I get lotsa emails from new enviro orgs sharing their news, but when the Alliance to Save Energy contacted me ’bout its new program, 6° of Energy Efficiency, I raised an eyebrow.

Actually, 2 eyebrows, cuz I can’t raise ‘em separately. My eyebrows are co-conspirators.

Anyway — What raised the eyebrows was that the email came not from someone within the Alliance to Save Energy, but from one Gadi of Fleishman Hillard, a PR firm. And from back in the days I worked in PR, I know that anyone that hires Fleishman Hillard must have some serious moolah. Back around 2000 when I left the biz, FH’s retainer fee alone was way bigger the operating budget of many grassroots enviro orgs today.

So with raised eyebrows, I started doing a lil digging behind the Alliance to Save Energy, which is described as “a coalition of prominent business, government, environmental, and consumer leaders who promote the efficient and clean use of energy worldwide to benefit consumers, the environment, economy, and national security.”

Luckily, John Laumer of Treehugger had done a lotta the research already! John notes that the Alliance to Save Energy includes such eco-friendly groups as the Green Building Council and NRDC. However, The Dow Chemical Company is also a big-name member of the Alliance. Which led John to ask:

Why would Dow Chemical Co. align with a statement like this one? “The Alliance to Save Energy and its partners want TreeHugger’s readers to know there are plenty of simple steps they can take to lower home heating bills this winter, from adding weather-stripping…”

Why indeed? John points to a v. economics-based reason that Dow Chemical would wanna be involved: “energy intensive businesses are stressed by oil and gas price volatility. At some point it is just good business to promote domestic conservation, reducing collective fuel/feedstock demand pressures on both industry and consumers.”

I don’t think Treehugger’s readers — or most environmentalists who know anything about Dow Chemical for that matter — think that this Alliance will help “green” Dow Chemical’s image. No one is arguing that Dow Chemical is now green — not even Dow Chemical, as far as I can tell. What’s more interesting to me here is the fact that companies such as Dow Chemical feel it is in their best interest to promote energy conservation to the general public, NOT for the purposes of greenwashing (neccessarily), but simply for preserving its bottom line.

With the research work taken care of by Treehugger, I thought I’d work on evaluating the 6° of Energy Efficiency site itself. My question: Will this site actually inspire people to take action?

Basically, this site offers a 6-question quiz on stats about energy efficiency stuff (I got a 4), asks you to make a pledge to save mo’ energy, then asks you to let others know ’bout the site.

Meaning: the site could be useful to a newbie for who CFLs are still news. If you’re like me, strongarming all your friends into reading green LA girl daily, then it’s not so useful.

Given the moolah behind the whole thing, what I’d like to see is an easy step for translating this eco advice into action. Sure, it’s easy to tell people to “Seal air leaks with insulating foam sealant and weather-stripping” — advice which, to the average person, seems rather daunting to carry out. How does one actually seal air leaks with insulating foam? How does one know if one has air leaks to begin with?

With the money that this Alliance has, it could get Fleishman Hillard to look into how one determines whether air leaks exist, how to determine which insulating material might be best, where people can get insulating materials, how they could install it, what companies might be offering such a service in their area, etc.

Those kinds of details would really spur people to take pragmatic, decisive action — but you won’t find it on the 6 degrees site. If you’re a homeowner who really wants to take action but needs some advice, I recommend you check out Low Impact Living, which I wrote about here.

And in closing, I have to restate how awed I am by the PR and marketing force behind this Alliance. Not only has the Alliance hired Fleishman Hillard, it’s also got the marketing depts. of the various companies in the Alliance all over the 6 degrees coverage. Check out the comments on the Treehugger piece for a response from Dow Chemical, as well as other groups associated with the Alliance.

And when I emailed Gadi back saying “Wow — this Challenge has hired FH? I have some friends who work for FH, and am amazed that green efforts such as these can afford the retainer” (this was before I’d read Treehugger’s report) — Gadi emailed me 4 days later. He didn’t address the money issue, but did ask if I’d taken the quiz. In PR land, that’s a 2nd pricey nudge to encourage someone to write about a client. I say pricy, because even as a naive intern making like $8 an hour in 1999, companies like Dow Chemical were still billed more than $100 an hour for my time.

2 Comments