[greenon-l] Doors Closed campaign report

[Conservation Council of Ontario]

Green On.
The Online Newsletter of the Conservation Council of Ontario
see www.greenontario.org for the online version and to subscribe or unsubscribe

Editor:  Chris Winter, Executive Director

Note:  The Green On. listserve is currently being used to promote our We 
Conserve Initiative
Please see www.weconserve.ca for details.


[]




“Doors Closed” proves the power of conservation!

We now declare the Doors Closed Ontario! campaign over for 2005


 and the planning for 2006 is now open!

Doors Closed was a tremendous success on so many levels. The most important 
result was that, in the space of a few short weeks, we demonstrated what a 
conservation movement can accomplish.

Over 5,000 posters were distributed by 27 organizations in 15 communities. 
Five municipalities signed up, as did two chambers of commerce. The poster 
was translated into French, Mandarin and Cantonese, and Portuguese.

Based on the reports from local canvassers, we estimate that

    * 49% of businesses approached displayed a poster
    * 12% of businesses visited had their doors open
    * 64% of businesses with their doors open closed their doors when asked

Clearly, the true success of the campaign was in raising public awareness 
and commitment to conservation. That said, we estimate that the campaign 
did result in a savings of up to 7 megawatts of peak power demand through 
store and restaurant owners responding to our request to keep their doors 
closed. Not bad for $3,000 worth of posters.

At a time when Ontario is considering its power supply options, Doors 
Closed demonstrated the power and cost-effectiveness of the conservation 
option.

In this case, the conservation solution was an attitude change. It cost 
nothing to implement and would save Ontario up to 200 megawatts of peak 
demand (40% of the power from a nuclear reactor). We delivered those 
savings through a public campaign – our distribution system was people and 
organizations, not hydro wires.

Our report concludes that Ontario needs to make an immediate commitment to 
the conservation option with a conservation investment fund equal to the 
investment in a new power plant, and an investment in community-based 
outreach and provincial campaigns equivalent to a new hydro distribution line.

Everyone says conservation is the first option. Let’s make it so.


Final Report Summary

Here’s a summary of our report on the Doors Closed Ontario campaign for 
2005 – the little campaign that grew! For the full report, see 
<http://www.weconserve.ca/august2005.html>www.weconserve.ca/august2005.html
    * The pilot year of the Doors Closed Ontario campaign:
    * achieved Ontario wide media support for energy conservation,
    * brought together conservation groups across Ontario to work together 
on a specific initiative,
    * forged new links between non-environmental organizations, businesses 
and ENGOs across the province,
    * provided a successful example of “procotting”: rewarding those 
businesses that are already supporting conservation initiatives
    “The campaign was a great idea to spread awareness to Ontario about 
energy conservation and a great learning tool for businesses to realize how 
much energy they were leaking and how much they could be saving. Our 
members reacted positively with the campaign downloading the poster and 
were more than willingly to show it off and spread the message.” Ron Moniz 
Federation of Portuguese Canadian Business and Professionals

Media Coverage

The media launch on Tuesday August 9th, 2005 was a great success. Doors 
Closed Ontario accumulated over 100 media hits. The audience numbers for 
the electronic media (radio and TV) alone (taken from the media monitoring 
notes) indicates 4.2 million listeners were exposed to the message. The 
campaign was featured in over 35 newspapers across the province from the 
Toronto Star to the North Bay Nugget, in Chinese papers, and in weekly 
community newspapers.

Volunteers who distributed posters after the media blitz reported that 
stores and restaurants were often already familiar with the campaign. The 
media was a vital part of this campaign as stores are more likely to put up 
a poster and close their door if there is a possibility that a news camera 
will be coming by. One Toronto retailer suggested that this fear of 
exposure by the media was directly responsible for their compliance.

Poster Distribution

The campaign was most successful in urban centers like Toronto and Ottawa 
and in surrounding suburban centers like Oakville and Burlington with 
thriving downtowns. The larger stores located in urban shopping districts 
were the worst perpetrators since they can afford to waste money for the 
sake of gaining business. In contrast, some towns reported that none of 
their stores kept their doors open.

Large chains posed a problem. Staff were all too willing to comply, but 
their hands were tied by corporate policy made in some far off city.

A Toronto merchant reported having lost customers because their doors were 
open. She also suggested that peer pressure among stores in a neighbourhood 
would force stores to choose to close their doors. As we suspected, 
congratulating stores on their conservation minded actions with a poster 
will have an impact on those stores who have their doors open.

Partnering NGOs responded positively to having their logo displayed on the 
posters as distribution partners. As partners in the campaign, their 
investment of time gave them valuable publicity, both in stores and in 
local media.

The support of municipalities and chambers of commerce was a tremendous 
boost to the campaign. The town of Oakville posted the names of those 
stores that participated in the campaign on their website. Susan Austin for 
the Town of Oakville reports, “Stores were very happy to post the poster in 
their windows after I said that I would post their store name on our 
website as a participating store, to give them some free exposure. It 
worked very well.” You can check out their results at 
<http://www.oakville.ca/3826.htm>http://www.oakville.ca/3826.htm (67 stores!).

When we had a cultural association as a partner, we produced a bilingual 
version of the poster for them. Both the Canada-China Environmental 
Cooperation Council and the Federation of Portuguese Canadian Business and 
Professionals received media local coverage of their efforts.

Some Observations

Support for conservation is strong, and from all sides. The public response 
to the campaign was strong and emotional. People hate to see stores and 
restaurants wasting electricity.
A provincial campaign with community-based outreach is a potent combination.
The involvement of business associations, chambers of commerce and 
municipalities made a significant impact
Big chains need to step up to the plate, with head office committing to 
conservation.
Small convenience stores, many owned by new Canadians, need friendly advice 
on energy conservation, such as is offered by Cool Shops
Did we achieve a measurable reduction in electricity consumption? Yes, 
although the true impact of the campaign was in raising public awareness 
about conservation and beginning to sow the seed for a long-term cultural 
shift in consumption patterns. We are encouraged by the interest in 
continuing the campaign next year and we expect that Doors Closed will make 
a significant contribution to creating a culture of conservation in Ontario.

Recommendations

As this was the pilot year for this initiative the Conservation Council of 
Ontario was happy with the participation and feedback from both Ontario 
NGOs and volunteers. Here are some recommendations for Doors Closed year two:
    * Start the campaign earlier in the summer
    * Produce an easy to read energy tip sheet to accompany the distribution
    * Print removable stickers instead of posters
    * Provide more support for the volunteers and make sure they understand 
the facts behind the campaign
    * Target chain stores by contacting their head office
    * Connect with more community groups to help with distribution
Another recommendation is to work with the retail sector to design an 
integrated We Conserve campaign that would allow stores to identify the 
conservation measure that make sense for them (i.e. not everyone has 
air-conditioning) and to promote their conservation products and services 
(organic cotton, recycled paper, energy efficient appliances, and organic 
food, for example).
Finally, voluntary programs like Doors Closed need to be supported by peak 
pricing. Smart meters and peak power pricing for medium and larger stores 
and restaurants would help reinforce the message that air-conditioning the 
great outdoors is a waste of electricity and money.
Thanks to all who helped
Thank you to all the groups and volunteers who participated in the Doors 
Closed campaign.
We look forward to working with you again on Doors Closed Ontario 2006!
    * Canada-China Environmental Cooperation Council
    * Canadian Centre for Pollution Prevention
    * City of Stratford
    * Clean Air Champions
    * Cool Shops (Peterborough, London, Toronto, Markham, and Ottawa)
    * Don Valley West One Tonne Challenge
    * Earth Day Canada
    * East Toronto Climate Action Group
    * Ecoperth
    * Elora Centre for Environmental Excellence
    * Eneract
    * EnviroCentre
    * Federation of Portuguese Canadian Business and Professionals
    * Halsall Associates Limited
    * North Toronto Green Community
    * One Tonne Toronto
    * Peterborough Green-Up
    * Pollution Probe
    * Reduce the Juice, Shelburne
    * Greater Sudbury Chamber of Commerce
    * The Beer Store
    * Timmins Chamber of Commerce
    * Town of Aurora
    * Town of Markham
    * Town of Oakville
    * Town of Uxbridge
    * Thames Region Ecological Association (TREA)
A special thanks to the hundreds of stores and restaurants across the 
province who displayed the poster and kept their doors closed.
Thanks to the Peter Love, Ontario’s Chief Energy Conservation Officer and 
the Conservation Bureau of the Ontario Power Authority for logistical 
support. Thanks to Scott Rouse (<mailto:Energy at Work>Energy at Work), NAIMA 
Canada, and the Heating Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Institute of 
Canada for technical support
Thanks to the organizations who helped us promote the campaign to their 
membership:
    * The Association of Municipalities of Ontario
    * The Ontario Restaurant Hotel and Motel Association
    * The Ontario Chamber of Commerce.
And finally, our thanks to The Beer Store and the Ontario Trillium 
Foundation, whose financial support for We Conserve allowed us to organize 
the campaign and print the posters.
Posted by


Allegra Newman, Campaign Coordinator Chris Winter, Executive Director, CCO

Key Questions:

What made Doors Closed a success?
How should Ontario invest in conservation?
Post your comments on the website, http://weconserve.ca/articles/
.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://list.web.net/archives/greenon-l/attachments/20051011/f835a565/attachment-0001.html
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: 4fdc79.jpg
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 15972 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://list.web.net/archives/greenon-l/attachments/20051011/f835a565/4fdc79-0001.jpg
-------------- next part --------------