When I found SmartPower on the web the first thing I did was try and get a job with them. That is how impressed I was with the job they are doing. Unfortunately for me they didn’t have any positions open at the time, but they did agree to answer ten questions for me so that I could share their mission with The Sietch readers. SmartPower is a nationwide, non-profit marketing campaign that is leading the effort to promote clean energy – electricity from sources such as wind, solar and water. I was lucky enough to exchange a couple emails with Mike Garofalo the communications director for SmartPower.

1.The Naib: Could you tell me about your organizations?

Mike Garofalo: SmartPower is a national, non-profit marketing organization that promotes clean energy (solar, wind, or small hydro) use by the public and municipalities. We don’t sell any products or “push” consumers to chose one particular provider or towards any one type of clean energy. We just try to get the public to understand that purchasing clean energy as part of the electricity that they purchase from current electricity their providers is a great thing to do – it helps the environment and makes us more energy independent. And it’s just as reliable as any other form of energy.

We are like the “got milk” campaign. We educate people about how easy it is to use clean energy and about the benefits of it. We have had operations in 8 states so far and to date over 15,000 residents have signed up for clean energy because of our efforts. How did it start, interesting facts about it, etc? We were originally funded in 2002 by 5 charitable foundations who understood that no one was telling the public that clean energy was real, was available and was as reliable as any other form of energy. So that’s how SmartPower got started and that’s been our mission to this point.

Continue reading 10 Questions – Mike Garofalo Communications Director SmartPower →