SUSTAINABILITY
Strategic Growth Council
Transformative Climate Communities
Our firm served as the consultant team lead for Strategic Growth Council’s Transformative Climate Communities technical assistance efforts. Our firm assisted the six applicants to develop work plans, refine project scopes, review project narratives, and confirm alignment with program guidelines. This project involved coordinating with local jurisdictions and their partners, collaborating with the consultant project team, and working with state agencies to address technical issues and project-specific concerns.
Humboldt Area Foundation
Offshore Wind Negotiation
Estolano Advisors serves as advisor to the Humboldt Area Foundation and members of its initiative, the Redwood Region Climate and Community Resilience Hub (the “CORE Hub”), on designing and implementing an equitable community benefits and engagement strategy for offshore wind development in the federally designated Humboldt Wind Energy Area (WEA). Recognizing equitable offshore wind development can bring key climate resilience benefits, economic opportunities, and infrastructure upgrades to the region, EA works with CORE Hub in capturing and amplifying voices from underrepresented communities. EA conducted landscape interviews with a diverse group of community representatives and supported the CORE Hub in convening the North Coast Community Benefits Network. Together, EA and the CORE Hub crafted and submitted a comment letter on the U.S. Department of Energy’s Proposed Sales Notice on behalf of the Network, advocating for equitable benefits for underrepresented communities and Tribal Nations. The comment letter has influenced the expanded community benefit components in the Final Sales Notice. Leading up to the lease auction in December 2022, EA will remain an advisor to the CORE Hub and the Network on Community Benefits Agreement (CBA) negotiations.
Estolano Advisors supported in the development and deployment of stakeholder engagement for OurCounty, Los Angeles County’s first-ever sustainability plan. OurCounty puts forth a bold, inclusive, and regional vision for the future of LA County. EA provided guidance in the design of stakeholder engagement charrettes, identification of stakeholders, and event facilitation. The charrettes covered primary environmental topics addressed in the LACSP: water, energy, transportation, open space, recreation, habitat and biodiversity, and waste. Additionally, EA also provided technical memos in the essential areas of OurCounty including economy and workforce development, housing, and funding and financing.
LA County Chief Sustainability Office
OurCounty Sustainability Plan
LA County Chief Sustainability Office
Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP) Grant Management
Estolano Advisors is coordinating the effort to develop a viable pipeline of community designed multi-benefit climate-resilient infrastructure projects to support the goals of LA County’s Sustainability Plan and Infrastructure Initiative. Through a mixed-methods approach, the project team developed a “hotspot analysis” using various GIS analyses and qualitative insights from a coalition of organizations. The analysis yielded a final list of four focus communities that are socioeconomically, environmentally, and capacity burdened. This list will inform a strategic engagement approach over seven months and sixteen events to ensure a co-created list of multi-benefit infrastructure project concepts before completing a financial and feasibility study of the final list of project concepts.
LA County Department of Public Health
Indoor Maximum Temperature Threshold Stakeholder Engagement
In response to a 2024 Board Motion, EA supported the County with engaging a wide range of stakeholders to obtain input on a maximum indoor temperature threshold for rental dwellings in unincorporated Los Angeles County. The goal was to obtain input and recommendations from relevant stakeholders on how to equitably establish, define, implement, and enforce a maximum temperature threshold policy for rental units. To support this goal, EA developed an engagement plan designed to reach a wide range of perspectives and conducted interviews and small convenings with renters, tenants’ rights groups, landlords, building experts, legal professionals, and staff from jurisdictions with similar policies. EA also analyzed the multi-family building stock in unincorporated LA County to understand the existing context for this proposed policy. EA’s final report summarized the perspectives shared through engagement and culminated in an actionable set of recommendations designed to help shape County Counsel’s proposed policy to the Board.
LA Metro
Urban Greening Grant Program
Estolano Advisors was part of the team responsible for developing an Urban Greening Grant Program for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro). The resulting program will fund heat mitigation projects that intersect with transportation infrastructure and promote the goals of Metro’s Moving Beyond Sustainability plan. EA developed the Program Eligibility Framework, which summarizes recommendations for applicant eligibility, including applicant type, match funding, partnership, and other similar requirements. EA also led engagement with potential applicants, including local agencies and community-based organizations, to identify program improvements and strategies to meet Metro’s equity goals. When funded, the program has the potential to help mitigate gaps in funding for urban greening projects and maintenance.
Community Health Councils (CHC) and National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) engaged Estolano Advisors to support the campaign advancements made to limit and phase out oil drilling activities at the Inglewood Oil Field (IOF) – the largest contiguous urban oil field in the United States, surrounded by over one million residents within a five-mile radius. EA first developed a forward-looking IOF Remediation Strategy report that 1) summarizes the potential remediation process with best practices from similar efforts, 2) presents opportunities and challenges for embedding community benefits, and 3) provides actionable recommendations and next steps for CHC, NRDC, and their allies to prepare and inform stakeholders of the potential IOF redevelopment. To inform the strategy, EA conducted background research on brownfields and sample campaign strategies and engaged a variety of stakeholders in the environmental justice landscape. EA also created a workplan and advised on strategies for coalition building, state and local advocacy efforts, communications and messaging, and acquisition preparation and structure of end uses.
Community Health Councils
Inglewood Oil Field Strategy Advisory Services
State of Oregon Health Authority
Climate Equity Blueprint
Estolano Advisors (EA) and affiliate firm Better World Group (BWG) acted as the equity consultant for the State of Oregon’s interagency Climate Adaptation Framework process. EA worked with Oregon Health Authority (OHA) to craft and facilitate two (2) level-setting racial equity workshops for participants from 21 state agencies involved in the statewide climate adaptation planning process, and four (4) equity lens workshops for the established Equity Subgroup. EA developed an Equity Lens Tool and Climate Equity Blueprint that will allow various state agencies to utilize it in both their internal and external climate adaptation planning and implementation functions. The Blueprint includes shared definitions, background on the Climate Adaptation Framework Process and interagency efforts, an equity toolkit for decision-making and organizational assessment, and recommendations for next steps in the state’s collective climate adaptation work.
EA led the development of SCAG’s Water Resolution White Paper. The white paper examines major water management challenges in SCAG’s six-county region and identifies opportunities for SCAG and its member jurisdictions to support sustainable water management in the area. To inform the white paper and recommendations, the EA team conducted interviews with experts from various entities, including water districts, community groups, and local agencies, and researched and developed a network map illustrating the connections between state agencies and regional/local water suppliers. EA’s final memo, summarizing expert interviews and research, will help guide SCAG’s future efforts to support water management within the agency’s core levers of work: convening, policy advocacy, technical assistance, funding support, and data analysis.
Southern California Association of Governments (SCAG)