A little more than two years ago, the regional climate coalition Project 46 was formed in a bid to unite south-central Indiana communities in combating climate change and securing funds for local projects.
The project has seen some setbacks and some marginal success thus far, and is set to launch its website soon with more information. Most of the work so far has been organizational, positioning the climate alliance to get to work.
Joel Walsman, left, and Max Hanania install solar energy panels on the roof of Worldwide Automotive in 2017 in Bloomington. (Jeremy Hogan / Herald-Times)
Government funding sources are harder to come by now, so the plan is pivoting toward other sources for grant implementation.
How does Project 46 work?
As it stands now, the members of the alliance are the Hoosier cities of Nashville, Columbus and Bloomington. Columbus’ and Bloomington’s mayors and Nashville’s town manager make up Project 46’s steering committee.
The goal of the coalition is to combine resources to make individually smaller communities stronger together. Shawn Miya, Bloomington’s assistant director of sustainability, said that allows them to be more competitive in grant funding, and to effectively fight climate change and its impacts.
Each municipality on the steering committee is expected to pay $0.50 per capita toward the plan’s funds. Private and nonprofit members of the project’s advisory committee are similarly expected to pay dues.
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The funding is then pooled through the alliance’s fiscal sponsor, Heritage Fund – Bartholomew County’s community foundation. Miya said the foundation works as a sort of bank for Project 46.
Advisory committee members will be able to make subcommittees to focus on certain aspects of fighting climate change and create proposals.
What progress has it made so far?
Most of the progress up to this point has been organizational — in the steering committee’s next meeting on July 30, each member will vote on adopting long-term governance measures.
Project 46 also contracted with Farallon Strategies, which has helped it create interim governing measures and those aforementioned long-term documents.
A subcontractor for Farallon Strategies is completing a regional greenhouse gas inventory and high impact action analysis. The subcontractor, at the steering committee’s next meeting, will present its findings to help create a roadmap to large emission reductions.
Project 46 also crafted proposals for more tangible projects that could impact each community, such as solar, electrification of buses, EV charging and more. Part of that was applications for a part of the nearly $5 billion in funding for pollution reduction grants authorized by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Project 46 sent 11 proposals to the Indiana Department of Environmental Management, which pooled submissions from throughout the state and submitted for the grants on their behalf. Indiana University also applied for several of the grants for its own climate action plan.
IDEM selected seven of Project 46’s proposals, but was unsuccessful in securing the grants.
“It’s too bad they didn’t get selected, but we still have all those 11 project proposals,” Miya said.
The proposals are still there, all listed on Project 46’s interim website, waiting for funding.
The alliance also is working on creating a dedicated new website that will launch in a few weeks. The new website will include the regional greenhouse gas inventory, information on joining and more.
Finally, project committee hopes to hire a full-time Project 46 coordinator, who will help with guiding the alliance and implementation of proposals.
Bloomington’s plan to combat climate change
Bloomington has already made solid inroads on cutting its emissions — the city is on track for a 25% reduction by 2030, starting from a 2018 baseline. Still, net zero is proving difficult.
The city is behind on its goal to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, according to its 2023 greenhouse gas inventory published in January this year.
Miya said Project 46’s goals will directly help Bloomington’s climate change and emission reduction goals. And beyond that, she believes it’s the city’s responsibility to share its expertise in sustainability programs.
“I’m hoping that what we’ve done here in Bloomington can be replicated across the region,” Miya said.
State and federal impacts
Columbus Mayor Mary Ferdon said in an email that funding opportunities from the state and federal governments are less available now. That doesn’t mean all funding is gone, though.
Private institutions and foundations all have current opportunities, which Project 46 is pivoting toward. Ferdon said that they’ll be working to connect residents in businesses in Columbus to existing funding.
“Now is not the time to slow down or give up on climate action,” Miya said. “In fact, now is the time to come together and do what we can to implement projects with regional funding so that when those federal grants come around again, we have proven ourselves to be an effective climate alliance.”
Contact Andrew Miller at AMiller@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Project 46 outlines climate proposals for Bloomington Nashville Columbus