san bernardino county stormwater program

Challenge

Since 1994, the San Bernardino County Stormwater Program (Program) has been conducting NPDES MS4 Permit-required Public Education and Outreach activities. Since that time, the Program has achieved significant success in developing and implementing a watershed-wide stormwater public education and outreach program with emphasis on educating the public on the impacts from polluting activities to receiving waters and providing guidance on best management practices to prevent stormwater pollution.

Solution

Over the years, the Program noticed that the community was not engaging as much with the Program’s stormwater pollution message. The Program noticed that community-centered issues around pride of place and protecting water resources resonated more with County residents than the traditional environmentally focused effort . To address these concerns and to increase community engagement and awareness, SGA helped the Program rebrand its program to “Where Water Meets Community.” As part of this rebranding, SGA created a new logo, tagline, brand guide, and website.

Results

With this rebranding effort, SGA helped the Program create a new public outreach campaign that focuses on how protecting water quality protects the community. By reframing the messaging and making it community-oriented, the Program found a new voice to motivate residents to action. The Program redesigned its website, updated the messaging, developed a branding guide, created new public education materials, and produced educational videos. For this rebranding, the County received the California Stormwater Quality Association award for Outstanding Stormwater News, Information, Outreach, and Media.

South Bayside Waste Management Authority

Challenge

The South Bayside Waste Management Authority (RethinkWaste), on behalf of its member agencies, is responsible for developing and implementing public outreach efforts to educate and engage approximately 93,000 single-family households and 10,000 commercial customers (including multi-family property owners/managers and their tenants) on all of the waste reduction programs and services available to them, as well as overall resource conservation and sustainability messaging.

Solution

SGA helps RethinkWaste with promoting their brand, increasing social media presence, and developing public education and outreach materials for its recycling and waste reduction program. We work with RethinkWaste staff to create effective messaging, general as well as multicultural ads, and managing its social media accounts. Currently, we are focusing our efforts on organic composting and proper battery recycling. We recently redesigned its website to increase community engagement and participation.

Results

To help RethinkWaste, SGA provides the following comprehensive communication and outreach services:

• Strategic Communications Planning/Campaign Development – develop strategic communications campaigns promoting residential and commercial services and a recently modified household battery recycling program
• Creative Development/ Production Services – provide creative and production services for public education campaigns
• Multicultural Outreach – develop and implement outreach strategies and tactics for reaching non-English speakers
• Community Engagement Methods – develop public engagement strategies that encourage public input, participation, and behavior change
• Online/Social Media – manages online/social media accounts to reach targeted audiences
• Media Buys/Placements – assist with the placements of print and digital media assets