Ambitious Agendas

Funded by the Packard Foundation, Collective Strategies Consulting is supporting Ecology Action’s Complete Streets Collaborative to strengthen and evolve the group’s strategic direction, structure, and long-term sustainability. CSC is guiding the Collaborative of eleven local agencies through a series of exercises – including needs assessments, strategy co-creation, systems mapping, and exploration of roles and responsibilities – to clarify shared objectives and position the Collaborative for expanded impact across Santa Cruz County. 

Collective Strategies designed and led a year-long organizational strategic planning initiative for the Bay Area Regional Energy Network (BayREN), a coalition of the Bay Area’s nine counties partnering to promote resource efficiency at the regional level, focusing on energy, water, and greenhouse gas reduction. CSC employed trusted frameworks, including Collective Impact, to design a process tailored for local government coalitions that BayREN can revisit to assess progress towards their collective goals. The effort resulted in a new vision, mission, and strategic direction focused on tailoring BayREN’s programs to improve health and resilience outcomes while achieving energy savings and emission reductions for Bay Area communities. 

 Administered by the County of San Luis Obispo, the Central California Rural Regional Energy Network (CCR REN) is a coalition of local governments and nonprofits that supports an equitable and affordable clean energy transition for underserved communities. Collective Strategies Consulting (CSC) developed and led a series of workshops for CCR REN to explore roles, responsibilities, and capacity needs among REN member agencies, strengthening the coalition and supporting continued, successful program development and implementation. CSC provided recommendations to improve the REN’s governance charter and developed a stakeholder engagement guide to institutionalize input gathering and engagement practices tailored to CCR REN’s unique geographic scope and goals. 

 Led by the Building Electrification Institute (BEI) and funded by Bloomberg Philanthropies, Collective Strategies joined a team of partners working to support equitable building retrofits in cities across the U.S. participating in the Bloomberg American Sustainable Cities Challenge (BASC). CSC worked as an advisor to participating cities, assessing specific technical assistance needs and working directly with city staff to identify common challenges and share best practices. 

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s (TRPA) mission is to lead the cooperative effort to preserve, restore, and enhance the unique natural and human environment of the Lake Tahoe Region, while improving local communities and people’s interactions with the environment. Led by ECONorthwest, Collective Strategies Consulting (CSC) supported the development of a Climate Resilience Dashboard for TRPA and the Tahoe Region that tracksselect climate metrics to tell the story of climate resiliencethroughout the Tahoe Region. CSC acted as an advisor for the project, co-leading a steering team meeting and identifying and integrating best practices in resilience goals and metrics development, and communication. The final dashboard is publicly available and tracks regional progress towards building climate resilience across four long-term goals and associated indicators. 

Convened by the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN), Collective Strategies Consulting (CSC) led a team of consultants providing free technical assistance to over 40 local and regional government agencies across the U.S. applying for funding through the EPA's Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program. Working with USDN, CSC designed the CPRG Assistance Project to meet the needs of grant seekers by developing innovative grant strategy tools and facilitating peer cohort calls as well as weekly office hours to advise on specific project ideas and program strategies. In this role, CSC worked closely with the grant strategy team at SR Partners to provide coaching and advisory support to coalitions of local governments developing CPRG implementation grant proposals. The CPRG Assistance Project supported multiple successful grant proposals, resulting in over $56,000,000 in funding for regional climate action. 

Collective Strategies Consulting (CSC) led the Bay Area Regional Energy Network’s (BayREN) Resilient Libraries Network, an innovative pilot program designed by CSC to develop a network of resilient local libraries that can also function as Community Resilience Centers to deliver resources before, during, and/or after natural hazard-related events. Six Bay Area libraries participated in the pilot, receiving free technical assistance and recommendations to identify and fund energy upgrades needed to improve each library building’s efficiency, resilience, and ability to provide cooling and clean air to their communities. Lessons learned from the pilot helped inform the design of BayREN’s new Public Sector programs, which now include Energy Roadmapping services to help local governments achieve resilience goals, including the development of Community Resilience Centers.

Collective Strategies Consulting (CSC) led the climate advisory team for the City of Portland’s Economic Development Strategy. CSC developed a framework and “climate lens” to integrate economic development and climate action goals for the city and support prioritization of strategies that meet both goals. CSC assessed key climate vulnerabilities for priority economic development clusters and developed recommendations for the city to advance economic growth and maintain competitiveness while addressing climate change risks and mitigating impacts. CSC’s work was informed by interviews with city staff and business leaders across sectors who provided insight on challenges presented by specific climate risks as well as opportunities to support key industries in successfully transitioning to a clean, resilient, and circular economy. 

Collective Strategies Consulting (CSC) developed guidance for the Carbon Cycle Institute (CCI) to engage and support California county sustainability staff in integrating carbon sequestration as a key climate action strategy. CSC interviewed county staff and agricultural partners to understand current limitations and challenges and designed guidance to clarify how counties can support local producers in implementing carbon farming practices. The guidance outlines key benefits, risks of inaction and alignment with state policy and funding opportunities. CSC also developed step by step strategies for county staff to engage their agricultural communities, align county priorities and carbon farming benefits, and identify the best roles for county departments to play to support local producers in developing resilient natural and working lands.