Climate and Resilience Solutions
ERG’s climate and resilience experts, including ERG’s Blue Earth Team, works at the forefront of public and private efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt for the future. We provide the full spectrum of climate services—from quantifying emissions to state-of-the-art mitigation and adaptation support designed to build community, environmental, and economic resilience at local, state, and federal levels. We work as practical visionaries in partnership with our public and private clients to develop and implement strategic solutions, including adaptation and mitigation strategies, as well as regulations and policies rooted in climate science. Our solutions include strategic decision-making approaches based on client priorities, conditions, and issues, as well as metrics and evaluation criteria to establish accountability and build trust and transparency. We ensure these solutions are informed by engaging stakeholders and local communities in well-designed processes each step of the way and by communicating clearly and compellingly to all audiences throughout the process.
GHG Emissions Quantification and Mitigation
ERG provides a full suite of services to support both voluntary and regulatory approaches to quantify and reduce GHG emissions. For example, we have helped the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency design, implement, and grow programs such as the Methane Challenge, AgSTAR, the Landfill Methane Outreach Program, and the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program for more than 20 years. Our project teams include the full range of expertise needed to support mitigation projects through every stage, from assessment to action. ERG air quality specialists inventory, characterize, and quantify emissions at facility, sector, national, and global scales. Our engineers, economists, and policy analysts assess the cost and performance of mitigation technologies to recommend emissions reduction opportunities across a wide variety of sectors. ERG communication specialists work with clients to design outreach and partnership strategies to support effective implementation of reduction opportunities.
- Emissions quantification
- Emission inventories at local, state, national, and global levels
- GHG emissions data management, reporting, and verification
- Technical guidance and tools to develop robust greenhouse gas inventories
- Product and organizational carbon footprinting
- Emissions reduction target development
- Mitigation
- Voluntary and regulatory program development, implementation, and evaluation
- Development and evaluation of emissions reduction strategies
- Quantification of mitigation costs and market and non-market benefits and impacts
- Modeling of GHG emission reductions (decarbonization scenarios)
- Offset project calculations and protocol development
Climate and Hazard Resilience
For over 15 years, ERG’s climate and hazard resilience team has supported multisector adaptation and mitigation projects for federal, state, regional, local, and nonprofit clients. Our approach to resilience is built on equity and sustainability. We use a collaborative framework designed to increase capacity through engagement based on client priorities and conditions. We involve working groups, stakeholders, and communities in each step of the process to identify strategies that most effectively enable our clients and their communities and stakeholders to thrive. ERG’s climate and hazard resilience team collaborates with experts in ERG’s other service areas to bring a powerful breadth and depth of experience and expertise to all our projects.
- Design and implementation of plans and processes to promote climate resilience
- Resilience plans and strategies
- Vulnerability assessments and adaptation plans
- Modeling and mapping
- Climate action plans
- Hazard mitigation plans
- Integrated planning and policy documents
- Stakeholder working groups
- Multisector collaboratives
- Community and stakeholder meeting series and events
- Communication and engagement tools
- Design of actions to reduce GHG emissions and build resilience
- Multisector assessments of the quantitative and qualitative costs of inaction and benefits of actions
- Multisector and single-sector expertise, including land use, transportation, water, and natural areas and open spaces
- Strategies to reduce risks associated with all climate hazards, as well as other shocks and stressors
- Green and blue infrastructure to reduce risks and foster ecological and community benefits
- Multisector, multisource GHG mitigation strategies
- Collaboratively designed adaptation actions to increase benefits to community (including vulnerable communities), industry, and the environment
- Adaptation and implementation pathways to support decision-making, prompt effective actions, and provide a path forward to adapt over time
Climate Science
A solid understanding of the science—including causal mechanisms and impacts on earth systems, ecosystems, and public health and well-being—underlies all of ERG’s climate and resilience work. As a key contractor supporting several high-profile climate data and indicator initiatives over many years, ERG has acquired a deep familiarity with the best available observational data sources, which provide multiple lines of evidence to inform our technical analyses. Our experts and partners collaborate to analyze the best available global climate model projections. They also develop novel analyses that quantify and monetize climate change impacts and qualitatively assess benefits to communities and their local environment. Building on this information, they assemble comprehensive climate assessments at local, state, and federal scales. These assessments support ERG colleagues and clients in their climate adaptation, mitigation, justice, and resilience work.
- Detailed analysis of observational data sets (e.g., weather, climate data, health statistics)
- Physical climate projections
- Climate change impact modeling
- Climate assessments
- Development and maintenance of indicators that track observed climate change
Climate Justice
ERG is committed to including environmental justice and equity at the foundation of our climate work. We develop goals and metrics in partnership with local communities and stakeholders to ensure that our climate work is accountable, transparent, and measurable. We prioritize adaptation and mitigation actions based on how well they address risks and harms to communities, and on their benefits to neighborhoods most affected by current and future hazards. We collaborate with ERG team members working in other areas of our climate and resilience solutions practice to integrate climate justice into those projects.
- Community engagement and support
- Community engagement tools and approaches
- Community-driven planning processes and assessments
- Visioning and goal development
- Citizen and participatory science
- Climate and hazard resilience planning
- Regulatory program support for communities
- Governance and organizational effectiveness
- Capacity building
- Technical and analytical support
- Environmental and public health analyses
- Climate change impact disparities
- Economic and social impact analyses
- Modelling, mapping, and data support for impact assessments
- Air and water quality assessments
- Cumulative impacts, including climate hazards
Climate Communications
Translating good science and good policy into climate action requires effective communication to bring people together around a shared understanding, help them know what they can do and how, and inspire them to act. ERG has a track record of demystifying complex climate issues and conveying science in readily understandable words and images without sacrificing accuracy. Our strategic communication specialists work in partnership with our clients, ERG technical project teams, and communities to identify the most effective approach, tailoring processes and communications to specific conditions and issues based on assessment findings and identified goals and objectives. In all our work, we emphasize collaborative solutions, actionable recommendations, and measurable improvements to ensure an effective response.
- Public and stakeholder outreach and engagement
- Conveying climate science in understandable words and images
- Data visualization and web tools
- Education and training
- Capacity building for climate programs
- Technical assistance programs for multiple audiences
- Development of climate tools for public use, such as emission calculators and interactive models
- Risk communication
