We’re creating climate solutions for all.
Climate
The threat of climate change demands urgent action and innovative solutions. In a time of transition for our energy economy, it’s imperative that we address long-standing financial barriers, ineffective community engagement, and inequitable distribution of resources. We are dedicated to tackling these challenges head-on by designing and managing plans, policies, and programs that help create resilient and sustainable communities and cities. We create pathways to decarbonization, steward blue and green economies, and help clients adapt to a changing climate.
HR&A supported the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice and the Office of the Comptroller to develop Public Solar NYC, the city's first public solar program for low-to-moderate income residents. Our comprehensive feasibility analysis, program design, and grant application support helped secure $250 million in federal funding, establishing a transformative solar program that addresses equity barriers in NYC's clean energy transition.
The Long Island City northern waterfront currently hosts the Ravenswood Generating Station, the largest fossil fuel plant in New York City, providing over 20% of the City’s local power capacity. After Rise Light & Power committed to transforming it into a renewable energy hub, the Office of the Queens Borough President brought on HR&A to lead “Reimagine Ravenswood,” a community-driven site reuse, neighborhood improvement, and workforce development planning process to guide a just transition to an inclusive clean energy economy in western Queens.
HR&A is supporting the City and County of Honolulu to assess the City’s climate-related financial risks and define strategies for funding and budgeting vital adaptation measures. As climate hazards like coastal erosion, flooding, and hurricanes become more frequent and severe, this initiative marks a significant opportunity for Honolulu to safeguard its future by investing in resilient infrastructure and long-term solutions.
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Every city and community must plan for how they’ll adapt to our changing climate, and we help our clients understand how. The first step is acknowledging that effective adaption isn’t just about climate. It requires multidisciplinary thinking around how issues like finance, design, engineering, and policy come together to shape infrastructure investment, land use, housing, and community and economic development. With experts working in all these sectors, we help clients understand the big picture: who is impacted today, who is at risk, how will that change in the future, and what can we do today to minimize future risk?
When housing supply doesn’t keep up with demand, displacement often follows—affecting residents, small businesses, and entire communities. Residential or commercial displacement, and we help them quantify this difficult-to-measure and often nuanced problem and identify major pressure points. We understand that displacement doesn’t happen in a silo, so we integrate anti-displacement strategies into larger local plans and programs and ensure real estate development and growth benefit current residents. Whether part of a larger real estate initiative or a targeted community effort, our goal is to ensure that growth and investment benefit those who already call an area home.
Cities and regional governments face increasingly complex challenges that demand coordinated solutions that span housing, jobs, land use, transportation, climate resilience, and more. Our long-term planning approach pairs visionary goals with practical tools to help cities, counties, and regions grow with intention. We work with local leaders and the communities they serve to develop action plans that prioritize resources, coordinate agencies, and reform urban development systems through inclusive engagement. We build strategies that repair past harms, expand community ownership, and generate equitable, sustainable growth for generations to come.
We understand the policies and economics that shape both decarbonization and real estate, which informs our bespoke approach to charting effective pathways to reducing emissions. We help clients worldwide — city and state agencies, utilities, building owners, and more — to invest in decarbonization. Our work is underpinned by robust financial analysis and market engagement to evaluate the return on investment and community impact for implementing tailored decarbonization strategies at scale, program design to deliver innovative financing and technical assistance, and implementation and transaction support to advance and expand programs.
Our workforce development strategies help clients unlock economic growth while expanding opportunity for all. We work with government, institutions, industry, foundations, and community partners to meet the talent needs of emerging industries and expand access to quality work. Our approach combines deep analytical skills with on-the-ground experience — from managing large stakeholder coalitions to securing federal funding to implement new programs. We’ve guided strategic planning for state workforce offices, managed multi-sector task forces, and supported successful funding applications totaling over $100 million in workforce investments.
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HR&A supported the Central Valley Community Foundation (CVCF) in its Spring Sprint to prepare a Regional Investment Plan for the Sierra San Joaquin Valley as part of California’s Jobs First initiative. The region, comprised of Fresno, Madera, Tulare, and Kings counties, is expected to generate a disproportionate share of California’s renewable energy needs and required a community benefits framework to ensure that future private investments will benefit local residents and advance equity.
Since 2020, HR&A has supported Con Edison’s strategy for incentivizing building decarbonization throughout New York City and Westchester County. Leveraging our deep experience in New York City real estate and our quantitative modeling capabilities, we are helping Con Edison achieve the ambitious goals of New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), which commits the State to reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 85% by 2050.
HR&A has supported the Los Angeles Cleantech Incubator (LACI) since 2017 to drive investment and strategic partnerships across Los Angeles County to realize its goal of reaching 600,000 green jobs by 2050. HR&A’s collaboration with LACI began with a Green Jobs Study to quantify and characterize the green economy in Los Angeles County, essential for setting workforce goals and strategies.
HR&A supported the Mayor's Office of Climate and Environmental Justice and the Office of the Comptroller to develop Public Solar NYC, the city's first public solar program for low-to-moderate income residents. Our comprehensive feasibility analysis, program design, and grant application support helped secure $250 million in federal funding, establishing a transformative solar program that addresses equity barriers in NYC's clean energy transition.
The New York City Mayor’s Office of Recovery and Resiliency and the New York City Economic Development Corporation engaged HR&A to develop a strategic plan for Lower Manhattan as part of the Lower Manhattan Coastal Resiliency Project following Superstorm Sandy. Our work led to capital projects with over $1.7 billion in committed funds, as well as the innovative FiDi and Seaport Climate Resilience Plan.
As part of an engagement with the World Bank Cities Resilience Program and the National Treasury of South Africa, and in partnership with local public policy consulting firm PDG, HR&A helped seven South African metropolitan governments advance a suite of nine resilient infrastructure and renewable energy projects, including stormwater management, river catchment rehabilitation, energy storage, and waste management.
As part of the Residential Retrofits for Energy Equity (R2E2) partnership, HR&A is providing training and capacity building assistance for awardees of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Buildings Upgrade Prize (Buildings UP). Separate from this work, R2E2 provides technical assistance to state and local governments, community-based organizations, and other entities to jumpstart energy retrofit programs for both single family and multifamily low- to moderate-income housing (“LMI” housing), especially in frontline communities.
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Testimonials
“Your research, your analysis, and your detailed mapping of occupations, training programs, and skill gaps in the clean transportation sector is not just commendable, it’s essential. This is exactly the kind of actionable, strategic work we need as we accelerate toward a green economy.”
