"Stratacomm’s work over the past five years has helped HPBA spread the word about the benefits of hearth industry products to clean air officials, lawmakers and national media. The team is very hard-working and we consider them an extension of our staff."

– Jack Goldman, President & CEO, Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association

CHALLENGE

In the past in the town of Libby, Montana, smoke from old, non-EPA certified wood stoves and fireplaces contributed to more than 80 percent of fine particulate matter into the town’s immediate atmosphere causing devastating health problems for residents. As a result, the Hearth, Patio & Barbecue Association (HPBA) worked with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to spearhead a massive wood stove changeout program – a large-scale effort to replace every older wood stove in the community with a cleaner, EPA-certified stove. Two years later, more than 1,100 wood stoves had been replaced in the town of 2,600 people. Preliminary data from the first winter following the changeout showed that outdoor fine particulate matter had decreased by almost 30 percent and indoor air quality in homes with the new stoves had improved by more than 70 percent. 

The success of the Libby changeout offered a unique opportunity for HPBA to promote the benefits of cleaner hearth products to EPA officials, clean air decision-makers and media. Previously, HPBA had a difficult time convincing policymakers that a changeout could significantly and cost-effectively reduce harmful emissions, making communities cleaner, safer and healthier. Leveraging the Libby example, Stratacomm helped HPBA design and execute a comprehensive communications campaign to educate clean air officials and the media about the process, effectiveness and air quality benefits of wood stove changeouts with the goals of achieving federal funding for more changeouts and enlisting more cities to enact wood stove changeout programs.

STRATEGIC APPROACH

The campaign targeted EPA officials and federal, state and local policymakers who influence clean air decisions, hearth product manufacturers and dealers, and energy, environmental and consumer media and trade press. The goals were to demonstrate to air quality officials that modern, EPA-certified fireplaces and stoves are clean and wood stove changeouts can provide an effective solution to air quality challenges, supply hearth product manufacturers and dealers with the tools and information they need to organize and participate in changeout projects, and to make news with the Libby case study by releasing preliminary indoor and outdoor air quality results. The multi-year effort included online, video and print components, media and policymaker outreach, and a high-profile culmination press event and live-burn demonstration in Washington, DC.

Stratacomm’s tactics included:

• Synthesizing third-party research and conducting original qualitative research to help describe the program and quantify the air quality benefits for media and policymakers;
• Building a website and online tool kits to facilitate other changeouts across the country;
• Executing a high-profile media event and live-burn demonstration outside the EPA headquarters in Washington, DC; and
• Creating a video and an accompanying print report that captured local Libby residents and officials detailing air quality statistics and improvements that were distributed to Capitol Hill, federal agencies, third-party audiences and the media.

RESULTS

The multi-year campaign effectively positioned modern stoves as clean in front of key clean air officials and media, which led to legislative changes and, most importantly, a reduction in the use of older, dirtier wood stoves nationwide. The effort garnered widespread media coverage, including a segment on ABC’s Good Morning America, and helped HPBA achieve a significant legislative victory in the 2009 economic stimulus bill.

Specific results:

• HPBA achieved a significant legislative victory in their effort to include a major tax credit (up to $1,500) per consumer who purchases a 75 percent-efficient biomass-burning stove in the 2009 economic stimulus bill.
• Since the Libby program began, at least 24 changeout campaigns have occurred in different cities across the country, replacing more than 3,300 outdated wood stoves and fireplaces with new, EPA-certified products.
• EPA estimates that these changeouts have removed approximately 135 tons of particulates from the air annually and yielded $16 million in health benefits. 
• HPBA earned significant media attention, including 21 television placements, 49 radio interviews, an AP story and subsequent in-studio feature of the stove display on ABC’s Good Morning America, and approximately 24 million media impressions total.
• The press conference earned Stratacomm a prestigious Bronze Anvil award from the Public Relations Society of America.