For local governments, engaging the community is key to achieving climate goals, and Earth Day is one of the best opportunities to get people to take action. That’s especially true right now when the recent headlines – like USA Today’s "'It's now or never': UN climate report shows globe is on 'track toward an unlivable world'"-- are driving awareness and, ideally, action.

The next few weeks are when people will be searching online for ways to "go green." It's when you have the chance to convert someone looking for a one-time litter or river clean up into a regular participant in your climate programs.

Earth Day can be a springboard for climate action in your community.

But you can't do this if people need a PhD to understand the challenges your community faces and where you're headed. Or if they have to navigate a typical local government website to find the most effective actions. Don’t lose the Earth Day momentum!

At KLA our clients want thriving, inclusive, healthy communities. Sometimes they come to us before they kick off of a major planning process, and we partner with them throughout that journey. Other times it starts with a GHG inventory or implementing a specific grant-based project with community engagement. Still others come to us for our Community Dashboard and wind up integrating our communications support.

Regardless of the starting point, KLA has been proud to work with communities from Encinitas, CA, to Cambridge, MA, and Indianapolis, IN, West Palm Beach, FL and San Antonio, TX. Here are 6 ways we help them achieve their climate and sustainability goals.

Many sustainability planning processes (and indeed planning processes in general) tout community engagement as the cornerstone of plan development. But we often see the same actors engaged time after time. These are often representatives and members of environmental nonprofits and super civic-minded citizens. While their opinions are important, ultimately the needs and perspectives of huge swaths of the community are not reflected in the final plans because they weren’t given the right opportunity to voice them.

That was not the approach Indianapolis wanted to take when they embarked on their Sustainability and Resilience planning process and brought the KLA Team in to manage it. The plan -- called Thrive Indianapolis -- brings together City agencies, community partners, and residents to chart a course for an Indianapolis that is equitable, healthier, and prepared for the challenges of the 21st century. It encompasses 8 “plan elements”:

• Built Environment
• Economy
• Energy
• Food & Urban Agriculture
• Natural Resources
• Public Health & Safety
• Transportation & Land Use
• Waste & Recycling

So it touches on everything -- and everyone -- from infrastructure to parks to jobs to food access to transportation options to safe streets to air and water quality. We’re still only halfway through the process, but so far the approach we’ve taken with the City and our partners to really shake up the standard community engagement game is showing results.

Who is Behind the KLA Curtain?

On any given day you can find members of our growing KLA Team:

• Organizing and attending workshops and events for our clients, their stakeholders and community members
• Coordinating with local partner organizations in client cities as we develop sustainability, resilience and climate action plans
• Deep in data analysis for GHG inventories
• Mapping with GIS
• Talking with technical partners as we refine our Community Dashboard
• Walking clients through a messaging and branding process as they kick off new initiatives
• Designing and conducting surveys to gauge community awareness and opinion on behalf of our clients
• Drafting social media posts, blog posts and newsletter articles for our clients
• Speaking at and attending conferences
• Recording podcasts with leading local government and sustainability voices for our SAS Talk with Kim podcast (Sustainability Action Series)
• Researching the latest trends and best practices when it comes to sustainability, livability, equity, storytelling, community engagement, smart cities and more

These are tasks we all juggle. And for a growing slate of clients. But with a team this expansive and collaborative, we can effectively juggle without dropping any balls.

So who is this team? Lately we’ve been growing by leaps and bounds, so I wanted to take the opportunity to introduce us to you. You can also do the Cliffs Notes version on our profile page.