Marylene Marcelino

How can we achieve language access for customers to take advantage of energy efficiency services? Eversource, along with the other Energy Efficiency Program Administrators in Massachusetts, is committed to breaking down language barriers for customers. Eversource is engaged in developing a Language Access Plan intended to provide the policies, plan, and protocols, including other tools, services, and guidelines to serve customers in languages other than English. Eversource has already made strides to mitigate language barriers to energy efficiency participation including offering a multi-lingual phone system, having bi-lingual Home Energy Specialists staff, understanding the languages spoken by our weatherization workforce, and translating materials. Additionally, Eversource has made great strides to reach non-English speaking business owners. Eversource’s Main Streets program provides no-cost energy assessments to identify low-cost solutions for our small and micro business customers’ needs and areas for cost-savings. One of the challenges faced by Main Streets includes ensuring clear communication in multilingual communities and an example solution includes the deployment of multilingual marketing to Spanish and Portuguese speaking business owners. In this session, Eversource will share many current and future activities designed to better serve our multilingual customers with energy efficiency solutions, as well as outcomes to date from these initiatives.