Municipality of Purmerend is encouraging energy transition with Salesforce

According to the Dutch National Climate Agreement, all institutions in the Netherlands are required to phase out the use of natural gas by 2050 – a challenge the municipality of Purmerend is meeting head on. “We don’t have a plan of action, but rather a plan of attack,” said Sustainability Advisor, Karel Mens. And Salesforce’s tracking system for heat transition is playing an instrumental role.

When it comes to making its environment free from fossil fuels, Purmerend has a reputation to uphold. The municipality’s pioneering role began during the oil crisis in the early 1980s with the construction of a heat network, which now provides heat to 28,700 homes. But although this makes heat transition somewhat more manageable for Purmerend, there is still a lot to be done.

The municipality has also implemented the National Insulation Programme (NIP), which makes it even more important to understand the properties that qualify for each sustainable heat solution. The first step is to map out the exact characteristics and ‘energy situation’ of a particular property. Next, the municipality will closely involve residents in the approach that’s most suitable.

“We found our previous municipal information systems were inadequate for this purpose. After looking at the market, we settled on Salesforce,” said Karel Mens. “We started by using their CRM for our ‘gas-free pilot project’, and then extended it to the NIP project. The strength of this system is that it gathers all the relevant information in one place. We can then create segments based on individual target groups and the specific context. In line with our requirements, Salesforce partner Outbirds ➚converted the Salesforce platform into a ‘tracking system for heat transition’.”

In practice, Purmerend found it difficult to find the right data. Take energy labels, for example, which do not always correspond to the actual energy efficiency level of a property. “The actual situation at a particular property may be better or worse than expected depending on any measures implemented, omitted, or not reported,” explained Frank Havik.

It’s this issue Purmerend is keen to resolve first. “We have integrated an automated mailshot function into the Salesforce application, asking residents with a D, E, F, or G energy label whether they would be interested in a heat scan. In total, this affects 1,300 homes, and the scans will be carried out by five work placement students,” said Karel Mens.

Whilst all residents are free to decide whether to make use of this offer, the municipality is doing its utmost to attract as many people as possible. “We don’t have a plan of action, but rather a plan of attack,” explained Karel Mens. “We want to motivate residents to such an extent that they join us in looking for opportunities to make their homes more sustainable and eventually move away from natural gas entirely. This is another area where we see added value from Salesforce. You can create a 360-degree overview of each resident’s progress on their individual path and adjust your actions accordingly. You take the resident on a customer journey and stay with them.”

Available grants are also included in the platform. The National Insulation Programme provides a large amount of central government funding, especially for home insulation – an indispensable part of any sustainable heat solution.

“If you can provide a tailor-made proposal with the right financial incentives, it increases the chance of residents agreeing to move forward,” said Karel Mens. “We want to make everything as easy as possible from A to Z, including the implementation stage. We also provide an overview of the available contractors. And, when a resident requests a quote, we arrange it so that the grant is automatically included.”

“We’ve also created a ‘flora and fauna’ check to further improve the tracking system for the heat transition. ‘Nature-friendly’ insulation considers any animals that may be nesting in walls and roofs when fitting the insulation, which is an important factor in ensuring compliance,” explained Frank Havik.

“As a municipality, we started these types of checks years ago. We know the situation of any birds in each property. We’ve also submitted a species management plan to the Environmental Service and are one of the first municipalities in North Holland to do so. In this plan, we describe how we are improving plant and animal protection in each area of the municipality.”

Another upcoming digital expansion involves creating a personal homepage where homeowners can see how they are progressing on their sustainability journey. “In the long term, we also want to show the impacts of climate change on a neighbourhood. How are we dealing with extreme weather events such as heat stress or cluster showers? What adjustments do we need to make to our public spaces? And does that also affect buildings?” said Frank Havik.

“The most important thing is that Salesforce puts all the data in our own hands. That was a conscious choice. As a municipality, we can stay in control, rather than having data scattered across different consultancies with no overview of our progress,” he concluded.