You Can’t Possibly Have Enough Work to Do…

In doing outreach for the EnergyScoreCards Minnesota pilot project, where we are able to offer free utility benchmarking services to apartment buildings, I’ve been frequently reminded of an important fact:  something free which requires busy people to do something more is hard to give away.

To be clear, I don’t think that the benchmarking we’re offering really requires people to do more.  It’s a tool that can help people do what they’re already doing more effectively and possibly more easily.  But remembering to present the project benefits through the lens of existing job responsibilities isn’t easy — and forgetting means we are likely to have one fewer participants than we might have had.

I’ve been practicing the 20-second elevator speech that lays out the offer, hoping that I’ll be offered the extra 40 seconds to share how participating will help participants reduce wasted utilities, more effectively market green homes, budget accurately, and find resources.

In reality, it’s going well.  We have around 80 owners and managers on board so far, an over 475 building surveys submitted.  Another 50 to go!