ZiptoGreen is focused on America's untapped energy efficiency marketplace. Some 87 percent of 129 million households in the U.S. don't grasp the personal benefits of reducing home energy, according to a report by the National Resource Defense Council and Garrison Climate Mind Behavior Project. Some 15 percent of home energy costs could be cut quickly with low-cost energy efficiency solutions. But how do you capture the attention of busy and distracted consumers?
ZiptoGreen is an interactive, one-stop platform that overcomes the obstacles of engaging consumers in home energy reduction. Our user-friendly, comprehensive format focuses on the cost-saving benefits of energy efficiency. It provides the motivation and ongoing support consumers need to take action. It connects every consumer in America to every energy efficiency and renewable energy solution—products, services, tax incentives, information resources, utility programs and community initiatives—by ZIP Code.
Behavioral change solutions such as ZiptoGreen are now viewed as powerful "weapons of influence." CA Public Service Commission added behavioral change initiatives in 2010 to the state's arsenal of programming. Even so, more must be done to educate and engage consumers who are receiving conflicting messages about the issue’s importance and don’t understand the cost-saving benefits.
ZiptoGreen's revenue and marketing strategies are designed to engage consumers in energy efficiency and renewable energy solutions. Consumer engagement will build confidence in this marketplace with national retailers, utilities, small businesses and renewable energy marketers.
ZiptoGreen's robust database and Content Management System support strong revenue streams with international growth potential.
Management Team
Julia Glenn Carter – Founder, CEO & President, Director
Julia Glenn Carter founded ZiptoGreen in 2006 after observing the lack of Web-based residential energy efficiency solutions. She is responsible for ZiptoGreen’s conceptual design, business model and execution.
She also founded the Community Review and Community Journal newspapers in central DeKalb County, Georgia, where she served as publisher and editor in chief for 10 years. She then served as Editorial Director for Global Atlanta, an international online business publication serving the state. She was awarded two Excellence in Media awards from the Professional Association of Georgia Educators, an honorary recognition award from the Georgia Bar Association, and a Community Service Award in 2003 from the DeKalb League of Women Voters.
In 2004, she served as campaign manager for a U.S. Senatorial candidate, and in 2006 founded and developed an interactive website targeting university students for a Georgia gubernatorial candidate.
She is a member of Leadership DeKalb and Decatur Rotary, since 1997, and has served as a director for numerous community service organizations, including Decatur Rotary, the DeKalb Library Foundation and DeKalb Rape Crisis Center. She graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1983.
Don Turner – Chair, Board of Directors
Don Turner is an experienced business executive, entrepreneur, investor, and technology innovator who has served in senior executive roles such as Chairman, CEO, COO, and CTO. He currently serves as the Managing Director for Transverse Ventures, which is a globally integrated multi-service venture firm. Don has held executive leadership positions across industry verticals such as Internet/e-commerce, financial services/banking, healthcare/biotechnology, defense intelligence, and communications. He has provided executive leadership across functional areas such as business formation, strategic planning, business development, strategic partnership/JV formation, advanced R&D, new product/service launches, operations management, organizational development, mergers and acquisitions, and corporate compliance.
Don has also provided strategic and operational guidance for companies such as multi-billion dollar global corporations, international non-profit organizations, and early-stage business ventures. He has served on the Technical Advisory Board for Cisco Systems, Chaired the Technology Committee for the Mass. Biotechnology Council, and currently serves as a Chairman and board member for numerous startup ventures that are advancing innovations in social networking, adaptive marketing, loyalty management, voice biometrics, computational modeling, clean-tech, business data integration, business process outsourcing, and homeopathy. Don has been the recipient of numerous awards and honors, has spoken at industry events and executive gatherings, been a radio show guest, and held Top Secret clearances with the US Government.
Walt Bryde, CPA – CFO & Director
Walton C. Bryde, CPA brings more than 40 years of accounting, tax and business consulting experience to serving the financial needs of ZiptoGreen, as well as numerous private enterprises, non-profit businesses and individuals. He founded Walton C. Bryde & Associates, P.C. in 1980
Walt is the recipient of Leadership DeKalb’s 2010 Distinguished Alumni Award. He was the recipient of the 2004 Public Service Awards from the Society of Georgia CPAs and America Institute of CPAs for his efforts to address the needs of the homeless, orphans, refugees and persons with disabilities. Walt was instrumental in founding Six Star Refugee Partnership, Inc., and served as chairman of its board of directors from 1999 to 2006.
Ari Craine – Vice President & Director
Ari Craine brings over 14-years of IT strategy experience to the ZiptoGreen team. An experienced technologist, Ari is currently a Director of Innovation & Patent Development at AT&T Intellectual Property. He's been with AT&T (formerly BellSouth) for 8-years, holding positions of increasing responsibility in IT Strategy, Research, and Competitive Intelligence.
Prior to AT&T, he worked at MCI WorldCom, HealthExchange.com, CNNSI.com and CNN Headline News. His specialties include innovation, strategy, patents, and emerging technology. He holds a BFA from the Atlanta College of Art. Ari is an active inventor and has filed over 20 patent applications.
Bruce Miller - Director
Bruce Miller is co-founder and senior writer at Design Coup, Inc., a full-service design and marketing company he founded in 1998 with Michael Higgins. Higgins and Miller have done career creative work for 16 Fortune 500 companies, plus numerous prestigious organizations over the course of their careers.
Bruce formerly owned Miller Multi Media in Atlanta. The firm specialized in creative content for corporate video, multimedia production and marketing communications. Clients included Kimberly-Clark, IBM, Bell South, AT&T, MCI, United Parcel Service, the United Nations and many others. Earlier in his career, Bruce owned Commonwealth Communications, a Los Angeles-based media production company that produced presentations for some of the nation's leading corporations and organizations.
He is a graduate of the UCLA Motion Pictures/Television where he was selected by the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences Student Awards for his work.
Business Model
Multiple revenue streams are generated in the world’s fastest growing business sector by providing affordable solutions to challenges faced by industry stakeholders—business, government, and utilities. The growth potential is very strong given modest competition, federal support and untapped markets.
The energy consumption of emerging global markets presents unparalleled global opportunities for Web-based companies. According an industry report, the global value created by potential monetization of emissions reductions is expected to reach $70 billion by 2015.
More attention, however, must be given to educating and engaging consumers in energy efficiency solutions.
ZiptoGreen's revenue and marketing strategies are designed to engage consumers who are receiving conflicting messages about the issue’s importance and don’t understand the cost-saving benefits. Consumer engagement will build confidence in this marketplace with national retailers, utilities, small businesses and renewable energy marketers.
Consumer Engagement Strategy
Two programs are designed to address obstacles limiting consumer engagement in the energy efficiency marketplace:
1) ZiptoGreen's Sustainability Coaching subscription program engages consumers in the energy efficiency marketplace by removing obstacles to engagement. Our focus is on demonstrating energy efficiency's cost savings. It brings ZiptoGreen.com's resources to consumers in an online monthly subscription to help:
- Evaluate needs and priorities
- Create a personal action plan
- Connect to resources, information and incentives
- Track goals and progress
2) Our Employee Engagement strategy is designed to tap a corporation's "captive audience" while meeting various corporate budgetary and infrastructure constraints. This strategy builds revenue and traffic by addressing well documented corporate needs:
- A market study reveals 86 percents of employees working for Sustainable Brands are not engaged by employers and have “green-washing” concerns
- Companies with an engaged workforce generate a growth rate that is more than twice that of competitors without engaged employees
2011 Revenue Projections
Sustainability Subscriptions
By simply doubling each month's subscription base (began in January 2011 with 275 subscribers), there will be 1+ million subscribers by December 2011:
1 million subscribers x $10/subscription = $10 million revenue
Employee Engagement
17,047 U.S. companies with 500 or more employees x 2% = 341 companies
341 x $10/annual fee/subscription x 500 contacts = $1.7M revenue
Competitive Landscape
Consumer-focused IT ventures focused on engaging the residential market have entered the energy efficiency marketplace in the last two years, but no company has captured this market. ZiptoGreen’s comprehensive Web solution focuses on behavior change to engage consumers in the workplace and at home in every ZIP Code in America.
ZiptoGreen.com's one-stop, user-friendly format--combined with an employee engagement strategy and a community-based subscription program--addresses the challenges of engaging consumers. According to recent studies, behavior change solutions that draw upon peers and associates have the greatest impact on motivating consumer action.
Julia Glenn Carter
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