A Climate Conversation with Doug Hooker, Executive Director of the Atlanta Regional Commission

Chapters

00:00 Welcome and Meet Doug Hooker 

02:15 What Is the Atlanta Regional Commission? 

03:28 Building Climate-Friendly Transportation Options 

07:03 Building Resilience Into Infrastructure 

08:53 The Climate Conscious Communities Program 

11:42 Challenges: Political Will, Funding, and Systems Change 

14:44 Doug Hooker’s Proudest Climate Achievement at ARC

What does the Atlanta Regional Commission (ARC) do, and how is the organization helping advance climate solutions in the Atlanta area? Blair Beasley of Drawdown Georgia sits down with Doug Hooker, executive director of the ARC, to discuss the climate initiatives the commission supports, from Climate Conscious Communities to energy efficiency to green transportation alternatives.

Who Is Doug Hooker, and What Does the ARC Actually Do?

Doug shares his path from mechanical engineer at Georgia Power to leading the Atlanta Regional Commission since 2011, and breaks down the ARC’s broad portfolio, from transportation and water supply planning to workforce development and aging services across the ten-county Atlanta region.

Getting Georgians Out of Single-Occupancy Vehicles

Doug explains how ARC’s mobility services group helps employers set up alternative commuting programs, including telework, and how long-range planning for mass transit and a new regional trails plan could create one of the largest connected trail systems in the country.

Planning for a More Resilient Region

Doug describes how ARC’s transportation and stormwater teams use rainfall and climate modeling to identify where infrastructure is most at risk, and how the commission now incentivizes resilient design as part of its transportation planning grants.

How Friendly Competition Drives Climate Action

Doug walks through the Climate Conscious Communities program, and how ARC has used voluntary certification, and a bit of friendly rivalry between neighboring cities and counties, to spread sustainability practices across the region without offering funding.

What’s Standing in the Way of Climate-Friendly Infrastructure?

Doug identifies political will and funding as the two biggest barriers to climate-friendly infrastructure, and shares how ARC uses research and polling to show elected officials there’s often more public support for climate action than they assume.

What You’ll Learn

• How the Atlanta Regional Commission’s work touches nearly every aspect of climate solutions across a ten-county region.
• How ARC is planning for one of the largest connected regional trail systems in the country.
• How rainfall and climate modeling now shape which infrastructure projects get funded.
• How the Climate Conscious Communities program uses friendly competition, not funding, to drive local climate action.
• Why political will and funding remain the biggest obstacles to climate-friendly infrastructure, and how ARC works around them.

Continue reading in our companion blog for more on how the Atlanta Regional Commission is advancing climate solutions.

Download the Interview Transcript

Prefer to read the conversation instead? Download the complete transcript of this interview to explore Doug Hooker’s insights on climate solutions in the Atlanta region.