Download - Energy is Human
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Energy efficiency programs continue to set increasingly ambitious savings targets.
But the tactics taken to hit those targets are slow to evolve, and more often than not,
programs are falling short. At Brand Cool, we’ve been working with clients for years
to solve this problem, and we see a core underlying issue: typical efforts to promote
energy efficiency focus narrowly on specific concerns—namely, saving money or
enhancing home comfort.
Many of these programmatic or marketing efforts are based on the assumption that if people received the benefits and savings, they would shift their attention and change behaviors. Our experience—along with emerging social science research—tells us that these approaches aren’t compelling for most people. They just don’t work.
This is because they’re based on the “rational actor model” from behavioral
economics—the idea that people make decisions based on rational and economic
reasons alone. At Brand Cool we (along with numerous social science researchers)
have found that the opposite is often true: residential energy consumption behaviors
are deeply loaded with emotion and are far from rational.
Decades ago, Charles Revlon said, “In the factory, we manufacture cosmetics; in the
store, we sell hope.” Since then, consumer brands have followed this opportunity to
drive everyday consumption, using deeply emotional messages to sell products. It’s
time we place energy within an emotional context, recognizing that it is something
that’s personal, intimate, and often below our consciousness. We need to be
applying this thinking to how we engage people around energy use, behavior
change, and consumption. In short, we need to think more like brand strategists and
social scientists, and less like utilities and engineers.
Purveyors of energy efficiency now have the opportunity to do this by crafting rich,
dimensional communications designed to appeal to the whole person—what we at
Brand Cool call a deeply human approach.
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ALL HEAD, NO HEART—THE PROBLEM WITH COMMON APPROACHES TO SELLING ENERGY EFFICIENCY
Energy efficiency advocates typically follow a three-pronged strategy to develop and
deliver programs to homeowners, commercial, and multifamily audiences alike:
1. Improve buildings. The crux of nearly every residential efficiency program
is some type of technological change, from measure-based initiatives that
save X% on energy consumption, to promoting smart meters or appliances, to
comprehensive programs that encourage “whole-building” improvements, etc.
2. Apply financial incentives. The focus on financial incentives relates both
to financial mechanisms that support funding energy efficiency upgrades
(programs like On-Bill or PACE, for example) as well as incentives offered to
property owners and managers to implement changes. The former focuses on
creating access to capital and creative funding to minimize the financial impacts
of deep retrofit work, such as using energy savings on the backend toward the
cost of the improvements. The latter includes programs that offer owners some
type of financial bonus for making recommended technological or structural
changes through incentives, rebates, etc.
3. Provide feedback technologies. There is an overwhelming focus on tools—
dashboards, usage mechanisms—to visualize data and provide people with
input on their energy consumption patterns and usage. The success of these
tools leverage a self-regulating capacity, which allows people to adjust and
automate changes in behavior.
There is a vital fourth strategy that is glaringly omitted, to our detriment:
understanding the actual relationship between humans and their built environments,
and how energy is deeply woven into those relationships. In other words, this relates
to what energy means for people in their daily lives and how modifications to these
practices have a direct impact on how they live and create meaning. It applies to
individual homes, multifamily structures, offices, and commercial and industrial
buildings.
At the heart of this strategy lie the psychological and social drivers of human
behaviors and decision-making. We as humans respond not only to new gadgets,
smart technologies, and incentives to stimulate the “reward centers” in our brains,
but we also respond to social influence, culture, the desire to belong, our needs for
comfort and security, and myriad factors that often get left out of strategies to shift
energy consumption behaviors.
The technology/incentive approach, when used exclusively, also overlooks
the emotional associations that energy-related topics can have for people. For
homeowners, energy is seamless and often invisible, illuminating and enabling
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intimate and cherished behaviors. Typical homeowners may never think about
energy or even consider what it does for them. But they care deeply about creating
warmth, health, and well-being for loved ones, ensuring that households run
smoothly and that they have access to entertainment and play. Energy makes all
this possible. When programs talk about “reducing” consumption, implementers
and marketers need to recognize that they are often venturing into territory with
emotionally unsettling implications. What we need to keep in mind is not what we
are asking of people, but how the asks are being experienced and perceived—
potentially as a demand to deny themselves basic human needs. People focus on
the “efficiency” part of the equation, which has been proven to be associated with
deprivation and loss. In other words, how people experience the topic of energy
efficiency may be unexpectedly emotional.
CREATING THE SHIFT TO A HUMAN-CENTERED APPROACH
Homeowners need more than a logical rationale for change. They need an emotional
connection to highlight the presence of energy in their lives, and only then can they
adapt to new ways of thinking about and using it. This requires energy efficiency
advocates to think systemically, in a deeply human way, about how people
understand and engage with energy. In this case, systemic thinking extends to
the human, psychosocial dimensions. We also need to use human insight in new
and more effective ways to market energy efficiency. Human insight is a deep
understanding of how people process information, manage change, rely on social
influences, and experience emotions.
What follows is our take on emerging insights from the social sciences and
industry—where we see the innovation heading in the field of energy efficiency
engagement.
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INFORMATION CAN—AND SHOULD—BE EMOTIONAL.
“If only people knew how much they’d save and how much more effective this is,
they would just do it.” Or, “People just don’t really care about saving energy. How
do we get them to care?” Does this sound familiar? Recent research (Ehrhardt-
Martinez et al 2010; Malone et al 2013) shows that, when it comes to using energy,
consumption behaviors are rarely informed by rational, calculated information
processing, such as saving costs on bills or “doing the right thing.” Instead, they
are rooted in largely unconscious motivations such as the need to feel safe, secure,
accepted, loved, free, and in control. Many of these behaviors are far from rational,
and they are deeply influenced by cultural identity, social networks, relationships,
affiliations, and emotional needs.
When discussing energy efficiency, many people find it hard to get past the word
“efficiency”—which is often associated with deprivation, loss, or going without. Using
this messaging sets up a challenge from the get-go. Wearing sweaters and coats
inside, taking quick or cold showers—these associations aren’t far from the general
perception of efficiency as a form of austerity.
The answer is not simply to point out the benefits and ignore what is on most
people’s minds. People respond to candor, trust, and honest communications.
Our task is to address these concerns directly and not skirt around them. If people
bristle at the thought of “going without,” no matter how smart or informative a
campaign is, it will come up against resistance—until we hit these realities head-on.
In the real world, people rarely purchase goods and services purely on economic
considerations; instead, status, convenience, social networks, identity, values,
and culture all play large roles—and people may, in fact, purchase the most
expensive option and/or the least sustainable option. (Malone et al, 2011)
Putting it into practice:
Don’t rely on information to do the trick. Energy efficiency engagement
programs, tools, marketing, and messaging should avoid relying on information-
laden tactics such as bill inserts, emails, and one-dimensional awareness-raising
campaigns. Rather, more holistic approaches leverage underlying motivators for
behaviors: purpose, mastery, and autonomy (c.f. Pink, 2009). What this looks like in
practice is creating opportunities for people to genuinely engage: asking for input
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and contributions, connecting with the larger context and objectives (i.e., being part
of an energy-smart future/community/state) allowing people to engage on their own
terms (more customizable packages and options), and speaking directly to where
people may be feeling most anxious, ambivalent, or aspiring (otherwise known as
the “Three As” [Lertzman, 2014]).
Communicate empathetically. Implementers of energy efficiency programs
should think more like ethnographers and psychologists than engineers and
technologists. That means designing and marketing the programs to connect directly
and viscerally with people, where it counts: the way energy use is felt, seen, and
experienced in daily lives. This means translating how people feel about these topics
into messaging, engagement strategies, and platforms. This also requires us to
conduct our insight and research differently. For example, more in-depth interviews
and rich, qualitative conversations have a higher potential to illuminate what is
unconscious—those human factors that impact engagement—whereas surveys,
polling, and straight Q&As primarily test already known assumptions about energy.
The “Irreconcilable Temperatures” campaign we developed on behalf of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) uses a sitcom format to tell the story of a young couple upgrading the efficiency of their home with help from a statewide program. The videos share need-to-know information in a way that’s relatable, funny, and drenched in real-life realities. The facts are there, but emotion comes first.
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INCENTIVES CREATE INSTANT GRATIFICATION, NOT LASTING CHANGE.
Incentives have long been a mainstay of energy efficiency programs. There is good
reason for this. Incentives can create short bursts of change—a quick uptick in
activity or sign-ups. However, the “reward” from incentives fades quickly.
The problem with an over-reliance on incentives is twofold.
First, as Daniel Pink points out in Drive, incentives can backfire in that they indirectly
suggest that whatever is being incentivized is so unsavory that people wouldn’t do
it on their own: it requires a reward or “prize” to sweeten the deal. Incentives play
on external motivations (driven by the pursuit of rewards), which are short-lived and
superficial, versus internal motivations (pertaining to individuals’ values, purpose,
or mission), which are deeply human with the power to engage, influence purchase
decisions, and ultimately create lasting changes in understanding, attitude, and
behavior.
Second, as Pink notes, the most powerful drivers for behaviors concern our needs
for autonomy, mastery, and purpose. How often are these drivers used within energy
efficiency programs? Rarely. For example, messaging that speaks directly to our
inherent desire to be smarter, wiser, more capable (as parents, caregivers, and
professionals), and part of a growing movement can actually unlock those innate
capacities and desires, and help bring in people along the way. An incentive may
help get us to do something, but it rarely changes the behavior. Why? Because it’s
an external stimulus that doesn’t target our motivation beyond the short-term. When
we appeal to aspiration while honestly acknowledging the challenges of change,
we are more likely to establish a solid connection and trusted relationship with our
audiences.
Putting it into practice:
Present incentives as one of many perks. Incentives play an important role in
most energy efficiency programs but should be used and communicated about
judiciously and skillfully in the context of a more comprehensive engagement
approach. When we reach out to consumers, incentives should be presented as one
element in a tapestry of functional and emotional benefits programs have to offer.
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ENERGY ISN’T ABSTRACT. IT’S WHAT MAKES EVERYDAY LIFE POSSIBLE.
The topic of energy is hardly on people’s minds until it’s either disrupted or in short
supply—so raising it as a focus of concern is immediately an uphill battle. For most
people, energy really is about “me.” That is to say, it’s about how “I” design and
enable “my” life to flow; it’s about what brings “me” pleasure and what enables
services that could involve life and death (e.g., hospitals, disaster relief) and the
conduit so “I” can meet “my” needs.
Connecting energy with the fabric of our daily lives through story, narrative, context,
and conversation makes it more real and tangible. How we talk about energy use
in the home (or multifamily building, office, or industrial site) needs to always come
back to the impact this has on people’s lives in a direct and down-to-earth way.
Making energy visible through energy-use dashboards and systems like Nest and
net metering are powerful but not enough. The data is only meaningful when we
connect the dots and ground it in the context of everyday life (e.g., being able to
control energy bills, using energy wisely by sharing what we don’t use, etc.).
Putting it into practice:
Don’t talk about saving energy as “little things you can do.” It’s about
“everything you do.” Appreciating energy means acknowledging that it makes our
lifestyles, in their entirety, possible—a point brilliantly captured in this humorous BC
hydro Power Smart campaign. If we replace “energy consumption” with “how we
live,” we may be getting closer to the actual psychological meaning.
How we talk with people about “how they live” moves us from an abstract topic to
more meaningful engagement and stronger brand loyalty and relationships. When
we meet people where they are, we can bring it to the level of how lowered energy
bills directly relate to both the bigger picture and our own personal involvement and
contributions. Helping people make these connections and going beyond “the little
things you can do” arguably engage us as whole people, in the context of our lives.
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SAVING MONEY IS JUST (A SMALL) PART OF THE PICTURE.
It’s time to rethink our assumptions about financial rewards being the top driver
of participation in energy efficiency programs. Mounting evidence indicates that
saving money is just one of many reasons why people change their relationship with
energy.
Based on a study by Lutzenhiser et al (2003), survey respondents in California
reported that their conservation efforts were motivated by a wide variety of factors.
While minimizing energy costs was among the principal motivators, respondents
also reported being motivated by their desire to avoid blackouts (82%), to use energy
resources as wisely as possible (77%), to do their part to help Californians (73%),
and to protect the environment (69%). According to the report, “qualifying for a
utility rebate was the least common motivation, and available utility rebates were not
relevant to most of the actions consumers took.”
Brand Cool arrived at similar findings with a comprehensive study of New York
State home-energy consumers, conducted on behalf of the New York State Energy
Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). We learned that of the 40% of
New York homeowners who were likely to invest in energy efficiency upgrades, all
cited core motivations other than financial savings for doing so. Topping the list:
making a positive difference in the world, enhancing home comfort, and taking
control over their environment. Given that homeowners also indicated they wanted
to take a phased approach to energy efficiency upgrades based on what they
could afford to invest in over time, NYSERDA found that it needed to reflect this in
its program and marketing efforts. By forming more lasting relationships with New
Yorkers and emphasizing deeper benefits, clearer meaning, and long-term value
versus short-term bursts, the agency is building a platform for more sustainable
results.
Putting it into practice:
Tell a more nuanced story than “savings.” When energy efficiency programs
market themselves as money-savers, they compete with innumerable marketing
messages about savings that consumers are bombarded with every day. That’s
a difficult challenge. Instead, energy efficiency program marketers should craft
messages that reflect deeper benefits and meaning. Conserving energy helps
people do more than save; it helps them live better, richer lives. It might help to
remember what the word “save” actually means: “to keep someone or something
safe.” We all aspire to more than safety in life. Be mindful of the connotations and
associations with something as taken for granted as the term “saving.”
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CONVERSATIONS CONVERT.
In Brand Cool’s work with energy efficiency programs, we’ve observed a simple
truth again and again: human interaction trumps all else when it comes to truly
shifting behaviors around energy consumption.
Initiatives that involve direct, interactive human contact are highly effective in
encouraging people to participate in energy efficiency programs. Human interactions
help us make sense of new information in ways unavailable by reading an insert
or a brochure. We actually process information more effectively through personal
stories, shared experiences, and conversation (Wheatley, 2014). This means having
the ability—live in person or otherwise—to ask questions, get immediate feedback,
and process all of those nonverbal cues that are so powerful when people come
together and talk, particularly about a new topic or behavior change. It takes energy
efficiency out of the abstract realm of attitudes, values, and beliefs, and into the
more tangible, emotional area of direct experience, allowing people to see how new
energy practices make sense in the context of their own lives.
While awareness-focused tactics like media campaigns are important (broad-
based awareness is critical when seeking to inspire a large group of people to do
something new), simple human interaction—engaging with people—can go a very
long way toward solidifying action.
This focus has profound implications for how we design and focus our energy
efficiency initiatives and programs. Specifically, it draws our attention to all points of
contact that customers have with the service provider and attending to those as key
areas of focus. This means a few things. First, it means investing in ensuring those
on the “front lines” are skilled and capable of managing the complicated nature
of energy efficiency communications. For us as energy efficiency marketers, this
means providing those on the “front lines” with the best possible training, support,
and communications strategies to ensure they can meet customers where they are
and develop relationships of trust and support. (Hint: these are requirements for
engaging people.) Second, it means recognizing those “front lines” as enormous
resources in terms of market and consumer insight by attending to the specific
needs, concerns, questions, and issues customers may be having.
This is about refocusing our attention on the quality and nature of the relationship
that people have with the specific program, utility, partner, or service provider as vital
for any effective energy efficiency program.
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Energy efficiency parties pay off for PUSH
People United for Sustainable Housing (PUSH), a community-based organization
(CBO) in Buffalo, New York, borrowed a tactic from Tupperware, using a
grassroots marketing approach to promote its residential efficiency program.
They reached out to the local community through energy efficiency parties,
where attendees could learn about the basics of energy efficiency, as well as the
financial aspects of PUSH’s programs—a key component that contractors had
difficulty communicating. Using this approach, PUSH overcame language and
informational barriers that had been stifling the success of the program, resulting
in a significant increase in completed projects just by having simple, one-on-one
conversations.
Putting it into practice:
Don’t persuade. Engage. We are seeing a shift from a persuasion mindset—trying
to get people onboard through persuading or cajoling them into realizing the benefits
and reasons for acting—to a conversational approach. Opportunities for interactivity,
whether with service providers, contractors, customer care, or community
resources, are critical moments where energy consumers have the opportunity to
ask questions, be heard, and have their needs or concerns addressed. This type
of dialogue helps people achieve a level of understanding that a brochure or TV ad
simply can’t. Situations that involve a social aspect, like PUSH’s energy efficiency
parties, are even more motivating because they invite people to feel that they’re a
part of something important, something that their friends and neighbors care about.
If you want people to change, you’ve got to listen to them. You’ve got to
understand what stops them from making changes or engagement with issues.
And you find that happens through conversations. (Rosemary Randall, founder,
Carbon Conversations)
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CONSUMERS HAVE (AND DEMAND) MORE CONTROL THAN EVER
People are increasingly used to being in the driver’s seat of their lives. As
consumers, we have tremendous opportunities to make choices—in how or where
we shop, the media we consume, and the direction we take with our jobs and
careers. It’s no surprise that contemporary research continues to reinforce the
need to provide people with flexibility and control in their energy consumption as
well—and that new offerings are providing unprecedented energy choices. This
is particularly critical as the energy market continues to transform. It will need to
accommodate Millennials, who are increasingly accustomed to choosing all of their
consumption in all areas; utilities, which are being urged to move to distributed
generation models to adopt supply- and demand-side renewables into their
portfolios; and federal, state, and local mandates that establish requirements for
energy efficiency and carbon savings. This factor also relates to Daniel Pink’s point
about the three core underlying motivators for our behaviors: autonomy, purpose,
and mastery. Autonomy refers to our desire to have choice, options, and our own
terms. We need to leverage this factor as we explore ways to maximize the adoption
of energy savings.
This is not only unique to this time and place but a basic principle of human
psychology—the need for efficacy. One of the central underpinnings of motivation,
along with autonomy and purpose, is mastery. We need to feel and exercise creative
influence on our world—and our homes tend to be an intensified expression of this.
So when we come along and suggest people do something different, we need to be
prepared for resistance, which can take the form of ignoring, denying, dismissing,
or focusing on barriers to taking action. This is one of the greatest challenges in this
work—and why we need to shift how we approach and engage with people.
Putting it into practice:
Show efficacy through feedback. Of the more well-known ways to show efficacy
is what’s referred to as “feedback”—devices, communications, and platforms that
make our specific energy behaviors visible. As many utilities have learned, feedback
mechanisms are effective—showing consumers their usage whether through a
device or icons on their bill, along with a comparison with their neighbors or others
in the region or state, can activate greater participation and flexibility. This allows
people to self-regulate, exercising considerably more autonomy over their behaviors.
Psychologically, this is hugely significant; we relate to practices differently when
being told to (think nagging) than when we are choosing on our own (creative
choice). Whether we are tracking our footsteps via FitBit or monitoring our energy
using a tool like Nest, feedback can be a powerful motivational tool.
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When feedback is teamed with old-fashioned social comparison (i.e., “what the
Joneses are doing”)—referred to in social psychology as “social norming”—it
can become even more powerful. Among Opower’s “Five Universal Truths about
Energy Consumers” (summarizing insights gleaned from analyzing data from tens
of thousands of energy consumers globally) was the fact that when people see how
their energy use compares to others’, they’re much more likely to reduce it.
Provide options. Feedback mechanisms are not the only game in town when it
comes to tapping people’s need for autonomy and control. Programs and initiatives
can be designed far more flexibly to allow people to select, on their terms, how they
wish to participate. Allowing for more control lets people engage more freely, leading
to a far more positive emotional association (“This makes it easy for me. I am feeling
supported. This is on my terms.”) and higher levels of engagement.
Providing residential energy consumers with feedback is important because it
makes energy visible, allows for active participation of households in energy
management practices, and provides flexibility as to how energy savings are
achieved. Among the many potential actions that people may choose to engage in
to reduce their energy consumption, most people choose to make adjustments in
their everyday habits and routines. (Ehrhardt-Martinez, 2012)
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BRAND RELATIONSHIP AND ENERGY: WHAT A DEEPLY HUMAN APPROACH TO HOMEOWNER ENERGY EFFICIENCY MEANS
Can people come to love utilities and energy programs like their favorite consumer
brands?
Yes. But only if the programs are able to effectively connect, engage, and meet
people where they are.
(And yes, these are the basics of intimate and good relationships. And hence, good
branding.)
Imagine people feeling about their utility the way they may about their favorite
technology brand. It may seem remote, but that is because of how we are
approaching the way we think about energy, marketing, and branding. We are in
the midst of a paradigm shift when it comes to how we market energy efficiency
to homeowners. With growing insight into the psychological dimensions of energy
efficiency in the home, new opportunities are arising for shifting home energy
use. What this looks like is less information and inserts, and more interaction,
engagement, autonomy, and flexibility, and the need for utilities to establish strong
brand loyalty and relationships, and provide clear, actionable opportunities to shift
energy behavior.
It also means a strategic and tactical investment in the “front lines” of energy
efficiency programs—call centers, partner networks, and any place where
customers are coming into contact with the utility or program—to ensure these
are highly resourced and equipped to support people. Applying tools such as our
Energy Conversations™, informed by the well-established practice of Motivational
Interviewing (Miller and Rollnick, 2012), we can innovate and leverage the kinds of
conversations we are having about our energy practices. These conversations are
ideally based on listening, honesty, and transparency, and they take as a given that
energy efficiency can be a bit daunting and anxiety-producing for people.
A deeply human approach is also reflected in the style and manner of how we
market energy efficiency, through appealing to people’s innate and intrinsic
motivations to be better, more effective, and capable as humans. Our programs
ideally can enable people to see themselves as better versions of themselves. This
is a dramatic departure from a campaign focused on moralizing (“This is why it’s
good for you.” “Do the right thing.”), shame, incentives, or heavy information. It also
is different from trying to make efficiency “fun and games.” Sure, people like games,
but short-term competitions and games do not necessarily translate into longer-term
transformation.
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While we can use certain tools to “jump-start” actions, a strong program or
campaign also considers the long-view. What will support people to stay engaged?
What are the underlying motivations for participating, and how can we nurture and
enable those? How can we empower people to become creatively involved with
how we relate with energy in our lives versus being passive recipients of the latest
marketing blast?
The implications take us beyond the role of messaging and into creating cultures
of engaging with energy. When we design a deeply human approach into our
marketing, outreach, campaigns, and engagement, we begin with the questions of
how can we mobilize, support, inspire, and enable—not with changing or controlling
people’s behaviors. This comes through in every aspect of our design from language
to graphics and interactive platforms.
A deeply human approach appreciates that there are many factors that influence
how people choose to use energy and engage in energy-saving initiatives and
programs. It creates outreach and engagement that takes this all onboard without
singling out specific aspects such as financial savings or saving the environment.
It accounts for all that makes us who we are: our relationships, cultural influences,
social interactions, identities, roles, and responsibilities.
It’s a new way of approaching energy efficiency in the home.
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how the world comes to love you
Energy is Human is co-authored by Sue Kochan, CEO of
Brand Cool, and Dr. Renee Lertzman, Brand Cool’s Director
of Insight. Kochan is a 20-plus year marketing veteran whose
career spans from brand consulting to agency executive
to nationally-known speaker on marketing, branding, and
corporate social responsibility. Lertzman is an internationally
recognized author, lecturer, and thought leader in psychosocial
research and sustainability.
Brand Cool is a marketing agency dedicated to bringing
humans and brands together to make the world a better place,
specializing in sustainability communications and engagement.