This toolkit was last updated on October 6th and is in the process of being developed. Check back next month for additional resources, and the complete version at the end of the year.

Currently this toolkit covers the first steps needed to initiate a basic plan for a clean energy adoption campaign in your community. As of now, it includes technology training videos, outreach tools, and marketing strategy templates. In its completion it will offer additional resources to assist in installer selection, campaign management, event planning and campaign wrap-up and analysis.

Step 1 - Clean Energy Technology Training

The first step to running your Solarize or HeatSmart-like campaign is selecting which clean energy technologies to promote within your community. It's important that you and your team understand the basics on your selected technologies, so you can help educate other residents in your community and answer their questions. You can begin learning more about these clean energy technologies by watching training videos on the MassCEC Youtube page. Start by viewing 'Introduction to Clean Energy Technologies for Homes' and then explore the other videos. 

• The Start Smart MA – HeatSpring website and the Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy website also have useful training videos that can be used to educate you, your team, and even be used as marketing materials further down the line to help build excitement in your community.
• To learn more about solar, check out The Massachusetts Residential Guide to Solar Electricity.
• To learn more about other clean heating and cooling technologies, check out  Clean Energy Lives Here -- a MassCEC campaign created to help motivate homeowners to transition their home to clean energy and increase energy efficiency. You can use the Air Source Heat Pump, Ground Source Heat Pump, Solar Hot Water, Heat Pump Water Heaters, Automated Wood Heat, and other technology guides for further education, as well as check out some of the information on financial incentives and rebates from Mass Save.
• To learn more about electric vehicles, check out the Green Energy Consumers Alliance program Drive Green.
• The following Clean Energy Tech 101 Flyers can be used as a first introduction in understanding the benefits of installing each clean energy. They can also be used later on during outreach and marketing to help educate your community members on your selected technologies.
  • Solarize Mass One-Page Handout
  • Solarize Mass Plus Solar Hot Water 101
  • Solarize Mass Plus Air Source Heat Pump 101
  • HeatSmart Air-Source Heat Pump 101
  • Electric Vehicle (EV) 101
  • Ground-Source Heat Pump 101
  • Automated Wood Heating 101
  • Solar Hot Water 101
  • Heat Pump Water Heater 101
• Reach out to your local inspectors to understand their permitting and review processes for specific technologies. You can use Recommendations for Permitting and Structural Review as an example of some standard guidelines for the review of residential rooftop solar PV systems.

Step 2 - Campaign Exploration

In this stage you will explore past program overviews, best practices, and general logistics to help you understand the fundamental steps to implementing a clean energy adoption campaign that you will strategically plan for in the next section. It’s important to understand the time commitment that needs to be made, who all of the campaign’s stakeholders are and their level of support or readiness to adopt clean energy technologies.

Understand the program: The following resources will help you explore running your campaign in the traditional way and/or identify areas and strategies to alter to help tailor your campaign to your community.

• Solarize Mass Community Best Practices Timeline - Review how the traditional Solarize Mass program was conducted to understand how much of your campaign will progress.
• The Solarize Guidebook: A community guide to collective purchasing of residential PV systems - Learn about the best practices for team leadership, volunteer recruitment, releasing and reviewing installer RFPs, outreach, and customer enrollment from case studies on previous Solarize campaigns. 
• Planning and Implementing a Solarize Initiative, A Guide for State Program Managers - Learn about elements common to successful Solarize programs and how state managers structure and organize a Solarize program from case studies on Solarize Mass and Solarize Connecticut.
• HeatSmart Mass Pilot Overview Webinar - Review this webinar detailing how the traditional HeatSmart Mass program was conducted to understand how your campaign can progress similarly.
• HeatSmart Mass Pilot Summary - Review the results of the first HeatSmart Mass program round to understand how it was used to increase awareness and installation of clean energy technologies.
• Valuable resources from other State entities: NYSERDA Solarize Guidebook (Source: NY-SUN) – Review best practices and campaign structure established by NY State’s Solarize program. 

Conduct Outreach: The following resources will help you reach out to valuable stakeholders, such as community members and past participants, to better prepare and tailor your campaign

• Solarize Mass Campaign Outreach Techniques - Review a list of techniques used to conduct outreach and market through previous Solarize and HeatSmart programs. This will be important to use for both planning and implementation phases.

• Past Solarize-HeatSmart Municipal Representative Contact Info - Reach out to people that have previously run a Solarize or HeatSmart campaign to receive feedback and compare experiences.

• Template Community Interest Survey - Send out to your neighbors and post on town websites or Facebook groups to see if residents are interested in switching to clean energy technologies, and as a method for identifying which technologies to promote. This list of interested contacts can become a valuable resource in order to share initial leads with your selected installers.

• Template Collaborator Commitment Letter - This template was used to provide confirmation to MassCEC of another entity’s commitment to support and help promote your campaign. This entity may be a local environmental nonprofit, community organization, or the municipality. Campaigns that collaborate with another entity tend to have more success due to diversity of perspective and a wider range of resources for community outreach and marketing. 

• High-Cost Heating Fuels Map – Review this map to identify what percentage of households in your community heat with high cost heating fuels like oil, electric resistance, and propane. These households will see the highest cost savings for switching to clean heating and cooling technologies so are great candidates for a HeatSmart campaign.

• Use the Clean Energy Technology 101 Flyers (listed under Step 1) to help explain and educate stakeholders during outreach.

Step 3 - Campaign and Marketing Planning:

In this stage of planning, you want to detail your overall campaign and marketing strategy. This requires you to utilize your insights from ‘Step 2 – Campaign Exploration’ to identify your team members, partners, campaign goals, marketing tactics, and timeline.

• Community RFP - Utilize the traditional MassCEC Request for Proposals for Solarize Mass and HeatSmart Mass to better understand the typical program process. It includes descriptions of program roles and responsibilities, details of what best qualifies and prepares a community, and describes the timeline of the traditional program. Complete the following documents that were traditionally required to submit the community application:
  • Proposal Checklist and Application – This application will help you concretely establish your goals as well as provide a template to draft your own campaign marketing proposal. This may prove useful if you seek to gain approval from your municipality or to engage other partners.
    • Check out the Community Marketing Proposals (under the Program Background tab below) for examples of strategies submitted by past communities.
  • Signature and Acceptance Form – This form will help you collect and identify the contact info for all necessary team members. 
  • HeatSmart or Solarize Coach Commitment Form – This form will summarize the traditional responsibilities of the HeatSmart or Solarize Coach and secure a commitment from them.
  • Volunteer Commitment Form – This form secures a commitment from all volunteers.
• Community Outreach Plan Template - Plan and identify potential outreach opportunities for the campaign and continue to update each week to help track campaign progress.
• MAPC Example Stakeholder List - Identify specific stakeholders within your community to target and strategies to use to engage them.  
• Resources for further consideration – The following resources allow you to preview some of the next steps in implementing your campaign such as launching a website, utilizing social media, and holding events, but can also help you develop a more thorough marketing plan beyond your initial strategy.
  • Watch this Social Media & Marketing Best Practices Webinar to help further develop and implement your strategies.
  • Past HeatSmart Mass Campaign Websites – Check out past HeatSmart communities’ campaign websites to get a sense of how you may plan to set up your own page.
    • You can also visit the active Solarize Mendon-Upton Campaign page and last year’s Solarize North Shore Campaign page for another styled webpage.
  • Visit the MassCEC Youtube page to watch past HeatSmart communities’ campaign launch events so you can consider how you will market and plan for them.
    • HeatSmart Newton's Kick-Off event – when the community is introduced to the campaign and the selected clean energy technologies.
    • HeatSmart Newton's Meet the Installer Events – when the Solarize or HeatSmart team announces their selected installers for the campaign.

If you have an interest in running a Solarize-style campaign in the upcoming year, and would like to speak with MassCEC for guidance please reach out to solarize@masscec.com, and we can set up a time to speak with you!

*This toolkit was last updated on October 6, 2020. Check back next month for additional resources.

solarize@masscec.com