Copywriting and Public Relations
Nitech Corporation
Traditional hot mix asphalt is manufactured in a hot-mix plant, and requires heated trucks to bring it to the job site. Nitech invented pelletized asphalt, a product which can be stored in bags at room temperature and used in place of hot mix. Carnot Communications wrote a marketing fact sheet which was distributed to a high-ranking military audience. The fact sheet helped increase interest in using the product for emergency runway repairs.
Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center
Vermont Manufacturing Extension Center (VMEC) is partially sponsorted by the National Institute of Standards to increase manufacturing quality, efficiency and innovation in Vermont. Carnot Communications wrote several "success stories" that illustrated how VMEC helps Vermont clients.
Nuclear Public Outreach
Vermont Yankee nuclear plant has applied for a twenty-year license extension. This application has been very controversial, and Nuclear Public Outreach has fought to help the plant obtain it. Carnot Communications reviewed and edited public education statements about Vermont Yankee. It distributed a one-page statement at Vermont Town Meetings on Town Meeting Day, providing an effective counter to well-organized anti-nuclear groups.
Note: "Nuclear Public Outreach" is a small company owned by Howard Shaffer. All work for this company was done on a volunteer basis, to help a friend. Carnot Communications is not funded by Entergy (or by any Entergy-funded organization) for advocacy work.
EPRI (Electric Power Research Institute, now known as EPRI)
EPRI conducts research to benefit the operations of electric utilities, and depends on these utilities for its funding. For eight years, Fourth Floor Databases wrote a newsletter for the Environmental Control Systems department at EPRI. The newsletter was distributed to executives and engineers at utilities that operate coal-fired boilers. Articles described EPRI-funded progress in advanced scrubbers, baghouses, and pond liners for coal-fired plants. The popular newsletter increased support and funding for the coal group at EPRI. (Meredith Angwin, owner of Carnot Communications, previously founded and owned Fourth Floor Databases in California.)
Norwich University Research
Norwich University is one of the oldest military-associated colleges in the country, and its research group has many military contracts. For this group, Carnot Communications edited the Journal of Cyber Conflict Studies for e-publication. The challenge in this work was editing and clarifying articles without offending the academic authors.
Social Networking Campaigns
Save Vermont Yankee
Carnot Communications is building a campaign to help Vermont Yankee nuclear plant win relicensing. This campaign uses blogging, Facebook and Twitter. On Facebook, Meredith Angwin is the administrator for the Save Vermont Yankee group advocacy page. She blogs at Yes Vermont Yankee and tweets at @yes_VY.
Note: Carnot Communications is not funded by Entergy (or by any Entergy-funded organization) for advocacy work.
Speakers Bureau
"Aim High" Project for Thorium Fission
Dr. Robert Hargraves has developed a set of lectures that explain and promote high temperature thorium reactors. Carnot Communications arranged two high-prestige speaking engagements for him: one at Columbia University and another at an American Nuclear Society meeting in Massachusetts.
Institute for Lifelong Education At Dartmouth (ILEAD)
ILEAD is a life-long learning program associated with Dartmouth College. It is popular with working and retired people in the Hanover, New Hampshire area. Meredith Angwin designed and taught a course "Science and Its Discontents" at ILEAD. This course for non-scientists included poetry, optics, relativity, and the second law of thermodynamics. In Winter quarter, 2010, she presented a new course: "All Around the Coal Boiler." She plans to give the course again in Spring quarter 2011. Her courses have received excellent reviews.
Coalition for Energy Solutions
Meredith Angwin is a founding member of the Coalition for Energy Solutions. She organized and publicized the Coalition's first public event: a lecture on energy conservation and energy sources. The lecture was well-attended, and even the president of the local Sierra Club chapter praised the group for its excellent data and presentation.
Lebanon College
Lebanon College in Lebanon, New Hampshire, is a private college specializing in training people for technical employment. Many local companies also send workers to Lebanon College courses. Meredith Angwin developed and taught a workshop in technical writing for engineers. The workshop was offered several times. One high-tech company repeatedly sent groups of employees to attend.