SEIA and Calvert Street Group: Summer Webinar Series

By Sami Jones, Digital and Communications Coordinator

On Friday, July 17th, Calvert Street Group’s managing director, Darden Copeland and digital director, Lucy Fulliton participated in Solar Energy Industries Association’s Summer Webinar Series: Solar Leading the Recovery. The series features discussions on the ever-changing solar industry and new learnings during COVID-19.  

Our colleagues discussed the strategy and importance of building community support around land-use projects. Community members, if not given the proper information about a new project in their community may develop “not in my backyard” (NIMBY) opposition against a project. Calvert Street Groups stressed the significance of defining your project before your opponent defines you.  

Top takeaways from the discussion:  

• Start early - define and tell your unique store. 

• Educating and gaining community support is key for project success.  

• Pick the grassroots tactics that have the highest return for your project.  

• Do not waste your resources on trying to change the opposition group’s mind.  

• Educate those who haven’t made their mind up yet.  

• Nothing will replace hard work on engaging the community, it will pay off in the long run.  

Thank you to SEIA for allowing Calvert Street Group to share our expertise on grassroots coalition building for solar energy and other land use projects. At Calvert Street Group we help you control the message and win.