Digital Equity in Broadband Infrastructure
The Los Angeles Bureau of Street Lighting (BSL), with a rich history of innovation, has played a pivotal role in making Los Angeles a pioneering 5G city. In response to the growing digital divide, especially in under-connected communities like Crenshaw Boulevard, BSL is leveraging funds from the American Rescue Plan... Read more
Reducing the Utility Burden on Frontline Communities
The community in King County is grappling with the issue of energy justice, particularly for marginalized groups, including BIPOC, immigrant, refugee, and LGBTQIA+ communities. The King County Strategic Climate Action Plan (SCAP) specifically highlights these concerns, focusing on reducing the energy and utility burden on frontline communities, expanding renewable energy... Read more
Carbon Neutrality Through Retrofitting Housing
With the election of their new Mayor in 2021, Boston, MA committed to a radical rethinking of their systems to begin addressing these issues through Boston’s Green New Deal. Under this plan, almost 80% of Boston’s buildings will need to undergo deep energy retrofits and decarbonization in order to meet... Read more
Urgent Responses To Climate Impacts
The City of Oakland is working to mitigate climate change and build residents’ resilience through a variety of pathways, with an emphasis on the BIPOC and frontline communities who are most likely to experience the most frequent and severe disruptions under the status quo. In order to prevent the worst... Read more
Green Transportation For The World Cup & Beyond
In June 2022, FIFA (the international body that governs professional soccer) announced that Kansas City, MO would host the 2026 World Cup. Kansas City has four years to prepare for a large influx of visitors from around the world. A core component of the KC2026 bid was sustainability: they want... Read more
Sustainable Land Use In Cemeteries
Durham’s segregated past resulted in the creation of two public cemeteries: Maplewood (historically white with identified Confederate graves) and Beechwood (historically Black). Beechwood is running out of space; with limited availability for traditional burials. Given the history of segregation and the generations of families that are already buried in Beechwood,... Read more
Rejuvenating Healthcare Workers by Creating an Organizational Culture of Wellness
Covid-19 disrupted the healthcare system and put healthcare workers across the country on the frontlines of the global pandemic that infected over 33 million Americans and took the lives of over 600 thousand Americans. Even before the pandemic, under usual working conditions, severe burnout syndrome affects as many as 33%... Read more
Building Healthier Communities by Establishing an Enterprise-Wide System of Care
The Los Angeles Department of Health Services (DHS) is the second-largest municipal health system in the nation, acting as a sprawling safety-net system, primarily serving Black and Hispanic and low-income populations – residents who are uninsured or covered by Medi-Cal. Despite continuous improvements DHS has undertaken to respond to changes... Read more
Increasing Equitable and Affordable Access to Transportation in King County
King County Metro is the largest public transportation agency in the Puget Sound region, delivering more than 130 million rides per year. In 2020, King County was the first in the nation to be impacted by Covid-19, with Metro ridership dropping to 90% below pre-pandemic levels. However, even at the... Read more
Redesigning Workflow to Increase Efficiencies
At the Los Angeles County Department of Workforce Development, Aging and Community Services (WDACS), staff handling frontline services can spend as much as 60% to 70% of their time on internal workflow. Rather than devoting such an outsized amount of time to procurement, approvals and other internal tasks, the team’s... Read more