History of RVAgreen 2050
Pre-Planning | 2017-2019
By Resolution proposed by Mayor Levar Stoney and the Green City Commission and adopted by Richmond City Council, RVAgreen 2050 is tasked to achieve community-wide net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 and help the community adapt to Richmond’s climate impacts of heat, precipitation, and flooding, all while centering equity in the process to create and implement the action plan. Due to historic and systemic racism, Richmond’s Black and African American and Hispanic and Latino communities in particular face more harm from crises such as climate change. Therefore, it is critical that the City of Richmond’s efforts to address climate change are carried out in a way that is inclusive of and protects marginalized communities.
From 2017 through 2019, the Office of Sustainability built internal staff capacity, conducted research and technical modeling, participated in racial equity training, and gathered data to inform the rest of the planning process. During this time, the Office developed the RVAgreen 2050 Climate Equity Index, an innovative GIS based mapping tool that identifies the communities in Richmond that are on the frontlines of crises such as climate change. The Office is using the Index to purposefully reach out to those communities to engage them in the planning process.
Understanding Community Priorities| 2020
The goal of this phase of the RVAgreen 2050 planning process was to listen to the community and gather information on successes, challenges, and everyday needs. Originally, listening sessions were designed around resident engagement. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, we adjusted our engagement plans based on the impact of the pandemic on residents and moved our focus to engaging organizations that work to empower communities on the frontlines of climate change. The organizations that participated in the community listening sessions focused on addressing community priorities such as empowerment, community investment, conservation, workforce development, and youth-based services. To reduce redundancy, we found previous surveys and reports from other organizations to help identify and add context to the community priority list.
In fall 2020, the Office of Sustainability convened community organizations serving frontline communities, institutional partners, government content experts, and other stakeholders for the RVAgreen 2050 Racial Equity & Environmental Justice Roundtable (as the central advisory group) and topical working groups: Buildings & Energy, Community, Environment, Transportation, and Waste. There are over 125 people involved in these key stakeholder groups. Learn more about these groups and their meetings (open to all).
Plan Development | 2021
Starting in 2021, during the Plan Development Phase, the Office began working with these groups to translate the community priorities into strategies that achieve the following goals and ensure that the plan addresses the community priorities in an equitable way:
Increase equity, particularly racial equity
Reduce greenhouse gas emissions and pollution
Enhance resilience to climate impacts
In summer/fall of 2021, the draft strategies were refined based on community feedback. Indicators and an Equitable Implementation and Accountability Framework were developed. Richmonders provided feedback on the RVAgreen 2050 draft vision, objectives, and strategies. Feedback was gathered in three different ways: through a 10- or 30-minute online survey, via direct commentary on a Konveio document of the draft plan, and by paper survey distributed by members of the Racial Equity and Environmental Justice Roundtable. The map below shows where these responses came from and helped inform future engagement efforts. Responses from all three sources of feedback were reviewed by Office of Sustainability staff and aggregated to inform progress towards our community engagement goals.
Adopt & Implement | 2022
In Spring 2022, the draft plan was shared for community-wide input. This input informed how the Office of Sustainability finalized the plan ahead of seeking approval of the plan from City Administration, the Mayor, and City Council. Communication and outreach strategies for RVAgreen 2050 are guided by the three core goals below to ensure that all Richmond residents are part of this ongoing engagement and community empowerment process.
Inform - Increase participation with RVAgreen 2050 by making it accessible, relatable, and meaningful to all Richmonders, regardless of race, ethnicity, personal identity, or neighborhood.
Engage - Grow and mobilize the network of informed and engaged advocates and implementation partners to help reach the RVAgreen 2050 goals.
Empower - Ensure community capacity to play an ongoing leadership role in creating pathways to direct impact toward an equitable, healthy, and resilient Richmond.
On February 13th, 2023, Richmond City Council and Mayor Stoney unanimously passed RES. 2023-R005 officially adopting the RVAgreen 2050: Climate Equity Action Plan 2030 as the official sustainability plan for the City of Richmond.