KLA Perspectives

If you live in a coastal community or one prone to flooding, you might have watched Houston in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey with a bit of trepidation.

The frequency and severity of flooding are on the rise in the age of climate change, and in no place is that more apparent than Houston -- a city that is watching Hurricane Harvey barrel towards it even as it still dries out from other heavy rains and flooding.

When you think about the arc of climate change awareness and action in this country, it’s hard not to put former Vice President Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth” film -- which hit theaters back in 2006 and has “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” coming out August 4, 2017 -- among the most important events.

Across the country people feel uncertain about what will happen at the federal level on climate, energy and sustainability policies in the coming years.

At KLA we’ve worked with dozens of cities and counties over the years on plans. Climate action plans. Adaptation plans. Sustainability plans. Energy master plans. And let me tell you, after the blood, sweat, tears and sheer hours that go into one of those plans, it can feel like the journey is over. But a plan is not a destination. It is, in fact, the starting point.

This is Part 2 of 2 based on my recent SAS Talk with Kim podcast with Emie Michaud Weinstock of Reveled Up, a branding and event marketing boutique. A good chunk of our discussion focused on the importance of the speakers and/or facilitators, which is what dive into here. In Part 1 we go through the content and design of the events. And we've compiled a Top 10 Best Practices list. 

Community engagement is a critical part of our sustainability work and the linchpin for setting and meeting long-term goals. KLA teamed up with Emie Michaud Weinstock of Reveled Up, a branding and event marketing boutique, for a recent SAS Talk with Kim podcast. She shared so much useful information about how to design an event that engages everyone in your community that we have two companion blog posts: Part 1 focuses on event content and design; Part 2 on speakers and facilitators.

Part 1 of a 2-part series. Part 2 focuses on speakers and facilitators.

Podcast with John Trujillo on Their Outside-the-Box Approach

UPDATE 2018 (Originally posted June 2017): Congratulations to the team we interviewed for this podcast. They received an American Planning Association Achievement Award at the National Planning Conference for their work on this project. 

Have you ever been called (or called someone else) a “treehugger”? I personally wear that moniker as a badge of honor. For decades that has been a catchall term for anyone who supports protecting wild forests, clean air and water, open spaces, sustainable places, and so on. But aside from the “hugging” part about loving and caring, the one word in our language that has come to symbolize sustainability and environmental protection is “trees.”