KLA Perspectives

UPDATE JANUARY 2018: We reconnected with Dan Guilbeault of DC at the end of 2017 to see how their 2017 Volunteer Ambassador cohort and how the program was evolving. Read the update from Dan. 

This article first appeared on Triple Pundit. 

It's Earth Day. Are you still looking for ways to be more proactive and engaging in your community? Do you want to use the momentum of Earth Day as a springboard for future events? Could you use ideas for how to sustain your outreach through the summer and fall? Keep reading. 

In a recent blog post we talked about Sustainable ROI or "SROI" (you can also listen to our SAS Talk podcast on the topic with guest Stephane Larocque of Impact Infrastructure) and the importance of integrating the “triple bottom line” of people, planet and profits into traditional cost-benefit analyses when making infrastructure decisions.

The weather and nascent blooms certainly make it feel like spring. The question is: Spring 2017 or Spring 2005?

Listen to our latest SAS Talk with Kim podcast: Sustainable ROI

There’s nothing like hopping on to social media to see an empowering headline like “Climate change is happening now -- here’s eight things we can do to adapt to it” and then noticing the byline is one of your most esteemed colleagues. That was my much-needed jolt yesterday when I read the Guardian headline in my Facebook feed posted by the article’s author Missy Stults.

I’ve just posted the most recent SAS Talk podcast and during our conversation my guest Erin Deady of Erin Deady Law, who helped get Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing off the ground in Florida, says she expects 2017 to be “The Year of PACE.” We explore that and more as we kick off a Financing Solutions series, shining the spotlight first on PACE as one of many tools local governments have at their disposal to support clean energy, climate protection and sustainability projects in their communities.

We do not really know what to expect from incoming President Trump as it relates to... well almost anything. But one thing we do know is that he has repeatedly professed not to believe in manmade climate change -- despite the clear science and the potentially dire consequences to his sprawling Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach from sea-level rise (my hometown paper The Boston Globe just did a great dive into that issue).

His Cabinet is shaping up to reflect those views, or worse. If confirmed, his head of the Department of Energy once famously forgot the name of the department and said he wanted to abolish it; his Secretary of State will have just stepped down after 4 decades at climate-change-denier ExxonMobil; and at the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency would be a man who, in his capacity as Oklahoma’s Attorney General, has sued that very agency more than a dozen times.

I like to talk, and I have a lot to say. And that’s particularly true when it comes to sustainability and climate issues and how local governments are leading the way with solutions. That niche has been my passion and career for nearly two decades. During that time I’ve spoken to and been inspired by so many people who are fighting the good fight at (or in support of) the local government level -- with amazing results, overcoming significant challenges, employing innovative approaches, and willing and eager to learn from and help others. Ultimately, I wanted to share those conversations in an accessible way.