Grant County, Washington | Comprehensive Plan Climate Element
Lotus worked with Measure Meant to complete the climate element of Grant County’s Comprehensive Plan, a requirement for all Washington jurisdictions through the Growth Management Act. Lotus assisted with the development of a climate vulnerability assessment, an iterative process that included future climate projections, “at-risk” populations, and an assessment of probability and magnitude of consequence regarding climate-related hazards specific to Grant County.
The assessment was supplemented by an engagement process targeting the Hispanic/Latinx population given their large composition of the County’s population. Engagement activities included Climate Advisory Team meetings composed of government and community stakeholders, critical partner interviews with local municipalities in Grant County and community-based organizations, focus groups structured around five climate sub-topics, meetings-in-a-box (MIABs) for the public, a public survey, and tabling at the County’s Umani Festival. Key to the success of engagement was connecting with CBOs to gain actionable insights and community connections in a largely rural, agricultural community.
City of McCall | Resilience Action Plan
Rooted in Resilience
Lotus led the development of the City of McCall, Idaho’s first Resilience Action Plan, a community-centered and community-driven Climate Action Plan. Lotus led the facilitation of in person and virtual engagements with community organizations and members, as well as city staff, City Council, and the Nez Perce tribe. In addition, Lotus created multiple Meetings-in-a-Box activities with all the necessary information and materials for non-city affiliated individuals or groups to engage different groups of the McCall population and meet them where they are. Lotus also reviewed McCall’s previous greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) inventory and updated the Business as Usual (BAU) projection to make data-backed recommendations and strategies. Lastly, the Lotus led the plan development and design process.
Town of Taos | Fractional sustainability Coordinator
Make it stand out
Lotus is supporting the Town of Taos as a fractional sustainability coordinator. Partnering with Lotus has provided the Town of Taos with a deep bench of subject matter experts for various sustainability initiatives. To date, Lotus has reviewed the town’s Investment Grade Audit, advised on a Water and Sewer Plan, and supported a Land Use Review Committee. Lotus has also analyzed the Town’s foundational planning documents (Comprehensive plan, Hazard Mitigation Plan, Taos Regional Water Plan, and more) to create integrated sustainability recommendations on strengthening climate action and resiliency within the town’s ongoing operations and initiatives.
The Lotus team will also deliver a sustainability framework in early 2026. The sustainability framework is designed to provide the Town with clear sustainability next steps and serve as the foundation for a sustainability plan. The project team is working to engage the community and key partners of the Town through a series of interviews and meetings-in-a-box to understand the nuances of Taos’ relationship to resilience and sustainability. The findings will be used to create a prioritization methodology by which the town can make quick decisions to address multiple competing priorities on limited resources.
The final deliverable of this scope of work is twofold. The first is a set of recommendations for planning processes to lead to more sustainable, resilient outcomes for the town through cross-sector collaboration. The second will lay the groundwork for a successful future planning process through the sustainability framework. Lotus never deploys a one-size-fits-all approach, and that has been especially helpful to Taos in staying flexible. Given Taos’ unique, complex social structure, remote location, and tourism-based economy, Lotus continually hones and adjusts the approach to meet the Town’s needs and ensure the work ladders up towards long-lasting sustainability.
Winter Park, Colorado | GHG Inventories and Climate Action Planning
Town of Winter Park, Colorado
Lotus worked with the Town of Winter Park to complete the first ever greenhouse gas emissions inventories for the town government and the community. In addition to creating these inventories, Lotus developed a business-as-usual emissions model and is modeling several emissions reductions strategies to aid in the Town’s development of its first Climate Action Plan. Due to the small size of the Town, many innovative methods were used to collect and manipulate data to make it relevant to the Town, such as working closely with Winter Park Resort and utilizing Streetlight vehicle miles traveled data.
Lotus also worked with the Town to complete its first ever Climate Action Plan. This will involve the development of a climate risk and vulnerability assessment, additional GHG emissions reduction strategy modeling, cost modeling, and strategy prioritization. Prioritization of the strategies will take into account factors such as cost to implement, GHG emissions impact, funding sources/availability, and equity impacts.
Edmond, Oklahoma | Resiliency Action Plan
Edmond Resiliency Action Plan
Lotus worked with the City of Edmond to create the city’s first Resiliency Action Plan. The plan centers city-level action around improving on current initiatives and incorporating new strategies that the city can implement to improve resiliency over the next five years. Informational interviews and dozens of focus groups helped inform existing conditions, resources, and programming in Edmond, as well as the desired future conditions for the city. All strategies were vetted and prioritized by Edmond staff. The final plan is a public-facing dashboard that will be regularly and easily updated via a google sheet that tracks KPIs.
The final plan was developed in Power BI as a public-facing dashboard. Lotus worked with the City to identify key metrics for each strategy within each focus area. Individual actions for each strategy and focus area are also tracked, highlighting overall plan progress. Data sources, contacts, update frequency, and input steps were logged for each metric ensuring replicability in the future. Data for all metrics were compiled into a single spreadsheet connected to the dashboard, enabling centralized plan tracking. These metrics will ensure that Edmond knows it is on the right track to meet its goals.
Birmingham, Alabama | Sustainability Action Plan
Sustainability Action Plan
Lotus, alongside Hummingbird, are partnering to produce a Sustainability Plan that will promote efforts to adopt best practices that address equity, social justice, environmental justice, air quality, soil contamination, water quality and efficiency, water quantity, energy and resource use, placemaking and equitable land use, and community health. The plan will be grounded in sustainability that balances the triple bottom line of economic, social and environmental aspects.
The project will result in three key deliverables: 1) an inventory of existing conditions (socio-economic and energy efficiency and resource management inventories); 2) the development of a Sustainability Action Plan and; 3) the development of tools to monitor progress and evaluate results of implementing the action plan, including a vulnerability mapping tool that Lotus developed.
All of this work will be supported by an in-depth engagement plan including facilitating a Steering and Implementation Team composed of internal, City stakeholders and external, community stakeholders. Engagement will include a significant level of public outreach such as town hall–style meetings, focus groups, and a website set up for public comment.
Eagle County | Resiliency Plan
Lotus led a stakeholder engagement process to support the development of the Eagle County Resilience Framework. This process included background data collection, hosting several informational interviews, convening a Resilience Working Group, and hosting two workshops to understand and develop overarching strategies to address and enhance resilience and vulnerability across Eagle County. Workshops and engagement sessions were designed to ensure a diverse representation of the community could make their voices heard in the planning process, and considerations of equity were an integral part of the engagement process and plan outcomes. The final Eagle County Resilience Plan exists as a project website to guide implementation work over the years to come. Lotus subcontracted to Adaptation International on this project; Adaptation International developed the final project website.
“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”
Maui County | Climate Action and Resilience Plan
Lotus developed Maui County’s Climate Action and Resiliency Plan in partnership with Sustainable Pacific, and Geos Institute . The plan included four greenhouse gas inventories (two municipal inventories and two community inventories) that informed how to achieve their goal of zero emissions and a carbon-neutral economy by 2045. Community and stakeholder engagement was central to the project. The project was heavily focused on engaging community voices and integrating Hawaiian cultural values. Our team worked with staff from the County and community leaders to create strategies that would have an impact on the climate and align with indigenous ways of knowing. Key parts of the plan are translated into ʻŌlelo Hawaiʻi so that all may understand the importance of the goals and the role community members play to achieve them. The climate change mitigation strategies addressed in the plan focused on municipal operations, building energy, transportation, waste, land use (including agriculture and natural resources), and public education and outreach. The plan also presented resilience strategies by integrating the concepts of self-sufficiency, nature-based solutions, resilient infrastructure, and strategic relocation. This 18-month project demonstrates our expertise in equitable community engagement, technical knowledge, and clear communication of a multi-dimensional project.