Farm Energy Efficiency to Reduce GHG

Under the leadership of the Innovation Center for U.S Dairy® and Dairy Management Inc., Farm Energy Efficiency was established as one of 10 projects to help meet the industry’s voluntary goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2020. The dairy industry sought to initiate a Farm Energy Efficiency Awareness campaign to complement:
1. The launch of a new web resource linking farmers to energy facts and funding support
2. Grassroots outreach to promote state efforts to encourage farmers to get an audit
3. 10-state pilot to train professionals to conduct qualified on-farm audits

Positioning: The primary PR-Marketing focus was to create unified brand messages and materials around two “call-to-actions”: encourage farmers to get an on-farm energy audit as a first step toward cutting costs and saving energy, and drive use of the SaveEnergy resource to find funding sources.

Campaign elements included:
• Brand Messaging and Promotional Toolkit
• Grassroots Events / Trade Show / Farm Tour Promotions
• Trade Media Support / Press Releases / Case Studies

Target:
• Dairy farmer leaders
• Cooperatives and milk marketing organizations, dairy trade associations, state/regional dairy promotion, utilities, rural electric, state government, national and state USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (groups varied by state)