Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Sustain Your Abilities
Consulting Group
Sun Work
Cover Letter
Contents
Executive Summary 3
Promotion of Silicon Valley Power’s Rebate for Solar Panels 3
Project Rationale 5
We Pride Ourselves in Our Commitment 5
Goals 5
Our Impact 5
Deliverables 6
Outcomes 6
Social Media Marketing and Campaign Page 6
Radio Broadcast 6
Newspaper Story 6
Cost Analysis 7
A look at Projected Expenses and Costs 7
Cost Analysis 7
Projected Project Costs 7
Notes: 8
Delivery Schedule 8
Projected Timetable and Assignment of Tasks 8
Success Metrics 9
Benchmarks and Goals 9
10 Contracts 9
Staffing 10
We Are Delighted in Your Choice to Work With Us 10
Kevin Qian 10
Matteo De Suduiraut 11
Rowan Whalen 11
Ethan Gomez 11
Laura Miola 12
Appendices 12
12
Executive Summary
Promotion of Silicon Valley Power’s Rebate for Solar Panels
Commitment
Our team is honored to be given the opportunity to help spread a technology that we believe has the
potential to make the world a cleaner place. SunWork takes great care of its customers from solar
installation to rebate paperwork and provides continued to support after the service is completed. We
hope to change more lives by connecting Santa Clara residents with SunWork to create a more
sustainable environment while promoting a clean, safe, and renewable technology.
SunWork
SunWork is a non-profit in California’s San Francisco Bay Area and Central Coast that installs solar
electricity systems on small-energy-footprint homes with the help of trained volunteers. The
organization uses an innovative model of delivering solar power to homes with modest electricity
usage of less than $100 per month at a third of the conventional cost (visual attached). This allows for
more people to make the switch to solar, enabling broader adoption of clean, safe, and renewable
alternatives to traditional sources of energy.
Silicon Valley Power Rebate for Residential Property in Santa Clara County
During the county’s offering period for solar rebates, residents spending less than $100 per month on
electric bills would save $5000 to $8000 on the down payment and installation processes. The solar
rebate ends June 30th but installing the solar panels are not required for a year if the contract is signed
before the end of the month. Though the price tag on solar panels would still amount to about $4000
to $6000 post-rebate and tax credit, the payback period is 6 to 8 years, during which energy bills will
be significantly reduced, if not eliminated (visual attached).
Ultimately, the problem addressed by Sustain Your Abilities is to launch a marketing campaign
targeting residents of Santa Clara to work with SunWork to take advantage of the solar rebate before
the deadline of June 30th. SunWork has expressed concerns over a low turnout in the Santa Clara area
and are attempting to improve local outreach at a door-to-door level. To improve response rates,
Sustain Your Abilities will conduct a local Facebook campaign and spreading the information through
community surveys and radio broadcasts discussing the services SunWork provides and the local
solar rebate.
Project Rationale
Encouraging Solar Rebate Sign-Ups
Goals
The mission of sunwork is to help solar become more affordable and wide spread. The goal is to have
10 homeowners in the Santa Clara area apply for a solar rebate and sign a contract with a solar
installer by June 30. Our group has 3 action plans to help drive this initiative:
1. Create marketing campaigns with SCU Center of Sustainability
2. Broadcast and spread awareness of SunWork’s mission through KSCU
3. Door-to-Door sales for solar rebate email signups
Target Market
Homeowners who pay less than $100 every month for their electric bill are eligible for SunWork’s
program. SunWork targets homes with lower electric bills so that families will still receive
approximately the same output of electricity demanded while effectively substituting electricity
generated from electromechanical generators to energy generated from the sun. Because electricity
rates are tiered, households that pay low electric do not save as much per solar panel installed.
Sunwork plans on helping provide solar installments to areas even with low payback to ensure that
everyone can use clean solar energy.
Customer Benefit
By installing solar panels, homeowners save on utility bills and avoid future utility price increases
through net metering. Net metering is a billing mechanism that credits solar energy system owners for
the electricity they add to the grid. The grid is a electric power distribution system that collects
electricity from a generator and transmits is over a certain distance to the customer who needs
electricity. When a household uses more energy than generated during a month, the PG&E meter
tracks how much energy issued from the grid and inversely, when a household generates more energy
than it used during a month, the PG&E meter tracks how much has been sent to the grid. Solar panels
allow households to be more efficient with their energy usage and customers generally find that they
can earn money for generating more electricity than they use.
Community Impact
First, Sunwork also provides installations for non-profit organizations such as churches, pre-schools,
and homeless shelters so that these non-profit organizations can focus more on their altruistic
operations and save on electricity bills that may skyrocket due to the scale and volume of
accommodating for large quantities of people.
Second, going solar has significant environmental benefits. Solar energy creates clean, renewable
power from the sun and benefits the environment. Alternatives to fossil fuels reduce carbon footprint
at home and abroad, reducing greenhouse gases around the globe. Most of the electricity generated in
the U.S. comes from fossil fuels like coal and natural gas.
Cost Projections
There are many homeowners living in the Santa Clara county that are eligible for solar panel
installations and could benefit from having solar panels installed. The average solar panel for a 5kW
system costs about $14,000; however, with multiple financing options and savings available,
homeowners profit long term with electric savings accumulated over time and increases in property
value. Silicon Valley Power is also offering a rebate on solar installations ($1.00/Watt (AC), or about
$0.85/Watt (DC)). For example, if installing a 5 kW (AC) system, you would get a rebate check for
$5,000. Rebates offered by Silicon Valley Power and subsidies offered by tax credit help make the
upfront cost easy and savings and loans cover the remainder.
Deliverables
Our Marketing Campaigns
Cost Analysis
A look at Projected Expenses and Costs
Cost Analysis
The expenses our group will incur will be from fliers made to pass out to potential customers when we
table, go door to door, and collaborate with other sustainability groups. Fliers will cost 10 cents each to
print, and we plan to hand out roughly 200 within the next few weeks. Another cost is the supplies we
will use to decorate our tabling stand and fliers. The total cost of materials will amount to $38. Each
group member will spend roughly 7 hours assisting in outreach activities, plus extra time planning.
These materials will be used to spread awareness of the benefits of switching to solar energy, the
upcoming deadline of Santa Clara’s solar rebate, and SunWork’s solar panel installation service.
Total $ 1,415.29
Notes:
1) The total labor hours required for this project is roughly 43 hours. The hourly wage of $32.03 was
based off the average business development consultant salary from the reporting service Indeed.
2) In conducting the media outlet outreach, we did not incur any promotional or placement costs.
We simply sent a story to a media outlet in hopes of getting it published.
Delivery Schedule
1
Conference with Professor Frontczak to discuss proposal
2
In-class discussion to discuss proposal
Success Metrics
Benchmarks and Goals
Day Week Month Inquiries Interests Contracts
14-May-18 2 1 5 1 0
15-May-18 3 1 5 1 0
16-May-18 3 1 5 1 0
17-May-18 3 1 5 1 0
18-May-18 3 1 5 1 0
19-May-18 3 1 5 1 0
20-May-18 3 1 10 1 0
21-May-18 3 1 10 2 1
22-May-18 4 1 10 2 1
23-May-18 4 1 10 2 1
24-May-18 4 1 10 2 1
25-May-18 4 1 10 3 1
26-May-18 4 1 15 3 1
27-May-18 4 1 15 3 1
28-May-18 4 1 15 3 1
29-May-18 5 1 15 4 2
30-May-18 5 1 15 4 2
31-May-18 5 1 15 4 2
1-Jun-18 5 2 20 5 2
2-Jun-18 5 2 20 5 2
3-Jun-18 5 2 20 5 2
4-Jun-18 5 2 20 6 3
5-Jun-18 6 2 20 6 3
6-Jun-18 6 2 25 6 3
7-Jun-18 6 2 25 7 3
8-Jun-18 6 2 25 7 3
9-Jun-18 6 2 25 8 3
10-Jun-18 6 2 25 8 4
11-Jun-18 6 2 30 9 4
12-Jun-18 7 2 30 9 4
p
Staffing
We Are Delighted in Your Choice to Work With Us
Kevin Qian
Kevin is a Senior studying dual disciplines in Finance and Computer
Science. From his previous internships, Kevin has worked across
industries such as engineering at Tesla to strategy at VMware, helping
him develop technical depth in software development and business
acumen in internal strategic analysis. He hopes to help clients with
technical consulting by leveraging free & open-source technologies to
improve business operations.
Kevin serves as the outreach on the team by developing rationale for
marketing campaigns and strategizing the next action plan for advertising.
Fun Fact: Kevin auditioned to be in the 2010 Karate Kid movie featuring
Jaden Smith.
Matteo De Suduiraut
Matteo comes to our team with experience in a number of consulting
projects ranging from global micro-financing in Southeastern Asia to a
sustainability campaigns with an international corking conglomerate. He is
our fearless outreach leader who keeps us on track.
Matteo loves making an impact in effective and efficient ways. He is
passionate about finding innovative solutions to environmental issues,
specifically agriculture, water, and energy.
Fun Fact: Matteo has a Husky and a Border Collie he takes everywhere with
him.
Rowan Whalen
Rowan Joins our team as junior finance major at Santa Clara University
where he holds a diverse array of jobs such as construction, serving,
marketing for a startup soda company and working with nonprofits.
Rowan is passionate about the environment. He hopes to see the end of
environmental degradation in his lifetime.
Fun Facts: Rowan prides himself from growing up in a farm in the
midwest. In his spare time he loves learning about avant- garde art with
our design coordinator Laura.
Ethan Gomez
Ethan joins our team as a junior studying management information
systems and sustainability at Santa Clara University. Born and raised in
Houston he is enjoying what the Bay Area has to offer. Ethans works on
campus to promote events at the on campus Forge Garden. He believes
sustainable living is an important aspect to making the world a better
place. Ethan also brings to the table over five years of corporate
experience.
Ethan loves the outdoors and working with his hands.
Fun fact: Ethan is going to be volunteering at Finca Tres Robles this
summer, a farm in downtown Houston.
Laura Miola
Laura joins our team as a senior with a majoring in Finance at Santa Clara
university. She brings to our team her wealth of knowledge in design and
creativity. She has worked as independent contractor to Microsoft as an
instructional design creator, a screenwriter, actor and dancer. She is
passionate about theatre and dance and mindful communication. She
likes to spend her free time in the outdoors and connecting with nature.
She hopes to one day live off grid in an earthship in New Mexico.
Fun Fact: Laura will spend the summer dancing in New York.
Justin Wong
Justin is a finance major at Santa Clara University. He is our number cruncher!
He specializes in analyzing data and identifying trends on Excel. He is
responsible for analyzing costs that our group incurs and creates budgets that
allow us to maximize our outreach efforts while being cost-efficient. Justin also
brings to the team experience in news outlets in clubs he founded in high
school. Justin is passionate about basketball and being mindful. He, Rowan and
Laura practice meditation.
Fun Fact: Justin’s ideal day would involve grabbing boba with friends and
explore a new place.
Discussion
Implications, Limitations, and Recommendations
Implications
1. Outcomes
One of our leading success indicators is the 23 email sign-ups we recorded while going
door-to-door and speaking with people from the farmers market. We hope that among the 15
sign-ups received, that at least 2 will sign for the solar rebate program, effectively doubling the
number of sign-ups received from the Santa Clara area. Most of the emails received are from
alumni of Santa Clara University who currently live in the area. While alumni definitely fall
within our target market and seem the most enthusiastic about solar energy, it may be difficult
convincing them to make the down payment or take the loan to have solar panels installed
with the limited savings that they have.
2. Take-Aways
What we can take-away and consider for next steps moving forward is to discover more
convincing ways for our target market to make the payment for installing solar panels.
Homeowners who spend less than $100 on their electric bill likely fall into the lower or middle
class, and share a sentiment of not wanting to spend more than $1,000 or take another loan.
Additionally, while our marketing campaigns were able to reach a large amount of people,
there was difficulty in tracking the success rate of our campaigns for signup conversions. All
things considered, SunWork can potentially provide their own financial loaning service and
expand their target market to cover homeowners who spend less than $100 on their electric
bill while also making more than $75,000 (lower bound of highest income bracket)
collectively.
Limitations
1. Time Table
Immediately upon partnering with SunWork we were faced with a narrow timeframe and an
ambitious goal. Given that the Santa Clara Solar Rebate ends June 30th, 2018, and the Sustain
Your Abilities team could only operate until June 14th, we had to quickly design and execute a
marketing strategy that would accomplish our goals in the four weeks following our first
meeting with SunWork. This was not the most difficult part of the overall operation but it
certainly put a strain on the quality and quantity of our results.
2. Lack of Data
When starting our consulting work for SunWork we were made aware of certain target
demographics who would be most likely to invest in solar panels for their homes. SunWork
does installations for homes with electric bills amounting to $100 or less per month so we
knew we would also be limited to this group of people. The obstacle we encountered when
planning our marketing campaign was that, though we knew the demographics we wanted to
target, we did not know where to find the desired population. This resulted in us having to
decrease the accuracy and reliability of our goals as we did not have enough data to pinpoint
locations where out marketing campaign could have maximum effect.
3. Other Obstacles
Another obstacle we faced was not having an entry strategy into Santa Clara County.
The Sustain Your Abilities team was given some direction in how to go about
promoting the solar rebate such as getting a story in the local paper. Unfortunately, our
efforts to follow this example were defeated as the local papers did not have room for
our story. As a result our main strategy was replaced by smaller tactics of using
broadcast media and posting flyers to promote the solar rebate.
Recommendations
1. Client
Working with Sunwork has allowed us to bring an outsider perspective to their foundation.
This gives us an advantage to see where Sunwork can make improvements in their practices
further their success and increase their number of solar panel installations or other goals that
they may have. What we found was that Sunwork has trouble exposing their foundation and
cause to new and potential customers. Many residents in Santa Clara county do not know if
their houses are eligible for Solar. What our consulting group proposes is giving free solar
consultation to people that are interested in potentially having solar. They should also
campaign to let locals know that they are giving free checks and quotes by tabling at local
community gatherings.
Sunwork should also focus on their media. They could make updated social media pages,
targeted ads, or other content that could get the word about their program out more efficiently
than meeting face to face with people.
2. Future Groups
If a future group plans on continuing our work, our consulting group could help them establish
a effective and efficient plan to assist Sunwork in their endeavours. We would recommend
that they take similar steps that our team took. They should meet with the client immediately
and fully understand what the client needs and their current state and plans to achieve their
goals. They should also meet with the client as much as possible in order to avoid any
confusion.
We would also recommend to future groups to follow up with emails to gauge true interest
and have follow up information ready to help persuade people to go solar. Another thing that
our consulting group wish we did was work closer to the sustainability center. We used them
as a resource, but not to their full potential. It would be beneficial for future groups to take
advantage of any resources they have at their disposal.
Appendices
Email Correspondence with Mike Balma to initiate the marketing proposal
Email List of Inquiries and Interests