Rewards & Recognition

 

Keep your participants excited by rewarding and recognizing efforts

Recognize participants for their efforts early and often to keep them excited and advocating for the program. Rewards and recognition provide opportunities for participants to reach new customers or clients and to more actively engage others in their community. When innovation is recognized, participants are constantly challenged to raise the bar, which spurs implementation.

For example, the ABBC recognized Mark Gallman, a building maintenance manager with Highwoods Properties. Recognizing individual engineers can spark champions for the program and engages those who are involved with managing the implementation work. Recognizing engineers and EE (or water efficiency) professionals sometimes gives them more of a say in decision making.

Based on the ABBC experience, a city’s BC should consider the following with regards to rewards and recognition:

icon-success

Elements of Success

Create categories for recognition
Be creative in recognizing participants and the stages or accomplishments that garner recognition. Examples include highlighting innovative projects and most significant increase in ENERGY STAR Score.

Go public
Lobby banners or marketing material for lobbies and public spaces create community recognition for participants. Be creative – consider ways to engage local artists to create pieces for top performers.Leverage media coverage
Use media to highlight participants, especially your top performers.

Build highlight case studies
Develop case studies to use for media, presentations and as part of the participant’s won marketing.

Partner with Municipal leadership
It is important to have municipal leadership for participants. It is a real motivator to get civic recognition, like a letter from your mayor or being invited to join a city awards ceremony.

Provide peer showcase opportunities
Use hosting events as a platform for recognition for the host. Hosting an education event gathers the participant’s peers in their location.

Highlight individuals
Don’t forget about recognizing individual engineers or building operators. The impact can be huge as this is a group not often highlighted.

Offer national recognition
If you are participating in a program that is part of a national effort, recognition at that level is also important to raise the profile of your municipality or organization.

Recognition is a motivator for new projects
When innovation is recognized, participants are constantly challenged to raise the bar, which spurs implementation.

  • Make letters of recognition from municipal leaders feel like awards – provide framed copies that participants can display in lobbies and public areas.