Climate + Resilience

government leaders to engage the community on sea level rise and climate adaptation, (2) communications training for county and city leaders, and (3) design and support for leadership and management teams to organize and guide a regional collaborative of government organizations, businesses, communities, non-governmental organizations, academia, and funders.
Catalyst reviewed existing plans and communications materials, including the recent vulnerability assessment, to develop clear, concise, and engaging messages and a communications toolkit. The team also provided strategic guidance and facilitation to the Office of Sustainability on how to coordinate multiple county departments to address the full spectrum of water management issues and how to establish a county-wide collaborative to coordinate and plan sea level rise and climate change adaptation across jurisdictions. Catalyst is delivering an in-person and online training program for elected officials and city staff o sea level rise communications and community discussion and engagement approaches.

The Oakland Energy and Climate Action Plan is the City’s first effort to develop a comprehensive, long-term plan to reduce energy use and greenhouse gas emissions. With a limited outreach budget, Mr. Gardiner designed and implemented an outreach and engagement strategy to increase understanding and support from technical experts, local businesses, community organizations, and local residents. The strategy helped the City identify key stakeholder groups as partners in the outreach effort, with strategically timed expert, business, and community workshops to develop innovative ideas and priorities for the plan. The plan was validated by the City Council.

Mr. Gardiner helped the City of Oakland develop recommendations for a citywide policy for reducing energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions. The target audience for this outreach effort were residents, businesses, and community-based organizations in the City of Oakland, representing diverse socioeconomic backgrounds and interests. The team helped the city to identify key stakeholder groups and to leverage communications tools for engaging, informing, and soliciting input from a broad range of constituents on target goals, strategies, and actions for reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions from local emissions sources, including buildings and infrastructure, transportation and land use, and waste disposal. The team also has played a key role in helping the city to frame information, technical data, and discussion topics to solicit pertinent information from stakeholders. Mr. Gardiner worked with the city to facilitate three rounds of public workshops and to incorporate public input into a formal recommendation for adoption and implementation by the city. The workshops were well attended by diverse audiences and elicited a high level of participation and engagement, which resulted in innovative community ideas about the economic development, community crime, and public health goals and benefits that can be achieved with an aggressive energy and climate action plan.