Highlights

Climate Literacy, Outreach, and Engagement

• Jenny Dissen partnered with Phil Hanser of the Brattle Group to present at the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners (NARUC) Summer Meeting in July 2015 to understand requirements for environmental information, particularly related to their upcoming survey state plans for climate change resiliency and the potential impacts to the energy industry.
• Otis Brown and Jenny Dissen currently serve on the Executive Advisory Council (EAC) for the Utility Analytics Institute, a membership-based group for energy industry professionals that discusses strategic analytics issues and promote leading practices of innovation to transform the energy business. Otis Brown, Ken Kunkel, and Jenny Dissen presented at the Fall 2015 EAC meeting on climate risks and impacts at Southern Company Headquarters and attended the Utility Analytics Summit (New Orleans, October 2015) to further build collaborations with industry partners on uses and applications of environmental data.
• Leading NCEI in the development of a robust customer and engagement solution to improve customer information and engagement, understand customer requirements for environmental information, and develop strategic and targeted engagement discussions.
• Worked with the NCEI Data Information Services, Communications, and Outreach team to develop a sector prioritization activity for the following NCEI calendar years, mapping work efforts to sector prioritizations.
• Contributed to the planning and hosting of the 2015 Climate Data Record Program’s 2015 Annual PI meeting, in Asheville, NC. The meeting focused on sharing the latest information from NOAA’s CDR Program, best practices, and new processes, and included a featured discussion on collaboration with other U.S. Government and international agency program leads.
• Worked with NCEI to develop and host an executive forum discussion on “Moving from Environmental Data to Resilience” on January 14, 2016, in New Orleans, Louisiana. The meeting was held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Meteorological Society.
  
  

  Executive forum industry panel discussion. (L – R) Moderator: John Firth (Acclimatise), Panel Members: Cheryl Maleteich (ComEd), Aaron Strickland (Georgia Power/Southern Company), Kent Mathis (JEA), and Phil Hanser (The Brattle Group).

• CICS-NC also supports Asheville Buncombe Sustainable Community Initiatives (ABSCI), which successfully launched The Collider, a consortium of public–private partners focused on climate adaptation and resiliency of communities and businesses in Asheville, North Carolina.The Collider project includes a collaborative work and event space in downtown Asheville. The Collider’s office/co-working space officially opened in early 2016.