Francine Locke leads Delaware County as their first Chief Sustainability Officer, serving 576,830 residents in 49 municipalities located in the 5th most populous county in Pennsylvania. Francine operationalizes sustainability through overseeing the Planning Department, Public Works, Facilities, Fleet Management, Parks & Recreation and the Conservation District. She is moving the needle on climate action through developing the County’s first sustainability plan and managing a $9M operating budget and $75M capital budget. With her team, she is electrifying the County’s fleet of over 300 vehicles, collaborating with neighboring counties to procure renewable energy, and designing energy efficient buildings and safe walking and biking infrastructure. Francine previously headed the development and implementation of the School District of Philadelphia’s award-winning sustainability program, GreenFutures, serving 200,293 students. She is a graduate of Temple University in Philadelphia with a Master of Science in Environmental Health and a Bachelor of Science in Biology.
SESSIONS
Operationalizing Sustainability into Local Government Agencies
In 2021, Delaware County, PA, hired its first Chief Sustainability Officer. She operationalized sustainability into 6 departments: Planning, Public Works, Parks & Recreation, Facilities, Fleet and the Conservation District. This organizational structure successfully infused a measurable sustainability and climate action plan into each department.Learn strategic planning approach to operationalizing sustainability into government agencies using measurable actions and outputs.
Learning Objectives
- Learn how to create an organizational structure that operationalizes sustainability and resiliency within a government agency.
- Learn how to develop a successful high-impact, holistic government sustainability plan with cost effective, attainable and measurable.
- Learn how to obtain useful input and actions from stakeholders that feed a government agency's sustainability plan and initiatives.
- Learn how government agencies can successfully fundraise with private sponsors for sustainability initiatives using a nonprofit fund
- Learn how to identify relevant and meaningful focus areas for a government agency sustainability plan.
Participant Outcomes
- Develop a culture of sustainability within a government agency through a strategic organizational structure.
- Identify measurable actions and outcomes for sustainability planning within a government agency.
- Organize stakeholders for successful sustainability planning in government agencies.
- Develop a fundraising strategy for government agency sustainability initiatives using a nonprofit fund sponsor.
- Identify key focus areas for sustainability planning within a government agency.