Wind Energy Foundation launches Renewable America Champions social media contest

The Wind Energy Foundation (WEF) has recruited, trained, and mobilized hundreds of business people and other community leaders to help strengthen renewable energy policy through its A Renewable America (ARA) campaign over the past two years.

Past successes

In 2015, we worked with partners to advance understanding and support of the Clean Power Plan and helped win support for the long-term extension of federal tax incentives for renewable energy. Our approach was to educate decision makers and the public using a combination of in-person meetings and workshops, reports, polls, online ads, and earned media.

New contests

This year, WEF is giving new focus to targeted online outreach and education. A key element of this new strategy is Renewable America Champions, a contest launched this month ­­that enlists renewable energy industry employees to advocate for clean energy using social media.

Eligible participants include employees of private-sector companies that are developers, suppliers, and purchasers of renewable energy. With this definition, we express our enthusiasm for the arrival of major consumer brands like Google, Microsoft, and Amazon as purchasers of renewable energy and welcome them to the ranks of advocates for renewable energy.

How you can help

Social media is becoming an increasingly important tool for those who educate and advocate about economic and environmental issues. Six in 10 Americans use Facebook and Twitter as their source for news and opinion. It is time for private sector workers who are driving the transition to a clean energy economy to join the online conversation and help shape the debate over our nation’s energy future!

Joining the Renewable America Champions contest is simple. Visit the website and use one or more of your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn) to connect to the ARA campaign. Roughly three times a week, the campaign will deliver pro-renewables messages. Each time you share these messages and recruit others to do so, you will be awarded points. Each month for the rest of the year, a $100 Amazon gift card will be awarded to a top point scorer, and at the end of the year, our grand prize champion will win an all-expenses paid trip to an EDP Renewables wind farm for a tour and tower climb.

Your voice matters

Once there was a time when armies of lobbyists drove the conversation on Capitol Hill and in the state capitols. Today, with the power of the internet, everyday people can have a major impact on the policies that shape their future. Research shows that local business people are the most highly valued and influential source of information for Congressional offices. Policy makers pay close attention when the internet lights up with a conversation among local business people about a matter before them.

By generating more online conversation about the economic benefits of expanding renewable energy, and pairing it with traditional face-to-face engagement on this critical subject, WEF fulfills its mission of building a healthier, more prosperous, and renewable future.

If you have questions or would like to offer ideas on how we can make our education and advocacy campaigns stronger, please visit our www.windenergyfoundation.org or contact [email protected].