Tampa leaders recently announced the development of the city's first Climate Action & Equity Plan, which is a part of the Resilient Tampa Roadmap released in May.
The city also announced a $1 million investment into renewable energy solar panels and electric vehicle charging stations at the City Center at Hanna municipal building in East Tampa.
Applied Sciences, a certified Small Local Business Enterprise firm, is assisting the city with crafting the plan to take care of the “action.” And it has also partnered with the CLEO Institute, a Florida-based nonprofit organization that specializes in climate education and community engagement, to ensure “equity” during the transition to 100% renewable energy.
The CLEO Institute is now holding listening sessions across the city to understand the energy burden and adverse climate impacts on the most vulnerable residents.
Whit Remer, Tampa's sustainability and resilience officer, said he does not yet know the specific goals.
"Because what we want to do is understand what the needs are, and then ultimately set goals around that,” he said “Right now, it is to simply listen and engage. And then hopefully, we'll be able to tweak our communications and outreach plans based on that initial feedback."
Betty Jean-Jeremie, with the CLEO Institute, is organizing these conversations, which kicked off on Dec. 12 at the Cyrus Green Community Center.
She said about 20 people participated.
"We had residents interested in talking, No. 1, about the trust that exists between the residents, the community and the elected officials,” she said. “And the second part was the conversation turned into flooding."
Tampa residents can also fill out a digital survey, if they can’t make it to listening sessions.
Members of the CLEO Institute will take notes and present this data to Tampa officials. Then they plan to host town hall meetings to bring community leaders and elected officials together by the end of 2022.
