Clean Energy Ambassadors - Community Survey

Clean Energy Ambassadors - Community Survey

This form provides questions for you to help shape a potential Clean Energy Ambassadors program. You are also welcome to join community learning and co-designing events in October and November. Registration for the community events is available here. Or you can email your ideas to laura.armstrong@commerce.wa.gov

All questions are optional! Please only fill out the questions you're most interested in/have time for. There is a free-form writing section at the end for any additional comments, or if you don't have time to go through the form.

Commerce is exploring a potential Clean Energy Ambassadors program that would provide education, planning, technical assistance and community engagement throughout the state. If enacted, it would also offer funding to support these efforts and focus on expanding clean energy access for everyone, ensuring a just transition to a net-zero economy.

Commerce is pursuing multiple funding sources that could enable the program to move forward in early 2025. Information provided through this form will inform the future program.

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Organization and/or Government (if applicable)

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Email Address

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Phone Number

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If you selected "Other" for form of communication preferred, please describe your preferred approach and provide us with any contact information needed to follow up.

Section 1: Community Visions

What are some of the assets or strengths you see in your community?

What are some of the top concerns or issues your community faces?

Section 2: Program Goals & Big-Picture Questions

What services would your community most value from Clean Energy Ambassadors?

Shaped by past community, tribal, and applicant input, this potential program would likely provide services including education, planning, technical assistance, and community engagement. Please select all responses that apply - including any that would address your communities' top concerns or support its assets/strengths.

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If you selected "Other" above, please list/describe what other services Energy Ambassadors should offer:

In 1-5 sentences, describe how the services you selected above would achieve your goals. Please try to be as concrete as possible.

This question is getting at how and why the program would lead to the impacts you envision.

Are you interested in answering a more detailed set of questions?

Program Staff have started a list of more detailed questions for community input. These questions could help shape the final program in a more powerful way. All questions are optional

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Please find a list of more detailed questions at the end of this form:

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Section 3: Open Comments Section

This section is provided for any additional comments or if you don't have time to fill out the form. We have also provided questions below to give an idea of what program design decisions we are already anticipating, and that Commerce would likely have the authority to make.

Please enter open comments here:

For any comments over 4000 characters, please email them to laura.armstrong@commerce.wa.gov

Section 4: Detailed Survey - Ambassador Host Organizations

This section provides more detailed questions for you to help shape a potential Clean Energy Ambassadors program. You are also welcome to join community learning and co-designing events in October and November. Registration for the community events is available here. Or you can email your ideas to laura.armstrong@commerce.wa.gov

All questions are optional! Please only fill out the questions you're most interested in/have time for.

What types of organizations should be eligible to host Energy Ambassadors?

If allowable according to the funding source, Commerce would at minimum include tribal governments and 501(c)(3) non-profits as eligible to apply for Clean Energy Ambassadors funding.

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Please provide any explanation you think would be helpful to understanding your previous answer

This could include why a certain organization type should (or should not) be eligible, "Other" types of organizations that should be eligible (if you selected that answer above), etc.

Should organizations be able to partner to apply for funding?

Typically we default to allowing partnerships, but this may not always be the best program design.

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What would/could a partnership look like? If partnerships should not be allowed, why?

Section 5: Detailed Survey - Other Services

Commerce may be able to use some of the awardable funding to develop shared educational resources and cohort-based training for Ambassadors. Should Commerce do this if it is possible to do so?

Benefits of shared resources and training could include community connections and cohort-based learning by Energy Ambassadors, as well as cost and time savings for Energy Ambassadors and Host Organizations. This idea was initially shared with Commerce by members of a community-based Clean Energy Ambassadors Coalition.

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Commerce may be able to use some of the awardable funding to pay for third-party services from technical experts, such as technical consultations, feasibility studies, and early-stage project design. Should Commerce do this if it is possible to do so?

Benefits of this approach could include keeping Energy Ambassador qualification requirements focused on local knowledge, facilitation, and/or related requirements rather than strong technical qualifications. Completed feasibility studies and/or designs may be helpful to applying for follow-on funding for a project. There are restrictions on Commerce providing funding for grant writing services for its own programs.

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Please include any additional comments on the previous two questions.

Section 6: Detailed Survey - Eligibility and Evaluation of Applications

For context, this section is largely exploring a scenario where there may be small, short-term (~4-month) grants available to test approaches for the Clean Energy Ambassadors program.

Which minimum qualifications are most important to prioritize for Energy Ambassadors funding applications?

People applying for funding would have to provide a response on how they meet each minimum qualification, and minimum qualifications are usually evaluated before applications are scored. So, it's generally best practice to:

Only include qualifications that are absolutely necessary to fulfill the goals of the program (not too many criteria)
Only include minimum qualifications that can be evaluated in a clear-cut way - we wouldn't want to disqualify applications based on a response that is highly subjective or open to interpretation

Select

Please include any additional comments on the previous question

Your response can include any additional minimum qualifications necessary to achieving the goals of the program

Which categories of evaluation criteria are most important to prioritize for Energy Ambassadors funding applications?

People applying for funding would have to provide enough information on each criterion for Commerce to provide a score. So, it's generally best practice to:

Keep the evaluation criteria relatively simple and easy to understand
Prioritize equity in the resource distribution *and* project implementation

"Vulnerable Populations" and "Overburdened Communities" are defined in the Healthy Environment for All (HEAL) law, specifically RCW 70A.02.010

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Please include any additional comments on the previous question

Your response can include any additional evaluation criteria that could help achieve the goals of the program, as well as perspectives on the relative weight given to each criterion

Section 7: Detailed Survey - Questions for Potential Host Organizations

NOTE: This last section is primarily geared towards organizations that would be interested in applying to host Ambassadors, but all are welcome to answer!

For context, this section is largely exploring a scenario where there may be small, short-term (~4-month) grants available to test approaches for the Clean Energy Ambassadors program.

If you were implementing a small, short-term grant for Energy Ambassadors services, what would you need from Commerce to make that possible?

The initial planning period for this program would likely have a small amount of funding available for community-based organizations to test approaches to Energy Ambassadors work, but the implementation timeline may be limited.

If you were given four months and enough funding to support one Ambassador salary, would you hire for a project-based position? Reallocate existing staff to work on the project? Take some other approach?

Select

Please provide any explanation you think would be helpful to understanding your previous answer

Around how much funding would your organization need to host one Ambassador?

Please answer in $ for a given period of time, for example "we would need around $X to host one Ambassador for four months", or "we would need around $X/month to host an Ambassador"

If you would consider applying to host multiple Energy Ambassadors, would the cost per Ambassador be less than hosting just one Ambassador? If so, by how much?

Please estimate include the number of Ambassadors you would hope to host, and an estimate of the funding needed per Ambassador if you did receive funding to host that many.

What costs do your estimate(s) include (for example, a living wage + benefits for each Energy Ambassador)?

Should there be a cap on the maximum award amount or number of Ambassadors hosted?

Commerce typically uses maximum award amounts to more evenly distribute funding across the state and make it easier for smaller organizations to compete.

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What should the maximum award amount be? Why?

What should the maximum number of Ambassadors hosted by a single organization? Why?

Should there be a minimum award amount?

Minimum award amounts can ensure competition doesn't lead to equity issues like low salaries or labor standards, and help keep Commerce administrative costs down.

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What should the minimum award amount be? Why?

Thank you for participating in this more detailed survey - there's a lot to consider when we design a new program, and sincerely appreciate any time you have to co-create with us!

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