climate action and adaptation planning

 
 

"Hillary was tasked with creating a new Excel-based tool that empowered Alpine Bank's energy managers to normalize energy data for weather from 2006 moving forward. The tool, which was designed to complement our internal energy tacking spreadsheet system, not only enables us to better understand our energy usage across our 38 locations, but also helps us meet ISO 14001 goals, the results of which are published in our annual Environment Report. We continue to rely on Hillary as a key technical resource for various Alpine Bank sustainability initiatives. We highly recommend Lotus's services for comparable projects."

- David Miller, Senior Vice President and Green Team Chairperson, Alpine Bank

 

"As part of Lakewood’s Sustainability Plan development process, we realized the value of measuring the plan strategies’ potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Emily Artale at Lotus Engineering and Sustainability provided the exact service we needed through a collaborative process and an extensive analysis. Her work will allow Lakewood to determine how we can meet our greenhouse gas reduction targets and become a more sustainable community." 

- Lynn Coppedge, Sustainability Planner at the City of Lakewood

 

Recent Clients

Sustainability planning and management

We have helped organizations assess their sustainability baseline, analyze potential improvement strategies, and prepare for the future using customized calculation tools, on-site assessments, and strategic planning. Our recommendations touch upon all areas of sustainability, including energy, water, waste, transportation, and community engagement. We have helped small businesses, local and state governments, public agencies, and Fortune 500 companies. 

Developed an interactive website that helps communities understand the shocks and stresses they face, make connections across sectors to leverage resources and ideas, develop solutions that address multiple challenges, and build adaptability and preparedness into plans. This project was a collaborative effort with a team of experts on behalf of the Colorado Resiliency Office. As part of the project, the team created multiple toolkits and resources for communities to help proactively prepare for and adapt for changing conditions. Also, best practices on how to meet immediate, short-term, and long-term recovery needs in the aftermath of a disaster.

Led the development of a comprehensive GHG inventory and related Climate Action Plan for Summit County in collaboration with the High Country Conservation Center. Lotus worked with HC3 to develop a comprehensive GHG inventory and aspirational and achievable Climate Action Plan for Summit County, Colorado. This effort includes stakeholder facilitation, research, modeling strategies, and conducting a resource analysis for the community organizations that will be involved in the implementation of strategies. To read the climate action report, click here.

Led the City and County of Denver's 80x50 facilitation and strategy development process, and revised and further developed strategies based on stakeholder and community feedback. We worked with Denver and a group of expert stakeholders to identify ambitious, yet feasible, GHG emission reduction strategies to meet Denver's 80% reduction in GHG emissions by 2050 plan. We also modeled these strategies for their relative impact on GHG emissions and on secondary criteria such as cost, ease of implementation, impacts on social equity and environmental justice, public health, and air quality. You can read the report by clicking here.

Developed calculation tools to determine GHG emission reduction potentials for various sustainability improvement strategies. To help the City of Lakewood understand the impact on GHG emissions from the implementation of various improvement strategies, Lotus built six Excel-based spreadsheet calculators to determine impacts from energy, transportation, waste, and materials. The results were integrated into the City's sustainability plan.

Prepared sustainability assessment reports for small businesses in Northern Colorado. Following on-site walkthroughs, Lotus quantified metrics for implementing recommended energy efficiency, water efficiency, waste reduction, and alternative transportation options for small businesses.

Selected utility management software. Lotus was contracted with an energy management company to help a Fortune 500 company select a utility management software tool, collect energy and water data for its 200+ facilities, and identify potential energy and water saving opportunities.

Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy support. Lotus is actively working with several cities to meet the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy requirements.  A city has up to three years to meet a series of requirements and create a full climate action and adaptation plan.