We are always interested to see how nonprofit organizations have used Google products and tools in interesting ways to support their missions. The story from Energy Works Michigan is one that highlights the way a small organization can combine Google products and optimize their resources to have a great impact on its community.
Google Apps to communicate, collaborate and most importantly, keep organized. However, in order to tackle so many schools, they knew that they needed to use more than just Google Apps. Their organization now relies on several Google products such as Google Earth , Google SketchUp and Google Analytics . So how does Energy Works Michigan use all of these products?
Google Earth : Each year, Energy Works Michigan identifies a new set of schools to work with to install solar photovoltaic or wind turbine systems at schools. As they have so few staff members, the organization is not able to travel immediately to every school that wants to partner with them. They use Google Earth to conduct preliminary site assessments of schools -- and determine which renewable energy system makes sense to install. Google Earth allows them to determine the orientation and elevation of the building of a school, and also to evaluate angles of the sun and wind.Google SketchUp : Google Sketchup is a 3D content creation tool intended for intelligent drawing and design of architectural and mechanical prototyping. Energy Works Michigan uses Google SketchUp to share a visual representation of the renewable energy system with their partner schools, such as the solar panels they rendered for Cass Technical High School in Detroit, MI:Google Analytics : Using Google Analytics , Energy Works Michigan has been able to to track their site traffic, and improve their promotion efforts, messaging and content strategies based on historical navigation patterns. Viewing traffic volume on specific pages has been particularly useful because it helps determine the programs and information visitors are interesting in most. Energy Works Michigan can then promote and enhance these sections.
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