Powering Climate Action

With the goal of spreading their movement across California, the US, and beyond, the nonprofit needed messaging and a brand that communicates their market positioning, and a scalable site that inspires people to join the movement.

A project of the Romero Institute—a site also designed and developed by Cosmic—this new organization needed to quickly capture the attention of potential donors, partners, activists, along with partner organizations, and persuade them to take action.

Strong Messaging and Visual Identity

Working to pass strong Community Choice Energy (CCE) legislation and double renewable energy use throughout California, we had to be careful to correctly position them as an organization forming local coalitions, mobilizing public support for CCEs, and partnering with large, established organizations to implement planet-friendly power. We needed to be sure that people don’t think that they are an energy company.

A Robust Zip Code Search Function

Greenpower runs multiple overlapping campaigns. It was important to the team that site visitors would be able to enter their zip code and find all of the campaigns in their area, then quickly connect and get involved.

With a name as strong as Greenpower, we wanted to keep the focus of the logo on the name itself.

In addition to the primary wordmark, we also developed a simple crest for secondary use cases and an icon to be used in situations where the wordmark would be illegible.

One Earth, Many Actions

Since Greenpower is promoting the use of sustainable energy on many fronts, we worked with them to develop a tagline the reflected this multi-pronged approach and could incorporate nicely into the crest.

To avoid being mistaken for a power company, we sought imagery that conveys the power of nature—a concept more in alignment with Greenpower’s mission.

We built the site around a robust campaign search tool. Visitors enter their zip code on the homepage and find every campaign in their area, whether it’s based out of their church, their city, county, or region. They can then track the campaign, get updates, and see the impact they are having.

We worked with their team to develop the concept of Greenpower being a movement, in addition to being an organization. This immediately lets people know that Greenpower is action and results oriented. With regularly updated content, they are now a source for news and thoughtful articles on the renewable energy movement.

Greenpower’s efforts have contributed to the formation of Monterey Bay Community Power, a CCE created to provide locally-controlled, carbon-free electricity to residents and businesses in Monterey, San Benito and Santa Cruz Counties. Launched in March of 2017, the utility expects to begin serving customers in the spring of 2018.