Events:
Partnering for Sustainability – Success Stories
Bullfrog Power – as presented by Tom Heintzman, President
Bullfrog Power is Ontario’s first 100% green electricity retailer. It works with renewable energy suppliers to provide consumers with an ecologically sound mix of energy alternatives. All of the company’s power is sourced from 100% renewable EcoLogo certified generation, primarily wind power and low-impact hydro facilities. Bullfrog Power has 3 types of partnerships:
Partnerships with Suppliers: Bullfrog works with many large and small renewable energy suppliers. In order to have an effective partnership with Bullfrog, the supplier needs to have some financial strength or independence. They must be open to equity contributions, and must have the vision to see potential in the opportunity that exists in partnering with Bullfrog while the company is still beginning. Trust is also very important.
Partnerships with Communication Partners: Bullfrog has partnered with many groups for communications and marketing purposes, including the World Wildlife Fund. This partnership promotes conservation and encourages renewable energy production.
- A strong relationship in advance of the partnership is very helpful.
- You need to have commonalities of interest.
- Cooperation and each partner’s level of involvement is often unstructured at first but it can evolve over time as groups agree on what will work for both parties and what won’t.
- It is important that the partnership have commonality of mission and objectives. The commonality of means can develop as partners become more comfortable with one another.
Partnerships with Customers: Bullfrog supplies commercial and residential customers with clean energy.
Partnership Tips for working with corporate customers:- Partnerships are viable to the extent that they provide opportunities for cooperation, impact on brands and deliver value.
- Corporate clients prefer to see a host of means to cooperate, rather than only one or two.
- A corporate client will want to see the value gained at the end of the day quantified (in terms of customers, dollars, or media space).
- Very clear contracts are needed, along with multiple points of contact with senior management, open discussion and understanding of how each partner will be referred to, an alignment of interests, and verification of procedures.
2 themes run through all these partnerships:
1) The need to align and clearly define objectives.
2) The need for trust as well as a risk-management approach in case trust is violated. Many factors lead to trust: Pre-existing relationships, strong references, a proven track record, verification procedures, and shared loss in the partnership venture.
Link back to Partnerships home