Posts Tagged hybrid
“NEW YORK–The car of the future is here, at least according to Ford, which unveiled its first all-electric car today with glitzy events here in New York and in Las Vegas.
Unlike its competitors, Ford will roll out its electric vehicle as a new version of an existing model, the popular Ford Focus. In a further move to distinguish itself from the field, the Focus will be available not just as an all-electric car, but also as a hybrid, a plug-in hybrid, and as a conventional gas engine vehicle.”
Ford Unveils New All-Electric Focus via Amy Lee at Huffington Post
Washington, D.C. – November 22, 2010 Green Festival hosted more than 30,000 socially and environmentally conscious participants on October 23 – 24, to celebrate what’s working in regional communities and engage in solutions to create a cleaner, greener and more socially-responsible world.
A project of Green America and Global Exchange, two leading non profit organizations dedicated to environmental and social justice for more than twenty-six years, Green Festival serves as a foundation to explore and build sustainable solutions to benefit communities and the environment, discover new environmentally-friendly products and practices and connect with like minded individuals from all over the nation.
Green Festival stimulated the green economy by giving back $20,000 to more than 300 local, regional and national sustainable businesses through the new “GF Bucks” admissions policy.
Also, new this fall, Green Festival gave 10,000 free tickets, a $150,000 value, to local non profit organizations and asked community members to give back to their local communities in exchange for free admission.
Green Festival’s new admissions policy, “Pay it Forward, Get it Back at Green Festival,” engaged community members with 10 local non profit organizations to create year-round community engagement. These non profit allies engaged with new volunteers and donors by providing free Green Festival admission as incentive. The Washington Area Bicyclist Association (WABA) raised over $800 in new membership fees through their promotional ticket offers.
“We are very excited to be a Green Festival nonprofit ally, and really appreciated tickets to reward our members and reach out to new people,” said WABA Membership and Development Coordinator Jenn Bress. “We marketed the promotion through Facebook, Twitter and the new WABA blog and as a result, recruited not only valuable funds to strengthen WABA, but most of all, a brand new generation of bicycling enthusiasts!”
Programming highlights of the weekend included inspiring presentations from Ralph Nader, Amy Goodman of Democracy Now! and Corporate Innovator Ford’s Sustainable Business Strategies Director, John Viera. Participants had the opportunity to test drive Ford’s newest line of hybrid vehicles, including the Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid outside of the convention center.
Additional fun highlights included stellar performances from local musicians, a fun and interesting Old Timey Seed Swap in the Mother Earth News Fair Pavilion and stylish, high energy eco-fashion runway shows featuring adult couture, teens, kids clothing and green weddings.
Green Festival partnered with T-Mobile to recycle old, unused cell phones in exchange for free admission. T-Mobile representatives were thrilled to report that an impressive 960 cell phones were collected at Green Festival for recycling, as well as a large amount of phone accessories, such as wall and car chargers.
Recycling cell phones is incredibly important, as it aids the recycling of energy and preserves a significant amount of precious resource metals, including gold, silver, copper and palladium.
In a continuing commitment to green event management, Green Festival diverted over 8,000 lb. of waste over the weekend, for a 94% percent diversion rate. Only 540 lb. of waste went to landfill. In 2009, almost 15,000 lb. of waste was diverted and 1,000 lb. went to landfill.
The 2010 resource recovery rate from Washington DC Green Festival represents a sizeable decrease in the overall ecological footprint of the event and an encouraging increase in efficiency of waste management.
Special thanks to: Bgreen, Honest Tea, MOM’s, Corporate Innovator Ford andWUSA.
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About Green America
Green America is a national nonprofit organization founded in 1982, providing the economic strategies, organizing power and practicing tools for businesses and individuals to address today’s social and environmental problems. Its Green Business Network is the largest national network of businesses screened for their social and environmental responsibility. www.greenamericatoday.org
About Global Exchange
Global Exchange is a membership-based international human rights organization dedicated to promoting social, economic and environmental justice around the world. Since its founding in 1988, Global Exchange has successfully increased public awareness of root causes of injustice while building international partnerships and mobilizing for change. www.globalexchange.org
About Seven-Star, Inc.
Seven-Star, Inc. is the nation’s premier green full-service event company focusing exclusively on green events. Since 1999, Seven-Star has provided turn-key green event services for environmentally Responsible and socially Respectful (eR/sR) festivals, trade and consumer expositions, conferences and concerts. From the greening of the 2007 International Live Earth events, to the 2008 Democratic National Convention events, to producing the nation’s largest consumer Green Festivals, Seven-Star has defined itself as the company for eR/sR event production. Seven-Star is the first event company to have won the EPA’s Gold Waste Wise Award for Excellence in recognition for their proprietary system of event waste diversion, which has consistently achieved greater than 85%. www.sevenstarevents.com
Los Angeles, CA – November 18, 2010 Ford is the inaugural winner of the first-ever Nielsen Automotive Green Marketer of the Year award. The award was presented today by The Nielsen Company at the Los Angeles International Auto Show in recognition of the brand that made the greatest strides in gaining consumer awareness and positively shifting consumer perceptions for their environmentally friendly marketing initiatives.
Ford has built significant awareness over the past year around their hybrid vehicles and fuel-efficient cars with key campaigns for Fiesta and Fusion Hybrid, as well as their Drive One 2.0 brand ads featuring hybrids and miles-per-gallon (MPG) related ads. In addition, Ford’s official sponsorship of Fox’s reality show American Idol, which put specific emphasis on the hybrid offerings, has helped drive increased awareness of their green message among millions of people every week. Last season, American Idol’s popular Ford Music Video Challenge, in which exclusive Ford music videos aired each week, featured the Fusion Hybrid and Escape Hybrid among other vehicles, successfully grabbing the attention of consumers. Meanwhile, the company continued to break ground in social media with the launch of new apps aimed at expanding its reach to a new class of prospective car-buyers.
“The Automotive Green Marketer of the Year award is not just about great creative, although we all know that’s a crucial element of any effective ad campaign,” said Lois Miller, President, Nielsen Automotive. “However, this is bigger than one creative. This award is for the auto marketer who was most effective at leveraging its brand to further the ‘green’ movement and create positive awareness for all the auto industry is doing to drive fuel-efficiency and eco-friendly practices. This was best exemplified by Ford.”
Methodology
To determine the finalists and winner of the Automotive Green Marketer of the Year, Nielsen leveraged three research studies – a cross-media survey, and separate analyses of data on TV advertising effectiveness and social media “buzz.” These three studies were then analyzed to understand awareness levels and perceptions for ‘green’ auto marketing across media types. Auto manufacturers that ran any national TV ads with “green” themes between October 2009 and September 2010 were eligible for consideration.
In the cross-media survey of nearly 7,000 U.S. consumers, Nielsen found that 85% of consumers said they recalled seeing a ‘green’ auto ad recently and, on average across the 23 brands measured, 67% of consumers said they had a more positive opinion of green marketing after seeing the ad. Further to that, 41% of consumers said the ad increased their consideration to buy the featured vehicle.
As TV continues to be an important medium for auto marketers, Nielsen analyzed its TV ad effectiveness data for green automotive ads based on the reactions of 2.5 million TV viewers who had seen the ads. Nielsen found that green auto ads resonated better than the average auto ad with 12% higher Message Recall, the percentage in which a viewer can recall an ad, the brand or vehicle featured in the ad, and the green message conveyed.
Nielsen also examined consumer sentiment through social media, a key emerging platform for auto marketing. With nearly 60,000 messages analyzed for auto brands, consumers view their green auto marketing efforts in a positive light with 12 times more positive “buzz” than negative.
The remaining four finalists for Automotive Green Marketer of the Year included:
* Chevrolet, whose highly-anticipated Volt launch has generated much consumer interest and discussion around their green offerings;
* Honda, which is still generally associated with fuel efficiency, garnered attention this year with its notable use of 3-D technology in ads;
* Mercedes-Benz, whose new diesel-electric hybrid S-400 debuted at last year’s LA Auto Show and was launched on television during the Academy Awards; and
* Toyota, which leveraged the strong launch work behind the Prius from mid-2009 and saw strong returns from these ads at the end of the year and for their other Prius initiatives.
“Looking at all automotive brands in the study, the five nominees rose to the top across the three studies,” said Miller. “They gained the most awareness and positive perceptions from consumers around their green marketing initiatives. Ultimately, in a challenged economic environment, this was no small feat.”
Via Nielsen.com
D.C. Celebrates Science and Sustainability by Josh Marks via Green D.C.
The Fortune 500 at GreenFest: Talk About Mainstream Green! by Lynn Anne Miller via 4GreenP’s
Free admission to the Green Festival on October 23 and 24 via Examiner.com by Jamie Hardin.