KLA clients lead the way with innovative, scalable, replicable climate solutions at the local level.
Each month in 2022 we will shine a spotlight on their bright ideas.

Heat pump coaches in Concord, MA, help meet a climate goal:
getting homeowners to transition to efficient heating and cooling

“Why You (and the Planet) Really Need a Heat Pump.” We saw this headline the other day and our minds went to KLA client Concord, MA.

Like many communities sifting through data to identify the biggest-bang-for-your-buck ways to slash greenhouse gas emissions, getting more residents to switch to heat pumps emerged for Concord as a top strategy. But the process of transitioning a heating or cooling system to a new fuel source – plus choosing the right equipment and installer -- can be daunting for people. To begin with, don’t assume that heat pump technology and the benefits are common knowledge. In fact, a recent survey done by the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center (MassCEC) found that 50% of Massachusetts residents do not know what heat pumps are.

So it wasn’t surprising that in Concord the uptake of heat pumps to meet climate action goals was happening too slow and needed a nudge.

That nudge comes in the form of a coach.

KLA clients lead the way with innovative, scalable, replicable climate solutions at the local level.
Each month in 2022 we will shine a spotlight on their bright ideas.

A key but often overlooked strategy for local climate action plans is a training program for city/town/county employees to raise awareness of climate challenges and solutions among an important audience.

That wasn’t lost on KLA client San Antonio, which included “educate and empower all residents with knowledge to address climate change in the community and at the workplace” as a strategy in their Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. And they’ve already made good on that promise through a robust and ongoing employee training program.

For a city that employs 13,000 people, leading by example can make a big dent.

Whether it feels like it or not, 2022 is a NEW year! It's a chance to renew your individual and community commitment to aggressive climate action. And we've got you covered with the following free resources: 

Don't Let Design of Your Plan

Be an Afterthought 

You’ve dedicated significant time and energy to your climate or sustainability plan, and you want it to show. Long after the months of community outreach, stakeholder meetings, technical analysis, internal wrangling and final launch, this the final stamp you’ve left – how it will be remembered.

You want a professional product that reflects the process that it took to get there. A plan that tells the story of your climate and sustainability journey and goals in a visual way that spurs action.

Which is why the design of your final plan actually needs to start on day one and be integrated throughout. When we say “design” we mean both the creative piece (icons, images, etc) and the content organization.

At KLA we work with several design consultants to deliver our clients’ plans and other design needs, and we chatted recently with one of them – Terri Courtemarche of Scouter Design – to pull together 15 best practice tips and examples for plan design.

You can't escape the daily headlines about electric vehicles. And, no, we're not talking about the reaction to Time magazine naming Tesla CEO Elon Musk their Person of the Year.

Read/listen to/watch the news and you know that EVs are surging in popularity and everyone from auto manufacturers to elected officials can see the writing on the wall: EVs represent a huge opportunity for climate action. 

Here are just a recent headlines:

Biden plan seeks to jumpstart rollout of electric vehicle charging stations

Electric Vehicles May Control Half of Major Markets by 2030, Auto Execs Predict

Electric vehicles listed as top priority by mayors in new U.S. Conference of Mayors report

Toyota to invest $35 billion into battery-powered EVs and roll out 30 models by 2030

Thus our Climate Solutions Series webinar on EVs on December 8th was well-timed and well-attended. 

A Pledge is Nice. Plans are Important. But Implementation is How We Sink or Swim. 

The point was very painfully made that we aren't moving as fast and as aggressively as we need to stop the most devastating impacts of climate change. 

The focus at COP26 was often on the goals that countries are setting, pledges they are making. 

At the local government level here in the US, many of us have already set ambitious goals and have crafted climate action plans that break down how we'll reach those goals through a series of actions that usually span the key sectors: buildings, energy, transportation and waste. COP26 saw even more commitments by or directly impacting local governments – the Clean Construction Coalition is just one example – that we hope will be an impetus for even more action.

Our challenge -- the one that will affect our communities and faraway sinking nations like Tuvalu -- is to take those promises, quickly turn them into action plans and then IMPLEMENT.

Electric Vehicles and Mobility the focus of third webinar in series on high impact GHG reduction strategies for local governments

Experts tell us that we have less than a decade to significantly reduce GHG emissions to avoid the most dire impacts of climate change. This means local governments must take aggressive action now.

5 Common Mistakes and

5 Ways to Get Out of this Rut

We all know the drill. The planning drill. You compile mounds of data, loop in all the right stakeholders, host the community meetings, factor in all the feedback, write the plan, work with a designer to make it look nice, and present it to the powers that be. After that maybe you take a nap, but then it’s off to the implementation races.

But where does that leave your plan and – more importantly – your community?

If the answer is that your plan lives primarily as a PDF document (even a fancy, professionally designed one) on your local government website, that’s a problem….that we can help fix.

In our many years of talking with local government staff about this process, the following scenarios emerge over and over again:

We need rapid, bold action to fight the climate crisis. But we also need lasting solutions, and ones that aren’t confined to certain departments or that check off a few boxes – EV charging stations, some solar installations – in a climate action plan and call it a day. 

One of the tools we use at KLA to institutionalize our clients’ core sustainability and climate principles is a Sustainability or Climate Action Framework.

A Framework of this nature can be developed and deployed before, during or after a planning process and becomes a living document that local governments use to design, assess or screen a program, project or initiative to ensure it’s a net positive for the community’s core values.  The Framework can take many forms and be a simple set of criteria with some guiding questions (Example A below) or something more complex with a rating system (Example B below).  As the video below shows, this is basically a spreadsheet (but we make it look nice!) with several tabs that cover: summary, the framework, definitions, examples and metrics. Regardless of the exact format, the important part is that you’re considering the implications early in project development not as an afterthought or when it is too late to correct course.

We are data nerds. We own it. We’re also passionate about stopping the climate crisis. Fortunately, those two are a good combination.

In fact, we’d argue aggressive, impactful climate action hinges entirely on how you – we’re looking at you, local government leaders – harness data. I wrote about our data-driven approach last month, and our Community Dashboard platform is where you can see how we use data for storytelling.

If you don’t get goosebumps thinking about the potential for Vehicle Miles Traveled (VMT), GIS floodplain data, waste tonnage or building square footage, don’t worry we’ve got you covered. This is just some of what the data we had access to (courtesy of the Planning Department) for the Thrive Indianapolis plan's Transportation and Land Use section:

We develop climate action plans for local governments around the clock – for small towns and giant cities and counties – and, through years of experience, we have identified some standard metrics. The table below (or downloadable here) breaks them down by category, why each data point is useful, and where to find it.