Welcome to BECC Workshops and Solutions Sessions. This is the place for attendees who want to take it a layer deeper and dig into problem solving in real time and engage in spaces that offer shared learning, skills building, and outcomes driven dialogues.

We all attend conferences to learn, but really, how many times do you leave a conference equipped with something to implement when you get back to your day job? BECC Workshops and Solutions Sessions are designed to achieve just that!

BECC WORKSHOPS

Monday, November 8th
6:00pm – 7:30pm

WORKSHOP #1:

How to Convince Conservatives and Liberals to Act:

Featuring Caroly Shumway, Center for Behavior and Climate and former congressman Bob Inglis, republicEN.org

Although the majority of respondents in a global survey say that climate change should be a ‘high” or “very high” priority (Leiserowitz et al., 2021), the public’s concern is still not reflected in personal or societal action. How can we motivate people to act, individually and collectively, to counter our climate emergency? How can we go beyond preaching to the choir? Which messages resonate with conservatives, liberals, or both groups? In this skills session, a Democratic behavioral scientist and a former Republican Congressman and Executive Director of RepublicanEn will share evidence-based behavioral and communication principles and case studies to help you embolden both liberals and conservatives to climate action. From habits to social pressures to psychological reactance to worldview, we’ll show you the tools to counter barriers to action.   The workshop will address such issues as how:

  • Free-market principles and innovation play into conservatives’ support of climate action;
  • Someone’s worldview affects their response to climate change, and what you can do about it;
  • To change someone’s habits, such as their food choices, transportation, or energy use;
  • To use social influence to change how people consume energy;
  • To counter behavioral biases in policy creation and implementation; and
  • To tailor climate action messages through framing to reach across partisan divides.

SPEAKERS BIOS

 

Caroly Shumway, Ph.D. serves as the Director for the Center for Behavior and Climate. Dr. Shumway is passionate about making a difference on climate change through education, inspired by her grandfather, Dr. Roger Revelle, one of the earliest scientists recognizing human impacts on CO2. Caroly works to advance the study and use of behavioral science in the climate change field, enhance climate action and climate literacy, and educate climate professionals. Current courses include behavior change for climate action, regenerative agriculture, climate change and the oceans, and how climate change impacts to the Arctic affect us all. Upcoming climate change education efforts include scaling up behavior change for climate action, behavior change for climate adaptation, and nature-based solutions to climate adaptation. Trained in the study of brain and behavior, she wrote about the need to consider behavior in conservation over twenty years ago and has applied behavior change in stormwater messaging, value-based conservation, and aquarium exhibit design. Caroly has 25 years of experience in behavior change, sustainable development, natural resource management and conservation, policy, research, and outreach in Africa, Asia, South Pacific, and the U.S., working in government, nonprofits, and academia. In 2016-2017, she was USAID’s Chief Scientist for the Global Development Lab, Senior Science Advisor to USAID’s Administrator, and Director of the Center for Development Research; she has also been Executive Director of three environmental nonprofits and held senior positions at The Nature Conservancy and the New England Aquarium. Caroly received a BA in Biology from Wellesley College, a Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography, and was a postdoctoral research fellow at Caltech, Boston University, and the Marine Biological Lab. She is a recipient of the Capranica Award in Neuroethology and author of 27 publications.

 

Bob Inglis is the Executive Director of republicEn.org. He was elected to the U.S. Congress in 1992 until 1998, and from 2004-2010, representing Greenville-Spartanburg, South Carolina    .  In 2011, Bob went full-time into promoting free enterprise action on climate change, launching the Energy andEnterprise Initiative (“E&EI”) at George Mason  University. In 2014, E&EI rebranded to becomerepublicEn.org. For his work on climate change, Bob was given the 2015 John F. Kennedy Profile inCourage Award. He appears in the film Merchants of Doubt and in the Showtime series YEARS of Living Dangerously (episodes 3 and 4), and he’s spoken at TEDxBeaconStreet and TEDxJacksonville. Bob was a Resident Fellow at Harvard University’s Institute of Politics, a Visiting Energy Fellow at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment, and Resident Fellow at the University of Chicago’s Institute of Politics. Bob went to Duke University, married his college sweetheart, graduated from the University of Virginia School of Law, and practiced commercial real estate law in Greenville, S.C., before and between his years in Congress. He and his wife live on a small farm in South Carolina.

 

 

Kim M. Kelly Ph.D., BCBA, LBA, LABA is a Senior Behavior Analyst with Behavior Development Solutions and adjunct faculty at Antioch New England in Keene NH, where she has taught since 2009. Her interests include effective teaching in higher education and eLearning, teaching behavior analysis, applying behavior change principles and strategies to combat societal problems such as the climate emergency, and research-based policy development. Dr. Kelly is the past president of the New Hampshire Association of Behavior Analysis and has 40 years of experience working in the non-profit sector with diverse populations. She has presented at local and national conferences, conducted numerous workshops and trainings, and has published in professional journals as well as co-authored a book chapter.

As one of the founders of a multi-state, non-profit human services organization, Dr. Kelly spent much of her career in community settings developing services for children and adults with severe problem behaviors and working with governmental and regulatory agencies to address systemic issues encountered when supporting difficult to serve people. Dr. Kelly received her undergraduate degree from the University of Minnesota and her M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Vermont.

 

 

Chelsea Henderson serves as Director of Editorial Content for republicEN.org, a community of pro-climate solution conservatives, and hosts the podcast the EcoRight Speaks. With nearly twenty-five years of experience striking bipartisan compromise on federal climate and environmental policy, Chelsea has worked on and off Capitol Hill with lawmakers, administration officials, and a broad array of stakeholders from the regulated community to environmentalists. Her essays have been published in the Washington Post, the Baltimore Sun, the Hill, the Portland Press Herald, and several other publications under her name and her clients’ names.

Prior to her current gig, Chelsea was executive vice president at McBee Strategic Consulting, where she provided advocacy services to a diverse portfolio of Fortune 500 companies, innovative start-ups, non-profits and investors advancing new energy technologies. Previously she was a partner and senior associate for Vela Environmental where she advised clients on federal legislative and administrative efforts pertaining to energy policy and climate change.

Chelsea served as senior policy advisor for Senator John Warner during his effort to enact climate change legislation and as professional staff to the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. In her free time, she writes novels, teaches yoga, and parents her perpetually hungry teenage boys. A graduate of Boston University’s College of Liberal Arts and School of Education, she hails from both California and Maine.

 

WORKSHOP #2:

Speaking up during lockdown: What utility customers expect after COVID

In this interactive session, we’ll share E Source’s findings from our COVID-19 Residential Surveys where we asked US and Canada utility customers to discuss their thoughts on how their utilities have responded to the pandemic. Join us as we explore nuances in customer opinions based on at-risk customers due to the pandemic and learn about their interests in utility billing and payment – and energy-efficiency – programs and services. We’ll showcase successful utility marketing & communications plans from 2020-2021, to show how you can plan to better address these customers’ needs moving forward. Walk away with valuable data insights and campaign strategy best practices to inform your 2022 customer engagement and communications tactics, supporting your customers while hitting your overall corporate and program goals.

SPEAKERS BIOS

Jessica Bailis is a Solution Director at E Source, helping utilities use our content and research to meet their marketing and corporate communications goals. Prior to coming to E Source in 2018, she led

marketing initiatives at a solar installation company in New York and developed residential and business campaigns for lead generation, customer engagement, and corporate branding. Jessica has 15 years of

digital marketing and public relations experience and specializes in social marketing, email marketing, and marketing automation. Jessica holds a BS in television-radio with a concentration in advertising and public relations from Ithaca College.

 

Sarah Baker is part of the market research team. Sarah designs, implements, and analyzes market research studies. Her areas of expertise include business customer satisfaction research, E Design analysis, marketing, smart technologies, and customer experience. Prior to joining E Source, Sarah created and implemented email campaigns for the insurance industry and conducted market research for the consumer-packaged goods industry. Sarah earned her BS in strategic communications with a minor in Business at the University of Kansas.

 

WORKSHOP #3:

Building Coalitions for Climate Impacts—Moving Passion and Conversation into ACTION

Miss the conversations, connections, and resulting innovations that come from in-person and informal discussions (at the hotel bar, for example)? This workshop is for you! Attendees will connect and share resources, find commonalities in barriers and challenges, workshop value propositions for climate resilience efforts, understand policy implications, and more.

Join your peers from nonprofits, local governments, community-based organizations, and more to connect, brainstorm, and move passion and conversations about climate resilience into ACTION.

SPEAKER BIO

 

Melanie Peck, Director of Workforce, Education & Training, The Energy Coalition

Melanie has over fifteen years of diverse experience working with nonprofits, state and local governments, public agencies, and residents all working toward a healthy environmental future. She designs and delivers equity-focused commercial, residential, public agency, and cross-cutting workforce, education, and training programs throughout the state. She holds a B.A. in Political Science from Cal State University Fullerton, graduate work in Urban and Regional Planning from the University of New Orleans, and a Masters in Public Administration (MPA) and Organizational Development from Brandman University.

 

SOLUTIONS SESSIONS: Tuesday, November 9, 2021

No pre-registration required
Conferences aren’t merely a space to learn or share. It’s a space to solve! Join your fellow BECC Attendees to collectively grapple and brainstorm solutions to real world challenges. BECC brings together a global collective of leading researchers, advocates and scientists. Who better to tackle the pressing challenges in real time to advance change? Tap into the collective experience of BECC Attendees and help solve some of the real-world challenges we face in this moment. Our Solutions Sessions are the platform. You are the solution.

Solution Session 1)

BECC Solutions Session, Help Solve a Real-World Problem for the National Center for Appropriate Technology: Solar Power in Rural America 

We need your help! This year at BECC, we want to gather thought leaders from across our industries to brainstorm potential solutions to a real-world climate issue: encouraging solar adoption in rural America. 

Mid- to large-scale solar developments in rural areas are an important component of plans for reducing American greenhouse gas emissions. The National Center for Appropriate Technology (NCAT) is working to create a clearinghouse of agrisolar information for landowners interested in installing these solar generation facilities. However, rural landowners often oppose and attempt to block these developments due to misunderstandings, political barriers and cultural perspectives. How can rural landowners be encouraged to embrace, welcome and even demand new solar installations, as opposed to protest them? Work together to develop an evidence-based solution to this problem, leveraging what we know about human behavior and the factors that motivate it. 

During this Solutions Session, participants and panelists will work together to help NCAT brainstorm behavior change interventions that can affect real impact. The goal will be to develop ideas for methods to encourage rural landowners to accept solar installations when they are installed nearby. The session will be led by Dr. Reuven Sussman (American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy), with expert panelists Dr. Cindy Frantz and Kady Cowan. The problem will be presented by Dr. Stacie Peterson from NCAT, and participants will have a chance to ask questions and work together to brainstorm behaviorally-informed solutions. Join us and help turn research into action!

Speakers:

  • Problem Presenter: Dr. Stacie Peterson, National Center for Appropriate Technology
  • Expert Panelists:
    • Dr. Cindy Frantz, Professor of Psychology and Environmental Studies at Oberlin College
      Dr. Frantz’ research focuses on finding ways to communicate about climate change that promote systems thinking and sustainable behavior change.  Frantz also directs the Community Based Social Marketing Research Project, a collaborative research program between faculty, students and staff to develop, test and promote behavior change programs that reduce Oberlin College’s carbon emissions.
    • Kady Cowan, Sustainability Services
      Kady is Founder and Chief Transformation Officer at Sustainability Services a small consulting firm in Toronto Canada. Previously, Kady led the Energy Business Partnerships team at the Independent Electricity System Operator (IESO) in Ontario, was Director of Environmental Sustainability Solutions at Atrium Health in Charlotte, North Carolina one of the largest public, not-for-profit hospital systems in the U.S. and also served as a Sustainability Leader at University Health Network (UHN) in Toronto for almost a decade. Kady amplifies climate and health sustainability with: cohesive and inclusive strategic capacity building, ecosystem thinking, and organizational learning. Kady works at the leading edge of sustainable behavior and low carbon innovation within commercial and institutional settings.
  • Moderator: Dr. Reuven Sussman, ACEEE
    Dr. Sussman conducts research on energy efficiency behavior change and co-chairs the annual conference on Behavior, Energy and Climate Change (BECC). He has written on the psychology of climate change, behavioral interventions to encourage energy efficiency, and the psychological determinants of pro-environmental behavior. Dr. Sussman has been an advisor for organizations, including the G20, that implement energy efficiency behavior change programs. Reuven is an adjunct professor and member of the Faculty of Graduate Studies at the University of Victoria (Canada). He is the winner of the 2019 Early Career Award from the Environmental, Population and Conservation Psychology division of the American Psychological Association, and currently sits on the editorial board of the Journal of Environmental Psychology and Journal of Social Psychology. Dr. Sussman earned a Doctor of Science in social and environmental psychology from the University of Victoria.

Tuesday, November 9, 2021 at 4:15pm-5:30pm ET. For more information, please contact Dr. Reuven Sussman at rsussman@aceee.org.

 

Solution Session 2)

BECC Solution Session, Where to Start? Taking the First Steps on a Behavior-Centered Design Journey

Hosted by Kate Williamson, Rare

Interested in encouraging behavior change for environmental challenges? It can be hard to know where to start. At Rare’s Center for Behaviorand the Environment, we use an approach called Behavior-Centered Design (BCD), a blend of behavioral science and design thinking, to provide an eight-step journey for designing behavior change solutions. In this short skills session, trainers from our team using lecture, case studies, and hands-on activities through the first two steps of BCD.