Educating and Engaging Oil and Gas Employees in Emissions Reduction and Air Quality

One of Colorado’s largest independent oil and gas producers sought to educate employees on the company’s steps toward environmental leadership, while sharing “news you can use” to help team members make their own contributions to improving air quality, on the job and off. The company historically has gone above and beyond in adopting best management practices to reduce carbon emissions in its production operations, exceeding what’s required by state and federal regulations. The company wanted to reinforce this message, recognizing that employees serve as ambassadors in the communities where they live and work.

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Client
Services
Leader & Employee Communications
Industry
Energy & Utilities
Awards
2020 Silver Pick Award

CHallenge

Colorado oil and gas producers have worked hard for many years to meet evolving regulatory requirements by achieving dramatic reductions in carbon emissions. In fact, Colorado is believed to have the strictest environment, health and safety regulations in the nation for the oil and gas industry. As part of the industry’s commitment to reduce emissions and mitigate the effects of ground-level ozone, the Colorado Oil and Gas Association proactively launched an ozone season initiative, challenging member companies to voluntarily reduce contributions to ozone formation from June through September.

In response, the company’s Environmental, Health & Safety team sought to educate employees about ozone season; to offer practical ways for team members to minimize their impact on air quality at home and work; and to share examples of the many ways the company minimizes emissions and its overall environmental footprint.

Solution

The company turned to Linhart PR for support in creating a dynamic, engaging electronic bulletin for its 180 Colorado-based employees. Loosely following Colorado’s ozone season, Linhart PR developed and distributed a weekly digital newsletter with educational content, timely tips, and opportunities for employees to take action to improve air quality.

  • First, Linhart PR participated in an in-depth discovery session with the company’s air quality supervisor to learn more about ozone season and tangible steps employees can take in all aspects of daily life to reduce environmental impacts and improve air quality.  
  • Linhart PR wrote, designed and distributed 19 digital bulletins – one for each week of ozone season. Each issue provided an engaging theme with easy-to-read content for busy employees, featuring timely tips for minimizing ozone impact at home or work. Each issue also included educational content, online resources, and air quality and weather forecasts for the week. These forecasts helped the company’s employees understand when high concentrations of ozone were expected, making it especially important to take emission-reducing measures.
  • Along with “news you can use” ozone reduction tips, the newsletters also shared information on the company’s emissions reduction best practices, such as eliminating tanks for product storage at wellpads, reducing truck traffic and using the latest air quality monitoring technology so that leaks can be identified and repaired quickly.
  • To encourage behavior change among employees, the team incentivized employees with a gift card offer in each newsletter, for implementing small changes to help reduce ozone level impacts – for example, taking public transportation or carpooling to work, not operating outdoor equipment like lawn mowers on ozone action alert days and filling your car with gas in the mornings or evenings. Gift cards were awarded weekly to one employee who responded and shared how they implemented the tips.

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Results

The company’s seasonal ozone action bulletin for employees exceeded all of its program goals. The first was to increase employees’ understanding of ozone season and its importance, with a goal of 25% average open rate. The second goal was to hear from at least 2-3 employees per newsletter with stories on steps they’re taking to improve air quality.

  • The 19 newsletters had an average open rate of 25.63 percent, which is 10 percent higher than the oil and gas industry benchmark.
  • The newsletters prompted an average of three to five responses per newsletter, with as many as 15 responses for one.
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