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| December 2005
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ALUMNI PROFILE |
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Brian Keane, SPA/BA ’89, wants you to contact your utility company. The founder and president of SmartPower, an award-winning, innovative nationwide nonprofit marketing campaign dedicated to promoting clean, renewable energy wants you to ask for clean energy. Sure, he admits it will probably cost a few dollars more each month. But the rewards will be far greater in the long run. Ninety-five percent of Americans know clean energy is good for the environment, public health, and national security (due to less dependence on foreign oil), Keane explains. “It’s as strong, reliable, and available as coal and oil.” So, convincing consumers that clean energy’s a good cause isn’t the problem. It’s that next step – inspiring action – that he’s after. What he must sell to consumers is that solar energy still works when it’s not sunny, and wind energy still works when there’s no breeze. “My obligation is to keep the lights on, the heat on in winter, and the AC on in summer.” Once a consumer requests his or her utility company to buy clean energy, the power provider(s) will do so on the consumer’s behalf and add it to the power grid. “What comes [into your home] will be the same… The lights still go on. The only thing that changes in now it’s a little cleaner air, [using an] independent energy strategy.” Keane likens his company to the “Got Milk?” people, only for wind and solar energy. He spends his time on a near-constant quest to convince Americans we can actually buy clean energy that works. In many ways, that translates to one household at a time. College students canvas neighborhoods for SmartPower much like vacuum cleaner salesmen did 50 years ago. “TV and radio helps convince people that clean energy works, but they need to be sold door-to-door.”
The “it’s real, it’s here, and its working” message goes to homeowners who purchase energy via their monthly utility bills and the corporations providing it. By teaming up with states that have public benefit funds (there are 17 states so far), such as Connecticut’s Clean Energy Fund, and Pennsylvania’s Sustainable Development Fund, SmartPower is able to help those firms producing clean energy spread the word to the public that clean energy works and is much more attainable than the average consumer thinks. For example, “We went to PA and said, ‘if you give us $300,000 we’ll put in $100,000 of our money’ – we have funding from others including the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, the John Merck Fund, and the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation – to allow us to leverage funds... Then we run a marketing campaign on clean energy.” So far, SmartPower has established its message – and seen real results - throughout New England and the MidAtlantic. They now have their sights set on the Midwest and the South, including Columbia, S.C., in January 2006, then Ohio, Wisconsin, Arizona, and California. Keane cites specific examples of companies and communities already on board buying and using clean energy, including Staples Superstore, Kinkos, Whole Foods, the City of New Haven (Conn.), and Providence, R.I. Keane can tell the campaign is working by the increase in clean energy being bought or sold (measured in gigawtt hours); tracking polls showing a spike in clean energy usage; and drastically increased traffic to the SmartPower Web site whenever SmartPower is campaigning in particular markets. His ultimate goal is for 20 percent of the nation’s power grid to be composed of clean energy by 2010. “If enough businesses, colleges and universities began buying just a portion from clean, renewable energy sources, it would really become sustainable in the marketplace. Of all the energy on the grid, hopefully a bigger chunk will be cleaner energy.” Not surprisingly, Keane – who also serves as vice president of AU’s Alumni Board - says he would love to talk to AU about buying clean energy and eventually even becoming a leader in buying it. “A group of college students at Yale started New Haven Action and went door-to-door and to the commuter rails. We’d love to do that with AU.” “AU is so close to really … becoming a cache university. All the pieces are in place… We’re getting a national reputation for drawing students not just because of being in Washington, D.C., but because [of its many strong programs].” Keane loves to hire AU alumni, too. “We’re always looking for people who ‘get it,’ he says. “You can teach someone the job but you can’t teach them how to work. We need people who are young, aggressive, independent, self-motivators who can make something happen. Peace Corps volunteers are a classic example. That’s the kind of person we’re looking for. I really have a bias toward hiring AU alums.” -Melissa Reichley
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Campaign
Leader Puts Energy into Cleaner, Greener World One Community at a Time
To
accomplish that, Keane and his colleagues enter regional markets one at
a time, making media buys in radio, television, and newspapers. “Then,
using our collaborative marketing approach, we work very closely on the
ground with local nonprofits to get this message out.”