Commercial buildings account for 35 percent of US and 40 percent of global electric consumption. They eat up 30 percent of companies’ operating budgets and account for nearly 20 percent of worldwide carbon emissions, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.
By integrating smart energy and water management practices, public sector institutions can improve operational outcomes as well as environmental outcomes. Adopting advanced conservation technology such as motion sensing shower heads and smart lighting can yield substantial cost savings. Equally important within public interest sectors is targeting strategic communications that incentivizes stakeholders to modify behavior in ways that lead to reduced energy and water consumption. This will only occur when a stakeholder benefit resonates in a manner that is measurable and personal. Messaging that public interest institutions can convey include:
- Healthcare institutions must strategically communicate to stakeholders that their smart energy management initiatives help to improve public health and wellness by reducing carbon pollutants into the atmosphere.
- Colleges and universities can communicate to its student population that their conservation habits can result in lower operating costs that can help to control tuition costs.
- Governments and municipal utilities have to integrate smart energy and water management into the 21st century citizen engagement paradigm.
Austerity measures and global competitiveness are now forcing local institutions to expand their brand reach in order to survive. Healthcare systems are marketing newly constructed cancer centers to attract potential patients from the Middle East. Public colleges and universities that historically have recruited from within the state now market new research centers and business incubators to attract new students from China. Municipal utilities are investing in broadband technology infrastructure in order to attract new investment from international technology conglomerates. In order to align innovative messaging with transformational change, Visibility Marketing Inc. rolled out Smart Inclusion™. Smart Inclusion™ facilitates delivering strategic messaging across barriers that used to be avoided or ignored.
Smart Inclusion™ among colleges and universities, healthcare systems, and government entities is ultimately about embracing the fact that constant change and paradigm shifts within these sectors require innovative models of cross-sector collaboration. Major construction projects must have an identity that connects to a much wider array of stakeholders than ever before. Strategic communication that integrates Smart Inclusion™ is not merely a model of inclusion, it is model of institutional sustainability.