Climate Resilience Consulting launches resilience planning tool for municipal clients

Climate Resilience Consulting (CRC), a Chicago-based boutique consultancy, has launched RIA, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform that allows cities, counties, and local agencies to create a climate resilience plan in under 15 minutes.

The complete, grant-ready plan helps local government envision, communicate, and implement a climate resilience strategy in a significantly lower time frame at a significantly lower cost.

According to CRC, a traditional resilience planning engagement costs $50,000 to $150,000 and takes six to 18 months. The RIA tool is available at introductory subscription rates starting at $450.

The tool draws on hazard data from sources including FEMA, the CDC, USGS, and NOAA HeatRisk to generate a plan in 15 minutes. The outputted plan includes a risk profile across flooding, extreme heat, wildfire, drought, severe storms, and social vulnerability; an action plan drawn from 1,000+ resilience actions matched to a community’s risks and providing cost estimates and co-benefits; grant-ready project narratives; and an implementation dashboard exportable as a PDF file.

“I’ve spent more than two decades working with city leaders who desperately want to protect their communities,” said Joyce Coffee, founder and president of CRC. “RIA is what I wish I could have handed them on day one for visioning, stakeholder outreach, political will building.”

CRC was founded in 2016 and has four employees listed on LinkedIn. The boutique consultancy has practices in climate resilience strategy, implementation, thought leadership, government capabilities, and small business resilience tools.