Editor's note: This article was originally published in American City & County, which has merged with Smart Cities Dive to bring you expanded coverage of city innovation and local government. For the latest in smart city news, explore Smart Cities Dive or sign up for our newsletter.
The impacts of climate change are wreaking havoc in California, and the whole world is watching it play out as government organizations grapple with how to build — and rebuild — cities that are more resilient to climate change. But California isn’t the only state that has recently suffered through catastrophic weather events. From wildfires in New Mexico to Hurricane Helene’s devastation in North Carolina, a wide range of communities are experiencing more frequent and extreme weather events.
In California, increasingly extreme and extended heat waves are creating dangerous conditions, especially for our most vulnerable populations. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates the global average temperature has increased 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit since 1970. Those increasing temperatures are exacerbating damaging weather events, making responding to climate change a top priority for local governments.
To combat climate change, city leaders across the U.S. are creating climate change mitigation and adaptation action plans and turning to technology to help them stay on track and keep themselves accountable.
Focusing on key strategic goals
West Hollywood is a city in Los Angeles County, Calif., with a population of more than 35,000. It has an ambitious climate action and adaptation plan, called “WeHo Climate Action Plan,” that outlines the city’s 60 actions and intended path to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035. Key goals include decarbonizing new and existing buildings, establishing building performance standards for existing buildings, and promoting the use of local solar power and battery energy storage.
The city is taking a proactive approach to implementing these initiatives and showcasing its progress. The plan focuses on five overall areas:
- City leadership and governance
- Energy
- Mobility and the public realm
- Zero waste
- The natural environment
Within each category, there are several actions with specific goals and timelines.
To use the natural environment to combat the effects of climate change, for example, the city has a goal to maintain and expand its tree canopy. Planting more trees and making sure they thrive is one way to create more shaded areas that can provide cooling benefits. To reach their zero-waste goal, the city is tracking how much waste from the community has been diverted from landfills on an annual basis. For energy, the city tracks energy usage and GHG emissions associated with electricity and natural gas usage. The city also tracks changes in sustainable modes of transportation over time.
Tracking results
A critically important part of the success of any strategic plan is tracking and sharing results. West Hollywood uses an Envisio online dashboard to track its goals and showcase progress. The dashboard is updated twice a year to reflect the current status of each action item, with all progress measures, and narrative updates being made available to the public.
Too many organizations create strategic plans and never track the results or publicly show their progress. West Hollywood is committed to regular updates to the community to keep themselves accountable, to act as an example for other local governments, and to encourage transparency and collaboration in addressing complex, multi-faceted challenges like climate change.
For cities taking steps to address climate change, staying on top of progress and results is crucial. A plan is only beneficial if it actually gets implemented, and that requires tracking progress to ensure results can and will be met.
Involving the community
WeHo Climate Action has been focused on transparency from the beginning. Community members were involved in developing the action plan and continue to collaborate with city leaders on the best path forward. The public dashboard lists all the goals with each action step and is regularly updated, whether the goals are on track or behind.
In our experience, a climate action plan is much more likely to get actioned and lead to sustainable change when residents are involved from the start. The West Hollywood team hosted small group sessions, conducted surveys and did proactive outreach to the community for input on the plan.
This early community engagement and commitment to ongoing transparency is an important takeaway for other cities looking to implement large-scale climate action plans. Community buy-in is necessary for collective action, and keeping residents informed about progress builds ongoing trust, momentum, and excitement for the changes being made at a local level.
Leading other cities
Cities have an important role to play in addressing the global climate crisis. According to the UN Environment Programme, cities and urban centers are responsible for 75% of greenhouse gas emissions. Many local governments are stepping up their efforts to mitigate and adapt to the impacts of climate change and cities like West Hollywood can serve as an example of what’s possible.
With a relentless focus on climate goals, an open invitation for community members to be involved, and technology partners who make tracking and showcasing progress easy, any city can make a positive impact. And the time for action is now.
About the Authors
Francisco J. Conteras is the long range planning manager for the city of West Hollywood, Calif., bringing more than two decades of experience in urban planning, municipal government and sustainable development. A member of the American Institute of Certified Planners, Conteras has led high-profile housing policy, mobility and climate initiatives through cross-departmental collaboration and community engagement. He holds a bachelor’s degree in urban studies from Stanford University and master’s degrees in urban planning and architecture from UCLA, uniting planning, design and innovation to create equitable, sustainable and vibrant communities.
Elizabeth Steward leads the marketing and research team at Envisio, building awareness among local government leaders around how to use technology to build trust and transparency in strategy implementation, budget alignment and performance management. She has 20+ years of experience driving growth in technology companies in the UK and Canada, with more than half of that time spent working for companies serving government agencies.