HomeMy WebLinkAboutRESPONSE - RFP - 8362 CLIMATE ACTION PLAN CONSULTANTClimate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
1
September 5, 2016
City of Fort Collins' Purchasing Division
215 North Mason St., 2nd floor
Fort Collins, Colorado 80524
Response to RFP - 8362 Climate Economy Action Plan Consultant
Dear City of Fort Collins' Purchasing Division,
Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS) and Integral Group are pleased to
submit our proposal to develop the City of Fort Collins Climate Economy
Action Plan. Based in neighboring Longmont and having extensive
experience leading the development of sustainability plans and
implementation throughout Colorado, our team is excited to have the
opportunity to work where we live and play.
The team at Natural Capitalism Solutions has led the field of sustainability
and climate action for over thirty-five years and has been recognized as a
leader by numerous governments and cities locally to globally, as well as
institutions from the US Army to the United Nations. Having developed
many of the processes and guiding frameworks now accepted in the field,
including pioneering the business case for sustainability and climate
action, we offer both a deep level of understanding regarding the local
landscape and key stakeholders, as well as sustainability expertise unique
to this region and an intimate understanding of business engagement,
development and strategic partnerships.
A woman-run 501(c)3 non-profit, NCS is accustomed to working with
organizations and communities big and small around the globe to develop
plans and tools for implementing genuine sustainability specific to the
place and people. Our senior leadership will be involved throughout the
project to better tailor the final Climate Economy Action Plan according to
the unique challenges and opportunities in Fort Collins.
Together with Integral Group and our business engagement toolkit
partner Climate Smart, our team brings the City of Fort Collins deep
experience in all aspects of climate mitigation, and decades of experience
working on sustainability issues with both private and public sectors in
tandem. This is complimented by extensive experience in building the
business case for climate action, as well as direct engagement and
strategic consulting for small to large companies. In addition to strong
leadership development and the implementation and rolling out of
sustainable standards and certification programs, our team also provides
strategic expertise in financing carbon reduction strategies. Collectively
we deliver a unique skill set that combines leadership in planning,
evaluation, and strategy, with strong technical knowledge in energy,
water, waste, recycling, transportation, the economy and built
environment. We have assessed and developed hundreds of sustainability
and climate action plans, programs and tools, while implementing
performance-based frameworks to effectively guide decision-making on
the ground for more resilient and equitable communities.
Few teams can match the breadth of knowledge, depth of technical
expertise, and demonstrated successful project execution, including
dealing with unexpected and significant changes in circumstances during
project execution. We have a track record for successfully delivering
projects that exceed expectations on time and within budget.
Upon reviewing our proposal, we hope you will share our belief that we
are the most qualified partner to help develop a strategy and five-year
action plan to execute the “Climate Economy” in Fort Collins. We look
forward to bringing our unique combination of experience, leadership,
and road tested frameworks and tools to help Fort Collins create an
effective and actionable climate economy plan. Thank you and we look
forward to discussing our approach with you in more detail.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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About Natural Capitalism Solutions
Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS) is a Colorado based
non-profit that helps communities, countries, and
companies implement more regenerative practices
profitably. Founded by global sustainability pioneer,
Hunter Lovins, the organization is an internationally
recognized leader in the field of sustainability, named
Sustainability Pioneer by the European financial community, and
Millennium Hero for the Planet by Time Magazine.
With clients representing three percent of U.S. GDP and extensive
experience consulting for governments and universities, Natural
Capitalism Solutions supports leaders in implementing sustainability to
increase savings, manage resources, and enhance community wellbeing.
NCS is joint applicant with Integral Group and the project lead for this
proposal. Founded in 2002 on the three principles of Natural Capitalism,
NCS uses these as the basis for a transition to genuine sustainability. They
describe how communities and companies can shift from unsustainable
to sustainable, restorative practices.
1. Increasing Efficiency: Dramatically increasing the productivity of
resources including energy, water, materials, and people.
2. Designing for Sustainability: Using innovative processes to
eliminate waste and toxics, while delivering superior products
and services.
3. Managing for Sustainability: Restoring and enhancing natural
and human capital resources, while increasing profitability and
competitive advantage.
Contact: Peter D. Krahenbuhl
Phone: 720.684.6580
peter@natcapsolutions.org
About Integral Group
Integral Group (www.integralgroup.com) is a deep green
engineering firm that provides a full range of building
system design, sustainability and energy analysis services,
as well as larger level master plans that result in
sustainable and resilient communities. Located across
North America with global affiliates, and staff widely regarded as
innovative leaders in their fields, Integral’s expertise in sustainable design
runs deep.
Integral is designed to accelerate critical change in the built environment,
offering an integrated approach to creating systems that enhance
opportunities that nature provides to reduce reliance on outside energy
sources. Creating healthy and thriving communities, Integral also
develops energy master plans at the district and municipality scale and
consults on city and institutional planning. This includes integrating
micro-grid resiliency, energy integration with water systems, thermal and
electrical energy storage, on-site renewable technologies, and ultra-low
energy building design. Carrying Net Positive, low carbon and carbon
positive design to a larger level requires identifying synergies between
buildings and across scaled systems.
About Climate Smart
Climate Smart provides small- and medium-sized
enterprises (SMEs) with training, tools, and certification
to profitably reduce GHG emissions generated by their
business operations. Climate Smart builds capacity within SMEs by
training key staff to develop strategies for ongoing reductions in
emissions and associated costs from energy, fuel and waste that create
economic as well as environmental benefits. Climate Smart collaborates
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Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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1) Methods and Approach
Project Approach
Fort Collins is making great strides with regard to sustainable
development at a municipality level, as evidenced by its existing
ambitious commitment to reducing Greenhouse Gases and its impressive
target of carbon neutrality by 2050, as well as the city’s identification of
31 initiatives for achieving its 2020 carbon reduction goal. Moving beyond
its own operations, fleets and facilities, the city is prepared to
aggressively pursue additional significant gains based on its influence on
land use and energy. This can occur by combining these domains of
control with the three areas of economic activity – resource efficiency,
infrastructure investment, and innovation – through direct business
engagement and partnerships, resulting in a more prosperous, resilient
and inclusive “ecological” climate economy.
At NCS, our team works with pioneering organizations and communities,
similar to Fort Collins, to develop and enhance strategic climate plans
with strong economic viability. What sets our team apart is that we only
engage in partnerships that promote the implementation of genuine
sustainability profitably. NCS is able to provide tangible and actionable
steps for organizations and communities in a way that allows them to
address climate change today, while empowering them to manage their
programs well into the future.
A key challenge for Fort Collins, like many communities, is to determine
the best and most cost efficient approach to carbon reduction methods
that also help grow the local economy, including addressing access to
financial mechanisms. In order to address this challenge NCS will work to
prioritize partnerships with local businesses that are most cost effective,
feasible, and relevant for Fort Collins to be able to reduce GHG emissions,
integrate a “climate economy” in all areas, and create a resilient and
more prosperous future for the local community. We will be able to
leverage our current research developing the national Climate Action
Roadmap for municipalities, which will be an online climate action gap
analysis across the country, a roadmap white paper, and an open-source
grouping of tools and resources for cities to supercharge their climate
economy. The beta site is available at www.climateactionroadmap.org.
Our team has reviewed the Request for Proposal (RFP) and related
documents provided by Fort Collins and have developed a method for
achieving the City’s desired outcomes for a five year Climate Economy
Action Plan with an eye to 2030, including enhanced business
engagement. We have the good fortune of extensive past leadership
experience working directly with the private sector in addressing climate
change and sustainability challenges, as well as working with and through
numerous municipality and larger institutional partners.
We will build upon existing data, research, baselines, industry trends,
business engagement and partnerships within Fort Collins and beyond, as
well as tapping into our own expertise, resources, and continued research
in the areas identified in the RFP and this proposal.
Because we have not worked with Fort Collins directly on its existing
sustainability and climate plans and reports, our team is able to approach
this project with fresh, objective eyes that include decades of national
leadership experience in this arena, yet being based locally, providing us
with an intimate understanding of Colorado urban and rural areas.
Our approach is informed by decades of experience developing and
evaluating municipality and organizational sustainability and climate
action plans, as well as furthering sustainability with communities,
businesses, and organizations alike through direct implementation
support. A key component of our approach is how we build both from the
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It is assumed that the project will be a collaboration between our team
with City staff and key business and community stakeholders, and we
have extensive experience in coordinating and reviewing process and
progress throughout project lifecycles.
It is understood that we will be expected to participate in several types of
meetings, and we will provide all relevant team members according to
the topic and needs of any particular meeting. We will work to develop
an overall strategy for stakeholder involvement in a collaborative process
with the City staff at the very beginning of project kickoff as detailed
below in the Scope of Work. This includes an initial coordination meeting,
progress meetings, key stakeholder meetings, and City Council
presentations.
The output of this effort will provide Fort Collins with an updated,
progressive and actionable climate economy plan that directly engages
with the private sector, with a clear picture of how best to invest in and
implement the plan to deliver tangible value to the community. The
following section details how this will manifest throughout the lifecycle of
the project.
Business Engagement Process
Example of our process engaging with local businesses in order to
rapidly achieve carbon reduction strategies and activities
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Scope of Work
Phase 1: STRATEGIC PLANNING
As stated in the RFP, it is understood that the overall Goals and Objectives
of this initial phase of the project include the following:
• Review Existing Plans – Complete a thorough review of the existing
Economic Health Strategic Plan, Industry Cluster 2.0 document,
Climate Action Plan Framework, Road to 2020 Documents, Energy
Policy, and other relevant documents provided by the City
• Review Current Climate Economy Research – Prepare a thorough
literature review, in a clear and concise format, of the Climate
Economy topic within the context of the role of municipalities and
economic development entities
• Define/Refine the Climate Economy – Using the above literature
review, engage with key private sector stakeholders and key City staff
to develop a complete definition of the local Climate Economy
• Verify and/or Adjust Key Climate Economy Impact Areas – Using the
above literature review, engage with key private sector stakeholders
and key City staff to verify and/or adjust the four proposed Climate
Action impact areas: Business Engagement, Technological Innovation;
Capital Access/Development, and Business Adaptation
• Climate Economy Metrics – Develop a set of metrics to measure the
success of City efforts within each of the proposed Climate Economy
impact areas, to be coordinated and integrated into the City’s existing
and evolving metrics system
The NCS team will work with the City of Fort Collins and the greater
business community through the following recommended process and
tasks in order to achieve these goals, and overall project goals.
Task A) Initial Project Kick-off: Strategic Planning & Goal Setting
At the beginning of the project, our team will meet with City of Fort
Collins personnel and other recommended stakeholders to discuss project
goals, clarify expectations and get general feedback on the desired
direction to ensure that the work results in high-quality specifications for
the city. During the planning meeting we will also review and identify
additional stakeholders that will be instrumental in the creation of key
deliverables related to the development of the plan.
During this meeting we will develop and agree to the project schedule, as
well as overall objectives, deliverables and communications protocol. This
will include scheduling project check-ins, addressing scope
considerations, and establishing key relationships, as well as identifying
key stakeholders for initial and subsequent follow up interviews.
Following the meeting, our team will provide Fort Collins with a complete
project work plan including check-ins and updates on key milestones
throughout the project.
Our team will work to develop an overall strategy for stakeholder
involvement and business engagement in a collaborative process with the
key City staff. Expected targeted stakeholder meetings include the
following at a minimum:
ü Initial Coordination Meeting: At this meeting, we will work with the
City to finalize a detailed schedule of the project, identify important
milestones with target dates, and finalize a detailed scope of services.
ü Progress Meetings: Progress meetings will be held periodically
throughout the project. These meetings may occur via conference call
or face-to-face depending on travel schedule, the needs of the
particular meeting, and carbon footprint considerations.
ü Key Stakeholder Meetings: It is expected that there may be a number
of key stakeholder meetings. The final key stakeholder involvement
plan will be a collaboration between our team and relevant City staff.
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Deliverables
Summary report (word doc) of kick-off meeting notes, including
project development goals
Identification of key stakeholders who will assist/participate in
key project communications, including stakeholder interviews
Draft and revised project work plan and schedule
Summary of next steps and scheduled communications, and
calendar of topical meetings over time
Task B. Interview Key Project Stakeholders
At the beginning of the project, the NCS team will work with Fort Collins
to identify and meet with key personnel, as well as any relevant working
groups or other stakeholders, in order to obtain input on focus areas and
goals from various groups that will help to define the trajectory of the
project, identify gaps, and/or help to refine outputs and/or process.
These may include:
ü Key City Staff
ü Existing or potential climate and sustainability working groups or
stakeholders
ü City Council meeting (if applicable);
ü Other external agreed upon meetings (e.g. public or business)
In addition to reviewing overall project goals and obtaining general
information on the current status and needs in Fort Collins, we will also
use these meetings to identify information gaps to input into the process
that may not otherwise be captured through existing reports or data
sources.
Assumptions
• Identified stakeholders will be available to provide input into
agreed interviews
• Key staff will assist with the organization and facilitation of events
Deliverables
Identification of key stakeholders who will assist/participate in
interviews; Completion of key project stakeholder interviews
Summary report (word doc) of interviews conducted
Task C. Assess Current Condition
Our team will conduct a thorough analysis of Fort Collins’s current
conditions, including relevant baseline data, guidelines, policies and
plans. In addition to drawing from our own expertise and taking into
account the desires of the City, we will focus on information provided by
Fort Collins, while referencing internal research in order to best leverage
our recommendations uniquely for Fort Collins.
This includes a thorough review of existing plans that are specific to Fort
Collins, including the existing Economic Health Strategic Plan, Industry
Cluster 2.0 document, Climate Action Plan Framework, Road to 2020
Documents, and other relevant documents to obtain an understanding of
context. We will investigate the current status of each key subject area as
identified in the RFP and compare existing municipality level initiatives to
assess existing plans’ strengths and weaknesses, and form the basis for
the formulation of viable recommendations for Fort Collins.
Our team partner Integral Group has recently worked with Fort Collins
Utility staff on the development of a low carbon district energy plan for
the City Hall precinct. Working on this project has given our team insight
into Fort Collins’ energy use and emissions factors for downtown
buildings. This experience will help us during the initial phases to put
much of the existing research into context.
The NCS team will analyze other regions, including a review of
sustainability plans and best practices from cities of comparable size and
demographics. This will include a gap analysis of other leading
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goals and accomplishments. We will identify comparable best practice
efforts in terms of scale and effort, and determine how existing strategies
can best be utilized and expanded upon locally.
This will build off of existing City of Fort Collins research, as well as our
current work developing a national Climate Action Roadmap
(www.climateactionroadmap.org) for municipalities that is based on a
GAP analysis across the country. This will allow us to apply widely
accepted best practices, metrics and methodologies to arrive at a
baseline climate economy profile for Fort Collins in key climate economy
areas including, but not limited to: energy and buildings, emissions,
renewable energy, waste, recycling, transportation, land use, water, air,
procurement, economic development, community health and finance.
In addition, we will conduct and prepare a thorough literature review, in
a clear and concise format, of the Climate Economy topic, with special
emphasis on the role of municipalities and economic development
entities, as well as financial and capital access issues.
Our team proposes a two stream approach to address the question of
what cities can do to encourage the development of the climate
economy. The two tracks are broadly:
(1) What are the ways that cities are “greening” existing traditional
businesses to lower their emissions and become more resilient. These
could be businesses like restaurants and breweries, retailers,
manufacturers, etc. who are - or potentially can be - engaged in
energy efficiency and transportation demand management, but
usually thought of as “green”.
(2) Literature review on how cities have attracted investment in “Green
Tech” and new "Green Jobs.” These are businesses and jobs that
make products or provide services that lower emissions or contribute
positively to the environment.
It is our understanding from the RFP that Fort Collins is interested in both
greening existing businesses as well as developing a more resilient,
climate economy, which we highly encourage.
We will build off of our team’s experience researching, reviewing and
developing climate action plans and programs across the U.S., in order to
support the development of Fort Collins’ Climate Economy Action Plan.
This includes having completed research on, and developed relationships
with, officials in municipalities locally to across the nation. From this
analysis and understanding of current frameworks in various regions, our
team has built a database of successful measures and, equally important,
measures that towns and cities found to be ineffective. This information
will provide a defined path and clear understanding on which to build.
Assumptions
• NCS team will meet with Fort Collins project manager(s) to
identify potential plans and organizations to review
• Fort Collins personnel will provide a full set of relevant
documents regarding existing information, plans, data, etc.
Deliverables
Detailed summary report of existing plans reviewed, including
recommendations for improvement in measuring and monitoring
key performance indicators (KPIs)
Summary of Climate Economy literature review, with a special
emphasis on the role of municipalities and economic
development entities, as well as considerations around finance
and capital access development
Baseline summary of the City’s climate economy performance
Summary report of identified current conditions citywide, as well
as potential implications and implementation considerations
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Task D. Define/Refine the Climate Economy
Based on work completed and the outputs from previous tasks, including
using the above literature review, our team will engage with key private
sector stakeholders and key City staff to develop a complete definition of
the local Climate Economy. Our team has decades of leadership
experience in this area, including designing a stakeholder process that
begins with a researched definition that is then refined with key
stakeholder engagement through at least one stakeholder workshop. This
will be inclusive of key City staff, municipal and private sector
stakeholders
Most recently, for example, our leadership team was lead facilitator for
Mayor Michael B. Hancock's Sustainable Denver Summit in December
2015, which brought together leaders from business, advocacy groups
and other NGOs, municipal government and residents to develop and
announce commitments for new and expanded initiatives in 2016. In
order to achieve commitments needed to reach Denver’s 2020
Sustainability goals, we facilitated over 130 city stakeholders in the
Sustainable Denver Energy Roundtable Track in securing energy and
carbon mitigation commitments from all sectors of the Denver
Metro area. The goal was to develop a roadmap that will help Denver
achieve its ambitious 2020 Community Sustainability Goals. We will build
upon proven methods such as this in working with key Fort Collins
stakeholder groups.
Through this process, we will work with the City of Fort Collins and key
private sector stakeholder groups to verify and/or adjust the existing four
proposed Climate Economy Impact Areas:
(1) Business Engagement – How do we create a culture of collaboration
on the climate economy in Fort Collins? How do we develop collective
support and governance structures that help businesses of all sizes
realize their sustainability goals?
(2) Technological Innovation – How do we get affordable green
technologies into local business and how do we support local
providers of green technology?
(3) Capital Access/Development – How do we create financial structures
to encourage investment and innovation in the climate economy?
(4) Business Adaptation – How do we create businesses that are ready
to thrive in a changing climate? How does Fort Collins help to build
the collective resilience among local businesses either through
technology or stronger social connections and support.
As a crucial part of this, our team will work with Fort Collins and key
stakeholders to develop Climate Economy Metrics. This will be a set of
metrics to measure the success of City efforts within each of the
proposed Climate Economy impact areas. These metrics should be
coordinated and integrated into the City’s existing and evolving metrics
system.
The NCS team proposes to use the Business Energy and Emissions Profile
(BEEP) tool that is specifically designed for Local Governments to use to
engage key members of the business community on these topics. The
BEEP creates a dynamic energy, emissions, and waste map that is
business and industry focused. This mapping can be done by sector or by
business size and helps to improve both engagement and climate
economy capacity building programs.
The development of a BEEP for fort Collins is a unique legacy and value
added service that our team is providing. After the study is complete and
the program moves into implementation, Fort Collins will be able to use
the BEEP to track progress over time. More information regarding the
BEEP tool and our implementation partners, ClimateSmart, is detailed in
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Deliverables
Complete definition of the local Climate Economy based on a
shared vision
Set of four verified and/or adjusted Climate Action impact areas:
Business Engagement, Technological Innovation; Capital
Access/Development, and Business Adaptation.
Developed set of metrics to measure the success of City efforts
within each of the proposed Climate Economy impact areas, as
coordinated and integrated into the City’s existing and evolving
metrics system.
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Phase 2: CAPITAL ACCESS/DEVELOPMENT
In addition to global leadership in climate mitigation, energy and
sustainability advising, the NCS team will utilize our expertise in
reviewing, assessing and advising business and municipality level
investment, as well as finance/capital access. Our team has also
developed and implemented Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)
financing programs to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy
projects.
This will result in a thorough review of, and recommendations for
financial and capital access tools that are unique to the City of Fort
Collins.
Additionally, NCS has recently acquired the Colorado Carbon Fund (CCF),
and we are working directly with municipalities across Colorado to
support local Climate and Community Benefit projects, which can provide
non-tax sources of project revenue to cities by being funded through the
CCF. We will work with Fort Collins to review opportunities and programs
that can be supported by the Colorado Carbon Fund if this is of interest to
the city.
Task E: Finance Tools Assessment & Recommendations
Building on extensive experience in helping both municipalities and
businesses finance climate mitigation and sustainability initiatives (the
two issues are not mutually exclusive and often complement one
another!), our team will lead the review and assessment of existing and
available financing tools.
The below chart provides a snapshot of a very comprehensive building
retrofit financing assessment and recommendations matrix our team
completed for another Colorado municipality.
Building off of this work, we will collaborate closely with the city’s Climate
Economy Advisor, in order to review the existing/available financing tools
being used locally, regionally, nationally, and globally to support low
carbon infrastructure investment, energy efficiency, and other similar
investments. This will include our own research, existing City research
and new research.
On the business side, we will work with key stakeholders and the city to
specifically identify the best financing tools that will have the most impact
within Ft. Collins. Our experience in working with businesses to date has
Financing Mechanism Brief Description Examples
Ease of
Implementation
Charitable Annuity Fund
Non profit establishes an energy efficiency
improvement fund. Local investors provide the funding
and receive a specified rate of return plus tax write off.
Fund then provides financincing for EE improvements
Google.org, Princeton
Endowment, The Gates
Foundation 4
Green Investor Group
Group of investors in a pool provide financing for
energy efficiency projects
The Energy Efficiency
Partnership of Greater
Washington D.C.; The Clinton
Climate Initiative; The
Cambridge Energy Alliance 4
Green CD
Investment mechanism for Green Projects where a
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shown us that the largest funding gap exists for businesses that occupy B
and C class space. These businesses typically are short on the operating
capital required to make improvements to their facilities, even if longer
term savings can be demonstrated.
Additionally, our team will work closely with the City’s Climate Economy
Advisor in order to assess and recommend target financing tools. We will
prepare an assessment of the effectiveness and feasibility of the
existing/available financing tools, and the final output will include a
recommendation of a limited set of financial tools to pursue for
immediate use within the community. The assessment will include an
estimate of the amount and timing of capital to be leveraged by the tool.
In addition, the assessment will provide guidance on implementing the
tools in the City and in the community along with a resource guide for
each.
Tools such as commercial PACE programs, the establishment of local “green
banks” or revolving loan funds can help overcome these issues and allow for
innovation to occur in markets that are constrained by cash flow.
Finally, we will evaluate and align financing tools with City initiatives.
Working closely with City staff, our team will prepare a matrix of the
recommended financing tools aligning them with the City’s 31 identified
initiatives to achieving the 2020 carbon reduction goal and the Climate
Action Plan Framework’s suggestions for 2030 programs and projects.
The NCS team approaches capital access and development from the
perspective that the primary way to get ahead of climate change is to
leverage large scale carbon reduction projects. Our belief is that
municipalities should not pay one dime of capital expense for clean
energy and other climate economy solutions, and in fact they can save
money starting month 1 and enjoy significant lifetime savings. How does
this work?
Our team, including key on-call advisors, will provide deep insight and
connectivity to aggregators of numerous energy efficiency and renewable
energy solutions. For example, we will explore the blended rate of return
that allows delivery of a service contract payment (that includes O&M
and the capital lease payment) below the cost of the offset carbon utility
payment. Since these entities can fund 100% of the capital expense with
investment grade funds with a long enough term, there are opportunities
to beat grid parity, often at month one, at no capital expense to the
municipality. This allows municipalities to super-size their carbon
reduction initiatives at no net cost—the clean energy holy grail!
Our team will advise how to do this by working with key partners who can
mobilize a multi-disciplinary ecosystem of manufacturers, integrators,
contractors, and funding sources to generate immediate economic value
and positive environmental impact for large public and private customers.
This integrated approach can unlock energy efficiency measures on an
unprecedented scale.
Assumptions
• Fort Collins will provide all of the existing/available financing tools
being reviewed/used
• The City Climate Economy Advisor and other key staff will be
available to review the existing/available financing tools being
used locally
Deliverables
Report of financial tools assessment and recommended target
financing tools, including an estimate of the amount and timing of
capital to be leveraged by the tool, and guidance on
implementing the tools in the City and community along with a
resource guide for each
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Phase 3: BUSINESS ENGAGEMENT/ADAPTATION
Fort Collins has taken significant strides to attract, incubate and grow
clean energy enterprise, through initiatives such as the Colorado Clean
Energy Cluster (CCEC). This includes its success in cross-cutting
collaboration as exemplified by the CCEC's "triple helix" model, which has
brought together cleantech businesses, Colorado State University and the
City of Fort Collins. Additionally, the ClimateWise program has engaged
with City businesses to educate and provide carbon reduction program
implementation.
Most frameworks for district-scale sustainable development look at the
economic impacts of social and environmental projects, but fail to
recognize or measure the impacts of green economic development.
District-scale data allows us to identify the potential impact of helping
businesses green their operations. It helps identify the potential impact of
key infrastructure projects such as neighbourhood energy utilities and key
policy initiatives such as waste bans, as well as design more effective
programs for helping businesses collectively reduce their environmental
footprints.
Given our team’s extensive experience in developing data driven business
engagement, carbon measurement/mapping and reduction strategies,
including team partner ClimateSmart’s revolutionary Business Energy and
Emissions Profile (BEEP), our team proposes to help take these efforts to
the next level with data driven metrics that have already been tried,
tested and proven successful across multiple municipalities.
Climate Smart has worked with over 800 small to medium-sized
businesses (SMEs) to help them reduce their GHG footprints, resulting in
a unique, aggregated dataset that sheds light on SME emissions. This
includes using aggregated data to help eight cities create a projected
baseline of their business community emissions. This BEEP – business
energy and emissions profile – is a report accompanied by an interactive
digital dashboard. Focusing on key industry sectors in the community's
economy, a BEEP analysis helps better understand and engage businesses
in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. BEEP analysis can be used as a
benchmarking tool and planning document to assist communities in GHG
emission reduction efforts. BEEP analysis is complementary to existing
GHG emissions tracking documents and inventories, community energy
and emissions plans, economic development, green business, and other
sustainability reports.
Building on these tools and our experience in cross cutting collaboration
between business, municipalities and universities, our team will review
existing Fort Collins efforts and outcomes, as well as engage directly with
the business community, while creating an ongoing business engagement
strategy, framework and toolkit, as described in the following sections.
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Task F) Review Existing Business Engagement Efforts
Our team will work with City staff to identify and review all existing
business engagement efforts prior to beginning work on a proposed
Business Engagement Strategy. We recognize that engagement spans
beyond education, outreach, and marketing to include: partnerships,
alliances, and direct relationships.
We will first review the city’s current business engagement efforts. This
will include revisiting the city’s goals and objectives for engagement. Does
the city want to engage broadly to reach out to as many businesses as
possible, or does the city want to be more targeted and try to prioritize
businesses that have the greatest opportunities to save significant
emissions or are already leaders in the climate economy? All of these
goals will result in different engagement outcomes so it is important to
review these materials with Fort Collins’ vision of success in mind.
Once we have developed consensus on what the business engagement
objectives are with Ft. Collin’s staff we can evaluate these efforts
effectively and more objectively.
Assumptions
• All previous engagement efforts will be provided by the city in an
organized manner
• Fort Collins personnel will be available to assist in reviewing
existing business engagement goals and objectives, and refine as
needed
Deliverables
Summary report of all existing business engagement efforts;
Recommendations for ongoing business engagement activity
Task G) Engage with Key Business Stakeholders
Working with City staff, our team will identify key business and private
sector stakeholders and conduct a series of engagement events (e.g.,
focus groups, open houses, etc.) to understand their concerns,
challenges, and motivations.
During these meetings our team will work with the City to build capacity
within SMEs by training key staff to develop strategies for ongoing
reductions in emissions and associated costs from energy, fuel and waste
that create economic as well as environmental benefits through the
Climate Smart program. We will provide identified small- and medium-
sized enterprises (SMEs) with training, tools, and certification (if desired
by the City) to profitably reduce GHG (greenhouse gas) emissions
generated by their business operations. This collaborative approach to
engaging SMEs will result in accelerating the reduction of community
emissions and associated costs, report on cross-sectoral business climate
action, and elevate municipal leadership on sustainability. This includes
engaging with the business community to develop a Business Energy and
Emissions Profile (BEEP).
Through this capacity building process, we will develop a more fully
engaged and trained business community, as well as deliver a full BEEP
report that doubles as an ongoing management tool beyond the life of
this project. In addition to a hard copy report, our team will create a
digital BEEP, an interactive web-based dashboard that allows users to
deeply explore BEEP data by sector, activity, business size, and
geography. A digital BEEP dashboard is an extension of the BEEP report,
providing an interactive visualization tool with actionable data that can
serve as a foundation for ongoing business engagement plans,
measurement and management of ongoing carbon reduction efforts, and
other relevant sustainability initiatives. This digital BEEP dashboard
provides our partners with evidence-based trends and captivating visuals
to engage colleagues, businesses and stakeholders on climate action. Key
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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• Maps can be adjusted to highlight industrial sectors, business
activity, and business size;
• Customizable with capability to add modules by community,
neighborhood, municipality
Assumptions
• Identified stakeholders will be available to provide input into
agreed meetings
• Key staff will assist with the invitation, organization and
facilitation of events
Deliverables
Identification of key stakeholders who will assist/participate in
interviews; Completion of community stakeholder meetings
Summary report (word doc) of interviews conducted
Full Beep hard copy Report and interactive digital dashboard
Task H) Innovation Summit Planning
The NCS team is excited about the possibility to work closely with the City
staff to develop a Capital Innovation Track for the City’s upcoming
Innovation Summit focused on Climate Action. Our leadership team has
organized, managed, delivered and keynoted similar gatherings. As
mentioned, this includes the Denver Sustainability Summit Energy track
as illustrated in our case studies below, and we (NCS) are about to host
the Colorado Carbon Fund re-launch event.
We have well-established contacts to aid in attracting national and/or
international expertise to the event, including NCS’s own President, L.
Hunter Lovins, who is sought after globally to speak at climate action,
sustainability, finance and innovation conferences, events and
workshops. She will be fully available to support this effort.
Assumptions
• City staff will be available to provide input and support as needed
in developing a Capital Innovation Track to the City’s Climate
Action Innovation Summit
Deliverables
Development of a Capital Innovation Track to the City’s upcoming
Climate Action Innovation Summit
Task I) Evaluate and Summarize Business Risks of Climate Change
Working with local stakeholders and local experts (e.g., CSU, NREL, etc.),
our team will evaluate and develop a list of local risk factors from climate
change specific to existing industries and businesses in Fort Collins. We
have very strong relations at CSU, NREL and other local key stakeholders
and we will leverage that, along with decades of work in directly helping
the private sector understand and address the many challenges, risks and
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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opportunities around climate change. In addition, utilizing our technical
expertise as a Rockefeller 100 Resilient Cities technical advisor, we will
coordinate with research partners such as CSU and NREL to define a set of
local climate risk factors for businesses over various time horizons.
Assumptions
• City staff will assist with coordinating local experts
Deliverables
Development of a a list of local risk factors from Climate Change
specific to existing industries and businesses in Fort Collins
Task J) Assess Workforce Training/Skills Building Opportunities
Along with the business engagement strategy and activity highlighted in
Tasks F) and G), we will also assess and evaluate the need for workforce
training and skills building. This assessment will consider the demand for
new “green” workers needed to meet the 2020 and 2030 GHG emission
goals.
As mentioned, we believe strongly and have the experience to deliver
key, local perspective driven recommendations for developing a
transition to a green economy, including workforce training and skills
building. While focussing on unique Fort Collins conditions, our own team
will bring in a perspective and experience that is uniquely global in this
area.
Deliverables
Green Workforce training/skills building recommendations
Task K) Identify New and/or Expanded Business Opportunities
In addition to working with the City to identify and help build strategic
workforce capacity to meet the impending green economy, we will work
with key business and external stakeholders to identify potential new
and/or expanded business opportunities related to supporting the
community’s GHG emission goals.
Our team will build upon global research regarding where opportunities
lie for business, with real world, baseline data, such as the derivatives of
Climate Smart’s BEEP model. This includes identification of a direct
correlation between business carbon reduction activity and profitability,
as well as identification of green(er) businesses by and across sectors,
including savings and growth opportunities within.
Assumptions
City staff will assist with identifying and coordinating key business
and external stakeholders
Deliverables
Recommendations around potential new and/or expanded
business opportunities related to supporting the community’s
GHG emission goals.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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List of Overall Deliverables
In addition to deliverables listed in each task section of the scope of work,
the NCS team will support the delivery of a Fort Collins Climate Economy
Action Plan and related documents that will clearly articulate the city’s
vision, as well as provide a blueprint for achieving its climate economy
goals. The plan will be specific and comprehensive, and it will identify and
address the key elements of city and business community needs as
identified in the RFP and within this proposal. As a part of this, the
following reports and management tools will be provided to the City of
Fort Collins by the end of the project:
Climate Economy Action Plan – Concise Climate Economy Action Plan
focused on the refined impact areas developed during the project. The
plan will integrate into the City’s overall Climate Action Framework and
ongoing efforts to achieve its stated GHG emission reduction goals. The
plan will address the following aspects:
ü Timeframe: The plan will focus on the timeframe leading up to the
2020 milestone with less detail on the timeline leading to the 2030
milestone.
ü Key Sections: To include but not limited to - Definition & Impact
Areas, Financing Tools, Funding City Initiatives, Business Risks,
Workforce Needs, Business Opportunities, and Metrics.
ü Impact Area Strategies: A list of strategies and action steps for each of
the four identified and refined impact areas - Business Engagement,
Technological Innovation, Capital Access/Development, and Business
Adaptation.
Implementation Plan – This will include a developing matrix, chart, or
table-based implementation plan that includes estimated costs,
assignments, and timing related to specific tactics to deliver on the
Climate Economy Action Plan. This implementation plan may include the
designation of local and regional stakeholders as the owners of specific
tasks, and will clearly identify the City’s role on each action item and what
entity has the lead.
Business Case – We will provide a clear, concise and easily communicated
business case for private sector participation in climate action strategies
and investment in low carbon infrastructure and/or energy efficiency
measures. The case will reflect a clear understanding of business
motivations and speak to known issues and concerns in the community
(e.g., the fear of increased cost and no net benefit). The case will also be
customized to address the unique challenges of specific industries and
operational environments (e.g., restaurants, manufacturers, distribution,
craft beer, etc.)
Business Engagement Strategy – In order to support the success of the
Climate Economy Action Plan, a business engagement strategy will also
be developed as part of this project. The strategy may provide guidance
to departments and key stakeholders. This will include a clear path
forward for engagement of a broad-based – in terms of business size and
industry – set of business stakeholders, and based on the BEEP toolkit
which will be available into the future. Special emphasis will be placed on
engagement such as partnerships, alliances, and direct relationships that
can enable alignment between the public and private sectors.
Business Energy and Emissions Profile (BEEP) Report & Online
Dashboard – Our team will provide a Business Energy and Emissions
Profile, known as BEEP, which will provide the City of Fort Collins with a
baseline of business community emissions in the form of a report
accompanied by an interactive digital dashboard. Focusing on key
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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industry sectors in the community's economy, a BEEP analysis helps
better understand and engage businesses in transitioning to a low-carbon
economy.
BEEP analysis can be used as a benchmarking tool and planning document
to assist communities in GHG emission reduction efforts. BEEP analysis is
complementary to existing GHG emissions tracking documents and
inventories, Community Energy and Emissions Plans, economic
development, green business, and other sustainability reports.
Recently, MIT’s Climate CoLab honored the BEEP with the 2016 Climate
CoLab Overall Grand Prize along with both Judges’ Choice and Popular
Choice at Large awards in its Smart Zero Carbon Cities competition.
A BEEP will provide the City of Fort Collins with:
• A snapshot and sector profile of the business emissions within the
community by industry sector.
• GHG emissions projections by sector and activity (building energy
use, transportation, and waste).
• Data on the highest emitting industry sectors, pointing to reduction
opportunities and projecting potential impact within the local
economy.
A BEEP serves as the foundation for engagement of local business
communities and includes:
• Data on motivation for businesses to take on carbon measurement
and reduction initiatives (overall and by sector).
• Data on reduction strategies implemented by Climate Smart certified
businesses (overall and by sector).
• Case studies highlighting how businesses in the focus sectors are
cost-effectively reducing their emissions.
This will result in a robust, comprehensive, yet easy to read and pursue
Fort Collins Climate Economy Action Plan, leading the greater Fort Collins
community to achieve its carbon neutral and other sustainability goals in
a way that is regenerative and supportive of community wellbeing.
After the sustainability plan framework has been finalized, NCS will
remain available for general assistance and follow-up to the creation of
the plan. We believe strongly in the quality of our work and the
relationships we build. NCS will remain available and engaged with Fort
Collins throughout the implementation of the sustainability plan to
ensure success.
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Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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Sustainability
As a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, we are bound by our mission and
commitment to helping communities and companies successfully
implement regenerative practices. We are not bound by the bottom line,
as for profit consulting firms are. That means we can walk the walk in
numerous ways that are impenetrable to private sector consultancies.
For example, because we are not “owned”, with profits going to
individual owners or collective shareholders, all funding is reinvested back
into the organization and its mission specific activity. What this means is
that we spend significant amounts of (unpaid) time on education,
outreach, and direct guidance in helping organizations follow a more
sustainable trajectory, decrease their negative and increase their positive
impacts. This is why our partners are often so engaged and pleased with
our work – we remain when the project is over and don’t just disappear.
Our senior team includes NCS founde &, president, and world renowned
sustainability pioneer, Hunter Lovins. Hunter spends much of her time
guest lecturing and speaking at conferences and universities across the
world, resulting in an army of climate and sustainability leaders who then
become embedded in some of the leading companies, municipalities and
schools across Colorado and the world. Our senior leadership also sit on
the Boards of a significant number of non-profit, social enterprise and
municipal Boards (e.g. Denver Mayor’s Office Sustainability Advisory
Council).
On an organizational level, beyond our minimal impact as a small non-
profit, our team:
ü Recycles nearly everything
ü One third of staff drive electric or zero emission vehicles
ü We implement a flexible, remote work schedule to minimize
transportation, and maximize employee productivity and quality of
life
ü Maintain primarily electronic database to decrease our material
usage
ü Maintain strong partnerships and positions with other sustainability
initiatives throughout the Colorado community
ü As a 501(c) 3, we enable other climate and sustainability initiatives as
a fiscal sponsor, which allows us to magnify our impact in ways that
we could not do alone
In addition to approaching our own internal operations from a
regenerative perspective, we also endeavour to implement an integrated
bottom line (i.e. beyond triple bottom line) into all of our work as
consultants with our community and business partners. And we have
developed and/or host numerous initiatives to engage the public in
allowing them to reduce negative and increase positive climate impacts,
such as the Climate Action Roadmap for municipalities and the Colorado
Carbon Fund for all.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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2) Qualifications & Experience
Our Team
The Natural Capitalism Solutions / Integral Group team has led the field of
sustainability for over thirty-five years. Having developed many of the
processes and frameworks now accepted in the field, NCS has helped
communities enhance economic livelihoods and quality of life. Team
members Hunter Lovins, Peter Krahenbuhl and Bill Becker (key advisor)
are internationally recognized experts on sustainability indicators,
economic renewal, developing climate resilient communities and helping
businesses implement regenerative practices profitably. They have
worked with numerous U.S. cities, counties and public entities, to
agencies from the UN, Pentagon, Department of Energy, Department of
Natural Resources, the European Commission and the Caribbean
Secretariat.
NCS and Hunter Lovins have advised a wide variety of cities from Los
Angeles’ first environmental council to the Mayors of Oakland, Mill
Valley, and Pleasanton, CA, the Chief Executive of King County Seattle, to
the City staff of San Rafael, and San Leandro CA, and Seattle Washington,
the International League of Cities annual conference, the Mayor of
Lakewood CO, the County Commissioners of Boulder, CO, legislators of
New York State, officials from Des Moines and Fairfield, Iowa, Jacksonville
Florida and New York City. A Professor in Sustainable Management, and
one of the framers of the sustainability movement, Lovins is frequently
asked to advise on clean tech, renewable energy solutions, climate and
sustainability plans by governments, universities, corporations and multi-
national institutions such as the United Nations.
In addition, our team member experts from Integral Group collectively
have advised for a wide array of U.S. and global cities, including work on
the Washington D.C. Comprehensive Energy Plan, work with Fort Collins
Utility staff on the development of a low carbon district energy plan for
the City Hall precinct, and recently having successfully completed the
development of an Energy System Transformation Project that involved
developing climate plans for the cities of Seattle, Minneapolis and
Boulder.
To compliment this, our team members at Climate Smart have developed
the MIT award winning Business Energy and Emissions Profile (BEEP) tool
to help communities understand greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions
generated by businesses. Focusing on key industry sectors in the
community's economy, a BEEP analysis helps better understand and
engage businesses in transitioning to a low-carbon economy. By
aggregating data (now over 800 businesses), BEEP analysis can be used as
a benchmarking tool and planning document to assist communities in
GHG emission reduction efforts.
Our core project team offers Fort Collins a unique combination of
technical expertise alongside strategic evaluation, planning, business
engagement and project management support.
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Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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Highlights of our team’s work include:
• Convened the first working group to develop community
sustainability indicators, which became the International
Sustainability Indicators Network
• Created the leading sustainable community toolkit, Local Action
for Sustainable Economic Renewal (LASER), which has been
implemented in many U.S communities and internationally
• Developing a Climate Action Roadmap (CAR) for cities based on
best practices GAP analysis reviewed nationally and beyond (beta
site here: www.climateactionroadmap.com)
• Worked with numerous corporate clients to create strategic
sustainability plans and indicators, based on the Global Reporting
Initiative (GRI), Industry Working Groups, & stakeholder demands
• Washington D.C. Comprehensive Energy Plan; City of Vancouver
Green Building Policy Assessment; Tri-city climate action plan
project for Seattle, Minneapolis and Boulder.
• Developed numerous municipality to national level sustainability
and climate action plans
• Developed the Mayors Climate Protection Manual for Cities,
enabling cities across the nation to deliver on their commitment
to the Mayors Climate Protection Agreement
• Launched the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), resulting
in more than 200 policy and program recommendations to the
Obama Administration, many of which have since been adopted
• Developed award winning Business Energy and Emissions Profile
(BEEP) tool to decarbonize communities through business
engagement.
In addition to global leadership in climate mitigation, energy and
sustainability advising, the NCS team, including our key advisors, has
leadership experience in reviewing, assessing and advising business and
municipality level investment, as well as finance/capital access. This will
allow for a thorough review of, and recommendations for, financial and
capital access tools that are unique to the City of Fort Collins. For
example, our leadership is or has been directly involved in the following:
• Corporate finance, direct and indirect (e.g. modelling revolving
sustainability funds)
• Municipality financing (e.g. Assessment of building retrofit financing
for Boulder County)
• Mentor at Unreasonable Institute, an international accelerator for
high impact ventures
• Founding Board Member at Calvert Group
• Founding lecturer at MBA programs with sustainability embedded
throughout graduate degree curriculum
• Founder of new finance start-up, Change Finance, which aims to be
the world’s first truly fossil fuel free investment portfolio
• Authors of numerous articles and books on sustainability, finance and
impact investing with leading publications
• Developed and implemented Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE)
financing programs to fund energy efficiency and renewable energy
projects.
Additionally, NCS has recently acquired the Colorado Carbon Fund (CCF),
and are working directly with municipalities across Colorado to support
local Climate and Community Benefit projects, which can provide non-tax
sources of project revenue to cities by being funded through the CCF. We
will work with Fort Collins to review opportunities and programs that can
be supported by the Colorado Carbon Fund if this is of interest to the city.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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Relevant Experience – Case Studies
Cost-Benefit Sustainability Impact Analysis
Boulder County, CO
Project Summary
Natural Capitalism Solutions worked with Boulder County office of
sustainability to conduct a review of the county’s sustainability plan,
initiatives and goals. The goal of this analysis was to understand which
environmental services and infrastructure have been the most effective
at reducing environmental impacts (greenhouse gas emissions and other
local pollutants) and to identify the social and economic benefits of these
programs. Natural Capitalism Solutions reviewed the services and
infrastructure, funded by Boulder County, in the areas of agriculture,
energy and buildings, transportation, waste, and water.
“Having a better understanding of the benefits of our
environmental sustainability program is important not only to
ensure our tax dollars are well-spent, but to also understanding
how to best achieve our environmental goals,” Susie Strife,
Boulder County’s Sustainability Coordinator
Details
The findings of the analysis show that all of the county’s sustainability
services provide a suite of environmental, social and economic benefits to
the community, but certain programs provided a greater rate of return
and/or more cost effective GHG reduction. NCS was able to calculate the
specific rate of return for each county program from both a financial,
social, and environmental standpoint. Additionally NCS worked with
county staff to create tracking and reporting dashboards that will allow
staff to monitor progress towards the county’s 2020 sustainability goals.
Highlights
• For every $1 invested in Boulder County’s sustainability programs, the
community receives over $5 worth of benefits.
• Overall, residents and businesses receive $37 million in direct savings
as a result of sustainability services and another $62 million is
reinvested back into the community through infrastructure, jobs, and
more disposable income.
• The county currently invests an average of $30 to achieve the
reduction of one metric ton carbon equivalent.
The public output from this project can be seen on the following page.
Lea Yancy
Community Sustainability Specialist
lyancey@bouldercounty.org
720.564.2723
“The study’s rigorous analysis demonstrated that the
county is achieving significant environmental, economic
and social benefits.
It is apparent that work in all the sustainability program
areas should continue, but we also have ripe
opportunities to improve our existing programs”
- County Commissioner Elise Jones.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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ZERO WASTE
Diverted over 76,000
tons of waste annually,
enough to fill over
7,000 garbage trucks.
ENERGY & BUILDINGS
ECONOMIC IMPACT CLIMATE IMPACT SOCIAL IMPACT
FOOD & AGRICULTURE WATER TRANSPORTATION
Saved enough energy
in the last three years
to power over 22,000
homes annually.
Individuals drive their
cars 22% less than
other residents in the
Central Front Range.
Saved enough water
to provide drinking
water for over
120,687 residents
for one year.
Over 90% of all crops
grown on Boulder
County agricultural
land ends up in the
food system.
Sustainability Impact Overview BOULDER COUNTY | COLORADO
Created close to 187 full time jobs
in the community and reduced utility bills
for over 1,000 low-income residents.
Reduced greenhouse gas
emissions equal to powering
41,000 homes annually.
All program results reflect the time frame between 2011 and 2013
For every $1 invested in Boulder County sustainability programs, our community receives $5 worth of benefits.
Over $37 million in direct savings to
residents and businesses, and another
$62 million reinvested into the community.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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Cost Per GHG
Boulder(County(
The(cost(to(reduce(
one(metric(ton(of(
CO2e(
$200-400
$21.40
$11.57
$37.46 $125.26
$77.04 $756.86
Residen7al(
EnergySmart(
PACE(
EnergySmart(
Low@income(
Weatheriza7on(
BuildSmart(
Zero(Waste(
EcoPass(
Transit(Service(
Buy@ups(
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
24
City of Vancouver Building Retrofit Strategy
Vancouver, BC
Integral Group acted as an advisor on the development and validation of
the City of Vancouver’s Building Retrofit Strategy. The Retrofit Strategy
was developed to support the City of Vancouver’s Greenest City 2020
Action Plan. The strategy includes a set of recommended actions for the
City to meet their target of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by
2020. The emission reductions target required the elimination of 160,000
tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions from buildings over a six year period.
This work involved breaking down total emissions by building type, and
identifying areas of greatest opportunity for reductions. The emission
reduction approach focused on actions that would achieve the largest
reductions for the least amount of financial and resource investment. An
emissions reduction model was developed to calculate the reductions
associated with each proposed action, and test the most effective suite of
actions.
Actions were categorized into three overarching areas: capacity building,
regulation and incentives. An early proposed action was for the City to
introduce a mandatory energy benchmarking and reporting requirement,
requiring large buildings to report annually to the City on their energy
consumption. This foundational policy would provide an accurate
accounting of which large buildings are large energy users, and which are
relatively efficient and inefficient. Further, the annual reporting will allow
the City to measure the improvement in efficiency over time, and track the
effectiveness of other actions included in the strategy.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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Denver Sustainability Summit
Denver, CO
Mayor Michael B. Hancock's Sustainable Denver Summit in December
2015 brought together leaders from business, advocacy groups and other
NGOs, municipal government and residents to develop and announce
commitments for new and expanded initiatives in 2016. In order to
achieve commitments needed to reach Denver’s 2020 Sustainability
goals, the Mayor’s office asked Natural Capitalism Solutions’ Hunter
Lovins to facilitate over 130 city stakeholders in the Sustainable Denver
Energy Roundtable Track in securing energy and carbon mitigation
commitments from all sectors of the Denver Metro area. The goal
was to develop a roadmap that will help Denver achieve its ambitious
2020 Community Sustainability Goals based on four tracks for the
Summit:
• Energy Track: Focusing on issues of energy efficiency, renewable
energy, and air quality and greenhouse gas reduction
• Water Track: Focusing on both water quantity and water quality,
including climate change resilience
• Materials Track: Focusing on cradle-to-cradle materials management
issues, including environmentally preferable purchasing, recycling,
composting and by-product synergy
• Mobility Track: Focusing on providing multiple interconnected
mobility modes that are cleaner, safer, cheaper and more efficient
than the current system
The NCS team lead myriad Denver stakeholders through the pre-summit
roundtables over two months to develop the commitments and
developing roadmaps to achieve the 2020 Sustainability Goals.
Jerry Tinianow
Chief Sustainability Officer
Office of the Mayor | City and County of Denver
p: (720) 865-9072 | Jerry.Tinianow@denvergov.org
Modeled on the Clinton Global Initiative, the Sustainable Denver Summit
resulted in detailed plans and specific commitments for initiatives that
will close the gap between where Denver is today and where it has
committed to be by the end of 2020.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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U.S. Army Fort Carson Sustainability Plan
Colorado Springs, CO
Project Summary:
NCS managed the sustainability plan for the leading edge, award-winning
sustainability performance activities of the US Army Garrison Fort Carson
near Colorado Springs CO.
The team provided planning and implementation for the full spectrum of
the garrison’s efforts to achieve rigorous sustainability goals by 2027,
including 100% sustainable energy, zero solid waste to landfill, minimized
hazardous air emissions, 75% reduction in water use, sustainable
buildings and land management, 100% sustainable procurement, and
development of a sustainable transportation system.
Details:
The NCS team developed the Fort’s sustainability plan and provided
ongoing sustainability expertise for the garrison’s 25,000+ personnel, led
community partnership development and implementation, including
sustainability metrics and development of a sustainability plan for the
surrounding area called the Pikes Peak Area’s model 2030 Sustainability
Plan (adopted 2012 – see
http://www.ppacg.org/sustainability/aboutregplan), conducted annual
garrison/community sustainability conferences and sustainability
progress reporting, conducted dozens of community focus groups, and
represented the garrison in providing leadership to broader Federal
government sustainability efforts.
The NCS team contributed to Fort Carson receiving the Secretary of the
Army’s “Team” sustainability performance award in 2008, and Fort
Carson’s Federal government leadership being highlighted by the
National Academies in “Achieving High-Performance Federal Facilities –
Strategies and Approaches for Transformational Change,” 2011.
Ft. Carson is pursuing some of the most rigorous sustainability goals in
the U.S., including:
• 100% renewable energy and zero waste and water by 2027
• 40% reduction in vehicle traffic from present levels
• All while the Army Post is scheduled to expand by about 50% in the
next three years
Mary J. Barber
Installation Sustainability Resource Officer
US Army, Garrison Fort Carson
Mary.J.Barber.civ@mail.mil
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
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Colorado Mountain College
Northwest, CO, NCS & Integral Group
Project Summary
Colorado Mountain College (CMC) serves 12,000 square miles in north-
central Colorado. This beautiful area includes international ski resorts,
ranches, wilderness areas and former mining towns. Each year, over
20,000 students take classes at its 11 locations and online. CMC selected
Natural Capitalism Solutions (NCS) to help it go carbon neutral as well as
to envision, develop, and implement sustainability institutionally.
Through this project, Natural Capitalism Solutions conducted a carbon
impact and sustainability assessment, followed by creating a
Sustainability Action Plan. NCS reviewed CMC’s energy and buildings,
transportation, waste, food sourcing, purchasing, grounds, water, and
community engagement.
Highlights
Using onsite and documentation audits around sustainability data, a best
practices review of other institutions and stakeholder interviews and
surveys, NCS created a Carbon and Sustainability Action Plan
Recommendations Report. This set goals and targets related to eight
specific program areas, and made recommendations to achieve stated
targets, including the following long-term goals:
• Carbon neutral by 2050
• Zero Waste by 2050
• Transportation related emissions cut 85% by 2050
• 50% of purchasing sustainably sourced by 2050 (by spend)
• 75% of food sustainably sourced by 2050
Peter Waller
Facilities Director, Colorado Mountain College
pwaller@coloradomtn.edu
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
28
Municipality Business and Emissions Profiles (BEEPs)
Canada, Climate Smart
Climate Smart (www.climatesmartbusiness.com) has been working with over 800
small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to help them reduce their GHG
footprints since 2007. Since then, we have worked with over 800 businesses and
aggregated a unique dataset that sheds light on SME emissions.
Climate Smart has developed Business Energy and Emissions Profiles (BEEPs) to
help communities understand greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions generated by
businesses communities. Focusing on key industry sectors in the community's
economy, a BEEP analysis helps better understand and engage businesses in
transitioning to a low-carbon economy. BEEP used aggregated data to help eight
cities create a projected baseline of their business community emissions and is
now being rolled out across North America.
BEEP analysis can be used as a benchmarking tool and planning document to
assist communities in GHG emission reduction efforts. BEEP analysis is
complementary to existing GHG emissions tracking documents and inventories,
Community Energy and Emissions Plans, economic development, green business,
and other sustainability reports.
Recently, MIT’s Climate CoLab honored the BEEP with the 2016 Climate CoLab
Overall Grand Prize along with both Judges’ Choice and Popular Choice at Large
awards in its Smart Zero Carbon Cities competition.
A BEEP provides municipalities with:
• A snapshot and sector profile of the business emissions within the
community by industry sector.
• GHG emissions projections by sector and activity (building energy use,
transportation, and waste).
• Data on the highest emitting industry sectors, pointing to reduction
opportunities and projecting potential impact within the local economy.
A BEEP serves as the foundation for engagement of local business communities
and includes:
• Data on motivation for businesses to take on carbon measurement and
reduction initiatives (overall and by sector).
• Data on reduction strategies implemented by Climate Smart certified
businesses (overall and by sector).
• Case studies highlighting how businesses in the focus sectors are cost-
effectively reducing their emissions.
We have created BEEPs for many Canadian municipalities and neighborhoods to
date: City of Surrey, City of Vancouver, City of Victoria, City of New
Westminster, City of Port Moody, City of Coquitlam, York Region
BEEPs provide municipalities with commercial-sector emissions and energy data
and situates SMEs within the context of existing work undertaken around
modeling community and neighborhood--level GHG emissions. More specifically,
host partners have utilized BEEPs not only to gain a projected baseline of city-
wide emissions, but to also gain district or neighborhood-scale data. The City of
Vancouver and Vancouver Economic Commission (VEC) are utilizing BEEPs for
eco-district or green enterprise zone initiatives rolling out in industrial lands. For
the VEC, Climate Smart BEEP data is serving as a planning tool for business
engagement within specified districts.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
29
District of Columbia – Comprehensive Energy Plan
Washington D.C., Integral Group
Project Name: District of Columbia – Comprehensive Energy Plan
Tags: Building Codes and Policy, Decarbonization, Energy & Emissions Planning
and Policy, Modelling
Location: District of Columbia, USA.
Client: The District of Columbia Department of Energy & Environment.
Nature of Work:
• Policy, program, and energy system transformation research
• Energy and emissions modelling of buildings, energy supply, and
transportation sectors
• Stakeholder consultation and engagement
• Policy and program analysis and recommendation
• Final report preparation and presentation
Project Summary/Description:
Integral Group was retained to develop a Comprehensive Energy Plan (CEP) for
the District of Columbia Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE). The CEP
must account for all energy use within the city as well as the District’s energy
supply, including buildings, transportation, renewable energy, and grid
modernization. Working with D.C. staff, Integral developed a methodology to
forecast energy and emissions use over time in a customized Excel-based model
that DOEE will continue to use beyond the project. The model simulates energy
and emissions from buildings and transportation out to 2032 based on various
policy and energy infrastructure decisions. The Integral team is now leading the
development of communication and engagement materials and sessions intended
to effectively communicate the CEP objectives and strategies and offer
stakeholders the opportunity to provide input and Integral’s role was recently
expanded to conduct deeper analysis into high priority building and renewable
policies, including net zero building codes and the design of a renewable portfolio
standard that drives renewable energy generation.
Value: $240,000
Length Client Contact/ of Relationship: Reference: October Marshal 2015 – Duer-September Balkind 2016 (11 months)
Title: Program Analyst, Data and Benchmarking Division
Department of Energy and Environment
Address: 1200 First St. NE, 5th Floor Washington, DC 20002
Phone number: 202-671- 3042
Email: marshall.duer-balkind@dc.gov
URL: doee.dc.gov
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
30
Carbon Neutral Cities Alliance – Whole Energy Systems
Transition
Minneapolis, Seattle, Boulder; Integral Group
Tags: Building Codes and Policy, Decarbonization, Energy & Emissions
Planning and Policy, Modelling
Location: Boulder, Colorado
Minneapolis, Minnesota
Seattle Washington
Client: City of Boulder, CO
Nature of Work:
• Policy, program, and energy system transformation research
• Energy and emissions modelling of buildings, energy supply, and
transportation sectors
• Stakeholder consultation and engagement
• Policy and program analysis and recommendation
• Final report preparation and presentation
• Playbook development and communications
Project Summary/Description:
Integral Group is leading the development of an Energy Transition
strategy for three cities that is designed to be deployed at the
neighborhood level. The framework will include guidance on policy,
planning and land-use issues, as well as key infrastructure investments
that will be required to transition away from fossil fuel use in both
buildings and transportation. The project will be focused on three specific
neighborhoods in Seattle, WA, Boulder, CO, and Minneapolis, MN. The
project also has a pilot component to it that will test the proposed
strategies and ground truth the financial modeling done for the project.
Final deliverables included three neighborhood-scale energy
transformation strategies and a playbook for municipal governments to
use to design and implement their own city- or neighborhood-wide
energy transformation strategies.
Value: $105,000 Length of Relationship: 2016 – Ongoing
Brett KenCairn, Senior Environmental Planner
City of Boulder
P 303-441- 3272 E: KenCairnB@bouldercolorado.gov URL:
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
31
Building Retrofit Financing Assessment & Recommendations
Boulder, CO
For this project NCS worked with the City and County of boulder to
determine financing options and potential retrofits for reducing the
carbon footprint of currently existing buildings and future buildings. This
plan determined the financial viability of reducing a significant amount of
carbon emissions emitted by private, public, and residential building
infrastructure.
This project is helping Boulder meet its goals of greenhouse gas reduction
in their residential and commercial building sector. Part of this project
was developing a strong economic strategy for increasing the efficiency of
the buildings and retrofitting them, along with a timeline for
implementation.
Although a formidable task, this project represents a tremendous
opportunity for economic growth and a dramatic reduction in fossil fuel
usage and greenhouse gas emissions.
Project Timeline: 2010-2011
Revolving Loan Fund –
Operating Model
Slide 10 Slide 10
Default
Borrower
Step 3b
Borrowers
default on
$5K
Step 3a
Borrowers repay $95K
Step 4
RLF relends $95K
Step 2
RLF loans $100K to
borrowers
Grantee
Revolving
Loan Fund
ARRA Funds
Step 1
Grantee capitalizes
$100K RLF
using ARRA
funds
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
32
Mayors Climate Protection Manual - National, USA
Over 1,060 mayors from around the country, representing nearly 90
million Americans, have signed the Mayors Climate Protection
Agreement, initiated in 2005 to align community climate protection goals
with those set forth by the international community in the Kyoto
Protocol, while urging state and federal governments to do the same.
Shortly after in 2006, the Global Energy Center for Community
Sustainability (GEC), in partnership with The Johnson Foundation, invited
Hunter Lovins to attend the first of four leadership summits focused on
Energy and Climate Change. The group tasked NCS to produce this
Climate Protection Manual for Cities to provide local governments with
the expertise they need to curb their city’s greenhouse gas emissions and
enable cities to deliver on their commitment. The resulting Climate
Protection Manual for Cities is collaborative, collecting the disparate case
studies, best practices, cost/benefit analyses, legislation, technical
descriptions and contacts to facilitate Climate action planning and
implementation. The collection of resources serves as a comprehensive,
freely available how-to manual for cities who commit to reducing GHGs,
by enabling climate protection advocates and implementers to access
data, articles and each other.
Sustainable Cities Best Practices Reports – National, USA
The COP21 Paris Climate Conference resulted in an unprecedented global
agreement that is unleashing the new solar and low carbon economy.
Cities are now racing to be at the top of the green economic pyramid.
Those who succeed as early adopters will reap unprecedented financial,
sustainability and resiliency related benefits. 353 State lawmakers From
46 states have since pledged to support 100% clean energy by 2050,
joining mayors from more than 1,000 cities who have pledged to
implement 100% renewable energy.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
33
The Cheesecake Factory
National
Natural Capitalism Solutions was hired to provide thought leadership
expertise for The Cheesecake Factory to assist with the goals and
governance of its sustainability program, as well as support work to help
them build internal capacity for related programs. This included providing
energy and building analysis for its portfolio of restaurants (180+),
modeling significant energy and water savings annually, with a payback
rate high enough to build the case for investing in sustainability over
expanding operations. Additional strategic support areas included
research, analysis and key recommendations around waste and
composting, as well as purchasing, procurement and supply chain
sustainability and risk management.
Building Sustainability From Scratch
Overview
Helped the company build its
sustainability program from
the ground up, including:
• Defining its sustainability
vision
• Iden<fying cost saving
opportuni<es
• Crea<ng and staffing a
formal department
• Effec<vely responding to
stakeholder demands.
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
34
6
Proven Track Record of Success
Implementing genuine sustainability
Climate Economy Action Plan
Proposal to City of Fort Collins
35
Project Management & Schedule
Our team has managed small to large-scale sustainability evaluation and action plans throughout the U.S., nationally, and globally. We have collaborated
successfully with partners, stakeholders, and our clients to complete complex projects on time and within allocated budgets.
Through report and project status updates, published schedules, and scope tracking offered by project management tools, Fort Collins staff will have the ability
to oversee and monitor key performance metrics as NCS project management staff does. A regular, look-ahead rolling schedule will be maintained and
updated on an agreed timeline. This schedule will be reviewed at the status meetings to ensure that Fort Collins and the NCS project team are in agreement on
priorities and upcoming deliverables.
To ensure a smooth project process, our schedule will be adjusted and finalized with input from Fort Collins staff and stakeholders at a project kickoff meeting.
All tasks will be outlined on a work breakdown structure and integrated into the schedule for tracking. At the first project meeting, a roles-and-responsibility
matrix will be developed to outline these tasks and support the internal schedules for the NCS team and Fort Collins. We anticipate implementing the project
over a period of six to eight months, including additional support timeframe to assist with the beginning stages of implementation. From our experience on
past sustainability plans we believe this is a tight, but accomplishable time-frame assuming the project is able to begin as scheduled.
Week
Project Commecement (Nov. 30)
Project Completion (June 30)
Project Check-In Meetings
Scope of Work
Phase 1: Strategic Planning
Task A - Initial Project Kick-off: Strategic Planning & Goal Setting
Task B - Interview Key Project Stakeholders
Task C - Assess Current Condition
Task D - Define/Refine the Climate Economy
Phase 2: Capital Access/Development
Task E - Finance Tools Assessment & Recommendations
Phase 3 Business Engagement/Adaptation
Task F - Review Existing Business Engagement Efforts
Task G - Engage with Key Business Stakeholders
Task H -Innovation Summit Planning
Task I - Evaluate and Summarize Business Risks of Climate Change
Task J - Assess Workforce Training/Skills Building Opportunities
Task K - Identify New and/or Expanded Business Opportunities
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29
November December January February March April May June
36
3) Key Project Personnel
Hunter Lovins, Natural Capitalism Solutions
President and Founder
Hunter Lovins is the President and Founder of Natural Capitalism
Solutions (NCS), a Colorado non-profit. A renowned author and champion
of sustainable development for over 35 years, Hunter has consulted on
sustainable agriculture, energy, water, security, and climate policies for
scores of governments, communities, and companies worldwide. Within
the U.S., she has consulted for the Presidential Cabinet, Department of
Defense, Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Energy, the
cities of Aspen, Basalt, Boulder, Longmont, Boulder County and numerous
state and local agencies. Her corporate clients have included Unilever,
IFC, Walmart, Royal Dutch Shell and hundreds of small businesses.
Named Time Magazine Millennium Hero for the Planet, Hunter has won
dozens of awards, including The Right Livelihood Award (Alternative
Nobel), the Sustainability Pioneer Award and the Rachel Carson Award.
She believes that citizens, communities and companies, working together
within the market context, are the most dynamic problem-solving force
on the planet. She has devoted herself to building teams that can create
and implement practical and affordable solutions to the problems facing
us in creating a sustainable future.
Hunter has co-authored fifteen books and hundreds of papers, and was
featured in the award-winning film, Lovins On the Soft Path. Her best-
known book, Natural Capitalism, was released in September 1999. It has
been translated into 38 languages and was the subject of a Harvard
Business Review summary. Her latest book is The Way Out: Kickstarting
Capitalism, published by Farrar, Strauss, Giroux. She was a lead author of
LASER: Local Action for Sustainable Economic Renewal. Hunter has taught
at numerous universities around the world, and is a Master at the De Tao
Academy in Shanghai. Currently she teaches at Bard College for the MBA
in Sustainability program. She is a member of the Executive Committee of
the Club of Rome, a Distinguished Fellow of the Fowler Center at Case
Western Reserve University, and a founder of the international coalition,
Leading for Well-being.
Hunter is responsible for overall organizational and project management,
and will provide key input into financial analysis, forecasting climate
economy, and building the business case and engaement.
Education
§ Honorary doctorates from the University of Maine, Kalamazoo,
and Northland College
§ Loyola University School of Law - JD Law
§ Pitzer College – B.A. Political Science and Sociology
Accreditations and Affiliations
§ Member of the California Bar
§ Engineers without Borders, Board Member
§ Carbon Fund, Board Member
§ Carbon Disclosure Project, Board Member
Select Awards
§ Right Livelihood Award, (1983)
§ “Hero for the Planet” by Time magazine (2000)
§ “Green Business Icon” by Newsweek (2005)
§ Boulder County Women Who Light the Community Award (2010),
for outstanding service and leadership
§ Rachel Carson award (2012)
§ 2015 Planet Defender Award
37
Peter D. Krahenbuhl, Natural Capitalism Solutions
Director of Strategic Partnerships & Consulting, Project Manager
Peter is the Head of Partnerships and Consulting at Natural Capitalism
Solutions and is the primary project manager. As a global sustainability,
business development and communications leader, Peter has nearly 20
years of experience working with the private sector, governmental, and
non-governmental organizations to drive innovative sustainability
solutions forward. As Co-founder and former President of Sustainable
Travel International (STI), Peter helped develop and grow a start-up
organization into a global industry leader with outreach in the millions.
He has implemented and continues to advise regarding best practices
solutions for small to Fortune 500 Companies, destinations and
governments.
Peter developed several multi-industry firsts as one of the world’s leading
experts in integrated bottom line standards and carbon management
solutions. He also specializes in strategic planning, organizational
management, business, and program development; Stakeholder
engagement and network leadership; CSR and public/industry relations,
including integrating sustainability into branding, packaging and
marketing. Peter has led or advised multiple global sustainability councils
and executive level business networks. At the destination level, he has
assessed or helped develop regional standards, national sustainable
tourism policy and planning activities, and education and training
programs, including educating business and community leaders about
sustainable development and climate mitigation.
His leadership experience extends to working on international community
development and conservation projects, being a published author related
to sustainability topics and travel, and as a recognized industry and public
speaker.
Education
§ Master of Public Affairs, Indiana University, School of Public &
Environmental Affairs, [Environmental Policy & Natural
Resource Management]
§ Double B.A., Economics and Environmental Studies,
University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB)
Specialties
• Strategic planning, positioning and communications
• Destination Development & Sustainability Integration
• Carbon mitigation and management
• Supply chain integration
• Global sustainable tourism standards & certification
• Stakeholder engagement and communication
Select Project Experience
§ European Commission Sustainable Destination Indicators
§ Colorado Mountain College Sustainabilty Plan
§ Global Sustainable Tourism Council (GSTC) Interim Advisory
Council, United Nations Foundation – Expert Advisor for GSTC
Criteria & Global Accreditation Development
§ Sustainable Business Practices - national
§ Caribbean Secretariat Carbon Management Toolkit
§ Sustainable Destination Development Education – Global
§ Sustainable standards and eco-certification development –
Global
§ Climate management and mitigation solutions development -
Global
§ Boulder County – Sustainability research support
§ The Cheesecake Factory - Sustainable Strategy Advisor
38
DAVE RAMSLIE, MSC, LEED AP, Principal, Integral Group
Economic, Energy & GHG Analysis and Modeling Team Lead
Dave is an internationally acclaimed expert in urban sustainable
development. A planner and urban designer by training, Dave has over 15
years of experience in research, design, policy, regulation, and program
development. A true practitioner and implementer, Dave has an
unparalleled track record of developing comprehensive strategies and
transforming them into actions that yield results. His accomplishments
have been recognized by awards from The World Green Building Council,
the World Wildlife Fund, the Canadian Institute of Planners, and last year
he was recognized by the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC) as
one of nine global leaders fighting climate change in cities.
Dave has the demonstrated ability to convert policy and strategy into real
world outcomes. His work with the City of Vancouver alone has led to the
development of 5 new campus and district scale energy systems since
2009. He is a global expert on high performance building codes and
incentive programs and regularly advises ‘C40 Cities’ (Clinton Climate
Initiative Participants) and other international organisations such as s
EcoDistricts and the USGBC on energy policy.
He specializes in strategic planning and process development with a focus
on implementation. Some key Strategic planning projects include The
Southeast False Creek Olympic Village Master Plan, The Vancouver
International Airport’s Integrated Energy and Resource Plan, and the City
of Cambridge Net Zero Emissions plan. He has considerable experience
leading engineering and planning teams and providing consulting and
project management services to improve the sustainability, livability and
economic prosperity of cities. Dave has an excellent analytic and strategic
planning skill set, balanced with technical knowledge of land use planning
and engagement and renewable energy solutions while working with
diverse stakeholder groups.
Education
• Master of Science in Urban Design, University of Edinburgh
• Bachelor of Arts in Economics and International Development
University of Guelph
Specialties
• Resiliency planning
• Green building and net zero energy policy development
• Zero Waste planning and program design
• Building energy benchmarking, reporting, and disclosure
programs
• District scale sustainability reporting
• Governance and management frameworks for sustainability.
Select Project Experience
• Washington DC Comprehensive Energy Plan
• Province of Ontario Building Energy Benchmarking Policy
Development
• City of Toronto, Global Best Practices Research on Energy
Standards
• City of Vancouver Green Building Policy Assessment
• City of Cambridge Net Zero Emissions Plan
• Vancouver Airport Authority Integrated Energy and Resources
Plan
• City of Burnaby Environmental Sustainability Strategy
• City of Victoria Building Energy Benchmarking & Disclosure
Project
-39-
Jeff Hohensee, Natural Capitalism Solutions
Vice President, Strategic and Financial Access/Development
Jeff rejoined the Natural Capitalism Solutions team in recently to work
closely with Hunter Lovins on transforming the global economy. He has
been working in business, education and sustainability for over thirty years.
Jeff started his career in corporate finance working for Barclays American
Business Credit and Fuji Bank subsidiary Heller Financial. He specialized
cash management, financial analysis, asset security and negotiations. Jeff
left the private sector to teach. He worked as a public school teacher and
as an adjunct faculty at Citrus College. Jeff then worked as the Program
Director and Education Director at TreePeople where he pioneered work
on education, community building and social marketing that touched the
lives of millions of people During Jeff’s tenure at TreePeople he led an
effort that inspired over one hundred thousand teenagers a year to lead
service projects in their neighborhoods. While at TreePeople Jeff also
helped the California Department of Education to develop a statewide
network for environmental education that included thousands of business,
government and nonprofit organizations.
Jeff first joined the Natural Capitalism Solutions team in 2007. Under Jeff’s
leadership Natural Capitalism Solutions has engaged corporate clients that
represent 3% of U.S. GDP and performed strategic work for local, state and
federal agencies across the United States. Jeff left NCS to work for the
Alliance for Sustainable Colorado to help develop an innovative business
model for the transformation of the Alliance Center. While at the Alliance
Jeff oversaw the concept design of the Alliance Center renovation that
reduced per capita energy consumption by over fifty percent, doubled
building owner revenue and increased the appraised value of the building
from $6M to $14M.
Jeff has a history of developing innovative, profitable business plans,
performing clear sighted, multi-dimensional financial analysis, facilitating
change management in academic institutions, business, non-profits, and
government agencies to internally evaluate effectiveness, of bringing on
new board of director initiatives, undertaking and implement strategic
planning and organizational development, instigate strategic partnership
development and overcome barriers to innovation.
Jeff served as a consultant and advisor for numerous organizations
including: New Resources Bank, Kashi, Johnson Diversey, Sundance
Channel, Sundance Cinema, GoLite, Prologis, New Belgium Brewing
Company, Hallmark, JMB Financial Advisors, Novus, Red Bull, Sustainable
Cards, T-Mobile, Wal-Mart Williams Sonoma, WhiteWave, Eco-Products,
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, California Department of Education,
CalEPA, California Integrated Waste Management Board, California Air
Resources Board, California Energy Commission, California Department of
Forestry, California Water Resources Control Board, Los Angeles County
Board of Education, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles County
Department of Public Works, Boulder County Climate Smart, City of Los
Angeles Watershed Protection Division, the City of Boulder Climate Action
Plan, Plan Boulder County, Council of Environmental Educators, Youth
Service California, Cal-Wood Education Center, Alaska Environmental
Association, the YMCA and the national, regional and local Boy Scouts of
America. Jeff is our team lead on financial analysis and co-project manager.
-40-
Elizabeth Sheehan, Climate Smart Businesses
President, Business Engagement Toolkit Implementation
Going through the process of measuring her organization’s environmental
footprint in the early 2000s inspired Elizabeth to co-found Climate Smart in
2007. She brings her passion and conviction that small and mid-size
businesses are essential partners in meeting the challenges of our time.
Her 20+ years of experience include working with private sector,
philanthropic and government partners to scale up innovative business-
focused programs that tackle community economic development and
environmental challenges. Elizabeth holds degrees from the University of
California, Berkeley (B.Sc), and Cornell University (MRP).
Elizabeth is lead on business engagement via the Business Energy and
Emissions Profiling (BEEP)
Anastasia Lukyanova, Climate Smart Businesses
Data Analyst, Business Engagement Toolkit Implementation
Anastasia heads up the data service, leading on BEEPs, impact reporting,
developing benchmarking performance metrics, building out aggregate
datasets, and report writing for Climate Smart's industry briefs. Ana also
works directly with SMEs leading them through the process of quantifying
their carbon footprint and developing emission reduction and cost saving
strategies. She is excited to help companies look at their operations
through a new lens of carbon accounting and find opportunities they
otherwise would not see. Prior to Climate Smart, Anastasia worked at the
University of Alberta on a research project developing a computer model to
help the City of Edmonton compost their waste more efficiently. Anastasia
holds a M.Sc. in Environmental Engineering and Mathematical Biology from
the University of Alberta.
-41-
Advisory Committee
In addition to our core team we have the following leading experts who will
provide advice in their respective areas of expertise. This group will not
only provide insights into recommendations but will offer additional ideas
and solutions to ensure Fort Collins’s plan is as robust as possible.
Bill Becker, Natural Capitalism Solutions / PCAP
Strategic Advisor / Executive Director
Bill Becker, our key project advisor, is Executive Director of the Presidential
Climate Action Project (PCAP), an initiative of Natural Capitalism Solutions
to help the President of the United States take decisive action on global
warming and energy security.
PCAP has submitted more than 200 policy and program recommendations
to the Obama Administration, many of which were adopted during the
President’s first year in office.
Bill launched PCAP in January 2007 at the University of Colorado Denver.
Prior to that he was the Central Regional Director for the U.S. Department
of Energy, where he spent 15 years administering programs to accelerate
the use of energy efficiency and renewable energy technologies. He is a
national expert on sustainable community development and on public
policy related to clean energy and global climate change.
Advisory Area: Climate resilient communities, energy technology
Eric Lombardi | Eco-Cycle International
Executive Director
Eric Lombardi helped to create the Zero Waste Movement across the world
since the mid-90s. As previous Executive Director of Eco-Cycle
(www.ecocycle.org) since 1989, he helped to grow it into one of the largest
non-profit recyclers in the USA with a global reputation as a pioneer and
innovator in resource conservation. He was invited to the Clinton White
House in 1998 as one of the Top 100 USA Recyclers, Lombardi’s work
continues to build a global community that is working to bring an end to
the age of landfilling and incineration, and transform the "waste
management" industry into the "resource management" industry.
Lombardi is often a keynote speaker and consultant on the social and
technical aspects of creating a “Zero Waste - Or Darn Near” society.
Advisory Area: Zero Waste, Recycling
Craig Lewis | Clean Coalition
Executive Director
Craig Lewis is Founder and Executive Director of the Clean Coalition.
Previously VP of Government Relations at GreenVolts, a solar technology
company, Craig was the first to successfully navigate a solar project
through California's Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) solicitation
process. He was also the energy policy lead on Steve Westly's 2006
California gubernatorial campaign. With many years worth of experience in
renewables, Craig works diligently with cities and utilities across the
country on projects to expand the use of clean local energy.
Advisory Area: Community Renewable & Grid Policy & Solutions
Adam Seiber | Aether Energy Efficiency
Co-founder & Managing Director
Aether is a specialty finance company working to revolutionize institutional
energy efficient and sustainable infrastructure development. Leveraging
extensive capital markets experience, they finance, develop, acquire, and
operate a portfolio of large scale infrastructure assets on behalf of public
and private clients. In addition, Aether integrates its sustainability
objectives as it works with clients to finance traditional leases, build-to-
suits, sale-leasebacks, property acquisitions, and tenant improvements.
Aether's multi-disciplinary team of seasoned professionals offers
experience in energy efficient and sustainable development, real estate,
capital markets, credit-based financing, and technology. On an aggregate
basis, Aether’s principals have completed over $16 billion of corporate and
-42-
4, 5) Organizational Chart & Availability
The following chart represents our team organization, roles and responsibilities. All team members will be readily available throughout the project.
Team Members
Role on Project & Areas of
Focus
Specific Project Experience
L. Hunter Lovins
President and Founder, NCS
Executive Manager Strategy
and Energy
Senior coordination on all of NCS's community sustainability and government
projects. Over 40+ years project experience.
Bill Becker, Assistant Executive
Director, NCS
Senior Advisor:
Energy / Transportation
Center for New Energy Economy (CSU), U.S. Department of Energy, State of
Louisiana Recovery Commission, Government of Thailand Sustainable
Reconstruction.
Peter Krahenbuhl
Dir. of Strategic Partnerships, NCS
Project Manager
Senior Project Manager:
Business Strategy / Strategic
Planning and Communication
/ Stakeholder Engagement
European Commission Sustainable Destination Indicators
Colorado Mountain College Sustainability Plan
Sustainable Business Practices - national
Dave Ramslie
MSC, LEED AP
Integral Group
Modeling Team Lead:
Economic, Energy, and GHG
Analysis / Research / Business
Strategy
Washington DC Comprehensive Energy Plan
City of Toronto, Global Best Practices Research on Energy
Standards
City of Cambridge Net Zero Emissions Plan
Jeff Hohensee
Vice President , NCS
Co-Project Manager:
Strategic and Financial
Access/Development
Jeff has Served as an Advisor and Consultant for Multiple businesses and
projects: New Belgium Brewing Company, Red Bull, Sustainable Cards, T-
Mobile, Wal-Mart, and more.
Elizabeth Sheehan
President, Climate Smart
Business Engagement Lead:
BEEP Implementation
20+ years of experience include working with private sector, philanthropic
and government partners to scale up innovative business-focused programs
that tackle community economic development andenvironmental
challenges. Elizabeth holds
Anastasia Lukyanova
Data Analyst, Climate Smart
Business Engagement Support
-43-
6) Project Budget
The following is an estimated budget based on the assumptions listed in the scope of work, including all labor and other direct costs.
Scope of Work
Phase 1: Strategic Planning
Task A - Initial Project Kick-off: Strategic Planning & Goal Setting
Task B - Interview Key Project Stakeholders
Task C - Assess Current Condition
Task D - Define/Refine the Climate Economy
Phase 2: Capital Access/Development
Task E - Finance Tools Assessment & Recommendations
Phase 3 Business Engagement/Adaptation
Task F - Review Existing Business Engagement Efforts
Task G - Engage with Key Business Stakeholders
Task H - Innovation Summit Planning
Task I - Evaluate and Summarize Business Risks of Climate Change
Task J - Assess Workforce Training/Skills Building Opportunities
Task K - Identify New and/or Expanded Business Opportunities
Additional Areas
Innovation Summit (Hunter Lovins speak - $10,000 value)
Total
Travel and reimbursements not to exceed 10% of project costs
Support
Staff ($)
400
500
480
200
800
1000
1000
800
800
1200
1200
$8,380
NCS - Jeff
400
0
320
320
1600
320
640
320
1600
320
320
$6,160
NCS - Peter
1600
1600
1600
1600
2400
1600
2000
1600
1280
960
NCS Budget Breakdown 40 $/Hr. 80 80 150 135 100
Scope of Work Support
Staff ($)
Support
Staff Hrs.
NCS -
Jeff
Jeff
Hrs.
NCS -
Peter
Peter
Hrs.
NCS -
Hunter
Hunter
Hrs. Integral
Integral
Hrs.
Climate
Smart
Climate
Smart
Hrs.
Total
Phase 1: Strategic Planning 6500
Task A - Initial Project Kick-off: Strategic
Planning & Goal Setting 400 10 400 5 1600 20 1200 8 1620 12 $5,220
Task B - Interview Key Project Stakeholders 500 12.5 0 0 1600 20 600 4 1080 8 $3,780
Task C - Assess Current Condition 480 12 320 4 1600 20 1800 12 2700 20 6000 60 $12,900
Task D - Define/Refine the Climate Economy 200 5 320 4 1600 20 1800 12 1080 8 $5,000
Phase 2: Capital Access/Development 1500
Task E - Finance Tools Assessment &
Recommendations 800 20 1600 20 2400 30 2400 16 1485 11 $8,685
Phase 3 Business Engagement/Adaptation 5750 16000
Task F - Review Existing Business
Engagement Efforts 1000 25 320 4 1600 20 1200 8 1215 8 2000 20 $7,335
Task G - Engage with Key Business
Stakeholders 1000 25 640 8 2000 25 1200 8 810 6 2000 20 $7,650
Task H - Innovation Summit Planning 800 20 320 4 1600 20 1200 8 0 0 0 $3,920
Task I - Evaluate and Summarize Business
Risks of Climate Change 800 20 1600 20 1280 16 1800 12 1620 12 2000 20 $9,100
Task J - Assess Workforce Training/Skills
Building Opportunities 1200 30 320 4 960 12 600 4 1080 8 2000 20 $6,160
Task K - Identify New and/or Expanded
Business Opportunities 1200 30 320 4 960 12 1200 8 1080 8 2000 20 $6,760
Additional Areas
Innovation Summit (Hunter Lovins speak -
$10,000 value)
Total $8,380 $6,160 $17,200 $15,000 $13,750 $16,000 $76,510
Travel and reimbursements not to exceed 10%
of project costs
Total Hours
209.5
77
215
100
101
160
960
$17,200
NCS -
Hunter
1200
600
1800
1800
2400
1200
1200
1200
1800
600
1200
$15,000
Integral
Climate
Smart Total
6500 6500
$3,600
$2,700
$4,200
$3,920
1500 1500
$7,200
5750 16000 21750
$4,120
$4,840
$3,920
$5,480
$3,080
$3,680
$13,750 $16,000 $76,490
BEEP Implementation
Ana works directly with SMEs leading them through the process of
quantifying their carbon footprint and developing emission reduction and
cost saving strategies and leads BEEPs.
governmental real estate debt financing and equity investments to date.
Prior to joining Aether, Adam helped execute over $150 million in real
estate transactions.
Advisory Area: Renewable Energy, Energy Efficiency & Financing
functions of the interactive dashboard include:
• Data exploration, supplementing the report with spatial data
views;
• Maps showing local business GHG emissions data by city block;
• Maps showing local business energy data by city block;
Matrix and summary report aligning F=financing tools with City
initiatives, including alignment with the City’s 31 identified Road
to 2020 initiatives and the Climate Action Plan Framework’s
suggestions for 2030 programs and projects
Recommendations for no to low capital expenditure programs
and partnerships; Introductions to potential partners as relevant
percentage of investment in a CD goes to fund green
projects
Peoples Bank/Community
Connections 3
Peer-to-Peer Lending
Micro loans where individuals provide the financing for
ee improvements to others
Kiva, Zopa 5
Voluntary Business Surcharge
Removable donations on a business's bill/transaction,
etc. which can generate large amounts of revenue that
are used to pay for ee improvements
Crested Butte "1% for Open
Space" 4
Revolving Loan Program
Fund established to provide loans for ee
improvements and replenished through loan paybacks. City of Boulder Economic
Vitality, LoanSTAR (Texas) 2
Phase 3 of the project (Business Engagement/Adaptation) below.
Assumptions
• Identified stakeholders will be available to provide input into
agreed meetings
• Key staff will assist with the organization and facilitation of events
• Fort Collins personnel will be available to assist with data
collection
List of personnel contacted and interviewed; additional
background material including tools, case stories, and research
Baseline climate economy profile, presented in a way that is
analytically rigorous yet easily understood
sustainability and climate economy communities, including approaches,
ü City Council Presentations: The Consultant may need to attend
meetings with City Council; specifics will be included in the final scope
of services developed by City staff and our team.
top down by identifying areas of opportunity for improved sustainability
management, as well as from the bottom up by engaging and capturing
input from community stakeholders.
This approach results in a project that:
with ‘host partners’ (e.g. local municipalities) to engage SMEs and
accelerate the reduction of community emissions and associated costs,
report on cross-sectoral business climate action, and elevate municipal
leadership on sustainability.
Sincerely,
L. Hunter Lovins,
President,
Natural Capitalism Solutions