Compact Climate Assessment Tool Survey - Southeast Florida Regional Climate Compact

The Compact invites local and tribal governments across the four-county region to complete the annual self-assessment survey on their progress toward the 11 prioritized mitigation and adaptation actions, as well as the ways in which they have embedded equity into these actions.

Instructions on how to complete the Survey:

It is recommended that staff who are responsible for resilience, sustainability, and/or planning should complete the self-assessment survey with support as needed from other cross-functional departments. The time it takes to complete the survey will be dependent on the level of detail provided in the response, however, it is estimated to take 5 – 10 hours to complete. Please submit only one survey response per local or tribal government.

The attached document provides all survey questions (in a fillable pdf format) to allow a respondent to review the survey in its entirety before beginning the response process in Survey Monkey. Only responses provided in Survey Monkey will be accepted. Within Survey Monkey, respondents will have the ability to save a portion of the survey and return to complete at a later date. However, once you click “done” at the end of the survey, you have completed your survey and you will not be able to go back and make edits to your responses. Please contact Russell Paez if you need access to your survey responses.

The Survey will be open from July 12, 2021 to September 17, 2021.

In 2021, the first year this survey will be administered, the Compact endeavors to establish a baseline of what climate actions local governments are advancing across the Compact region. In responding to this year’s survey, please report on the most impactful activities the local government has done to advance the 11 priority actions through calendar year 2020, even if the activity took place prior to 2020. However, if the activity was advanced many years ago, has since become antiquated/outdated, and is no longer used to inform your climate action work, please do not include it (e.g. a GHG inventory conducted in 2010 and not updated since).

In subsequent years, the survey will only capture annual progress by local and tribal governments on each of the 11 priority actions.

All Survey Questions PDF

This document contains all survey questions to allow a respondent to review before beginning the response process in Survey Monkey. A respondent can return to the survey as many times as necessary once they have begun in Survey Monkey.

11 Priority Actions

This document contains all 11 prioritized mitigation and adaptation actions that local governments are asked to report annual progress toward.

Equity Recommendations

This document contains guidance developed by an equity advisory committee to support local governments in their efforts to embed equity in their climate action. While this document is comprehensive, it is not meant to be exhaustive of every possible step a local government can take to advance equitable climate action.

When responding to the survey, staff will be asked to indicate the methods through which they have advanced the prioritized actions. These methods are grouped into general categories including Assessment/Planning; Program Development; Local Policy; Budget/Investment; and Education/Outreach/Advocacy. Brief descriptions of the categories are as follows:

Assessment/Planning

Organized internal team responsible for initiative
Developed timeline for managing initiative
Identified indicators that will be tracked over time
Conducted a study or assessment to inform program development, policy design, or decision-making
Conducted research on best practices, gathered relevant information to inform planning
Developed strategic plan (e.g. renewable energy plan, fleet electrification plan, etc.) to support specific initiative

Program Development

Implemented a program to advance initiative
Developed partnership or joined coalition with private sector, non-profit, or other local governments to advance initiative

Local Policy

Adopted/approved ordinance, resolution, or policy

Budget/Investment

Hired dedicated staff to support initiative
Secured grant funding (philanthropic, state, or federal) for this initiative
Allocated local government budget (operating or capital)
Approved bond, increased fees/taxes, or other revenue generating financing vehicle
Developed revolving loan fund

Education/Outreach/Advocacy

Conducted community outreach related to initiative
Developed staff training across departments
Developed educational materials for community
Information exchange with another jurisdiction to learn best practices or share relevant resources related to initiative
Advocated for state or federal legislative/regulatory priorities, held meeting with state or federal representative, or other advocacy tactic

When responding to the survey, local governments should include backup documents to support their self-reporting (i.e. linking to resolutions, budget items, referenced plans, etc.). To aid in communications with stakeholders and communities, the Compact also encourages each local government to work with your City Clerk/Clerk of Courts to open a public comment/resident review period of your draft responses prior to submitting survey results to the Compact. The survey will be open for 2.5 months to allow local governments ample time to complete the survey as well as facilitate their own public comment period which is highly recommended. We have provided the survey in a fillable PDF document to facilitate local governments in their public comment process. However, it should be noted that only survey responses provided online via survey monkey are accepted.

To learn more about how the Compact will use the survey results, please refer to “How will the Climate Assessment Tool be used?”

While partaking in the survey is completely voluntary for local governments, we believe there are numerous benefits:

Provides guidance on priority actions to take to address climate change
Provides guidance from local equity experts on ways to embed equity into climate actions
Creates common priorities to work on together as a region, and identifies other local government leaders from whom to learn
Provides opportunity to share progress and successes
Aids in improving transparency on climate change activities
Supports communication with communities and other key stakeholders
Builds the case for increasingly ambitious climate action in the region and the resources to support this action
Helps identify and inform potential topics for regional capacity building

If you have questions or need assistance, please contact Russell Paez ([email protected]) or Lauren Ordway Evans ([email protected]).