Harnessing the Winds of Change: Insights from Recent Offshore Wind Conferences

By Rebecca Karp and Ian Straughter

Photo by Kevin Trimmer courtesy of American Clean Power. All rights reserved.

In the ever-evolving landscape of renewable energy, wind power stands at the forefront of sustainable solutions. Recent wind conferences, namely American Floating Offshore Wind Technical Summit and American Clean Power Association, have provided a platform to explore the critical facets of this burgeoning industry.

Here, we delve into the key takeaways illuminating the path forward in harnessing the full potential of wind energy:

1. Regional Collaboration: The Driving Force

At the AFLOAT conference, state leaders from Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts unveiled their shared commitment to wind development in the Gulf of Maine. The collaboration among these states is a powerful testament to the potential of regional cooperation in achieving sustainable energy goals. At the ACP conference, a groundbreaking announcement outlined a tri-state offshore wind procurement involving Rhode Island, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. This regional partnership underscores the importance of collaboration in moving the industry forward and harnessing the full potential of offshore wind projects.

2. Embracing Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity, equity, and inclusion have become foundational principles within the offshore wind industry. At both conferences, a resounding commitment to equal access and opportunity echoed through the sessions. Initiatives like NYSERDA's offshore wind workforce development website demonstrated how to provide accessible training programs and career pathways information within the industry. From designing safety equipment for all genders and body shapes to targeted education and recruitment efforts, the industry is taking inclusive approaches to heart. It's a clear sign that offshore wind aims to be a welcoming industry for all.

3. Advancing Research and Technology

The future of wind energy predominantly hinges on technological innovation, especially in floating technology. Various entities, from the US Department of Energy to state agencies and private organizations, are dedicating substantial resources to research and development (R&D). Notably, the University of Maine's pioneering research into floating technologies leads the way, showcasing our collective commitment to progress.

4. Ports: The Backbone of Offshore Wind

Our nation's ports are critical to the success of offshore wind projects. Investment is required to maintain their state of good repair and prepare them for their role in renewable energy operations. Whether it's readying marshaling ports or construction sites, ensuring that ports are fully equipped for renewable energy applications is a top priority. These ports will serve as the lifelines of the offshore wind industry.

5. The Power of Knowledge Sharing

Offshore wind remains a relatively unfamiliar concept to the broader public. Industry leaders must engage in an ongoing educational effort. At the conferences, it was clear that we share a deep and growing understanding of offshore wind within our industry. However, it's crucial to extend this knowledge beyond our professional circles. We must educate the public about the benefits and challenges of offshore wind and ensure a smooth transition to a more sustainable energy economy.

These conferences have reaffirmed the unwavering dedication of the wind industry to a sustainable future. A collaborative approach positions offshore wind as a dynamic force in the global transition to cleaner energy. The wind sector is poised to fulfill its promise as a leader in the renewable energy revolution by creating equal access to opportunity, advancing research, fortifying infrastructure, and engaging in extensive knowledge sharing.

Community Benefits Investments and the Clean Energy Economy

By Emma Bonanno

Ensuring diverse communities are positioned to benefit from historic clean energy investments is central to the success of state and local economic development and social justice goals. At Karp Strategies, we believe that major clean energy projects can help grow economic opportunity for all through equitable and fair strategies for communities, sensitivity to historic inequities, and advancing a just transition in the clean energy economy.

One of the greatest opportunities to advance these goals is the creation of community benefits programs and investments. When co-designed with impacted communities and stakeholders, community benefits programs can channel funding, information, capacity-building programs, and technical assistance to organizations and individuals in a way that’s equitable and tailored to diverse needs. This helps ensure that local communities and people benefit from major investments.

What do we mean when we say community benefits?

Karp Strategies was founded on the basic principle that local stakeholders deserve full inclusion and autonomy in the decisions and investments that impact their communities—as well as equitable access to the benefits. This is especially crucial within communities that have been historically marginalized but are now experiencing new investments, including disadvantaged and environmental justice communities. Community benefits strategies are a way to ensure that these communities can partake in the benefits of clean energy investments, such as good jobs, supplier contracts, and funding for community priorities and programs.

When working with public, private, and community actors to develop holistic community benefits strategies, we keep several core principles at the forefront of our work:

• Diverse representation. The first step of any community benefits process is to develop an understanding of the full landscape of actors with a demonstrated history and connection to the community. At Karp Strategies, we engage in a comprehensive stakeholder mapping process involving desktop research on organizations and community priorities, conversations and interviews, and attendance at community events and discussions. Representatives should come from many different groups, and it’s the responsibility of the entity making the investment to conduct deep outreach to understand who should have a seat at the table. Finally, assessing community needs is critical to ensure that, once at the table, diverse stakeholders have the necessary information, capacity, and resources to participate actively.

• Upfront and ongoing inclusion. Engagement is a core component of developing successful community benefits strategies—from the initial steps as the process is being developed and working groups are formed, through negotiations on the final structure of programs and investments, to ongoing community input as these strategies are implemented. Our team has expertise in developing inclusive end-to-end engagement strategies that ensure meaningful participation in all stages.

• Understanding impacts. Conducting an impact analysis is critical to understand how the intersecting challenges—both historical and current—influence the way the impacts of major projects and investments manifest across communities. We see this as a prerequisite to meeting communities where they are and coming to conversations and negotiations from a place of empathy and understanding in order to drive successful outcomes for all parties.

• Centering equity. Environmental justice communities, disadvantaged communities, and those who have borne the burden of decades of pollution and environmental racism must be at the forefront of the transition to a clean energy economy—in terms of inclusion, impact, and benefits. As a firm, we lead with equity across all parts of our methodology, advancing work that builds capacity within organizations, communities, and economies.

• Structured implementation. We focus on the long game when developing community investment and benefits strategies, incorporating accountability benchmarks, outlining the strategic dispersal of funds, and planning for the long lifetime of projects.

What do community benefits strategies look like in action?

The strategic development of community benefits programs and investments is one of Karp Strategies’ foundational practice areas. Since her time in graduate school at MIT through her current work with offshore wind developers, economic development agencies, city governments, real estate developers, and others, Founding Principal + CEO Rebecca Karp has written and spoken extensively on the importance of intentional community benefits agreements. Over the years, the Karp Strategies team has been proud to support work on many catalytic projects that bring this intention to their investments in diverse communities.

Two recent examples of our community benefits work are highlighted below—the development of Equinor Wind US’s Offshore Wind Ecosystem Fund and the Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) Green Economy Fund.

Equinor Wind US: Offshore Wind Ecosystem Fund

Private and public sector investments in emerging industries like offshore wind offer once-in-a-generation economic opportunities for communities across the region—opportunities to prioritize sustainable growth alongside racial equity and climate justice.

In 2022, Karp Strategies worked with Equinor Wind US to design and begin implementing the company’s community benefits strategy, setting it up to deliver on the $47 million in community benefits and $25 million in environmental research commitments made to New York State. The product of the first stage of this work was the launch of the $5 million Offshore Wind Ecosystem Fund, designed to make targeted investments in historically marginalized and environmental justice areas and populations in New York City.

Karp Strategies facilitated the development of the investment strategy and governance for the Fund through monthly meetings of a dedicated committee, research and advisory on fund strategy and execution, and engagement with key stakeholders and subject matter experts. This work helped define the Fund’s priority issues and ensure maximum impact for local communities, particularly in the workforce, supply chain, and economic access and growth.

Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE): Green Economy Fund

Ensuring diverse communities are positioned to benefit from historic clean energy investments is central to the success of equitable state and local economic development goals. Karp Strategies works to build inclusive design and recruitment processes for programs and funds, bringing advocates, agencies, and professionals together at the table and driving outcomes that center on social justice and economic mobility.

Karp Strategies, along with sub-consultant Empowering Work Advising (EWA), is working on launching and administering the $40 million Champlain Hudson Power Express (CHPE) Green Economy Fund, designed to support disadvantaged communities, low-income individuals, and transitioning fossil fuel workers in accessing and building careers in New York State’s green economy. The Green Economy Fund will finance workforce development programs and organizations providing wrap-around services that support workers in these target communities to access good jobs in the green economy.

Strategically building a diverse and inclusive RFP process to identify these programs and organizations is central to increasing access to the benefits of the green economy transition—one of the Green Economy Fund’s core priorities. Karp Strategies employs a data-driven approach and leverages our expansive knowledge of New York stakeholders, state and local workforce development priorities, grant management, and the clean energy sector to support recruitment and broaden the pool of applicants. Applications for the first round of funding closed at the end of April, with additional rounds planned for the next several years.

Let us know how we can support you!

Karp Strategies' community benefits practice draws on our expertise in community economic development, large-scale renewable energy projects, and our dedication to a just transition in the energy economy. Our team has extensive experience across engagement, impact analysis, and strategy design, which we bring together to help our clients develop successful and equitable community benefits strategies that center the needs of diverse communities. Let us know how we can support your work!

Coffee with Annie White, Director of Real Estate + Economic Development

Annie in her office. Artwork by Noah MacMillan.

We grabbed coffee with Annie White to talk about her experiences in promoting equity, economic development, and her Midwestern pride! We also got some great stories about some of Annie’s favorite odd jobs over the years.

Annie is the Director of Real Estate and Economic Development at Karp Strategies and joined us after six years at the NYC Department of City Planning. Annie is a big advocate of the importance of recognizing inequitable systems at play in our built environment and working towards creating more equitable systems in their place, as well as engaging the community in this process.

Why did you join Karp Strategies?

I was incredibly excited to join Karp Strategies because I was looking forward to being part of a small but growing and active team. I loved the idea that there was enough space for me to take on the work I wanted to take on while being supported by the leadership team. Also, after working in NYC government, I wanted to have the opportunity to work more on a regional basis and learn more about the offshore wind industry in general. As Director, I have gotten to engage in more real estate planning work (such as zoning analyses, market analyses, land use studies, etc.) and have been able to work on community engagement to ensure the end result of our projects builds equitable wealth for our city and the communities we are serving.

What do you see as the major intersection between architecture and urban planning? What inspired your switch to urban planning primarily?

When I started my career, I was at a small architectural design firm in St. Louis, MO. St. Louis is a city that has seen the full rise and fall of urbanization and population decline. While at the firm, we did a lot of historical rehabilitation and housing work. Being there helped me to realize that I was interested not so much in what we were designing but in the systems in place that allowed all these neighborhoods to see this amount of disinvestment and extreme racial inequality that was present in St. Louis. I went back to planning school to understand these systems more and ended up getting really interested in real estate and economic development. One fun thing to note—I have a lot of Midwestern pride. While in planning school, I was one of the few people who refused to use New York City or Boston case studies—I always would investigate ones from the Midwest.

What do you see as an important policy step that needs to be taken that will make urban planning and design more equitable?

I think that the city needs to be better about equitably distributing resources (both physical as well as programmatic) across the five boroughs. When working in planning, you continually see neighborhoods that take the burden of housing growth and resiliency that should be better and more equitably distributed. We are still living in a deeply segregated and inequitable city. When thinking about the bigger conversations we’re having surrounding housing equality, the resources and benefits that come with having enough affordable mixed-income housing are essential for fair and equitable living.

What advice would you give to an urban planner whose project isn’t the most popular with the public?

I think the most important thing is trying to find some common ground with the public, even when facing extreme opposition. I have learned that there will always be very vocal opposition to any planning work you’re doing, but oftentimes, that is just a very vocal minority. When I worked on the Soho and Noho rezoning projects, we realized that we needed to have large town hall settings but also smaller conversations to meet the locals where they were at. There was also a lot of misinformation; once we could sit people down and discuss the impacts the project would have on their housing situation, we made more headway. Anyone living in unstable housing has fears around rezoning, but once you talk to them one on one, you can find common ground, and people were able to start seeing some of the benefits of the rezoning.

What has been your favorite odd job you’ve worked and why?

I have always worked in the service industry and really enjoyed my time there. But I did end up being DJ for a few weddings in grad school, and that was a really cool experience. Hit me up if you ever need some fabulous wedding playlists—tried and tested!

Tell me about a favorite hobby of yours and how you got into it.

When I was growing up, I played volleyball a lot. I recently got back into this hobby with the volleyball subculture at Domino Park. I started playing in Domino Park during 2020, and it was a fun way to enjoy the outdoors, get a great view of the city, and enjoy the nice weather while we have it.

Fast Facts:

Last TV show I binge-watched: Succession

Restaurant (delivery) I’d recommend to close friends: Xi’an Famous Foods

Book that changed me: Anything by Elena Ferrante

Best concert I’ve ever experienced: Beyonce

Movie I’d pay to see again and again: 10 Things I Hate About You

My Heroes are: A personal one is my sister—she is in med school right now and is an absolute rockstar. Another one is Anthony Bourdain—I was obsessed with him and how he used food to explore and understand different cultures.