Achievements
In 2008, the Apollo Alliance marked these achievements:
New Apollo Program
In October 2008 The Apollo Alliance held town hall meetings in six states to introduce The New Apollo Program, a comprehensive national economic strategy founded on the principles of clean energy and good jobs. The carefully constructed plan calls for investing $500 billion over the next ten years on specific steps for generating clean power, improving energy conservation and efficiency, cutting energy bills, restoring America’s technological and industrial preeminence, and creating 5 million high-quality jobs. Culminating a year of intensive research, The New Apollo Program charts a path to new prosperity through an American landscape buffeted by high energy prices, stagnant wages, widespread foreclosures, institutional collapses, and dangerously warming temperatures.
The New Apollo Program sets out specific steps the nation must take to scale up and accelerate the development of the clean energy, good jobs economy. The publication of the national economic development strategy was supported by the most comprehensive and sophisticated communications and dissemination strategy in the organization’s history. The pieces included the publication and printing of a 24-page full color strategy and a 4-page full color summary, reporting 12 signature stories from across the country that illustrate the dimensions of the clean energy, good jobs economy, the development of an interactive online map that features the 12 articles, and recruiting mainstream and new media attention to the strategy.
The Alliance also held a high-profile event at the Democratic National Convention in Denver, which attracted over 400 guests. And we marketed the strategy at the Republican National Convention in St. Paul, Minn.
Green-Collar Jobs In America’s Cities
In 2008, the Apollo Alliance published another major report: Green-Collar Jobs in America’s Cities. Published in March, the report identified the growth of training programs across the United States and set out specific steps cities can take to develop new ways to train the next generation of green-collar workers. The report was supported by an on and offline news release, a news conference in Pittsburgh, several events that explored the report’s findings. The Alliance has published has distributed 25,000 copies of the print report. It’s been downloaded more than 10,000 times from the Web site, and has prompted dozens of media interviews since publication.
Newark’s Green Future Summit
Held on September 12-13, 2008, Newark’s Green Future Summit was the first time a predominantly African American city decided to comprehensively pursue a new development strategy based on clean energy and creating green-collar jobs. The summit, which the Apollo Alliance and the City of Newark planned and organized in collaboration with a number of other national and local organizations, heard from many of the top national experts in sustainable development. The summit’s intent: Helping Newark transform itself into a national showcase of how to solve poverty and joblessness, respond to serious public health concerns, and engage new business activity around energy-efficient, resource-conserving, and pollution-reducing tools, equipment, and practices. First announced in September 2007 at the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, the summit reflected Mayor Cory Booker’s commitment to executing some of the green development strategies that have proven to work in other cities.The communications and dissemination strategy that the Apollo Alliance deployed prior to, during, and after the summit were:
1. Organizing and holding the two-day event at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, and attracting more than 300 participants.
2. An on and offline news advisory and a separate news release, prepared in collaboration with Newark’s public affairs officers, that was disseminated to new and mainstream media, and attracted strong broadcast and print coverage.
3. Apollo Alliance reporting and videotaping of the event, posted on the Apollo Web site on a dedicated Green Future Summit page.
4. Continuing coverage of follow-up activities on the Apollo Weekly Update and Apollo Blog.
Washington State Climate Action and Green Jobs Act
In March 2008 Governor Christine Gregoire signed the first statewide legislation to link global warming solutions with opportunities to invest in workforce development in the growing clean energy sector. The Washington State Apollo Alliance was instrumental in galvanizing support for the new statute.
Communications
In an era marked by the declining ability and interest of the mainstream media to tackle complex issues, the Apollo Alliance understands the imperative of telling its own story. In doing so, principally online, but also in mainstream articles and broadcasts that feature our work, and a series of our own print reports and well-attended public events, Apollo is reaching a large national audience of citizens and decision makers. We also are simultaneously framing the various facets of the clean energy, good jobs economy for the new and mainstream media.
Quoted Often and At Length
Evidence of our ability to be seen and heard is readily apparent. Apollo’s board, staff, and supporters, as well as our online articles, videos, and features have become credible and prominent source of news and commentary in the mainstream and new media. The Apollo Alliance is among the most quoted, cited, and featured progressive policy organizations in the nation.
Web Site
The Apollo Alliance Web site is the organization’s principal tool for accomplishing multiple communications objectives. The Apollo Web site, recently redesigned to be more graphically interesting and easier to manage, attracts 90,000 visitors and more than 200,000 page views monthly. Both figures are triple what they were in February 2008. The Apollo Web site features these online assets:
1. Apollo Weekly Update: An email-alert to as many as 82,000 supporters nationally, and generally opened by 25 to 30 percent of recipients weekly.
2. Apollo Daily Digest: A succinct and topical compendium of news, commentary, events, items of interest to people interested in developments in the clean energy, good jobs sector. Posted on the home page and emailed daily to a growing list of subscribers.
3. Apollo Blog: Regular publication of events, items, and news of interest with an Apollo perspective.
4. Data Points: Succinct compendium of current facts about specific facets of the clean energy, good jobs economy. Recent Data Points include details of clean energy job numbers and where they exist, investment patterns in clean energy sectors, and transportation spending.
5. Rapid Response Talking Points: Facts and perspective from the Apollo Alliance to partners, news media, policy makers intended to reply quickly to breaking news events, disseminated in email alerts, to media and Alliance partners, and posted on the Apollo Blog.
6. Original reporting, commentary, signature stories: Text pieces, accompanied by photographs, produced by staff and freelance writers, that disclose new facts, faces, and places in support of the clean energy, good jobs message. Generally posted once a week to the home page.
7. Apollo Productions: Multi-media, videos, Power Points, sound slides, interactive maps, motion graphics that are produced by Apollo for dissemination on and offline, supporting speakers and events.
8. Apollo Feedback: Dispatches from Apollo supporters posted once weekly to the Web site in a letter to the editor format.
Online Engagement
Apollo actively engages its supporters and partners with email and other action tools. We send a weekly Update of our activity to the Apollo email list that numbers up to 100,000 addresses nationally. In addition we directly engage our supporters with appeals for direct action to alert policy makers, to sign petitions, to secure funding, and for other directives and appeals. One important outcome for Apollo is the ability to sign up new members of our coalition. This year alone we have added thousands of new supporters who are involved and regularly participate in our clean energy, good jobs campaign.
