Olmsted County – Katharine Kobylt – 2022

Goals

Olmsted County has recently completed a countywide inventory of its current efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and prepare for the effects of climate change. County leaders turned to EDF, enlisting Kat Kobylt to assist with identifying and prioritizing the strategies and actions that could best help them achieve their climate mitigation and adaptation goals.

Solutions

Olmsted County assembled a climate task force, comprised of dedicated and willing employees with diverse expertise and experience at the county. Together with the task force, Kat evaluated climate action plans that other local governments and municipalities have published and looked for techniques to apply or areas to innovate when acting in the context of Olmsted County. Kat and the task force then turned to a robust inventory completed in 2021, which detailed the current and planned actions of Olmsted County. Kat’s work sought to develop a framework to categorize and prioritize the most impactful actions that could be achieved in the short-term. Kat developed a Climate Action and Prioritization Tool which used indices to evaluate the equity, emissions impact, and integrity of adaptation of each action. Co-benefits and monetary investments were also seriously considered when finally creating and recommending a curated list of actions the county should invest in moving forward.

Potential Impact

Kobylt’s work will be used to move forward with a draft county plan to adapt to and mitigate climate change. The shortlist of recommendations and strategies will help Olmsted County focus their efforts and move boldly forward with actions that avoid maladaptation and inequity, while having a maximum impact. Her work also helped to accelerate internal momentum for climate-related work and provide a working template to prioritize and investigate further actions as they see fit.