Communications and design for Cleveland’s Climate Action Plans
Lotus, in partnership with ALH Design, led the development and design of several communication tools for the City of Cleveland’s Climate Action Plan and Municipal Action Plan, as well as the design of the two plans themselves. The City of Cleveland tasked Lotus and ALH Design with crafting two series of social media posts regarding the publication of the Climate Action Plan, a staff engagement workshop to promote implementation efforts amongst City staff, and a community toolkit to encourage community-based organizations and individuals to take action. Lotus designed two versions of the staff workshop to accommodate different audiences and use cases. The adaptable and accessible community action toolkit was designed to meet the wide-ranging diversity of the Cleveland community. Both tasks included a detailed step-by-step agenda to guide staff members through facilitating a workshop or community meeting and adapting the materials to their specific audience. ALH Design led the graphic design of the two plans and all social media posts, public-facing workshop materials, and the community action toolkit.
Urban Villages and APARIUM Hotel Group | Populus Hotel GHG Emissions Dashboard
Populus Hotel GHG Emissions Dashboard
Lotus worked with Urban Villages and the APARIUM Hotel Group to create a public greenhouse gas emissions tracking dashboard in Microsoft PowerBI for the Populus Hotel. The dashboard tracks real and predicted greenhouse gas emissions and offset activities from the construction and operations of the hotel over time. The dashboard includes functionality that allows for easy data updates, transparency for specific operations (waste diversion, water, energy, etc.), and tracks whether Populus has achieved their carbon positive goal. Lotus also developed back-end calculations for the quantification of greenhouse gas emissions and documenting methods and assumptions for all calculations in a user guide.
preview of the Populus Hotel GHG Emissions Dashboard
City of Fort Collins | Under-Resourced Buildings Engagement
under-resourced buildings engagement
Lotus worked with the City of Fort Collins to engage under-resourced building (URB) stakeholders. The core purpose of the engagement was to gather insight into specific tools, resources, and other support mechanisms that Fort Collins could deploy to support commercial and multifamily building owners and tenants in achieving greater energy efficiency. Lotus delivered a final report to the client that compiled current stakeholder challenges in pursuing energy efficiency and provided research-backed recommendations for programs that could overcome those challenges. The team successfully engaged all stakeholder types, including, but not limited to, affordable housing providers and nonprofits supporting affordable housing providers, multifamily tenants, business tenants and commercial developers, collecting critical data and program or policy recommendations specific to these building types.
The team applied community-centered principles throughout the engagement process to ensure reach with key URBs. Lotus developed a context guide that documented the factors and processes for the City to consider when developing the engagement strategy, resources, and support services to help URB communities make building improvements. The context guide served as the foundation for fair and defensible engagement throughout the project.
Lotus also developed a stakeholder map of URBs based on the City’s specific, data-driven definition. Our team spearheaded the creation of the matrix of data criteria defining and categorizing URBs. Following that, buildings were specifically identified and targeted for engagement based on their criteria score.
Lotus facilitated a number of engagements, including in-person focus groups, virtual focus groups, informational interviews, and listening sessions. All engagements were planned with a focus on bringing the community together, including providing participant stipends, food, and childcare while ensuring all materials and presentations were translated and interpreted into languages most appropriate for the audiences. Lotus conducted all Spanish written translations in-house. We contracted with the Community Language Cooperative (CLC) to provide interpretation services for in-person meetings in Spanish and for translation services in Vietnamese, Arabic, and Mandarin Chinese.
Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) | Strong Communities Grant Program Impact Evaluation
Strong Communities Grant Program Impact Evaluation
Lotus, in partnership with Economic Planning Systems (EPS) is completing an analysis to evaluate the effectiveness of the Strong Communities Grant Program. The Strong Communities Grant Program incentivizes the adoption of policies that promote affordable housing and sustainable development. Lotus and EPS are developing a methodology and an analysis tool that assesses the environmental and economic impacts of the land use best practices that are supported by the program. The tool will provide insight into how these best practices can reduce greenhouse gas emissions, vehicle miles traveled, household transportation costs, local government and infrastructure costs. Additionally it will quantify how best practices can increase affordable housing and influence housing costs. Understanding these impacts will allow grantees to communicate the benefits of the land use best practices and provide other communities with insight into how they could benefit from implementing these practices.
In addition to the methodology and tool, Lotus and EPS will create individualized reports summarizing results of the analysis for each grantee. Lotus and EPS will also provide case studies of a sample of projects to enable DOLA to continue to communicate the benefits of the program and the included best practices.
Boulder Housing Partners Behavioral Change Program
In concert with two other consulting firms, Lotus helped Boulder Housing Partners reach their goal of becoming the nation's first net-zero energy housing authority through an innovative occupant engagement program. The project involved outreach and education to BHP residents regarding energy consumption and energy efficiency and included in-depth work on behavioral change models that can be effective to reduce energy use.
“Hillary and Emily were amazing to work with. They jumped into a project that had been delayed several times due to a number of obstacles. They were able to resurrect the project and get it done on time and under budget. They were thoughtful, efficient and helpful on all phases of our project. I would highly recommend their services for any sustainability project.”
City and County of Denver | Energize Denver Equity Priority Buildings Facilitation Services
Energize Denver Equity Priority Buildings Facilitation Services
Lotus worked with the Energize Denver at the City and County of Denver to engage equity priority building owners. The purpose of engagement efforts was to inform building owners about forthcoming regulations and requirements for small buildings through the Energize Denver program and gather insight into specific tools, resources, and other supports Denver may be able to offer to support building owners in meeting the requirements. Lotus conducted a detailed analysis of stakeholders and built relationships with local community-based organizations and cultural brokers to plan engagement activities and share these opportunities with the intended audiences.
Lotus facilitated a number of engagements, including in-person focus groups, virtual focus groups, informational interviews, and listening sessions. All engagements were planned with a focus on equity, including providing participant stipends, food, and childcare while ensuring all materials and presentations were translated and interpreted into languages most appropriate for the audiences. Lotus developed a final report summarizing engagements and providing recommendations and guidance to Denver on opportunities to improve services and resources for equity priority building owners to better compel compliance with Energize Denver requirements. Denver is currently implementing many of the recommendations in A final report.
City and County of Denver | 80 x 50 Climate Action Plan & Annual GHG Inventory
80 x 50 Climate Action Plan & Annual GHG Inventory
The City and County of Denver’s 80x50 Climate Goal: Stakeholder Report establishes a path to reduce community-wide GHG emissions by 80 percent by the year 2050. Lotus led the development of Denver’s 80x50 Plan by conducting a review of processes and plans already established by the City; conducting a needs assessment; working with a diverse network of over 80 stakeholders and community experts in the fields of energy and transportation to identify the most relevant and impactful strategies for Denver to pursue; modeling the impacts of stakeholder-identified emissions reduction strategies; and drafting a CAP that will support the City in achieving its goals. Additionally, Lotus completed Denver’s community GHG inventories for calendar years 2018-2022.
City and County of Denver | Renewable Heating and Cooling Plan (Building Electrification)
Renewable Heating and Cooling Plan (Building Electrification)
Lotus led the development of the City and County of Denver’s Renewable Heating and Cooling Plan, a roadmap for beneficial electrification in existing buildings. As part of this process, Lotus convened stakeholders from across the metro area and the State to understand the impacts of electrification on the workforce, disproportionately impacted communities, building owners of all sizes, homeowners, equipment manufacturers, and other stakeholders.
Lotus managed a variety of engagement activities ranging from surveys and one-on-one interviews, to large focus groups and workshops. In addition to the public input that helped to shape the plan, Lotus worked with subcontractors to complete a building stock and technology transition analysis and a grid and cost impact analysis. The final plan includes not only details on the technical components of electrification, but also the various levers (i.e., policy, financial, incentive, programmatic, and communications) that can be triggered to support full electrification of Denver’s applicable building stock over the coming decades.
Lotus has been lucky enough to consistently work with the City and County of Denver since 2016. Other work Lotus has completed for the City and County of Denver includes:
-Completed GPC-compliant GHG emissions inventories every year since 2017, CDP Reporting, and developed Denver’s first municipal operations inventory (2020).
-Completed a life-cycle GHG analysis for waste.
-Completed an embodied carbon analysis for buildings. (see below)
Lotus developed the maps below to use data to inform Denver’s Electrification plan. The maps showed inequities and helped identify vulnerable populations.
“Lotus partnered with Denver to create our Renewable Heating and Cooling Plan. The plan was practical and achievable yet pushed the boundary of what is possible. They excelled at project management, keeping the project partners on task. They led fun, engaging discussions with a variety of stakeholders whose insight helped shape the plan. Once all the quantitative and qualitative data was collected and analyzed, they synthesized the findings into a plan that could be understood by the public, and not just limited to those with an electrification background. We are thrilled with their work and would recommend them for future projects!”
“Lotus has been an exceptional partner in the development of a key technical roadmap that will lead to strong policy implementation. They are helping us address all the challenges and opportunities regarding building electrification in existing buildings.”
City of Louisville | Commercial Energy Code Review
The City of Louisville contracted with Lotus and Group14 Engineering to explore updates to the City’s current commercial energy code that would help the City reach its energy efficiency and greenhouse gas reduction goals. The City and consultant team examined commercial energy code policy options including higher efficiency requirements, all-electric requirements, and net zero requirements. The scope of work included:
Energy modeling of current code-compliant heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems in commercial and industrial building types to evaluate upfront cost, operational cost, and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. The energy modeling also included an analysis of the total solar PV required to make code-compliant buildings (both mixed-fuel and all-electric) net zero. Finally, energy modeling was conducted to analyze the upfront cost, operational cost, and GHG emissions savings of buildings built to a higher efficiency performance standard.
Research on existing commercial energy code policies from around the country.
A public engagement process that solicited feedback on commercial code policy options via two City board meetings, two open-house style community meetings, and an online public engagement survey.
Final report summarizing the policy recommendations from the consultant team and staff for the City of Louisville’s commercial code update.
Lotus facilitated the public engagement process, developed the final policy recommendation report, and presented the final policy recommendation to City Council for adoption. We are well-versed in the analysis of various commercial code options that will allow a community to move easily to a net zero code standard.
City of Commerce City | Sustainability Action Plan
Lotus led the development of sustainability and community health recommendations that are woven into the first Sustainability Action Plan for Commerce City, Colorado. An environmental justice priority community, the City wished to ensure that recommendations were derived from community input and informed by data. Lotus facilitated a citizen-led Environmental Policy Advisory Committee to develop recommendations that will result in a healthier, more sustainable community. Additional community outreach occurred in the form of community meetings, civic engagement training, a community survey, and workshops with City staff and business and industry leaders. As part of the process, Lotus also completed the City’s first GHG inventory and business-as-usual forecast, modeling the GHG impact of strategies, identified the cost impacts of strategies and funding resources, and met with City staff to develop internal sustainability recommendations. Subcontractors on the project analyzed and made recommendations specific to air and water quality issues in Commerce City, which were woven into the full recommendations report.
In addition to completing the City’s first community-wide greenhouse gas emissions inventory as a part of the Sustainability Action Plan development, Lotus developed the City’s first municipal operations greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Lotus utilized the Local Government Operations Protocol to complete the inventory. The development of this inventory will help the City government create and monitor sustainability actions outlined in the Sustainability Action Plan. Lotus continued supporting the Commerce City Department of Energy, Equity and the Environment with facilitation of the Environmental Policy Advisory Committee and designing program collateral for one year after the plan was finalized.
“Commerce City unanimously passed a Sustainability Action Plan which was the culmination of input from multiple community and business meetings. Lotus was instrumental in facilitating the process as well as preparing technical documents such as an Air Modeling Threshold Report; Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Stormwater Management Plan. The Sustainability Action Plan was translated into Spanish for increased stakeholder engagement. Lotus has provided outstanding service””
City of Golden | Codes Consulting: Building Policy Roadmap
Lotus developed the City of Golden’s Code Roadmap after the completion of the City of Golden Code Consulting Project as a joint effort with Iconergy Ltd. The roadmap lays out the recommendations and timelines to address greenhouse gas emissions and energy efficiency in the City of Golden’s built environment, with the ultimate goal of helping to achieve the City’s 2030 Sustainability Goals. The recommendations for new and existing buildings were informed by a series of stakeholder workshops which included industry experts, sector representatives, and consultants that evaluated a total of six code packages from January to July 2022. Lotus was the primary facilitator for each stakeholder workshop and worked with the group to review code standards the City could consider to meet its building goals.
The final recommendation for building code and existing building policy, derived from the stakeholder process, included the following high-level directives.
For new buildings, adopt the 2021 IECC and the New Buildings Institute (NBI): All-Electric Code Overlay with a requirement for onsite PV for new residential construction.
For existing buildings, develop a building benchmarking program and subsequent performance standard for existing buildings and address code and incentive gaps for existing buildings with expanded programming and incentive opportunities.
The Lotus team facilitated the stakeholder workshops and provided technical assistance in analyzing code packages, GHG emissions, and strategic planning to meet Golden’s GHG reduction goals.
City of Las Cruces | Climate Action Plan
Lotus completed the City of Las Cruces’ 2018 GHG inventory and supported the development of GHG strategies to reduce emissions to 80 percent of 2018 levels by 2050. This work included the development of both a community and municipal inventory, in-person and remote stakeholder facilitation for two workshops to select GHG reduction strategies with a focus on equity and resilience, high-level modeling of strategy impacts, and drafting the final plan.
The inventory and strategies will help the City to understand its carbon footprint, identify and implement ways to reduce its carbon footprint, gain community buy-in, and inform future policy and programs.
In 2024, Las Cruces contracted with Lotus to update the City’s business-as-usual GHG emissions model as well as to complete calendar year 2023 greenhouse emissions inventories for the community and local government operations.
“The Council was so impressed with Lotus’ work - the report, the strength of the data, and the equity-centered approach. I will be putting forward the 9 strategies, targets, and co-benefits to adopt as a resolution. The actions in the CAP will be used as a foundation for deeper dives so I can get even more community involvement”
City of Longmont | Electrification Study and Communication Plan
Lotus convened and guided an Electrification Feasibility Committee to explore advantages and constraints of electrification policies and program options for the City of Longmont. Lotus also created a communications strategy and the development of a thoughtful, equitable, and phased beneficial building electrification plan that was both ambitious and realistic. Strategy development was supported by modeling completed by Group14 Engineering. The final Beneficial Electrification Plan provides Longmont with a roadmap of specific strategies and actions that can be taken to spur investment in electrification throughout the community.
Colorado Energy Office | Building Performance Standard Task Force Facilitation
Lotus facilitated monthly meetings with the State of Colorado Building Performance Standard (BPS) Task Force and ensured that the Task Force remained focused on the equitable impacts of the BPS on communities, building owners (especially for affordable housing), and Colorado’s workforce. Through the Task Force meetings, Lotus guided the task force through technical discussions and decisions and brought forward data to support decision-making. Lotus also completed an analysis of available benchmarking data to guide the Task Force conversations from a technical perspective, as well as designed a Public Engagement Plan and process that included a focus on gathering input from representatives across the State that can speak to the equity and workforce impacts of the BPS.
The Public Engagement Plan guided the outreach and engagement activities that were used to gather input from a broad network of stakeholders and interested parties from outside the Task Force. This included identifying the key audiences and ways to engage them, the community and business organizations that would be able to funnel input from their members, and developing a survey, public outreach materials, and designing and supporting the facilitation of three public engagement sessions.
The Task Force recommended that the State include a holistic approach to implementing the BPS that includes creating programs that would provide support and resources for the Colorado workforce, and to assess equity concerns for tenants, disproportionately impacted communities, and others who may be adversely impacted by the BPS requirements. Lotus then worked with the Colorado Energy Office to design an Equity Priority Building Approach. Lotus’s recommendations reflect the integration of an equity lens with BPS and ensure the ongoing clean energy transition is accessible to all. This means considering the community, the building itself, and the building’s occupants, as well as how to reduce the burden imposed by the State BPS program and the risk of displacement or gentrification. Important in this equity approach is giving building owners a voice in the process by allowing a building to self-identify as an EPB.
Colorado Energy Office | Rebuild, Re-energize, Recover Colorado
Lotus worked with the Colorado Energy Office (CEO) to complete an ArcGIS StoryMap website titled Rebuild, Re-energize, Recover Colorado. This website provides an overview of climate action work across Colorado and provides communities with resources to get started on taking climate action now. Check out the map below of large emitting facilities in CO. Click the +/- to zoom in and out, and click on the circles to find out more information on the facilities including which coal-fired power plants are closing in the next 10 years.
Lotus has conducted research focused on the financial, legal, technical, and communication barriers that are currently hindering the expansion of energy performance contracting in rural and small communities while creating a new approach that utilizes local and international best practices. Additionally, Lotus has evaluated low-income Community Solar Demonstration projects and their impact on energy burden, approaches for replicability, and overall effectiveness of reducing the energy burden. Lotus has worked closely with the CEO on energy performance contracting.
Here are some links to specific case studies: Delta-Montrose Electric Association, Empire Electric Association, Fort Collins Utility, Grand Valley Power, Holy Cross Energy, San Miguel Power Association, and Yampa Valley Electric Association.
Additional projects include the analysis of the Fulfillment of the Low-Income Carve-Out for Community Solar Subscriber Organizations and Accelerating EPC in Small and Rural Colorado Communities.
“Hillary’s ability to simultaneously manage project deliverables and keep team members on task while exercising her creativity to develop new programs is a unique skill set. Hillary knows how to manage and motivate to get the best out of her clients and collaborators. She is a delight to work with and will see any project through to a successful conclusion.”
“Emily was instrumental in the success of our (Colorado Energy Office) Energy Management Assistance Program. She provided key technical support to Colorado K-12 schools and her work lead to measurable energy savings and environmental benefits for program participants.”
Colorado Resiliency Office | Website
Lotus worked with a team of experts on behalf of the Colorado Resiliency Office to create 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. 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.
“I had the pleasure of recently working with Lotus Sustainability on a project to develop a new website and tools for Colorado communities to plan for long-term resiliency and recovery. Lotus’ expertise and leadership ensured that our final products were both technically sound and useful to our audience. Throughout the project, Lotus remained flexible and adapted to our changing needs.”
Denver Public Schools | Climate Action Plan
climate action plan
Our work supporting Denver Public Schools and their students was recently highlighted by Vice President Kamala Harris as a model for others to follow.
Lotus worked with Denver Public Schools (DPS) to develop new goals and programs focused on GHG emissions reductions, renewable electricity, environmental justice and education, and resource management. The plan was be co-created with DPS stakeholders and included a strong focus on equity and accessibility as well as a fun, interactive, and engaging process. The new plan outlined a roadmap for achieving the goals laid forth in the recent DPS Climate Change Resolution. These goals included reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent of 2010 levels by 2050, prioritizing sustainability actions in schools and communities facing greater environmental injustice, and making sustainability a core value of DPS. Lotus also fully reworked the DPS website to drastically increase engagement with students, staff, and general public.
Lastly, Lotus created a program to help empower students to lead this effort to ensure that this work continues long after we are gone.
You can view the plan in Spanish here. Este plan es disponible en español AQUI.
“Lotus was pivotal in supporting us in the creation of a transparent, clear, and relatable climate action plan that will engage our greater community for years to come. Their ability to engage our stakeholders throughout the development was invaluable.”
“Vice President Kamala Harris says Denver students’ climate plan is a model for others to follow.”
Eagle County | Resiliency Plan
Lotus worked with partner organizations to complete Eagle County’s first Community Resilience Plan. In developing the plan, Lotus has led extensive stakeholder engagement and public outreach processes to ensure that the plan provides a roadmap for long term community vibrancy, health, success and sustainability for Eagle County.
“On behalf of our team, the RWG [Resiliency Working Group], and our community, I wanted to thank you for a great workshop this morning. I thought the presentation info and dialogue was excellent and exceeded my expectations for the work we would accomplish for the event”
Holy Cross Energy | Greenhouse Gas Inventory
Holy Cross Electric Association, Inc. (HCE) has a vision to lead the responsible transition to a clean energy future for their 43,000 plus members. In 2018, HCE set a goal/target to provide 70 percent clean energy by 2030 (Seventy70Thirty) and reduce greenhouse gas emissions associated with their power supply by 70 percent based on 2014 levels. To accurately measure and report these targets, Lotus was hired to complete a 2018 greenhouse gas inventory and review power supply chain inventories for 2005, 2014, and 2018. The inventory is utilizing the Climate Registry’s General Reporting Protocol and Electric Power Sector Protocol.
“We had the good fortune of working with Hillary and the Lotus Engineering team to assemble Holy Cross Energy’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory. They were a pleasure to work with through the process and their expertise was indispensable. They helped us iron out difficult questions related to which emissions reporting standards to follow, how best to collect and organize our data, and how to account for every last emission related to our organization that is meaningful enough to track. Once our inventory was complete, we not only had a solidified baseline for our previous years emissions but also a inventory tool that is easily updated by our internal staff for future years. We would absolutely hire Lotus again the next time we need GHG related consulting support.”
New Mexico State University | GHG Emissions Inventory
Lotus completed the first greenhouse gas emissions analysis for New Mexico State University's (NMSU) main campus in Las Cruces for the 2018-2019 school year. This inventory included several scope 3 emissions sources, including employee commuting, business travel, waste, and wastewater treatment. The 2019 fiscal year inventory covered all sources of emissions generated on campus, including through the cogeneration systems within the campus facilities. NMSU was also interested in understanding what the campus' emissions were in the 2005 fiscal year. To analyze this, Lotus collected historic data from the university on energy use, campus population, and changes in buildings over the year to estimate emissions back to the 2005 fiscal year. Based on the data, NMSU has significantly reduced its emissions since 2005. The 2019 inventory and 2005 backcast put NMSU on a path of identifying the major sources of emissions and developing programs and policies to help reduce those emissions over the coming years.