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.

Commerce City, Colorado | Climate Action Grants Consultant

Climate Action Grants Consultant

In 2024, Lotus and One Small Step (OSS) worked with the City of Commerce City (C3) to support their sustainability-focused grant writing projects. Lotus has worked with C3 in the past to create their Sustainability Action Plan and support their Environmental Policy Advisory Committee. The grant writing services are a rewarding extension of this multi-year partnership, as we work to fund their sustainability goals. We work collaboratively with the city’s grants coordinator to identify opportunities aligned with the city’s goals and drive applications to completion. Lotus and OSS have helped to coordinate stakeholders to create coalitions that will improve the competitiveness of the application. Our grant writing team has also created streamlined processes to expedite the grant writing processes and has helped to create a prioritization methodology to identify strategies that will win funding. To date, we have applied for the EPA Community Change Grant, CDPHE Environmental Justice Grant, and Great Outdoors Colorado Community Impact Grant.

Albuquerque | Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Data Consultant

Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Data Consultant

Lotus is working with the City of Albuquerque, New Mexico to complete several data-related projects to support the City’s Comprehensive Climate Action Plan (CCAP) as a part of Albuquerque’s Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG). Data related work for this CCAP includes the creation of a four county-wide community greenhouse gas and co-pollutant emissions inventory, a business as usual model, and greenhouse gas emissions reductions forecasting for all measures included in the City’s CCAP. Lotus will also support Albuquerque in developing several other deliverables necessary for the CCAP, including a workforce analysis and a cost analysis for the measures included in the CCAP.

Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) | Climate Pollution Reduction Grant

Climate Pollution Reduction Grant

DRCOG was awarded a $1 million Climate Pollution Reduction Grant from the Environmental Protection Agency and hired Lotus as the sole contractor to fulfill the requirements of the grant including a Priority Climate Action Plan and Comprehensive Climate Action Plan. To date Lotus has led and facilitated multiple community and stakeholder engagements, facilitated an equity subcommittee, and completed 12 separate county-level GHG inventories for the region. The PCAP also included strategy GHG emissions reductions and cost modeling and an all-day implementation details workshop that brought together representatives from communities all across the 12 county region to plan out implementation details for the 8 PCAP strategies. Work is now underway for the Comprehensive Climate Action Plan, which will include strategies for all sectors of the GHG emissions inventory, as well as additional cost and GHG modeling and stakeholder and community engagement.