KLA Perspectives

Insights from our Climate Analysis Intern: Social Vulnerability and Intersectionality

Posted by Annabel Coplan on Aug 28, 2024 9:33:40 AM

 

Guest post by Annabel Coplan, KLA's Summer 2024 Climate Analysis Intern.  

This summer, I was a Climate Analysis Intern at KLA as part of my studies at Boston University focusing on Environmental Analysis and Policy.  An area that my internship touched on that I found both interesting and so relevant to my work and our world is the notion of social vulnerability. I wanted to share a bit about what that is, how it's measured, and why it's a critical piece of climate action and resilience planning. 

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Topics: equity

Insights from our Climate Storytelling Intern: How to Think About the End User

Posted by Theresa Acheampong on Aug 28, 2024 9:25:44 AM

Guest post by Theresa Acheampong, KLA's Summer 2024 Climate Storytelling Intern. 

My summer at KLA has exposed me to key elements that make a product successful on all ends through understanding user behavior.  

One of the most interesting aspects of this internship was gaining a deeper understanding of how to think about the end-user. For example, a study revealed that 57% of viewing time for users was primarily at the top part of the webpage, known as the “fold”. Another study found that on average, it takes 50 milliseconds for users to process and assess the visual appeal of a website. These studies, among others, highlight the importance of how KLA thinks about implementations to the Dashboard and Dashboard services.   



Through my daily tasks and research, I learned so much about the importance of viewing a product from the end-user's perspective. Here are three of the many ways I’ve learned to think about the end-user through my internship with KLA:   
 

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Accessibility Matters for Digital Sustainability Resources

Posted by Danielle Civitillo on Jul 17, 2024 3:33:54 PM

 

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Topics: equity

Welcoming the 2024 KLA Summer Internship Cohort

Posted by Kim Lundgren on Jun 25, 2024 3:52:58 PM

Each summer, KLA works with MassCEC’s Clean Energy Internship program to connect with passionate, committed, and mission-driven students from across Massachusetts, our home base. The KLA Summer Internship helps connect a broad range of students to the local climate action process and brings fresh perspectives to our work fighting the climate crisis one local government at a time.  

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Topics: sustainability, climate action, equity, Core Values, internship

Three Climate Action Plans to Watch in 2024

Posted by Kim Lundgren on May 28, 2024 5:30:12 PM

For local governments, climate action plans need to do more than just outline a path to emissions reductions. A strong climate action plan not only properly analyzes current conditions to create a feasible path forward, it galvanizes support and incentivizes the necessary action from residents and local businesses to reduce climate impacts and support resiliency. 

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Prioritizing Implementation for Urgent Climate Action

Posted by Kim Lundgren on Apr 29, 2024 7:14:50 PM

Earth Day Is Over. Time to Kick Climate Action into High Gear – With or Without a Plan  

Don’t squander momentum from Earth Day by waiting to take action.  

As local government reps in the climate and sustainability space, we too often get stuck in a rut, waiting to complete   a specific process before we take action. We all know the drill: Conduct a GHG inventory, then go through a planning process, then hire a “sustainability coordinator” and only then does the real action kick off. While it’s important to have a plan to guide the action, humanity can no longer afford to wait for that process. Reports from the United Nations and others have made it clear that we are not on track to meet the necessary reductions to avoid catastrophic climate change. 

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Making Earth Month (Actually) Count for Sustainability Goals

Posted by Kim Lundgren on Mar 28, 2024 12:28:57 PM

It’s Time to Go Big to Protect Our Home. 

It’s unavoidable: if you are a local government or community group representative, taking part in upcoming Earth Month and Earth Day events is a must. 

And for good reason: every April, there is a surge of interest in eco-friendly solutions – in fact, Google searches surrounding climate change and sustainabilityoften peak this time of year. Unfortunately, many Earth Day promotions and events are focused on surface-level, individualistic solutions (think re-usable straws) that don’t truly match the urgency of the climate crisis.  

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How I Utilized Home Energy Efficiency Upgrades – as a Renter.

Posted by Danielle Civitillo on Feb 27, 2024 2:42:40 PM

Home electrification and energy efficiency should always be considered top priority climate action strategies given their high-impact potential. The availability of incentives and rebate programs in this space are important – but residents actually utilizing those incentives is critical to match the urgency of the climate crisis. 

When creating and implementing climate action plans, we often see these issues from a 10,000-foot level, but it’s important to know how these rebate systems play out on the ground in order to address barriers that residents may face in accessing the benefits that electrification and efficiency can bring. 

This month’s blog is guest written by KLA’s Technology Director, Danielle Civitillo, who utilized local incentive programs to assess her home’s energy efficiency and install energy-efficient insulation as a renter in Massachusetts.

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Topics: community, energy efficiency, MA, climate resiliency

Breaking the Ice: How Storytelling Bridges the Climate Conversation Gap

Posted by Kim Lundgren on Nov 14, 2023 11:04:52 PM

We get it. Especially around the holidays, many people tend to avoid conversations that they perceive to be controversial: whether that be politics, personal life, or the climate crisis. But the recent uptick in understanding and concern about the latter provides the opportunity for climate conversations with friends and family to not only be uncontroversial, but productive in facilitating positive climate action. 

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Topics: sustainability, community, community engagement, storytelling, communications

Translating Trust into Climate Action

Posted by Kim Lundgren on Nov 1, 2023 6:29:43 PM

Climate ambassadors in Cary, NC spread the word about the Count Me in, Cary! climate action strategy

You might not be surprised to learn that trust in federal elected officials is in the basement. Only about32% of Americans have a “great deal/fair amount of trust” in Congress – 23% have “none at all”.  Top billing for trust among government institutions is local governments with 67% (though even that number has dropped from 75% just a few years ago). 

Source: Gallup

Perhaps that reflects your own opinions or rings true with what you see in the headlines.It’s one of the many reasons why KLA focusesalmost exclusively on local governments. But our laser focus on US cities, towns and counties is rooted more in the positives than the negatives: they are perfectly positioned and extremely motivated to meet the urgency of the climate crisis. Not through municipal operations alone but by sparking and enabling behavior change in the community.  

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Topics: sustainability, community engagement, local government, climate action, local leadership