KLA Perspectives

Community engagement is a critical part of our sustainability work and the linchpin for setting and meeting long-term goals. KLA teamed up with Emie Michaud Weinstock of Reveled Up, a branding and event marketing boutique, for a recent SAS Talk with Kim podcast. She shared so much useful information about how to design an event that engages everyone in your community that we have two companion blog posts: Part 1 focuses on event content and design; Part 2 on speakers and facilitators.

This article originally appeared in the May 2017 edition of the APWA (American Public Works Association) Reporter on page 50. You can access that publication here. 

The KLA team just got back from the American Planning Association's National Planning Conference in New York City. Here are 10 of our most memorable moments and key takeaways from the event:

Just over two years into my new company, I took a step back in order to take a giant leap forward. I went through a comprehensive branding exercise, the kind that I -- like many of us in start-up  mode -- had glossed over in the early days. The end result was a new name (KLA), new logo, new website, new marketing collateral -- and a new appreciation for why I do what I do. That journey and the lessons I learned along the way could prove instructive for your community programs. 

The weather and nascent blooms certainly make it feel like spring. The question is: Spring 2017 or Spring 2005?

There’s nothing like hopping on to social media to see an empowering headline like “Climate change is happening now -- here’s eight things we can do to adapt to it” and then noticing the byline is one of your most esteemed colleagues. That was my much-needed jolt yesterday when I read the Guardian headline in my Facebook feed posted by the article’s author Missy Stults.

I’ve just posted the most recent SAS Talk podcast and during our conversation my guest Erin Deady of Erin Deady Law, who helped get Property Assessed Clean Energy (PACE) financing off the ground in Florida, says she expects 2017 to be “The Year of PACE.” We explore that and more as we kick off a Financing Solutions series, shining the spotlight first on PACE as one of many tools local governments have at their disposal to support clean energy, climate protection and sustainability projects in their communities.

We do not really know what to expect from incoming President Trump as it relates to... well almost anything. But one thing we do know is that he has repeatedly professed not to believe in manmade climate change -- despite the clear science and the potentially dire consequences to his sprawling Mar-a-Lago property in Palm Beach from sea-level rise (my hometown paper The Boston Globe just did a great dive into that issue).

His Cabinet is shaping up to reflect those views, or worse. If confirmed, his head of the Department of Energy once famously forgot the name of the department and said he wanted to abolish it; his Secretary of State will have just stepped down after 4 decades at climate-change-denier ExxonMobil; and at the helm of the Environmental Protection Agency would be a man who, in his capacity as Oklahoma’s Attorney General, has sued that very agency more than a dozen times.

I like to talk, and I have a lot to say. And that’s particularly true when it comes to sustainability and climate issues and how local governments are leading the way with solutions. That niche has been my passion and career for nearly two decades. During that time I’ve spoken to and been inspired by so many people who are fighting the good fight at (or in support of) the local government level -- with amazing results, overcoming significant challenges, employing innovative approaches, and willing and eager to learn from and help others. Ultimately, I wanted to share those conversations in an accessible way.

This post originally appeared on the American Public Works Association (APWA) Center for Sustainability blog. You can find it here.