Wheat Ridge, Colorado | Climate Action Plan Update
Climate action plan update
Lotus worked with the City of Wheat Ridge to update and formally adopt their Sustainability Action Plan. The community was the impetus for the first Plan, which was created in 2018. Lotus led the strategic analysis of the 2018 plan, which involved a comprehensive review of relevant City plans, as well as regional, state, and federal plans and initiatives. This review allowed the client to utilize existing collaborations and funding to force-multiply their sustainability efforts. Lotus also engaged City staff and key stakeholders to contextualize the 2024 plan update and identify critical opportunities, and guided community engagement to garner community input on sustainability priorities and strategies. Lotus sought to capture the grassroots, community-driven spirit of the plan and ground the plan update in the key implementation details that City staff would champion.
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 work involves three tasks: 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.
All 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 and a significant level of public outreach including town hall–style meetings, focus groups, and a website set up for public comment.
Lafayette, Colorado | Sustainability Report
2021 Sustainability Report
Lotus wrote Lafayette’s 2021 Sustainability Report, communicating the progress Lafayette has made on the goals laid out in the City’s 2021 Sustainability Plan. This work included informational interviews with several Lafayette community members involved in sustainability work. Additionally data to track the progress toward each goal were collected, organized, and analyzed. The final report was designed to be data visualization and graphic heavy to effectively communicate results.
Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) | Climate Pollution Reduction Grant
Climate Pollution Reduction Grant
Lotus is currently working with DRCOG to fulfill the requirements of the agency’s $1 million Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As part of this process, Lotus supported data collection, emissions calculations, modeling, stakeholder engagement, and strategy development and prioritization for DRCOG’s Priority Climate Action Plan. Currently, Lotus is supporting stakeholder engagement and related tasks to develop the regional Comprehensive Climate Action Plan.
To date, Lotus has led and facilitated multiple community and stakeholder engagements, and facilitated an equity subcommittee. Lotus conducted an all-day workshop that brought together representatives from communities across the 12-county region to organize implementation details for the eight PCAP strategies. The stakeholder engagement process that was deployed for the PCAP and will continue for the CCAP, has ensured that a broad constituency of community members from across the DRCOG region are engaged in, and empowered to participate in the resulting PCAP strategy implementation process. The creation and participation of the equity subcommittee as part of the PCAP process helped to ensure that the final implementation details for the PCAP strategies are informed by the communities that will be most impacted by this work.
DRCOG’s Priority Climate Action Plan was submitted to the EPA with the corresponding grant application for CPRG Implementation Funds. DRCOG secured grants funds for the Decarbonize DRCOG Program, the funding mechanism for the program related to this RFP and proposal.
YMCA of the Rockies | Sustainability Action Plan And Cost-Analysis
Sustainability Action Plan And Cost-Analysis
Lotus worked with YMCA of the Rockies to support the development of a Sustainability Action Plan that addressed the sustainability objectives of the YMCA of the Rockies strategic plan. The project actively engaged YMCA of the Rockies staff to foster a culture of sustainability within the organization and facilitate the implementation of effective climate action strategies. To support this work, Lotus conducted a comprehensive greenhouse gas emissions inventory of both campus locations, as well as emissions modeling of sustainability strategies to gain insights into YMCA of the Rockies' environmental footprint and which strategies would be most impactful. Furthermore, Lotus developed a cost evaluation of carbon emission reduction strategies for the YMCA of the Rockies. The strategies evaluated for implementation costs were also those that were modeled by the Lotus team for their anticipated carbon reduction impact. To ensure holistic implementation of the Sustainability Action Plan, Lotus worked with guest-facing staff to develop a Best Practice Guide and Lesson Plan for guest engagement in sustainability initiatives.
Finally, Lotus worked strategically with YMCA staff to bring forward a GHG reduction goal to the YMCA Board of Directors and Senior Leadership to ensure the plan and associated goal were aligned with the mission and values of YMCA of the Rockies and that the Board understood the responsibilities associated with setting a GHG target for the organization.
“Over the past year, YMCA of the Rockies has had the pleasure of working with Lotus on the creation of our comprehensive sustainability action plan. Through this process, Lotus has helped us to create a plan that aligns with our needs as a mission-based organization. Their thoughtful approach to creating a plan that encompasses all aspects of our needs has ensured that we are setting goals we feel confident in. From understanding our unique needs as a non-profit, to facilitating meaningful conversations with stakeholders of varying climate expertise, Lotus has successfully navigated through the process of developing a plan molded specifically to who we are as an organization. We are glad we chose to work with Lotus on such an important aspect of our mission.”
Larimer County | Climate Smart and Future Ready Implementation Plan
Climate Smart and Future Ready implementation plan
Lotus supported the development of the Larimer County Climate Smart and Future Ready implementation plan. This detailed roadmap will define how the County and its partners across the region will work towards climate mitigation and resiliency over the coming years. The implementation planning process includes collaborating with entities across Larimer County through topical working groups, completing a series of GHG inventories to ensure that decisions are backed by data, and conducting public outreach through a website, videos, and other channels. The final roadmap was completed in Spring of 2024 and served as a jumping off point to make significant progress to reduce GHG emissions, improve resiliency, and enhance the quality of life across Larimer County.
View the Social Pinpoint Site HERE.
“The Lotus Engineering & Sustainability team has been one of the most professional, most responsive, most flexible, and most positive consulting firms I have worked with. Sustainability and climate related projects are some of the most controversial and problematic to work on. Lotus was able to combine their proactive approach, really listening to me, the client, and the community partners, with technical expertise to make our project successful.”
Denver International Airport | Net Zero Emissions Plan
Net Zero Emissions Plan
Lotus completed a full QA/QC analysis of all past DEN greenhouse gas inventories. This work cumulated in a deeper understanding of recent reductions and increases in emissions and the creation of a process improvement plan to identify gaps and improve data collection. Alongside this work, Lotus completed research and interviewed staff to identify gaps, opportunities, and current and future successes. The result was a list of recommended strategies (High Impact Actions) to achieve our proposed science-based targets including:
Identifying possible activities and associated emissions reductions.
Identifying potential barriers including such as estimated costs; awareness/attitudes; countervailing priorities/projects; technology/scale limitations; areas outside of DEN control (Electric supply limitations); and areas where DEN has partial control (vendors).
Identifying potential tailwinds such as policy and regulatory changes; funding Increases; grant opportunities; partnerships; and City and County of Denver initiatives.
Deer Valley Resort | Climate Action Plan
Climate Action Plan
Lotus partnered with Deer Valley Resort to develop a climate action plan for their resort operations. The Deer Valley Climate Action Plan will help the resort address their operational carbon footprint, prioritize implementation strategies, and clearly communicate their climate action commitments to their visitors and staff. Lotus’s approach walked the client through the crafting of a set of prioritization metrics through which the resort can assess its next steps: from proactively addressing climate risks to tackling critical opportunities in their infrastructure to empowering staff to solve problems.
Lotus’s expertise in adapting climate plans to fit a specific culture, environment, and circumstance shines in this resort climate action plan. The scope of work includes workshops with the Senior Leadership Team, focus groups and informational interviews with staff, a site visit to meet with all resort departments, a business-as-usual emissions forecast, climate adaptation and mitigation strategies, and a designed climate action plan document.
Alpine Bank | Annual Sustainability Audit
Annual sustainability audit
Lotus has been collaborating with Alpine Bank since 2014 to help maintain and update Alpine Bank’s Utility Tracking Database on an annual basis, calculate emissions from facilities, and normalize energy use for the weather.
Lotus performs a quality check on Alpine Bank’s energy and water use tracking spreadsheet. The tracking spreadsheet has records of monthly electricity, natural gas, and water usage at all of Alpine Bank’s locations across the state of Colorado. Once a quality check is completed, Lotus reviews the results and errors found with the project team at Alpine Bank. Finally, Lotus writes a section reviewing the emissions and activity data trends across the organization to be included in the annual report.
“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 tracking 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.”
Alterra Mountain Company | GHG Inventory and Sustainability Strategies
GHG Inventory and Sustainability Strategies
Lotus developed greenhouse gas inventories for the 16 resorts owned by Alterra, Canadian Mountain Holidays, Alpine Aerotech, and Alterra’s Denver headquarters. Included in this was a detailed analysis of the emissions impact of visitor travel to the resorts. Lotus partnered with McKinstry to develop specific climate action strategies and an interactive Storymap detailing the results and recommendations. Lotus is currently updating the induced travel analysis for the latest fiscal year.
“Alterra Mountain Company is one company of many unique brands, and Lotus embraced the challenge of working effectively within our organizational structure. For each destination in the Alterra portfolio, the Lotus Team developed custom greenhouse gas inventories and inventory management plans using diverse data inputs. They synthesized complex data sets into manageable workflows that could be easily explained and replicated year over year. Guided by the incredible body of work from Lotus, we have been able to prioritize data-based actions that maintain the unique character of each destination and community, advance climate action policy, and aggressively reduce emissions. We are incredibly grateful to work with the Lotus Team and highly recommend them to other clients, especially those with complex operations.”
Boulder County | Net Zero Codes Cohort
Lotus provided project management and facilitation for the Boulder County Net Zero Codes Cohort, later renamed to the Northwest Metropolitan Regional Energy Code Cohort. The project included two phases: the first reviewed and adopted the 2021 International Energy Conservation Code (IECC) with regional consistent strengthening amendments, and the second created a regional roadmap for reaching 100% net zero new construction by 2030.
Phase 1
For Phase 1 of the project, Lotus facilitated a series of five meetings with eight community partners in the Northwest Metropolitan region of Denver to co-create consistent energy code amendments that could be adopted alongside the 2021 IECC to support local and regional climate goals. Equity, GHG reductions, and the needs of individual communities were discussed within the cohort while the group reached a consensus for the recommended code package. Phase 1 included code package development along with individualized community support to help each partner community with their code adoption process. Lotus worked with consultant partners Southwest Energy Efficiency Project (SWEEP) and Shums Coda throughout the project to develop the code package for the region along with supporting materials such as fact sheets, customized presentations, training materials, and other individualized support requested by each community. Lotus and the consultant team attended council meetings and study sessions with staff to ensure the code package was understood and could be adopted by each leadership council. The results of Phase 1 code adoptions for the region can be seen in the table to the left (as of February 2023).
Phase 2
Phase 2 of the project began the summer of 2022 with a goal of creating a roadmap of ranked local, achievable, affordable, and equitable policies and strategies to reach the goal of net zero new construction by 2030 for the region. For Phase 2, Lotus facilitated a series of eight meetings with ten communities to co-create a regional definition of “net zero new construction,” as well as a roadmap with a stepped approach to achieving net zero new construction by 2030. Equity and regional collaboration were strong themes throughout the discussions and the roadmap. The roadmap was written and designed by Lotus, with support from SWEEP and Shums Coda, and lays a foundation for continued regional coordination on future building code updates for each community involved.
The Boulder County Net Zero Code Cohort was funded by a Department of Local Affairs grant and created a framework in the state for regional collaboration on building codes which has been deployed in other areas of Colorado to support local communities with building code adoption.
City of Colorado Springs | Sustainable COS Plan
Lotus supported the development of Colorado Springs’ first Sustainability Action Plan. This data-driven and community-focused planning effort involved the integration of the City’s first community-wide and municipal greenhouse gas emissions inventories, the analysis of current and past planning efforts in the City and region, and the engagement of a wide network of Colorado Springs’ staff, stakeholders, and partners to identify measurable and actionable strategies and actions that the City can take to enhance sustainability across the community. Equity considerations were woven throughout the process, with specific strategies and actions focused on improving access to resources and forthcoming development opportunities in disproportionately impacted communities across Colorado Springs. The final plan was a graphically designed document that informs the City and its partners on the work to be done over the next 5-10 years. In 2023 Lotus will be completing emissions strategy modeling to determine the greenhouse gas emissions impact of the strategies within the Sustainability Action Plan.
The Sustainability Action Plan focuses on ten sustainability elements:
Equity
Agriculture and Food Availability
Natural Environment, including ecological health, water, and air quality
Built Environment
Energy
Materials Management
Transportation
Economic Development
Health and Well-Being
Arts and Culture.
Lotus facilitated focus groups for each of the 10 elements to help draft the narrative that will be integrated into the City’s Plan.
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 | GHG and Related Projects
Lotus has worked on multiple projects with the City of Longmont:
To support the City’s commitment to regularly update their greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) findings, Lotus completed a GHG inventory for the City in 2016. Lotus has calculated Longmont’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions inventories since 2018. Lotus built upon this work again in 2019 for an updated inventory, as well as modeling for new construction building electrification.
In 2023, Lotus worked with Longmont to write and design a GHG memo that not only told the story of the data, but also connected it to other sustainability efforts at the City. The memo was designed to captivate and inform a diverse audience. Lotus worked with the City to make the document accessible for all readers.
Lotus is currently working on updating and simplifying the current GHG reduction strategy model with more recent emissions factors, data inputs, and updated targets that align with the City’s Climate Action Recommendations Report and the recent transportation plan.
Clear Creek County | Vehicle Electrification Plan
Vehicle electrification plan
Lotus lead the community engagement tasks for Clear Creek County, Colorado, and their Vehicle Electrification Plan. We created and disseminated a community survey to gather information about EV use and barriers to adoption. Our team also conducted 12 informational interviews with stakeholders across the spectrum from community leaders to the local utility. We convened one focus group to vet and confirm the data collected from the community, as well as co-create the strategies for the County’s EV readiness plan. Lotus then prepared a report detailing the results of our engagements with a clear description of the barriers to EV readiness in the community and many solutions to address those barriers. An important aspect of this project was our focus on the impacts of EVs on underserved communities. We made several key suggestions to address EV equity throughout the community in our report.
Georgia Tech | Climate Action and Sustainability Projects
The Offices of Sustainability and Innovation at Georgia Tech contracted with Lotus to review, reorganize, and rewrite their existing sustainability action plan. Lotus synthesized the existing work to identify opportunities to increase clarity and streamline the narratives, goals, and strategies while ensuring the plan connects seamlessly with Georgia Tech’s overall guiding strategic plan. Through this review process, Lotus produced a revamped and designed plan that effectively communicates Georgia Tech’s sustainability goals and forthcoming work to internal and external stakeholders.
The Georgia Tech Sustainability Team also contracted Lotus to lead the creation of a Climate Action Plan. Lotus reviewed all materials to consolidate them into one plan that connects focus areas with the existing strategic plans through the narrative, as well as designing a plan that would work in conjunction with the Sustainability Next Plan. As part of this plan, Lotus developed a business-as-usual (BAU) forecast through 2050 to show projected emission changes that are relevant to the Georgia Tech campus and population. The BAU forecast was then used to model the impacts from a list of key GHG reduction strategies.
Lotus also completed a QA/QC of Georgia Tech’s greenhouse gas inventories going back to 2008. After this work was completed, Lotus created a new GHG inventory template for the FY2022 inventory that will be used in future years.
The Offices of Sustainability and Innovation at Georgia Tech also contracted with Lotus to create a Tableau dashboard that mimics the full functionality of the Impact Summary tab of the GHG modeling Excel tool developed for their Climate Action Plan. This dashboard includes the ability to turn strategies on and off and select key parameters for each strategy such as implementation dates and target values. Lotus created individual parameters for each strategy that allows users to adjust modeled emissions with full flexibility.
“The creation of this our university strategic sustainability plan was presented with many challenges including a wide variety of stakeholders, difficult timelines, and working within state institutional regulations. The team at Lotus stepped up to each challenge and worked with our needs to create a beautiful and engaging document. We are truly proud to be able to demonstrate our commitment to sustainability efforts by sharing our plan with the campus community and with the world.”
Routt County and City of Steamboat Springs | GHG Emissions Inventory and Climate Action Plan
GHG Emissions inventory and climate action plan
Lotus has been hired twice by Routt County (with the support of Steamboat Springs) to complete sustainability projects. In 2019, Lotus worked with Routt County and Steamboat Springs to complete a 2018 GHG emissions inventory that was GPC-compliant. Lotus performed all data collection and analysis, developed a City- and County-specific emissions reporting tool, backcasted (until 2005) and forecasted (until 2050) emissions, developed an inventory management tool, and wrote an inventory summary report.
In 2020/2021, Lotus led the development of Routt County’s Climate and Adaptation Action Plan which included leading an informed stakeholder engagement process considering equity, modeling the impact of emission reduction strategies, and developing an aspirational yet achievable Climate Action Plan for the County and each municipality located within the community. Lotus also helped design a public-facing website to assist with community engagement.
You can track the progress in implementing the plan HERE.
Town of Erie | Sustainability Master Plan and community-wide GHG Inventory
Lotus worked with the Town of Erie to create the Town’s first Sustainability Master Plan. The process included in-depth research; informational interviews with staff, community members, and partner agencies; a series of advisory board meetings; stakeholder workshops; and community outreach at community events and a project open house. The result was an actionable plan for strategies that the Town and its partners can implement over the coming five years to enhance sustainability as the community grows. This Plan will serve as a decision-making tool and includes information on potential funding sources, partners, and actions that the Town can pursue in the areas of energy, recycling, transportation, and education and outreach.
Since completing the Town’s Sustainability Master Plan Lotus has also supported work on behalf of the Town to obtain grant funds for charging stations, support community engagement efforts related to waste diversion policy, and is embarking on completing the Town’s first GHG emissions inventory.
In 2022, Lotus developed the Town of Erie’s first-ever 2020 community GHG inventory and 2020 municipal GHG inventory. Lotus synthesized the results of the community and municipal inventories into a report as well as a dashboard to visually communicate the results of the inventories. Lotus also created inventory management plans for the two inventories, trained the Erie team on how to update the inventories in future years, and presented the results in person to the Town’s Sustainability Board.
“Julia Newman, Senior Associate at Lotus Engineering and Sustainability has led the Town of Erie Colorado’s effort to develop a community-focused Master Sustainability Plan. Community input along with the Town Administration and the Sustainability Advisory Board was critical in this process. Julia was masterful in her ability to facilitate a diverse group of people and opinions in public forums along with small teams sessions. Our success was due to Julia’s attention to detail and ability to help all contributors feel heard and understood.”