City of Memphis, Tennessee, an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action Employer, seeks to retain the services of a team of consultants to provide professional services for climate action planning work for the Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan. City of Memphis is issuing this Request for Qualifications (RFQ) to solicit written proposals from consultants who are interested in providing such services. Based on an evaluation of responses to this RFQ, one team of consultants will be selected and invited to participate in further discussions and negotiation of a contract agreement for the requested services.

The City of Memphis recently began work to develop the Memphis 3.0 Comprehensive Plan, the city's first comprehensive plan since 1981, to guide land use, development, transportation, infrastructure, neighborhood improvement, and other built environment considerations. The plan is structured around four pillars and related issues:

• Connectivity, inclusive of transit and transportation demand management, freight, complete streets, and integrating technological advancements in land use and transportation design;
• Livability, inclusive of land use and development, parks, public space, and open space, urban design, art, and historic preservation;
• Opportunity, inclusive of workforce and business development, economic development and growth, blight and neighborhood improvement, and housing and infill; and
• Sustainability, inclusive of efficiency and conservation of resources and building resilient communities.

The City's Office of Comprehensive Planning (OCP) is leading the planning process. The planning process began in November 2016 and will conclude in January 2019. OCP, with the assistance of community-based working groups and external technical advisors, is leading the first phases of the plan effort, developing background research, establishing vision statements and goals, and developing conceptual future growth scenarios. These first phases will conclude in the release of a Vision document in November-December 2017 to guide a 9-month district-scale process to follow.

In 2015, the City of Memphis signed on to the Compact of Mayors – now the Global Covenant of Mayors for Climate and Energy – a formal commitment of city leaders across the world to tackle climate change by taking steps to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and enhance resilience and adaptation in their communities. As part of the mitigation part of this commitment, the City must inventory its community-wide greenhouse gas emissions, establish targets for reducing emissions, and complete a climate action plan (CAP) that includes strategies for achieving these emission reductions. In 2016, staff in the Memphis-Shelby County Office of Sustainability completed a community-wide greenhouse gas inventory using a baseline year of 2012. Due to overlapping timelines and topic areas, the City decided to include the climate action planning process within the broader comprehensive planning effort.

OCP seeks to select a team of consultants to lead a climate action planning process that will run from February 2018 through August 2018. Firms must possess experience in local climate action planning and must adhere to all Title VI requirements and provide proof/documentation. Selected firms will be responsible for the following major tasks:

• Review the 2012 community-wide baseline greenhouse gas inventory and develop refinements and/or improvements
• Complete an updated greenhouse gas inventory using 2016 data or the most recent year for which complete data is available
• Recommend community-wide greenhouse gas emission reduction targets
• Prepare a climate action plan that details strategies for achieving these reduction targets and is developed in collaboration with key partners, stakeholders, and community members
• Develop and implement an outreach and engagement strategy for the planning process and plan implementation that includes robust public engagement with a particular focus on equity and empowering communities that have not traditionally had a strong voice in these kinds of efforts, as well as a plan for communicating progress and benefits of action

All of these tasks must meet the Global Covenant of Mayors compliance requirements.