Sustainable Energy Fund launches 
energy savings program for nonprofits

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Sustainable Energy Fund (SEF), a not-for-profit, non-governmental organization dedicated to educating, supporting and financing energy users seeking a sustainable energy future, has launched its Nonprofit Energy Savings Agreement (NESA) to provide expertise and funding to nonprofits seeking to install energy efficient features into their buildings.

NESA will use utility bill savings created by the added energy efficiencies to repay SEF for its upfront investment. The utility customer, in this case a nonprofit, will retain a portion of the utility bill savings while SEF is being repaid. Once SEF is repaid, the utility customer will receive all of the utility bill savings.

Contractors working through the program will be required to provide performance guarantees, ensuring the nonprofits involved receive a minimum annual savings on their utility bills. According to SEF, if those savings aren’t achieved, NESA will compensate those utility customers for the difference.

“This program is an invaluable resource for nonprofits that might not otherwise have the financial means to undertake a sizable, energy efficiency capital improvement project,” said John Costlow, president and CEO of the SEF. “The ultimate savings that can be achieved will help these nonprofits focus more resources on their mission rather than their operational costs.”

According to SEF, the small commercial building market in the U.S. requires $35.64 billion in capital to appropriately conduct energy efficiency retrofits. Such retrofits would result in $138 billion in savings in the subsequent decade following construction. However, organizations are typically stymied by lack of funding, expertise and awareness. SEF will help reduce such barriers with shared industry expertise and funding.

For more information on NESA, please visit www.thesef.org or call (610) 264-4400.

Addison Wolfe offers self defense classes to mark national realtor protection month

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(Check out a video of the agents in action at their self-defense class)

To help promote Realtor safety following National Realtor Protection Month, Addison Wolf Real Estate is hosting two self-defense classes for its Realtors on April 2 and April 9 at New Hope Karate. Nearly 30 of the firm’s 45 agents have signed up to participate so far.

“The reality is we live in a world where bad things sometimes happen,” says Robert Reynolds, a Realtor with Addison Wolfe and owner of New Hope Karate. “Being able to defend yourself in these rare instances is important. These classes will give Addison Wolfe agents an added advantage should they need to defend themselves.”

According to a March 2015 Member Safety Report by the National Association of Realtors (NAR), only 46 percent of real estate brokerages have standard procedures and recommendations for agent safety. Further, the report found only 18 percent of respondents have participated in a Realtor safety course.

Reynolds, who has three decades of experience teaching self defense and is a 5th Degree Master of Tang Soo Do, says the classes will focus on basic awareness issues as well as self-defense techniques. Those self-defense techniques will include:

  • Multiple defenses to wrist and shoulder grabs by assailants
  • Defense against a rear choke hold
  • Take downs (if warranted)
  • Where and how to strike an attacker

The NAR report noted Realtor safety concerns are heightened due to open houses, vacant properties, and properties in remote areas. In addition, the high community profile of most agents can sometimes draw unwanted attention.

Although Addison Wolfe doesn’t publicly disclose its agent safety protocols, it does recommend the following basic safety tips to all Realtors:

  • Alert your office when you go to a showing or open house. Make it a standard practice to call your office at the conclusion of each.
  • Always have two people host any open house.
  • Let clients and prospects take the lead entering properties or various rooms. This allows you to be able to exit ahead of them if necessary.
  • Always carry your keys in one hand and cell phone in the other during a showing. The keys can be a non-threatening weapon if needed.
  • Arrive early to all showings and open houses and plan an exit strategy should you find yourself in an uncomfortable situation or if you feel threatened.

Sustainable Energy Fund hires Philadelphia firm to design an energy self-sufficient building

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Sustainable Energy Fund (SEF), a nonprofit non-governmental organization dedicated to educating, supporting and financing energy users seeking sustainable energy options, today announces it has awarded a contract to Re:Vision Architecture of Philadelphia to create a conceptual design for a commercially viable net zero commercial building.

As a net-zero project, the building will be extremely energy efficiency and create at least as much energy as it uses over a year from renewable energy. It will effectively minimize utility bills to a minimum monthly fee.

“SEF intends to show how a net-zero commercial office space can be commercially viable in the small office environment,” says John Costlow, president of SEF. “Net zero technology has been viable for some time but the challenge is to accomplish it at or near market rates while also significantly lowering traditional operating costs.”

Re:Vision Co-Founder and Principal Scott Kelly applauded SEF for inviting the architecture firm in early during the project’s concept stage.

“We’re thrilled to have found in SEF a partner focused on the end-goal of a net-zero building that is willing to bring in an architectural design partner so early in the development stages because early big moves have significant design and cost implications,” says Kelly. “There are multiple ways to get to net-zero in design and construction. Together, our shared goal is to create a compelling and efficient model that exemplifies SEF’s core mission and principles.”

Re:Vision was founded in 2002 as a green architecture firm dedicated to sustainability and transparent social and environmental performance standards.

Conceptual designs of the SEF project will be unveiled at EnergyPath 2015, held at the University of Scranton in July.

Six steps to launching a new social media account

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You’ve decided it’s time to create a new social media account for your company, but you’re not exactly sure where you should start. Whether you’re thinking about creating a LinkedIn Company Page, Twitter account, Instagram account or Facebook Page, you need to think about several factors before you dive in. Here are a few things to consider before you create a new social media account and push out your first message.

Identify your audience. Identify your target audience and determine who you want to reach. Most importantly, is your target audience on the platform you’re considering creating?

Spy on your competition. See if your competition is on the particular platform you’re interested in creating. If they are on a given platform, see who your competition is connecting with on that particular platform. Look at the different types of content they’re sharing. See what’s working well for your competition and what is not working as well. What types of content have the highest engagement?


Foter / CC BY-SA

Identify the content you’ll share. Ask yourself why people would want to follow you. What do you have to offer?  Give them a reason to follow you by positioning yourself as the expert in your given industry. If you’re in the insurance industry, consider sharing tips, industry news, original visual content (such as infographics and photos from conferences), etc.

Frequency. Ask yourself if you and your team are able to devote enough time to another platform. How much time do you have to tweet/post on the new platform? Don’t set expectations too high, meaning, don’t plan to tweet three times a day, if you only have time to tweet a few times a week.

Ensure voice/tone is consistent. Be sure there’s a designated person tweeting and not several. This will ensure your tone is consistent throughout. Make sure your tone is appropriate for the industry you’re reaching out to.

Determine your end-goal and be realistic. Are you looking to increase traffic to your website? Consider sharing company news, blogs and other pages on your domain. Maybe you’re looking to create overall awareness for your company. Share company news while sprinkling in relevant industry news that will pertain to your audience.

Don’t try to tackle too many goals at once. Stick to a few until you’ve perfected your approach and go from there.

Those are just a few things to consider before you jump into creating a new social media account. Have anything to add? Comment below.

Photo credit: Foter / CC BY-SA

Addison Wolfe celebrates milestone, lands recognition in Courier-Times

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The Bucks County Courier-Times highlights a milestone for Addison Wolfe. The boutique real estate agency surpassed their $200 million sales mark last year, after only eight years of business. Headed by Art Mazzei, a retired schoolteacher, the agency specializes in high-end homes in Bucks County and the surrounding areas.

Mazzei dedicates Addison Wolfe’s success to their personal touch on each listing and quality service they give to each client.

Addison Wolfe, a client of Kimball Communications, is located in New Hope, Penn. Learn further about Addison Wolfe’s milestone in the Courier-Times article and short video interviewing Mazzei.

How to integrate social media in crisis communications

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ePublicist / Foter / CC BY-ND

A crisis is a time of uncertainty that requires the careful management of information. If you don’t move quickly to present the facts and explain your position, then others will do it for you – and that puts the accuracy of the words and images they use beyond your control.

The words and images you use can either spell success and strengthen your future or damage your company’s reputation for years to come. The impact of social media on the crisis communications process has been significant.

Today information flows faster is more complex and independent. It is spread through multiple channels, and as a result, is often less reliable and more difficult to control. You often have just a few hours or minutes to communicate.

Social media must be fully integrated in your crisis communications plan. That means, your social networks are of equal import as other audiences and your community manager should be an effective communicator, as well as a media-savvy professional with appropriate technical skills.

Messaging must be also consistent with other channels, but appropriate for social networks. Candor is expected and an authentic voice is critical.  And, as crisis communications is a two-way process, listening through your social networks can inform your communications with many different audiences.

Above all, you need to consider and plan for all contingencies. Each type of crisis should be considered. Social media will play a critical role in communicating during and after natural disasters, terrorist attacks, cyber breaches and, of course, crises created by social media. But also consider its role in financial crises, human resources issues and (in the insurance world) claims and service issues.

Join me on Thursday, Feb. 12, 2015 at 11 a.m. EST for the IMCA webcast, “Integrating Social Media in Crisis Communications,” where I’ll explore these issues in more detail.

Know your audience: a content lesson from the middle of the woods

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Don’t appeal to empty seats—know your audience.

Recently, a minor controversy flared up on a Facebook page for an outdoors magazine. In a web feature on getting fit for hiking, the lede read: “Doughy is a lifestyle choice.” Huh?

On certain fitness blogs or emblazoned on across a “fitspo” meme, such a statement wouldn’t be out of place. But to the readers of this magazine it seemed an odd crack aimed at heavy hikers. Most of the comments below the related Facebook post were some variation of this, from a commenter named Todd: “LoL I am doughy and I out hike lean athletes any day of the week. It’s not all about the cover. Over weight people can have very good fitness.”

If commenters were not taking the magazine to task for shaming bigger hikers, they were confused by the very nature of the article. That is, they didn’t understand why a hiker would need these fitness tips. As commenter Katherine quipped, “I got in shape for hiking by… hiking.”

So what’s going on here (aside from insensitivity)? If we examine this from a writing and public relations angle, it becomes clear the magazine made a basic, yet extremely common mistake: they misjudged their audience.

Under ever-increasing pressure to produce more and more content, companies sometimes forget for whom they are writing. They seek out new formats and approaches to writing quick blog posts and features, often mimicking what works elsewhere on the web. Though this can lead to content that is more interesting to readers, writers and brands have to keep those readers in mind. You can adapt a form or approach to mesh with the information and tone your audience seeks from you.

So let this little hiker dustup serve as a reminder: next time you sit down to write a new blog post, article, white paper or other piece of content, ask, “who is this for and what do the want from me?”

Ebola Strikes New York

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Photo courtesy of the CDC.

Photo courtesy of the CDC.

It’s official. Ebola has scared the hell out of everyone. With Friday’s news story of a doctor in New York City being diagnosed and today’s “testing” of a 5-year-old boy for Ebola as well in the Big Apple, hysteria is sure to hit new heights.

However, as public relations professionals, our job is to offer wise council in times of crisis. We must anticipate how this latest news impacts our partners and determine how best to help them inform and better educate their audiences. A myriad of businesses can find themselves in the center of a media storm as Friday’s NYC media coverage demonstrated.

So the best advice for businesses is to start with facts.

For those businesses being asked about Ebola risks and protocols – and the public’s perception of your business’ Ebola risk – there are five steps to take quickly:

  1. Share the latest information from a recognized authority source (e.g., the CDC, the World Health Organization, your local or state department of health, etc.). Unless you are a medical professional well versed in infectious diseases, regardless of your business, you have no business advising on health issues. Leave that to the professionals and simply point people in the right direction.
  2. Examine your realistic exposure. NPR recently reported most American’s have a 1 in 13.3 million shot at contracting Ebola. In fact, NPR suggests studies show you’re more likely to die from a lightning strike or a bee sting than you are of catching Ebola. While many businesses are not likely to be at risk, the Manhattan case from Friday demonstrated how Uber, a Brooklyn bowling alley and NYC Metropolitan Transportation Authority needed to address Ebola concerns on a moment’s notice. Therefore it’s helpful to have thought through your messaging and delivery method in advance.
  3. Reassure your audiences you are following coverage and authoritative information of U.S. Ebola cases so as not to be surprised by developments that could impact your business operations or vendor relationships.
  4. Consult with your public relations professional to ensure any crisis communications plan your organization has in place is updated and that your team is prepared to respond quickly.
  5. Update your audiences as appropriate.

A sixth but less urgent step is to revisit your crisis communications plans at the conclusion of this latest pubic health scare to fine tune your policies and procedures so you are better prepared next time. And trust me, there will be a next time.

Lloyd’s announces new multi-year binding authority agreements

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AAMGA noted as being integral to this new, streamlined process

Lloyd’s, the world’s specialist insurance market, today issued a market bulletin announcing it is changing its requirements to allow multi-year binding authority agreements of up to 36 months. The bulleting lays out the new process and requirements, while also recognizing the American Association of Managing General Agents (AAMGA) for its years of advocacy on this important issue for Lloyd’s coverholders. The new agreements will take effect in 2016.

“We’ve been advocating for this change for several years to provide peace of mind and security – and frankly good business practices – for all Lloyd’s coverholders,” noted Roger Ware, president of AAMGA. “We met with Lloyd’s Chairman John Nelson as recently as May of this year at our Annual Meeting in Maryland to again press the issue, and we’re pleased to learn of Lloyd’s actions today.”

Currently, Lloyd’s coverholders can only enter into binding authority agreements of up to 18 months, while in most cases these agreements are renewed annually. Under the new multi-year binding authority agreements, Lloyd’s coverholders will be able to establish these agreements for up to 36 months. A streamlined annual confirmation component is included, in which Lloyd’s will send a simple form to its coverholders each November or December requesting appropriate confirmation of binding authority.

Grant Kimball, president of Canadian-based Angus-Miller, an associate member of AAMGA, applauded the change to Lloyd’s binding authority agreements.

“Lloyd’s listened to our industry representatives, reviewed the market landscape and made an appropriate and practical decision,” noted Kimball. “These multi-year agreements will take some of the guess work out of renewing business as well as make it easier to work effectively and efficiently with Lloyd’s.”