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Pitch

We want to promote the green building benefits that mainstream people actually care about & connect people with great local green builders.


Description

Summary

We are proposing a scalable, strategic marketing campaign that is adaptable for use across diverse geographies, languages, cultures and issues across the globe.  The campaign utilizes proven, mainstream marketing channels including print and digital distribution, and can be highly targeted depending upon target audience, location, building types and dozens of other criteria.


Category of the action

Mitigation/Adaptation, Changing public attitudes about climate change


What actions do you propose?

According to industry reports, the green building marketplace is doubling in size every three years.  Two of the key factors driving market growth are the fact that green buildings are seen as higher quality, and that they save consumers money on their monthly utility bills.  However, this isn't the case in every part of the world.  Green buildings have a tremendous opportunity to help mitigate global climate change, but mainstream consumers have not yet adopted most sustainable design and construction strategies for new construction and existing buildings.  We believe that this is in large part due to the fact that average people around the world are not aware of all the benefits of green buildings that are available to them at little-to-no additional cost over typical building practices, and many more people are simply not concerned with climate change, pollution, natural resource depletion or social justice issues that are most commonly cited in promotion of green building as an important industry practice.

We need to change average citizens' perceptions of green building and get them to consider better building options.  We need them to be better educated consumers so they can make a more informed buying decision.

Although each person, business or organization will have a different decision making scenario, they likely share common misconceptions about green building – that it’s too expensive and not economical, that it “won’t work here” or that it’s just a trend amongst liberal environmentalists.  These misconceptions distort the reality of what a green building will actually provide them. Even those people who initially have interest in a green building are likely to abandon their interest at one of the first signs of pushback from a builder, architect or contractor.  Therefore, we must also work to continue changing the perceptions of mainstream building design and construction industry professionals.

In addition to changing mainstream perceptions, we must simultaneously encourage our newly informed mainstream consumers to connect with better informed local building industry professionals to make rapid adoption and implementation of green building practices a reality.

We propose a scalable, strategic marketing campaign concept that is adaptable for diverse geographies, cultures and issues across the globe.  The campaign utilizes proven, mainstream marketing channels including print and digital distribution, and can be highly targeted by audience, location, building types and dozens of other factors to reduce costs.

Our initial marketing effort is designed to address residential and commercial properties, with an additional focus on new and existing school buildings.  For residential, we strive to engage homeowners, home builders, real estate professionals and lenders.  In the commercial sector, we hope to engage small, medium and large business owners, property developers, architects and associated real estate professionals and bankers.  We are attempting to appeal to these audiences' desires for better buildings that offer improved quality of living in terms of reduced operating expenses, and improved comfort, style, health benefits and productivity.  If the initial phases of the marketing campaign are met with success, we plan to design more creative, highly-targeted and locally relevant advertisements to address each these important themes, and to deliver the messaging digitally to people searching the internet for more information on these aspects of green building benefits.

An equally important goal of the marketing campaigns is to encourage construction, design and engineering businesses and professionals to increase their participation in the current transformation of the industry toward more sustainable building and design practices.  By demonstrating to industry leaders that there is an increasing amount of investment flowing toward creating new public demand for green buildings, it is anticipated that many companies will be more willing to make the investments needed to properly serve the new demand for green buildings in their markets.  Additionally, it is hoped that these companies and industry professionals will ally themselves in an effort to form business associations that will pool resources to provide continued marketing and promotion of green building as a growing and innovative job-creating industry, and to exert influence on local, regional, national and global advocacy for green building. 

For more specific examples of how our strategic marketing concept will appear in United States print and digital formats, please click here

Green Building - Residential Print Ad Example
Green Building - Commercial Print Ad Example
Green Building - School Building Print Ad Example


Who will take these actions?

The proposed marketing campaign can be utilized by governments, electric, gas and water utilities, business associations, non-profit advocacy organizations, health organizations, or by collaborations thereof.  For example, a large corporate utility provider could collaborate with a major health organization to distribute mainstream advertising that promotes the health benefits of energy efficiency and green buildings - allowing both groups to achieve their advocacy and awareness goals, while leveraging financial resources.

To start, the Oklahoma Chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council will be rolling out several digital and print advertisements in mainstream media channels to raise awareness of many green building benefits that may not necessarily mention climate change or other environmental issues.  This is notable because Oklahoma has been one of the least progressive states in the US in terms of average people recognizing green building as something smart to do.  Oklahoma is a great test market for a campaign of this type.

POTENTIAL ALLIED PARTNER ORGANIZATIONS 

World Green Building Council
U.S. Green Building Council
American Institute of Architects
National Association of Home Builders
National Association of Realtors
US Department of Energy
US EPA
National Renewable Energy Laboratory
The Associated General Contractors of America
Building Owners and Managers Association
NAIOP Commercial Real Estate Development Association
Associated Builders & Contractors
ASHRAE
Association of Energy Engineers
American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy
Urban Land Institute
American Lung Association
American Heart Association
World Health Organization
NRDC
Greenpeace
The Nature Conservancy
Evangelical Environmental Network
Interfaith Power & Light
Catholic Coalition on Climate Action
Architecture for Humanity
Sierra Club
Commercial Real Estate Women 
EcoDistricts
Institute for Real Estate Management
National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMAC)
National Association of Women in Construction
 


Where will these actions be taken?

Initial actions will be taken in the South Central U.S., expanding to major cities across the globe. 


How much will emissions be reduced or sequestered vs. business as usual levels?

Buildings in the United States likely contributed to around 3,000 million metric tons of greenhouse gasses.  If a mainstream marketing campaign could reduce that amount by 5-10% or more over several years, the reduction could be in the range of 150-300 million metric tons or greater.


What are other key benefits?

Other key benefits of implementing this marketing campaign concept include:

1.  An increase in construction, architecture, engineering and energy retrofitting jobs
2.  New and expanded building material manufacturing jobs
3.  Economic multiplier effect due to more mainstream citizens realizing major energy cost savings
4.  Less pollution
5.  Greater biodiversity
6.  A sustainable supply of natural resources and raw building materials
7.  Improved public health
8.  Improved worker productivity
9.  Improved energy productivity
10.  Greater quality of life 


What are the proposal’s costs?

The cost of this proposal is limited to the costs of designing locally relevant ads and digital and print distribution.  Depending on scale, duration and other factors, costs could range from US$15,000 for a short-term advertising campaign in a small local market, to several million dollars for several months of nation-wide advertising across the United States.  It is assumed that the more money invested, the larger the audience that can be reached, and the greater the number of mainstream citizens demanding green building practices will be.

A scalable, 3-tiered program can be applied for implementation at various market sizes and marketing budgets, and is readily adaptable: 

Tier 1 - US$15,000
$9,000 – Google ads utilizing AdWords (specify local news sites, entertainment sites and real estate sites + allow it to automatically "match" to searches)
$1,500 – Linked In Ads (target influencers and people we think would be receptive to the message)
$3,000 – Run one full page print ad in the local entertainment publication 
$1,500 – to implement and manage the campaign.

Tier 2 - US$30,000
$12,500 – Google ads utilizing AdWords (specify local news sites, entertainment sites and real estate sites + allow it to automatically "match" to searches)
$2,300 – Linked In Ads (target influencers and people we think would be receptive to the message)
$1,000 – Facebook ads (teaser ads that take people to the USGBC site)
$11,200 – Run four full page print ads in the local entertainment publication
$3,000 – to implement and manage the campaign

Tier 3 - US$60,000
$32,500 – Google ads utilizing AdWords (specify local news sites, entertainment sites and real estate sites + allow it to automatically "match" to searches)
$3,800 – Linked In Ads (target influencers and people we think would be receptive to the message)
$1,500 – Facebook ads (teaser ads that take people to the USGBC site)
$16,200 – Run six full page print ads in the local entertainment publication
$6,000 – to implement and manage the campaign


Time line

Marketing campaign roll-out in Oklahoma cities is scheduled to begin in Autumn 2014, and can begin within 1-2 years in other states and developed countries, within 2 years in developing countries.  This concept would likely not be required in 10-15 years due to overall market transformation by that time.

Shortly following campaign roll-out in Oklahoma, the next logical locations for implementing and scaling this strategic marketing campaign would be in the several states adjacent to Oklahoma - including Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, Kansas and Missouri.  These states have many similarities in terms of culture, values, demographics, political orientation, energy and agriculture economic base, climate zones and building types.  Although there are markets within these states that have been fairly receptive to green building practices (Dallas, Houston, Austin, New Orleans), overall, these states have been laggards in adopting green building practices in many regards.  

Strong regional relationships amongst green building professionals and other environmental and clean energy advocates in the South Central United States, make this particular area a likely candidate for early roll-out of our marketing campaign.  


Related proposals


References

U.S. Green Building Council Oklahoma Chapter Strategic Marketing Campaign

More Marketing of Green Homes Needed