FEI-FEVI 2010 EEC Report filed March 31, 2011 - FortisBC

FORTISBC ENERGY INC. AND FORTISBC ENERGY (VANCOUVER ISLAND) INC.
2010 ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND CONSERVATION ANNUAL REPORT
suggest the activities should engage in the crowd mentality and that taking advantage of the
family section of the stadium would be beneficial. These insights are useful for the Energy
Champion program as a whole, as many of the elements can be applied to activities with the
other sports teams.
8.2.1.4 EEC Community Outreach
The EEC Community Outreach group was first launched in 2007, and similar to BC Hydro’s
PowerSmart Outreach Team, it is a grassroots channel for delivering the Companies’ EEC
messages. It connects with the Companies’ customers through educational and interactive
activities based at local community events. In 2010, the Companies attended additional events
when compared to 2009 such as the Lonsdale Party on the Pier in North Vancouver, Sapperton
Day in New Westminster, and several sporting events through the Vancouver Canucks and
various BCHL games, and were in direct contact with at least 36,000 residential customers and
the general public.
These community events generally attract a large audience as most of the events are free for
the public to attend and take place in urban centres, with close proximity to residential
neighbourhoods. These outreach activities have proven to be a cost-effective method of
engaging a large group of the Companies’ customers through a simple trivia activity and by
distributing information and tools to further educate them about conservation in the home. Also,
these attendees would not normally attend home shows and sporting events, so these
community events allow more customers to put a “face” to the Companies and learn about
energy conservation. Additional opportunities existed for the Community Outreach group to
bring energy education right into several large organizations, in particular those with a staff of
over 200 during lunchtime “energy fairs”, as many of the employees are also residential
customers. Some of the organizations visited include the City of Coquitlam, SAP Canada, and
WorkSafe BC. Both the community events and the energy fairs contribute to the Companies’
goal of building a culture of conservation. Refer to Appendix E for a complete list of events and
organizations attended in 2010.
8.2.1.5 Employee Education
The Companies employ approximately 1,500 individuals, many of whom are themselves
customers and many of whom regularly interact with customers. The goal of the Employee
Education program is to create a large group of “EEC ambassadors” within the Companies who
promote EEC programs and initiatives by discussing them during their dealings with the public
and when interacting with their personal network.
The EEC department has traditionally communicated EEC initiatives and incentive programs to
employees via the Companies’ intranet and newsletters, and specific training for the call centre
and field staff. In 2010, an outreach team also visited 12 office and muster locations to introduce
the new EEC initiatives and programs, identify key communication channels, and identify “green
ambassadors”. With the rapid expansion of the EEC initiatives, it is necessary to provide the
Companies’ employees with continual education on all EEC programs, incentives, and local
SECTION 8: CONSERVATION, EDUCATION & OUTREACH (“CEO”) PROGRAMS Page 151