helping the American public become smarter about their energy use.