How often does Laura Thomas have to explain what sustainability is? “All the time” laughs the director of Richmond’s office of sustainability, which was established two years ago to “enhance the quality of life for all residents by making Richmond equitable, healthy and resilient,” as the mission statement goes.
Since coming online, Thomas has hit the ground running, building a handpicked staff of eight, and establishing the office as a necessary hub for the area’s conservation and preservation. Her focus has been on planning and implementing forward-thinking action plans like the Climate Equity Action Plan, which seeks to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030, and RVAGreen2050, which addresses the impact of climate change on the region’s historically underrepresented and economically disadvantaged communities.
“There are 136 action items in the RVAGreen2050 plan, and we’ve already completed 15% of those,” she says. “Everything we do is centered in this concept of environmental justice and the historic disenfranchisement of Black and brown communities in the city of Richmond.”
Thomas is a Henrico native, a graduate of J.R. Tucker High School who got her biology degree from VCU before getting her master’s degree in sustainability from the University of Wisconsin. She moved to Florida, where she spent time as a hazardous waste chemist for the state before becoming the sustainability director for Largo, Florida.
While in Florida, she developed a program for accessing climate vulnerability. When she came home to Richmond, she brought that same program here. “Seeing the impacts of storms like Helene in western North Carolina and Milton in Florida, we recognize that those impacts are going to be here in Richmond as well,” she says. “We have flooding, urban heat, the effect of wildfire smoke and the threat of drought in the region. It’s important to analyze how vulnerable we are to these climate hazards.”
“She and her office don’t get enough credit,” says Sheri Shannon of Southside ReLeaf, a Richmond-based environmental group that advocates for tree preservation. “It’s very easy to bash city hall for its dysfunction, but there are good folks doing good work and the office of sustainability is a shining example of that.” She notes that sustainability is something that is broad across all of the decisions the city makes; “it includes school facilities, city-owned buildings, it includes the way we are expanding sidewalks in neighborhoods or how we use resilience hubs … basically, all the things we have to do to address this changing climate.”
