Public Relations Audit

Introduction

Mission Statement
Through expert teams and customer partnerships, Cordia creates value by developing, building,
operating, and maintaining world-class, efficient energy solutions for the communities it serves.

Slogans
● “Creating Energy Solutions”
● “Ready for Tomorrow, Today”

Leadership
Chief Executive Officer: Earl Collins
Chief Financial Officer: Boyd Nelson
Chief Information Officer: Dana Kline
Director of Operations: Daniel Quinn
Communications Manager: Alec Goetz
Human Resources Director: Kimberly Moncher
Marketing Director: Katie Gajewski - Katie.Gajewski@cordiaenergy.com
Public Relations Professional: Jennifer Disbrow - Jenny.Disbrow@cordiaenergy.com

Company Background
Cordia Energy Solutions, formerly known as Clearway Community Energy, launched on Oct. 26,
2022, with the goal of bringing innovation and sustainability to the energy industry (“Cordia
Launches…,” 2022). The company’s roots can be traced back to the 1880s, and Cordia’s website
states that one of the longest-running district energy systems was established in downtown
Minneapolis in 1972. Cordia is now a privately held company that provides sustainable energy
services for commercial and industrial entities, healthcare, research and biomedical corporations,
hospitality, residential, higher education, government and cultural buildings, stadiums, arenas
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and convention centers (“Cordia,” 2024). The company serves over 485 steam customers, 185
chilled water customers and 10 metropolitan areas throughout the United States, with its primary
headquarters located in Phoenix, Arizona (“Cordia Launches…,” 2022). Other Cordia networks
are stationed in Plainsboro, New Jersey; Tucson, Arizona; San Diego and San Francisco,
California; Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Omaha, Nebraska; and at Arizona State
University campuses located in Mesa and Tempe.

This company provides customers with energy-efficient solutions, focusing primarily on district
energy, microgrids, combined heat and power, energy innovations and monetization and asset
development, as listed on the company’s website (“Cordia,” 2024). The company has generated
approximately $9.5 million in sales and has over 250 employees, including engineers, financial
experts, and operations and maintenance personnel who implement unique energy solutions
catered to individual customers (“Mergent Intellect,” 2023). With over 30 years of experience
developing systems and building or upgrading assets, Cordia prioritizes finding the right
financial structure for customers while attaining goals and maximizing benefits (“Solutions,”
2024).

Industry Synopsis
Companies in the energy services industry “develop, design, build, and arrange financing for
projects that save energy, reduce energy costs, and decrease operations and maintenance costs at
their customers' facilities” (“Energy Service Companies…,” 2024). Cordia is a part of this
industry as a renewable energy solutions provider, as well as its main competitors, CenTrio
Energy and Vicinity Energy. These companies provide sustainable solutions for heating, cooling
and electricity. According to a report conducted by Grand View Research, the global renewable
energy market size is estimated to grow at a compound annual growth rate of 17.2% from 2024
to 2030. In 2023, it was estimated at approximately $1.2 trillion. Renewable energy plants have
increased nationwide with efforts to reduce emissions, and initiatives for energy efficiency have
encouraged consumers to find alternative energy sources (“Renewable Energy,” 2023). With
networks and establishments across the country, Cordia’s increasing presence in an evolving
industry allows for the company to maintain a growing market share.

Products
Cordia Energy focuses on providing sustainable energy solutions to its customers. To do this, the
company utilizes comprehensive systems that center around reliability, resilience and energy
efficiency. The solutions listed on Cordia’s website are as follows:

1. District Energy - The district energy plant produces steam, hot water and chilled water
that is transported to large buildings through a network of underground pipes. These
buildings control their own energy usage. This centralized production method reduces
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greenhouse gas emissions and reaches production efficiencies that are not attainable
through on-site heating or cooling.

2. Combined Heat and Power - When paired with a microgrid, combined heat and power
uses the heat that is wasted in traditional power generation. This solution doubles the
amount of useful energy that is produced when compared with a traditional power plant.

3. Innovations - Cordia’s current innovations include fuel cells, ice storage, and fuel and
tech flexibility. Fuel cells use hydrogen to create water, electricity and heat without
relying on combustion. These cells can positively affect air quality in urban areas. Ice
storage facilities build reserves for chilled water in cost-effective manners and also
provide cold water during peak hours, lowering energy costs and increasing resiliency.
Fuel and tech flexibility allows for energy production using a variety of sources.

4. Monetization and Asset Development - Cordia aims to create long-term relationships

with the corporations it partners with. Cordia assists companies with project financing
and specialized technical knowledge.

Traditional Media Audit

According to a search conducted on Muck Rack on Jan. 23, 2024, “Cordia Energy’’ was featured
in 21 articles written in English in the past 12 months. Cordia was mainly featured in business
and law news sources. Outlets that covered Cordia include: Rose Law Group, Phoenix Business
Journal, BEX, Star Tribune, The Northside Chronicle, ABC15 Arizona, City & State PA,
districtenergy.org, Opera News, EnergyPortal.eu and SFist. Eighteen of the 21 articles are
unique, excluding duplicate articles shared by multiple sources. In total, the links to these articles
were liked, shared, or commented on social media 77 times, with an average engagement rate of
three interactions per article. Overall, 15 of the published articles in the past year were positive,
earning a 71.4% positive sentiment rating on Muck Rack.
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Pie chart illustrating Muck Rack’s sentiment score for Cordia

In June 2023, 14 of the 21 articles were published, meaning Cordia saw the most media attention
during this month. Ron Davis of Phoenix Business Journal, who covers East Valley commercial
real estate and economic development news, wrote an article in June about the development of
Cordia’s fourth underground plant in downtown Phoenix that will expand chilled water output in
the city by approximately 10,000 tons. This article was titled “Cordia Energy ready to build huge
plant to further cool downtown Phoenix.” The story was then shared on ABC15 Arizona, Head
Topics and districtenergy.org. The tone of this article was positive and informative, highlighting
a new development that aims to enhance the reliability and consistency of Cordia’s other cooling
systems in the city (Davis, 2023).

Although most of the articles about Cordia Energy were published in June 2023, the highest
amount of audience engagement was seen in Nov. 2023. An article posted in Nov. received a
total of 29 likes, comments, or shares on social media, earning the most audience engagement
out of the 21 published articles. This article announced a business chamber update for the month
of Nov. and was posted on The Northside Chronicle, a community newspaper for the northside
of Pittsburgh, (Grone, 2023). Cordia renewed its membership with the Northside North Shore
Chamber, an organization intended to serve the business community in the area. The persuasive,
positive language used in this article paints the Chamber in a positive light, allowing for
constructive and practical coverage of Cordia Energy.

An article posted on Jan. 14, 2024, by Jay Barmann, reporter and San Francisco resident,
describes an underground steam pipe burst in San Francisco, which caused an entire block to be
shut down. The article lists Cordia as the company that runs the system. Although the article
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centers around a mishap, the language used is neutral toward Cordia and does not blame or fault
the company for the pipe burst (Barmann, 2024).

A feature-like article about Cordia was posted by the Minneapolis Star Tribune on Dec. 24,
2023, where the company is credited with “keeping the Twin Cities comfortable on the year's
hottest and coldest days,” (Magan, 2023). Reporter Christopher Magan, who covers news in
Hennepin County, Minnesota, took the angle of educating the audience on Cordia’s importance,
as “many people aren’t aware of them,” (Magan, 2023). Magan also included a quote from Jacob
Graff, Cordia’s regional general manager, who added onto this idea and stated that many people
do not know what Cordia does. This article has an optimistic and informative tone, allowing
Cordia to be viewed as a sustainable, forward-thinking energy solutions provider.

In the past year, Cordia Energy was mainly mentioned in traditional media when the company
announced new plants or developments, such as the new plant in downtown Phoenix, or when
articles explained what Cordia is and how its efforts impact cities. Of the published articles, none
were directly negative or harmful to Cordia’s image. The five articles Muck Rack states had
negative sentiment featured brief mentions of Cordia Energy with no negative language directed
toward the company itself. Many of the articles were overtly positive, explaining Cordia’s efforts
to advance heating and cooling in various cities and the intricate measures the company takes to
achieve its goals.

Communications Audit

Website
https://cordiaenergy.com/

Cordia’s website has five main web pages titled “Solutions,” “Who We Serve,” “Our Networks,”
“Our Impact” and “About” (“Cordia,” 2024). These pages have embedded links that navigate
users to other pages with specific details about the company. The website is very text-based,
providing users with information about Cordia’s specialities and products. It has a consistent
color scheme, with dominant hues of purple, orange and magenta.

Homepage

The homepage contains the phrase “Resilient Energy Solutions for a Sustainable Future” with
information about Cordia’s four main services right underneath. Further below, a 31-second
Youtube video is embedded that advertises Cordia as an innovative energy solutions provider.
The text next to the video states, “Cordia can oversee every part of your project…” and then lists
all the industries and locations the company serves, identifying the target audience as outside
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trade partners and company CFOs who contribute to financial decisions (“Cordia,” 2024). The
homepage features multiple paragraphs stating the benefits of partnering with Cordia, including
its comprehensive expertise and ability to meet community needs (“Cordia,” 2024). This
information is stated numerous times on the homepage, adding redundancy and taking away
space for additional multimedia elements, such as videos, pictures or graphics. In total, the
homepage and website navigation menu have 55 hyperlinks a user can click to redirect them to a
different part of Cordia’s website.

Solutions

Cordia’s “Solutions” page focuses on the financial aspect of partnering with Cordia and expands
on the benefits listed on the homepage. At the bottom of the page, the company touches on its
past expertise by providing information on the Sun Devil Energy Center case study. However,
Cordia fails to explain its in-depth history on any other page of the website. The company may
benefit from further explaining its past expertise.

Cordia focuses on providing district energy, combined heat and power, innovations, and
monetization and asset development, each with its own web page. Videos and graphics are used
in the descriptions of each solution as a way to simplify explanations and target audiences that
may not be directly involved in the energy conservation industry. For example, under the district
energy page, there is a bulleted step-by-step list with an illustration to explain the process of
district energy.

Who We Serve

There are eight tabs under the “Who We Serve” page, including higher education, commercial &
industrial, stadiums, arenas & conventions centers, healthcare, research & biomedical,
government & cultural, residential, hospitality and additional industries. Under each of these,
there are pictures and short descriptions to represent the specific industry. For example, Cordia
states in the healthcare, research & biomedical tab that “resilient energy systems are critical to
the work of hospitals all across the country: saving and improving lives,” (“Healthcare…,”
2024). Cordia uses these personalized messages to extend the importance of energy solutions and
make connections with outside trade partners in versatile industries. Under each tab, Cordia lists
the industries it serves and has unique “Contact Us” sections catered to each industry to show
that sustainable energy is a great solution for all.

Our Networks

The “Our Networks” tab lists the 11 locations Cordia serves: Princeton Health, San Diego,
Phoenix, San Francisco, Sun Devil Energy, Pittsburgh, Omaha, Harrisburg, Tucson, Duquesne
University and Minneapolis. Each page features a picture of the district powered by Cordia,
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along with a specific energy system profile. For some locations, there is a bulleted list of notable
customers that Cordia partners within the area. There is also a contact form at the bottom of each
location’s page to contact regional Cordia staff. By having separate, detailed pages for these
locations, Cordia uses a more personal, localized communications approach to target
communities and organizations.

Our Impact

Cordia has extensive information on its “Our Impact” page, with two main sections titled
“Sustainability” and “ESG Report.” The sustainability page has three photos of cities and three
small graphics with percentages showing the benefits of centralized production. This page
focuses on how sustainable energy benefits communities as well as specific organizations. There
are two paragraphs at the top of the page explaining Cordia’s values in action, which creates a
community-centered communications approach to energy solutions. To emphasize this message,
the first paragraph opens with “successful communities run on resilient energy,”
(“Sustainability,” 2024). Once again, at the bottom of the page, the names of the industries and
networks served are listed with hyperlinks to specific pages. The “ESG Report” page features a
video, a quote from the company’s CEO, a downloadable report and links to numerous pages
that provide sustainability information found in the report. Each page is considerably long and
text-heavy, and since the ESG report is already linked on the site as a downloadable PDF, Cordia
may consider cutting some of the information listed on the website to improve readability and
increase user-friendliness.

About

The “About” page on Cordia’s website features two photos, a short description of what Cordia is,
and reasons why partnering with the company is beneficial, as previously stated on the
homepage. There is no company history description, prohibiting potential partners from reading
about the company’s specific expertise and background. There are four bolded subheadings that
provide information on Cordia’s solutions, which are “Assessment & Development,” “Financing
& Acquisitions,” “Operations & Maintenance” and “Our Comprehensive Expertise.”

At the very bottom of the “About” page, there are two staff testimonials. Additionally, Earl
Collins, Cordia’s CEO, and Randy Johnson, Chief ESG Officer, give extensive quotes on the
company’s site about Cordia’s mission, but there is no page featuring Cordia leadership with
pictures or staff bios. There is also a spot on this page that advertises open positions at Cordia,
targeting potential employees.

Contact Us
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Cordia does not have a “Contact Us” page featured on its website navigation menu. Instead,
there is a contact link at the bottom right of the website footer for users to click, along with the
three other hyperlinks “Terms & Conditions,” “Privacy Policy” and “Careers.” In small font to
the left of these hyperlinks are plugs to the company’s social media pages on Instagram and
LinkedIn. Cordia does not advertise its social media channels anywhere else on the website.

Throughout the website, Cordia states that it is an adaptable energy provider that can work with
multiple industries in multiple locations. Cordia proves this by listing the many industries it
serves and creating a personalized connection to each one. Messages on the website are very
community-based, with subheadings such as “How Can Cordia Energy Benefit Your
Community?” and multiple other paragraphs that state how partnering with Cordia can help
everyone in the area as opposed to just one organization or business (“Solutions,” 2024).

Newsletters and Collateral

According to Cordia Marketing Director Katie Gajewski, Cordia stopped releasing newsletters to
the public several years ago. It is also worth noting that Cordia does not have an online
newsroom or blog with access to press releases or other external communications.

In April 2016, Cordia released volume six, issue one of its newsletter. This newsletter was
released before the company was rebranded and renamed to Cordia, so the title reads “Energy
Center News.” The color scheme was a mix of blue, green and dark purple, differing from
Cordia’s current brand colors. The first page of the newsletter features a story on how district
cooling saves money for Maricopa County, followed by articles emphasizing Cordia’s
sustainable solutions and various staff features. The content in this newsletter is localized and
niche, catering to an audience that is in the area and specifically interested in how Cordia is
impacting the community. The newsletter highlighted specific Cordia employees as opposed to
just listing their names, putting forth a personable, informative tone.

One of Cordia’s main pieces of collateral is the downloadable ESG report on its website, which
includes environmental and corporate data (“ESG Report,” 2023). The ESG report is
aesthetically consistent with brand guidelines, featuring the same colors and fonts as the website.
The report is 77 pages and opens with the company’s views, mission and beliefs. It then goes on
to explain the company’s nationwide project goals, social impact, partners, initiatives and
solutions. On page 57, Cordia lists all of its executive leadership. The report also lists the
company’s environmental goals, such as achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
These goals are not listed on the site’s homepage or categorized separately on the website.
Because of its intricacy and thoroughness, this report is catered more toward organizations and
individuals who are interested in the industry or gaining an in-depth understanding of Cordia’s
role in providing sustainable energy. The report is heavier and more detailed than the
information listed on Cordia’s website, although much of the information is summarized on the
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“ESG Report'' web page. Several times throughout the report, Cordia mentions community
improvement, which aligns with the key messages on its website.

Social Media Audit

Currently, Cordia only has a social media presence on Instagram and LinkedIn. Cordia has stated
that they would like its Instagram account to be used to recruit potential employees and its
LinkedIn to drive sales and leads.

Instagram

Cordia’s Instagram account currently has 114 posts and 71 followers. It is also following 14
accounts, mainly the universities and other corporations the company works with. Cordia’s
Instagram bio includes the brand’s slogan and a link that directs followers to a page on its
website explaining combined power and heat.

The last post Cordia made was on Dec. 27, 2023. The brand posted a total of six times in
December and seemed to have a pretty consistent posting schedule up until then, posting
approximately six to eight times a month. The posts consist of reels, single photos and carousels
of photos, with the majority being single photos. Cordia’s posts receive between two and six
likes, and rarely get comments. The comments that the account does receive are always from
Wayne Barnett, the company’s external affairs manager, and are usually a thumbs up emoji.

Most of the Instagram posts educate users about Cordia’s brand values and what businesses it
serves, including statistics about sustainable energy. There are also several posts centered around
veterans and how the company aims to support them. These seem to specifically be targeting
veterans who are looking for employment opportunities. The brand also posts about different
holidays, such as Independence Day and Pride month.

There does not seem to be a clear focus for what target audience Cordia is trying to reach on
Instagram. There are several posts with general images and captions talking about company
culture, which seems to align with Cordia’s goal of recruiting employees through the platform.
However, there are also posts that could be directed toward the sales side of Cordia’s market,
such as the “Trivia Tuesday” series the brand started. There are only two posts made for this,
aiming to educate users about sustainable energy and what Cordia does. These posts include a
call to action, asking followers to comment their answers to the trivia question. However, Cordia
did not receive any comments and only had 10 likes between both posts. Right now, the main
purpose of Cordia’s Instagram account seems to be educating the public on sustainable energy,
what Cordia does and what corporations it serves.
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LinkedIn

Cordia’s LinkedIn has 3,480 followers and is currently listing five job openings. Its homepage
includes a summary about what Cordia has to offer and seems to be the company’s pitch to
potential outside trade partners. It also includes a link that directs people to the website’s
homepage. This is the same link listed under the “Contact Info” section, instead of a link taking
people directly to the “Contact Us” page on Cordia’s website. This potentially makes it more
difficult for people wishing to reach out to the company, as the “Contact Us” page is buried at
the bottom of the website.

Cordia is active on LinkedIn, posting or reposting content approximately two times a week.
Besides featuring more employee spotlights, a lot of the content Cordia posts seems to be
repurposed from its Instagram page, with the same hashtags and captions. Recently, the company
has been more active on LinkedIn than on Instagram, however Cordia seems to be using both
platforms similarly. The posts about employees tend to receive the most engagement and the
brand receives higher engagement overall on LinkedIn than on Instagram. Cordia seems to be
leaning into employee statistics and corporate culture even more so on LinkedIn, which goes
somewhat against its desired goals of attracting potential clientele, rather than employees, from
the platform. The account also posts and reposts content focused on the specific corporations
Cordia works with and the tours it holds for prospective businesses.

Additionally, Cordia’s LinkedIn page has no links to the company’s Instagram account and has
no history of ads on the page.

Competitive Analysis

Cordia Energy Solutions has several competitors, including local utility companies that own and
operate district energy systems. However, the company’s main competitors are CenTrio Energy
and Vicinity Energy, which are both sustainable energy providers that offer similar services as
Cordia.

CenTrio Energy

CenTrio Energy was originally established in 1990 as the United States branch of Enwave
Energy and was renamed CenTrio in 2021 (“Enwave’s U.S. District,” 2021). The company
claims to have the largest district energy portfolio in the United States (“About Us,” 2023). The
company targets the same customers as Cordia and claims they provide “reliable, cost-effective
and sustainable energy solutions for higher education, healthcare and research, building owners,
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commercial and industrial entities, residential and multifamily properties, hospitality and
entertainment complexes and data centers'' (''CenTrio,” 2024).

The company is headquartered in Houston, Texas and serves districts in Los Angeles, California;
Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Houston, Texas;
Portland, Oregon; Seattle, Washington; Syracuse, New York; and Ypsilanti, Michigan.

CenTrio Website

CenTrio’s website has a clear layout that is easy to navigate. Overall, the website seems to put a
strong emphasis on how the company is aiming to better the planet and be sustainable. The
website has concise mission, vision and values statements and communicates the company’s
goals to decarbonize its systems by 2050. Cordia has expressed a similar goal but does not
clearly portray this on its website.

Although CenTrio’s website is more straightforward than Cordia’s, it still includes important
data that potential investors may want to know. Like Cordia’s website, CenTrio breaks down
exactly what it does for the individual industries it serves and provides statistics in a uniform
way. CenTrio also has a news page on its website, which would provide easy access to the latest
updates and press the company has received, although it has not been updated since Feb. 2023.
CenTrio’s only social media platform is LinkedIn, which is not linked on its website. CenTrio’s
website seems to be directed mainly toward corporations looking to work with a sustainable
energy provider and investors, and less toward potential employees.

CenTrio LinkedIn

CenTrio’s LinkedIn has 2,460 followers and is currently listing 11 job openings.
Its homepage includes a very brief, succinct description of what the company does. There is one
direct link to the company’s website homepage, but no links for contact information.
CenTrio posts on LinkedIn about two times a week, mainly about the positions the company is
hiring for, which do not receive much engagement. There are also many posts about different
events the company attends, which receive the most engagement. CenTrio seems to get slightly
less engagement on its LinkedIn posts than Cordia does, but around the same number of reposts.
It seems like CenTrio uses this platform mostly as a way to attract potential employees, and less
about informing the general public or driving sales. There is a history of one ad on CenTrio’s
LinkedIn page, but it is not currently displaying any ads.

CenTrio Traditional Media

According to Muck Rack, “CenTrio Energy” appears in 191 articles written in English in the past
12 months. However, only eighteen of these articles were unique. The total engagement score of
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these articles is 6,951, which is significantly more than Cordia’s traditional media engagement
rate in the last year. Approximately 98% of these articles were rated positively, and only one
article earned negative sentiment.

Overall, CenTrio markets itself to potential clients by having a concise, well-formatted website
that emphasizes its goals for sustainability. It does not use social media much to drive sales, but
more so to recruit future employees.

Vicinity Energy

Vicinity Energy was established in 2019 but has had some of its systems running since the 1880s
(“Our History,” 2023). The company claims it is the largest energy provider in North America
and serves the same industries as Cordia, specifically colleges and universities, commercial real
estate, government, healthcare, hospitality and life sciences (“Vicinity Launches…,” 2023).
Vicinity has its headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts and serves districts in Atlanta, Georgia;
Baltimore, Maryland; Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Kansas
City and Trenton, Missouri; Morgantown, West Virginia; Oklahoma City and Tulsa, Oklahoma;
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; and Watergate, Washington, D.C.

Vicinity Website

Vicinity’s website appears to be much less organized than CenTrio’s. The first thing on
Vicinity’s homepage is a portal for customers to pay their bills. There is also a lengthy definition
of what district energy is, which is helpful to educate the general public, however there is
nothing that clearly communicates what Vicinity is or what it does on this first page.

The website is very information-heavy and goes into greater detail than Cordia and CenTrio
about the exact services it provides and how its systems are sustainable. The website seems to be
directed toward the general public and potential customers, as it attempts to simplify a lot of
information. Vicinity also uses Instagram, LinkedIn, X, YouTube and Facebook, all of which are
linked on the website.

Vicinity LinkedIn

Vicinity’s LinkedIn has 5,420 followers and is currently listing eight job openings. The account
also claims to have 501-1000 employees, which is larger than both Cordia and CenTrio. The
homepage describes what Vicinity does and includes its mission to have net zero carbon
emissions by 2050. The page also includes a direct link to the company’s website homepage.
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Vicinity posts a lot about its events and facilities on LinkedIn, as well as different employee
highlights. The company’s posts about employees and news articles garner the most engagement,
and overall, the account seems to get approximately the same amount of engagement on its posts
as CenTrio. Primarily, the account seems to be targeting industries looking to work with a
sustainable energy service, and then potential future employees.

Vicinity Instagram

Vicinity currently has 182 posts and 216 followers on Instagram. It also follows 244 accounts.
Vicinity’s Instagram bio has a short description of the company and includes a link that takes
followers to a page with several different links to articles about the company. The company’s
website is not linked at all, which could make it inconvenient for people to find.

Vicinity’s last post was on Jan. 17, 2024, and the company generally posts about nine times a
month. The posts consist of reels, single photos and carousels of photos, mostly identical to what
is posted on the company’s LinkedIn. The account receives less engagement than it does on its
LinkedIn, but slightly more than Cordia’s Instagram. Vicinity receives anywhere between four to
13 likes per post and rarely gets a comment. The content is mostly informational about what
Vicinity does and the industries it serves, targeting mostly the general public and potential
business partners.

Vicinity X

Vicinity has 739 tweets and 447 followers on X. It also follows 1,116 other accounts. It has a
very brief description in its bio about the company, including its 2050 goal.

Vicinity’s X account posts some of the same content as its other platforms, but it is used more as
a way to tweet and retweet relevant news related to weather, laws or updates on systems. The
company posts around nine times a month and receives very little engagement, typically getting
no likes or comments. The company seems to use its platform to target potential and current
customers. Many of the recent tweets explain how the weather can affect systems or offer advice
on maintenance and services. There are also some tweets informing customers on how to pay
their bills.

Vicinity Facebook

Vicinity has 36 likes and 61 followers on Facebook. In the “Intro” section, there is a brief
description about the company that is either cut off or unfinished. There is also an email address
listed under contact information that allows for easy communication to the company and a link to
the homepage of its website. Vicinity is fairly active on its Facebook page. It posted 12 times in
Dec. 2023 and has posted seven times in January so far. The content posted is mostly
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informational about the company and the industries it serves, mirroring what is on the company’s
Linkedin. Again, this platform seems to be targeting potential industries looking to work with the
company.

Vicinity YouTube

Vicinity’s YouTube account has five uploads and 31 subscribers. The company posts very
infrequently, with the last post being from a year ago. Additionally, the company is not active on
the community tab. There is a variety of content posted on the account, mostly informational
about what Vicinity does and explaining district energy. For this reason, the account seems to be
directed at the general public.

Vicinity Traditional Media

According to Muck Rack, “Vicinity Energy” appeared in 720 articles in the past 12 months that
were written in English in the United States. Of the published articles, 330 were unique.
Vicinity’s traditional media presence in the past year outranks both Cordia’s and CenTrio’s in
terms of published articles, but its total engagement score was 3,789, which is less than
CenTrio’s total engagement. Approximately 92% of these articles earned positive sentiment.

Overall, Vicinity illustrates its focus on sustainability by emphasizing the company’s 2050 goals
on the majority of its social media platforms. The company seems to use all of its platforms as a
way to market its services to potential organizations interested in using sustainable energy, but
does not use their website in a clear, concise way to drive sales.

Conclusion

The purpose of this communications audit was to analyze communication efforts utilized by
Cordia Energy and explore the company’s key messages, themes and audiences. This audit also
examined how Cordia has been represented in traditional media over the past year, how it
represents itself on its website, and the strengths and weaknesses in the company’s social media
channels.

It was found that Cordia’s presence in traditional media was positive, but not extensive. Of the
21 articles posted about Cordia in the past year, only 18 were unique and covered many of the
same topics, such as the announcement of a new plant or a feature article explaining how
Cordia’s heating and cooling systems run. Cordia is mainly featured in business and law media
outlets, and the published articles had varying engagement rates throughout the year.
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Overall, Cordia’s website is extremely text-heavy and informative, conveying the message that
Cordia is adaptable and has sustainable energy solutions for diverse industries. Throughout the
website, the company reminds the audience of its extensive expertise and why partnering with
Cordia would be beneficial for an organization. Cordia may consider adding a “History” page to
explain past expertise and enhance the communication efforts of prioritizing relationships and
advocating for a strong community. Adding a page for staff bios or an “About” section for
executive leadership could also contribute to these goals. Staff names are listed on the
downloadable ESG report, but extending this to the website may add personability and
transparency.

Cordia repeats the same information on many pages of its website. For example, the homepage
mentions Cordia’s comprehensive expertise in three separate places. Condensing paragraphs on
the website could help reduce redundancy and make the site more user-friendly and aesthetically
pleasing. This is especially true for the “ESG Report” page, where multiple paragraphs repeat
information that is available in the downloadable report.

Cordia could also consider making its long-term sustainability goals, such as its plan to have net
zero carbon emissions by 2025, more prevalent on its website and social media platforms to
further its communications goal of thinking toward a more sustainable future.

Cordia has social media accounts on both LinkedIn and Instagram. The company receives more
engagement on LinkedIn, which is its most active account, where it mainly targets potential
employees that could be interested in working with Cordia. The company mostly uses its
Instagram account to educate the general public on sustainable energy and Cordia’s operations.

Overall, Cordia is one of the leading service providers for sustainable energy and markets itself
as a community-oriented, forward-thinking company. Its communication efforts are generally
directed toward educating the public on Cordia’s services and attracting future employees, while
focusing on how to best serve the industries it partners with.

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