Project Overview

The City of Edina, MN is issuing this Request for Proposal (RFP) for professional services to develop a climate action plan for the Edina community.

The selected firm will work with City of Edina staff and a resident working group to lead a Climate Action Planning process resulting in a written Plan. As part of the Plan, the firm will conduct a greenhouse gas inventory for the City and community of Edina, recommend tools for the City to track progress on emissions reductions, facilitate community engagement and provide a prioritization guide that weighs potential to advance climate mitigation, adaptation and community equity.

Scope

The City of Edina wishes to review its current greenhouse gas emission reduction goals (from 2007, 25% reduction by 2025, 80% reduction by 2050) and establish a pathway of actions to achieve these goals. The Plan will expand these emission-reduction goals to include community resilience and adaptation to climate change actions.

Consultant will engage community stakeholders in an equitable manner through the Energy and Environment Climate Working Group, along with City staff to complete this effort. Consultant may present to these groups as well as City Council while drafting the plan, and once it is final. Work will be completed within 9 months of accepting this proposal, with anticipated final plan approval by City Council by December 21, 2021.

Proposals should embed City Council Value statements on sustainability, equity, and community engagement in proposal content, and will be considered based on scope, schedule and cost.

Project Deliverables – the final Climate Action Plan should include:

• Complete greenhouse gas emission inventory for city operations and community-wide activities;
• Suggested tools to track progress for city operations and community-wide emissions reductions by timeframe, emission source, and mitigation or adaptation-related action;
• Climate Vulnerability Assessment;
• Community engagement planning process implementation, aligned with:
  • City Council Value statements
    • Sustainability
    • Equity
    • Community Engagement
  • City of Edina engagement strategy and platform, BetterTogetherEdina;
• Comprehensive menu of strategies and tactics to achieve goals. These could include:
  • Policy – changes to existing or inclusion of new policies
  • Natural systems resilience:
    • Natural infrastructure and ecosystem services optimization
  • Adaptation for extreme heat
  • Water Resources
    • Adaptation for storm events consistent with Edina's Flood Risk Reduction Strategy
    • Adaptation for drought
    • Water Quality
  • Transportation;
  • Building energy management;
  • Waste reduction;
• Prioritization guide that weighs potential to advance mitigation, adaptation and community equity.

Desired Project Schedule

The following schedule demonstrates key milestones in the project process.

1. Advertise Request for Proposals — December 10, 2020
2. Deadline for Questions — December 21, 2020
3. Request for Proposal Due to City of Edina — January 8, 2021
4. Interviews of Finalists — January 22, 2021
5. City Council Award Contract to Consultant — February 17, 2021
6. Progress Report due — May 2021:
   1. GhG emission inventory
   2. Climate Vulnerability Assessment
   3. Community engagement plan
   4. Written Plan section 1
7. Council work session report — June 2021
8. 2nd Progress Report due — Aug 2021:
   1. Emission reduction progress tracking tool
   2. Strategy Prioritization Guide
   3. Menu of strategies; recommended prioritization
   4. Written Plan section 2
9. Present Draft Plan to EEC Working Group/EEC — Sep 2021
10. Submit Final Plan and all associated documents — December 21, 2021

Proposal Content

The proposal shall be concise and thorough, and it should consider City review time needed. The length of the proposal shall not exceed 10 pages, excluding appendix for figures, graphics, résumés, qualifications and firm experience.

The following will be considered minimum contents of the proposal:

1. A statement of objectives and goals and a description of the consultant's proposed approach, including how to address City Value Statements.
2. A description of the scope of service, and a list of specific deliverables to be provided by the firm.
3. A work plan that identifies major tasks to be completed and a timeline for those tasks. Please identify any optional work tasks in this area and any work sub-consulted in the detailed cost breakdown.
4. A cost breakdown of the tasks to be performed with a breakout of the hours for each employee category (e.g., principal, senior engineer, senior planner, technician, etc.) per work task identified. The consultant will indicate any assumptions made (e.g., number of meetings, number of drafts, etc.) and include this information with the cost proposal. Total hours and dollars for each deliverable and the final project shall be shown.
5. A statement of qualifications, list of recent similar projects, references for recent projects, and the proposed project manager and team.

Any optional work tasks suggested by the consultant shall be indicated as such and should be included in task information identified above.

Prior Studies and Planning Document Review

Several previous studies and planning efforts have focused on the Edina climate actions. Consultant may review available documents and relevant elements of other citywide plans to inform their proposal. These documents will be provided by the City of Edina or are available from others and include (but may not be limited to) the following:

1. Vision Edina 2040
2. Edina Comprehensive Plan (2018), Environment Chapter
3. City of Edina 2021-26 Capital Improvement Plan (available early January 2021)
4. Edina Energy and Environment Commission 2019 Climate Action Study and Report
5. Regional Indicators Initiative data from 2007-present
6. Resident Working Group Guiding Document (available early January 2021)
7. Electricity Action Plan (2016)
8. Edina Community Engagement Strategy
9. City Council Code of Conduct & Value Statements
10. Edina Flood Risk Reduction Strategy
11. GreenStep Cities Step 5 City

Finally, City of Edina staff encourages respondents to review Twin Cities metro area Climate Action Plans along with Plans from other cities nationwide, including the following from comparable communities:

• St. Paul, MN
• Bellevue, Washington
• Menlo Park, CA
• Newton, MA

Contact for Questions

Prospective respondents who have any questions regarding this request for proposal should submit them in writing to the City of Edina. If questions and subsequent responses apply to all proposers, such responses to questions will be sent out via e-mail to all firms responding to the RFP. If you wish to meet with the City, please contact:

Grace Hancock, Sustainability Coordinator
City of Edina - Engineering Department
7450 Metro Boulevard
Edina, MN 55439
GHancock@EdinaMN.gov
Phone: 952-826-1621

Delivery of Proposals

All proposals should be submitted via email in .pdf format to Grace Hancock at the contact information provided above. Hard copies are not required. All proposals must be received no later than 5:00pm (central time) on January 8, 2021. Late proposals will not be considered. All costs incurred in responding to this RFP will be borne by the responder.

Proposal Evaluation

All complete submittals received prior to the deadline will be evaluated by an evaluation team comprised of City staff likely to be engaged in the Plan process and implementation. Submittals will be evaluated on responsiveness to this request, project understanding and approach, past experience and professional capabilities, and ability to work collaboratively with the City to successfully complete the work. The City will determine which respondents, if any, will be invited to interview. Interviews will be held in late January, 2021. Following the interview, the City will work to negotiate a professional service agreement with the selected firm.

Agency Not Obligated to Complete Project

This request for proposals does not obligate the City of Edina to award a contract or complete the project. The City reserves the right to cancel the solicitation or parts of the solicitation if it is considered to be in their best interest.

The City may award an agreement for design, bidding, and construction services based on the service provided under this scope of service, but the City retains the option to solicit for follow on services separately.