In the midst of all of the talk of new technologies, government programs, and trends from around the world, there was also a growing dialog at this year’s World Renewable Energy Forum about marketing strategies. The conversations were about how the renewable energy industry and other green businesses can best market themselves to the mass public. As eco-friendly technologies and products mature and become cost competitive, the next problem to tackle will be effective marketing.

Michael A. Law, President of Ogilvy & Mather West and Managing Director at Ogilvy PR Worldwide explored the barriers that keep people from adopting green products and practices. According to a recent study, 82% of people poled claimed to have deep green beliefs, but only 18% actually invest money in being green. Why the huge gap?

According to Law, half of Americans think green products are targeted to rich and elitist snobs or crunchy granola hippies. In addition, 82% say most green marketing is gendered toward women. Eco-suspicion and eco-confusion form because the level of sustainability understanding generally hovers far above the average citizen’s head.

Law made several recommendations for marketing professionals as they craft their message for green products:

1. Make it normal. To make a real impact in the lives of the greatest number of people, green needs to be removed from a fringe market and these values need to be part of a new normal that drives the everyday consumer.
2. Lose the “crunch.” Products marketed for only their green attributes will fail to take hold with mainstream consumer. Marketers should emphasize other attributes or benefits such as the techie appeal or improved health and well-being.
3. Make it tangible and easy to navigate. The new “green” should not rely on technical studies or complicated specifications to convey its value.
4. Eliminate the sustainability tax. Whenever possible, green products should be priced at the same level of traditional counter parts.
5. Turn eco-friendly into male ego friendly. Eco-friendly products are often marketed to appeal to a female consumer, ignoring half of the population.
6. Don’t stop innovating. Eco-friendly products, just like any other product, must continue to reinvent themselves to stay competitive in today’s market.

Whether it is an electric car or laundry detergent, these principles can help to make green go mainstream.

First-time presenters:

• The idea is that the format allows you to give a taste of your topic, then later you give details when asked. Some detail during the 5 minutes is good. Giving all the details of your paper is not OK.

• There are plenty of how-to guides out there on the internet. They are easy to find. Respect your audience.

• Practice. You can’t wing it and do well.

• The operative phrase for your presentation is: “make a long story short”.  That is: tell the story of your work. Not the gory details. Approach the task      as if you are at a party and mingling.

• Don’t read your slides. The slides support your story, your story does not support your slides.

• If you can’t tell the story of your work in 5 minutes, something is wrong. Think again. The Gettysburg address took less than 5 minutes. Companies try to convince you to consume their product in far less time than an Ignite presentation.

• Ignite is like a poster presentation. Treat it that way – you don’t give a 15-minute talk to someone looking at your poster.

Most of all have fun with this format as it goes quick!

Located in an urban environment where space is at a premium, the team aims to find ways to optimize underutilized space and rooftops are no exception. Given their urban environment and the lack of studies focused on the synergy between green roofs and PV arrays this seemed the perfect project for the team. This study aims to evaluate data collected from four model houses, one housing a control roof, another with a green roof, a standard fixed photovoltaic system, and a GRIPV-c system. The study is ongoing and is looking at temperature, relative humidity, and solar insolation data to qualitatively and quantitatively assess the positive impact of a combined green roof and photovoltaic canopy system on the health of the green roof vegetation, the PV canopy system efficiencies, and the efficiency of roof mounted HVAC air handling units.

The purpose of the study is to show the mutual benefit green roofs and solar panels can provide.  Initial findings indicate that the lowered temperature (from the green roof) increase PV performance. The team is currently running a model to determine what the actual gain in efficiency is.  This research is taking place on the school’s Green Roof at Smith, GRAS.

The team was accepted to speak at WREF 2012 and the presentation will be led by two ninth grade students, some of the youngest ever to present at this conference. In fact, this will be the very first flight for one of these young presenters.

We look forward to seeing them present their talk, Green-Roof Integrated PV Canopies – An Empirical Study and Teaching Tool for Low Income Students in the South Bronx on Wednesday May 16th at 1:15pm in Mile High Ballroom 1C.

We suspect this is just the beginning of these what these young minds will accomplish. We can’t wait to see what else they contribute to this field in the future.

Photo compliments of CRES

At the World Renewable Energy Forum, Governor Ritter will host a panel of state experts to talk about trends in clean energy policies to drive a new energy economy.  Topics to be discussed include innovations in energy efficiency policy, solar, wind and other renewables, financing models and conversions to natural gas from a coal base load.

In Colorado, Governor Ritter demonstrated policy can drive investment and market expansion.  In the four years Ritter served as Governor, he signed 57 different clean energy bills and saw record investment in the state from the clean energy sector.  Vestas established their North American manufacturing headquarters along with other industry leaders like SMA, Siemens, RES Americas, Primestar, Abound and Ascent Solar to name a few.  During his term as Governor, he raised the state’s RPS from 10% to a nation leading 30% and renewable installations went from 225MW to over 1,800MW.

Come join Governor Ritter and all of us at the World Renewable Energy Forum. Click Register Now!