Several recent reports, including two in The New York Times by reporter Todd Woody (http://nyti.ms/aAfzYC and http://nyti.ms/dktWZO), about the Obama administration's $150 million stimulus initiative to promote energy efficiency and solar power suggest that the left hand of the federal government doesn't know what the right hand is up to.
The program in question, known as Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, is a financing mechanism that allows homeowners to borrow money from their local government and repay it over 20 years through a special property tax assessment. Twenty-two states now have authorized such programs. In short, it's a clever way to finance energy savings.

It's  a long way off but I'm looking forward to the Behavior, Energy & Climate Change (BECC) conference, November 14-17, in Sacramento.
That's because KSV is slated to deliver a presentation for attendees on "What Energy Efficiency Marketers Can Learn from Tobacco Counter Marketing." We're going to share our consumer insights gleaned from a decade of tobacco counter marketing.

Hats off to the good folks at the Vermont Energy Investment Corporation (VEIC, www.veic.org).
The non-profit energy efficiency pioneer just signed a $21 million, three-year deal to provide energy efficiency services to municipal electric utilities in six Midwestern states (Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia). Here's the full story, courtesy of the Rutland Herald (http://bit.ly/cXFADC).

Advanced metering initiatives alone are neither necessary nor sufficient for providing households with the feedback that they need to achieve energy saving; however, they do offer important opportunities. To realize potential feedback-induced savings, advanced meters must be used in conjunction with in-home (or on-line) displays and well-designed programs that successfully inform, engage, empower, and motivate people.
So says ACEEE (American Council for an Energy Efficiency Economy), based on a metastudy of 57 residential energy efficiency programs between 1974 and 2010.

The ugliness in the Gulf of Mexico has spurred us to action.
Kelliher Samets Volk has signed an agreement with Alteris Renewables of Wilton, Connecticut to install a 13.8kW SunTech photovoltaic system on the roof of our building in Burlington, Vermont. We estimate that we will offset about 10% of our annual electricity consumption when the system is operational in August.

Once upon a time there was a car that exuded remarkable engineering and style.  It had a value proposition that almost no other car manufacturer had.  Its focus on its brand value created a very profitable company.  That car was Mercedes.  An untouchable brand star.
Then along came Audi, BMW, Lexus, and Acura who changed the landscape of the luxury car brand.  And today all five of these automotive manufactures continue to invest in the brand experience.  These companies continue to believe that we make our purchasing decisions based on our emotional connection to a brand.  What do the luxury auto brands know that Walmart also knows?

I Love BP

Now there is a statement you will not be hearing for a very long time.  Zillions of dollars down the green drain as BP continues to spew both oil and negative press.  And this is how we feel as customers of BP.  Can you imagine what it must feel like to be an employee?  And they have thousands of employees.  Thousands of people who could project the “I love BP” attitude to family and friends.  But that love is gone.

If the United States set a course to mirror what Vermont already has achieved, energy demand would fall significantly. During the next decade, if every state saved 1.5 percent annually on electricity consumption—a rate slightly less aggressive than what Vermont has achieved—we would save more power than the current capacity of the entire United States nuclear power plant fleet. Greater efficiency and decreased demand also would save consumers $168 billion on their power bills.
So writes U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on his website (http://bit.ly/dmKe0X). Anyone want to challenge the good senator?

The chances of an entrepreneurial start-up succeeding today are slight.  Passion, energy, and limited dollars usually bump into the reality of competition, lack of differentiation, and underestimating the financial requirements needed to be successful.  Yet enough start-up's are successful to keep the flame alive for those with the entrepreneurial desire to go for broke.
The opportunity for established companies is to think and act more like a start-up, or at least bring new start-up thinking to that which they already excel.  When was the last time you got into a room with several of your key leaders and brainstormed opportunities for your division or your company? Focus on what you are best at and then ask the start-up questions.  The "what if" questions.

The same week Apple eclipsed Microsoft as the largest tech company (measured by market capitalization), Microsoft rolled out some new whiz bang features on its Microsoft Hohm energy efficiency beta site (www.microsoft-hohm.com).
The site now assigns a Hohm score "to most houses in the U.S., so people can compare their home to their neighbors' or scout one they're thinking of buying," according to a brief story in last week's Los Angeles Times (http://bit.ly/aGy9Rt). Hohm also links to users's utility accounts, though only in parts of Washington, California and the Midwest.