Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Progress on our Employee Solar Residential Program
Have I mentioned that we implemented a solar installation for our HQ in El Segundo? Too many times I am sure. As the installation reached completion we also launched an employee residential program to help employees interested in implementing solar PV at home. We have partnered with two vendors that we selected through an RFP process. Selection criteria included ease to work with for the private individual and ease to work with for us as a company.
Benefits to the employee are: 1) a level of confidence that the vendor has more at stake than the employees individual implementation – they have their reputation with BT and with other employees at stake too; 2) a discount to employees; 3) a hopefully smooth process; and 4) a corporate discount for participants.
The program attracted significant interest. Many people attended webinars and read the web material so we achieved the objective of increasing awareness. We also had a healthy number of participants requesting a home visit and a quote.
But we launched just in time for the credit crunch and so take-up has been low. That said, we have had implementations and one of our participants, Joseph Vaughn-Perling, kindly agreed to speak with me on the record in the audio above (click play to listen). Joseph explains a little about the process and implications of having solar installed at home. I think you will find his enthusiasm shines through and hopefully will inspire you to launch a similar program for your organization.
Share This:
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Great interview, thank you for sharing your experience!
ReplyDeleteAwesome... Kudos to BT for providing such a program to employees and interviewing them to learn about their experience.
ReplyDeleteKevin,
Could you please share with us the actual impact of the program? Did more employees decide that this is the time to install the solar panels because of the discount? Number of employees who took advantage of this program etc.
Thanks
Jagan
Jagan, thanks for your comments. Actual implementations have been small (single digits), but bear in mind that our staff numbers in states where solar is commercially viable are relatively limited). The employees who have implemented systems so far had already been considering it and identified that they went ahead and implemented because of the program. I consider a benefit of the program the many people who have now been exposed to residential solar in webinars and lunchtime sessions and now have it on their radar screen. Hopefully that will be the foundation for more adoption in the future as the economy improves.
ReplyDelete