Reimagining Clean Energy Outreach with Young BIPOC Change Makers

Puget Sound Energy (PSE)

Services

Research | Creative Services | Multicultural Consultation

Audience

BIPOC young adults (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color aged 18-24) in the PSE Service Area

Challenge

Build trust and strengthen relationships with community members by empowering them to directly shape an engagement and awareness campaign.

Outcome

Ongoing

Approach

Through a human-centered process of workshops, surveys, and ideation, we designed messaging, visuals, and strategy that reflected the voices, aesthetics, and values of BIPOC young adults.

The Challenge

Washington State passed a law that commits Washington to electricity free of greenhouse gas emissions by 2045. Puget Sound Energy aims to engage with communities that are highly impacted and vulnerable, connecting them to information about the benefits of the clean energy transformation and how they can participate. This project focuses specifically on BIPOC youth or BIPOC young adults (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color aged 18-24)

The goal is to create a marketing campaign that builds trust, increases awareness, and strengthens relationships with this community. To accomplish this, PSE needed more research to explore BIPOC young adult’s views on clean energy and wanted co-create a campaign that will resonate with them.

Our Approach

We partnered with Gumball Dynasty in a human-centered approach by engaging a group of young BIPOC young adults that we called ‘Creative Change Makers’ (CCM). We worked with the CCM team to understand what BIPOC young adults think about clean energy and the clean energy transition, and to co-create a campaign by-and-for BIPOC young adults.

We facilitated and hosted ideation sessions, surveys, and workshops with BIPOC young adults to gather authentic insights around clean energy awareness. This research phase prioritized young BIPOC voices and cultural context, laying the foundation for messaging that resonates.

Campaign Co-Creation

Partnering with the Creative Change Makers (CCM) team and Gumball Dynasty, we co-designed every element of the campaign—from concept and tone to color palette, language, and visuals. This collaborative creative process ensured that the campaign reflected the experiences, aesthetic, and communication styles of BIPOC young adults.

Building Trust

To build reach and credibility among this community, we used trusted messengers, multicultural media outlets, grassroots organizations, and community leaders to help us engage them in our research and ground our conversations. 

The Impact

This is an ongoing project, currently in the create and execute phase. Through the work that we have already done, our team helped PSE not only drive program awareness but also foster long-term trust and engagement with underserved communities—ensuring that the clean energy transition is accessible and inclusive.