
Projects
​At Tellus, we create and implement positive planet solutions grounded in sound science and data-driven analysis, with a focus on conservation, revitalization, and adaptation. Through human-centered design, we foster inclusive engagement and collaborative, iterative processes with our clients, ensuring that solutions are tailored, refined, and enriched with innovative strategies to achieve project goals and help strengthen our communities, nation, and world. We invite you to explore some examples of our project experience below.
Tellus Clients
U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command • USACE Alaska District • USACE San Francisco District • U.S. Agency for International Development • U.S. Environmental Protection Agency • U.S. Indo-Pacific Command • Center for Excellence in Disaster Management & Humanitarian Response • National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration • Virginia Tech • California State Water Resources Control Board • California Ocean Protection Council
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PROJECT EXPERIENCE
Client

Project Description
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Climate Resilience Regional Challenge (CRRC) – Tellus supports the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office for Coastal Management (OCM) in providing technical assistance to the grantees of the five-year Climate Resilience Regional Challenge (CRRC). Our team of Resilience Specialists help guide and ensure the success of 18 transformational grants aimed at reducing the impacts from storms, floods, sea level rise, coastal erosion, extreme heat, and other natural hazards. We support the implementation of climate adaptation and resilience projects to either develop regional planning coalitions or deploy resilience projects such as climate-ready infrastructure updates to transportation corridors, flood plain management, bluff stabilization, storm water management, community-led migration, restoring watersheds and wetlands, enhancing coastal stewardship, improving marine environments, and supporting economic development. Under this program, we are engaging with hundreds of diverse populations to include vulnerable, tribal, indigenous, EJ, and economically disadvantaged communities to understand their concerns, priorities, and challenges. Our team is utilizing an array of facilitation and public involvement techniques to gain concurrence, build consensus across groups, and build trust. Projects are located across the U.S., including Alaska, Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Micronesia, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, U.S. Virgin Islands, Virginia, Washington, and Wisconsin.


California Stalled Leaking Underground Storage Tank (LUST) Support – Tellus supports the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and California State Water Resources Control Board in a multi-year program to prompt corrective actions at LUST cleanup sites where soil and/or groundwater has been impacted and the assessment and/or remediation necessary for case closure has stalled. Stalled cleanup cases often serve as blight and productive redevelopment cannot occur until cleanup is completed. Tellus works with lead regulators to identify stalled cases and provides recommendations to prioritize those impacting the health of sensitive communities, and strategies to implement those recommended actions. Tellus helps to facilitate improved regulatory oversight, conducts outreach to stakeholders, and enables alignment to funding programs that help responsible parties move LUST cases through the cleanup process. For sites with redevelopment potential, Tellus utilizes a “Vision-to-Action” (V2A) community engagement model, a proven method for working with communities to reimagine underutilized and abandoned properties. It engages municipal staff, residents, community-based organizations (CBOs), EJ groups, regulators, local businesses, and property owners to establish goals and compare alternatives to optimize redevelopment outcomes.


California Underground Storage Tank (UST) Leak Prevention Support – Tellus supports the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 (EPA) and the California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) with their Underground Storage Tank (UST) Unauthorized Release Prevention Program. Tellus makes recommendations for process improvements or policy and legislative changes to reduce the prevalence of new releases from petroleum UST systems in California, as well as providing training to state staff on UST leak prevention regulations. Further, Tellus addresses out-of-compliance UST systems, which threaten to impact human health and the environment, providing strategies, resources, and assess penalties in order to bring the sites into compliance with leak prevention regulations. Tellus is also focused on addressing abandoned UST sites throughout California, where releases of petroleum may have occurred and impacted human health and the environment and there is no documentation of proper removal and sampling. Such abandoned sites are often concentrated in underserved communities, where capital investment has been historically low. Through the alignment of funding and stakeholder outreach, Tellus works to bring such sites into compliance to support the health of sensitive populations and environmental justice (EJ) communities, while ensuring those same underserved communities maintain access to fuel resources throughout the state.


California Underground Storage Tank Enforcement Support – Tellus supports the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 9 (EPA) and California State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) Office of Enforcement in pursuing regulatory enforcement cases against individuals and corporations who are out-of-compliance with UST leak prevention regulations and/or UST leak cleanup directives, with a particular focus on sites where sensitive populations and/or environmental Justice (EJ) communities are impacted. Tellus identifies out-of-compliance sites where the offending party has significant financial resources through ability to pay analysis and coordinates efforts between local and county level oversight agencies, the Regional Water Quality Control Boards, and the State Water Board Division of Water Quality, in order to ensure that responsible parties are properly identified, appropriately notified, and if possible, brought into voluntary compliance. For sites where voluntary compliance is not feasible, Tellus works closely with the legal team at the State Water Board Office of Enforcement to provide technical support to inform the enforcement cases with non-compliance data move through the legal process toward an administrative civil liability judgement or settlement.


Indo-Pacific Environmental Security Partnership and Annual Forum – Tellus' team has supported the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s (USINDOPACOM) environmental security program since 2016 via contracts with the U.S. Army of Corps of Engineers Alaska District and the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command for both the J4 Logistics and Engineering and the Center for Excellence in Disaster Management & Humanitarian Assistance Directorates. Our team researches and facilitates dialogue on priority environmental security challenges with USINDOPACOM, host nations, country partner representatives, subject matter experts (SMEs), and engages keystone stakeholders to develop the forum agenda. Within the forum, we develop capacity building and collaboration opportunities to address vulnerabilities caused by the abundance or scarcity of environmental resources and/or degradation. We convene civilian and military partners to share best practices and coordinate on security issues related to water, waste, energy, food, biosecurity, natural disasters, and other non-traditional threats, which can contribute to serious national security challenges. We have successfully supported USINDOPACOM with the preparation, coordination, and execution of six annual environmental security forums. Additionally, Tellus has organized project development workshops to guide partners through defining project goals, objectives, partners, scope, budget, and key stakeholders resulting in 80 project concepts produced from 20+ countries and Tellus actively worked with partners to design and scope sustained environmental security projects (i.e. K. Huraa, Maldives climate adaptation and mangrove restoration project). Our team contributed to the 2019 Terms of Reference (TOR) establishing the Indo-Pacific Environmental Security Partnership (Partnership), working closely with the New Zealand Ministry of Defence, the Australia Defence Force, Arizona State University, and USINDOPACOM’s J445 and currently supports the new Partnership Steering Committee with the roll out of the redesigned Partnership and Forum.

2024 Plastic Pollution Reduction Feasibility Study – Tellus conducted a feasibility study focused on the Republic of Fiji with the goal of gaining insights into the extent of plastic pollution within the country, waste management practices, and opportunities for creating a regional circular economy, such that scalable strategies may be replicated in other Small Island Developing States (SIDS). Our team compiled data on the extent of plastic pollution, the primary contributors to pollution, and the waste management practices across the 13 jurisdictions in Fiji. To inform the study, Tellus performed desktop research, reviewed published data, and analyzed local governance framing plastics and other solid waste management. This included reviewing case studies and technology solutions for plastic pollution reduction, including a review of possible funding sources. Tellus also conducted on-the-ground surveys and stakeholder interviews to establish a baseline for plastic pollution and community waste management practices. Tellus consulted with ministries, municipalities, regional and local NGOs, universities, and civil society to help define the extent of plastic pollution, outline needs and objectives, and assess potential solution timelines. Tellus provided recommendations on reduction strategies such as broader waste management, collection, and recycling; community-scale technology and circular economy solutions; plastic-free procurement practices; and plastic credits.

2023 Coastal Resilience Workshop – Tellus organized and executed the 2023 Coastal Resilience Workshop in Palau, in collaboration with the Strategic Environmental Research & Development Program (SERDP) and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP), which funded the project, and worked closely with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), to identify research & development and technology gaps in protecting and restoring coral reef, seagrass, mangrove, and salt marsh ecosystems. Over 70 coastal ecosystem subject matter experts and policy makers from 10 countries in the Indo-Pacific Region attended the event, which was co-hosted by the Palau Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries, and Environment (MAFE). Tellus facilitated working group exercises to assess gaps in research and development for coastal resiliency, specific to small island developing states. Topics included climate risk analysis, loss of biodiversity and traditional foods, and nature-based solutions to adapt to a changing climate.

2023 Invasive Species Forum – Tellus supported USINDOPACOM in planning and executing the 2023 Invasive Species Forum in Guam. In coordination with the Government of Guam—and with support from the Department of Defense's (DoD) Strategic Environmental Research and Development Program (SERDP) and the Environmental Security Technology Certification Program (ESTCP)—Tellus convened 70 military, civilian agencies, and academia from the Indo-Pacific region to discuss the current state of the science on invasive species research and development (R&D), share best practices in both terrestrial and marine biosecurity, and develop a needs assessment and research project concepts. The workshop involved discussions and information sharing around marine, invertebrate, ungulate, and non-western/traditional invasive species management; as well as early detection and rapid response frameworks and genetic sequencing needs. Participants shared biosecurity best practices to limit the spread of invasive species through inadvertent transport of deployed and redeployed military materiel. The outcomes from the workshop are being utilized to advance the science for improving detection, surveillance, mitigation, and eradication of invasive species.

2023 Mangrove and Seagrass Resilience through Pacific Island Blue Carbon Knowledge Exchange (PI-BLUEX) – Tellus collaborated with the U.S. Forest Service and a team of blue carbon experts to develop a classroom and field workshop on the importance of mangroves and blue carbon, how to establish mangrove plots, how to measure vegetation, debris, soils, and sediments, and how to measure carbon in mangroves using the PI-BLUEX Field Methodology. Tellus conducted site field visits with local mangrove experts to determine suitable locations for civilian and military representatives to practice the field methodology in Sri Lanka during the workshop.

Higher Education Partnership for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (HEP-DRI) - From early 2024 to early 2025, Tellus supported the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) on an academic consortium led by Virginia Tech to lay the foundation for the Higher Education Partnership for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (HEP-DRI). The objective of HEP-DRI was to mainstream disaster and climate resilient infrastructure into higher education and ensure integration of gender and social inclusion issues to empower and advance vulnerable populations. The project leveraged and strengthened a network of U.S. and Indian academic institutions and key partners with the aim of creating a new generation of infrastructure professionals capable of promoting risk-informed infrastructure planning, design, development, and maintenance. As the only non-academic partner, Tellus provided guidance on promoting equality and advancing the status of women and girls, gender diverse, disabled, and historically marginalized populations. We implemented USAID’s guiding principles of gender equity and social inclusion (GESI) and empowerment into our approach, which are integrated, intersectional, transformative, locally-led, collaborative, accountable, and do no harm. Tellus helped develop a Gender Equality and Inclusive Development Action Plan (GIDAP), in which we identified gender and social inequities, defined activities to address the inequities, and established targets and indicators to measure progress. We conducted stakeholder research and outreach to NGOs in India to help inform the development of best practices for empowering women in the renewable energy industry and other power sector fields.

Sea Level Rise Impacts to Contaminated Cleanup Sites – In support of the California Natural Resources Agency’s Ocean Protection Council (OPC), Tellus geologists and engineers are evaluating potential Sea Level Rise (SLR) impacts on existing and closed contaminated cleanup sites. The sites included in this project are overseen by the State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board), the nine Regional Water Quality Control Boards (Regional Water Boards), and the approximately 20 Local Oversight Agencies implementing a cleanup program. The State Water Resources Control Board (State Water Board) will create a prioritization tool within their GeoTracker database to identify the open and closed cleanup cases that are most sensitive to sea level rise, which is referred to as the SLR Prioritization Tool. Tellus is assisting the State Water Board in conducting historical cleanup record research and integration, as well as with implementation of the GeoTracker SLR Prioritization Tool, ultimately creating a statewide vulnerability assessment of contaminated sites to the impacts of SLR.

ResilientScape – Tellus partnered with Claremont Graduate University’s (CGU) Geographic Information System (GIS) Practicum in 2023 to create ResilientScape, an interactive mapping tool, designed to identify and support environmentally and socio-economically disadvantaged communities in California that are at high risk to natural hazards, such as drought, flooding, heat waves, and wildfires. Environmental justice (EJ) communities that endure high exposure to climate change impacts need targeted support to improve disaster preparedness and resiliency, such as community planning, capacity building, green infrastructure, and renewable energy projects Tellus developed the concept for ResilientScape, established core requirements of the tool to meet the needs of EJ communities, and provided regular guidance to the GIS Practicum students as they digested and integrated large public datasets, then developed the user interface and tool functionality. The resulting composite map enables a nuanced understanding of compound risk, revealing which neighborhoods are not only physically exposed to disasters and environmental health risks, but also lack the resources and capacity to recover effectively, thereby supporting evidence-based decision-making for resilience planning. Tellus has used ResilientScape as a model to create other interactive maps to determine impacts from sea level rise to contaminated sites and help prioritize single-walled underground storage tank sites.