RFP for Project 46: Southern Indiana Regional Climate Alliance Consulting Services

The Project 46 Steering Committee (Steering Committee) is seeking the services of a professional, qualified Consultant to serve as Project 46’s coordinator from April 2026 through the end of April 2028. The Consultant will serve as the operational backbone of Project 46, ensuring consistent progress across committees, subcommittees, partners, and community stakeholders. The Consultant will manage governance functions, develop a funding strategy, support communications, track data, and participate in onsite engagement efforts to collectively advance climate, sustainability, and resilience goals across the southern Indiana region.

Background

The Project 46 Southern Indiana Regional Climate Alliance (Project 46) is a regional climate alliance among the communities of Bloomington, Nashville and Columbus, Indiana that aims to identify and pursue solutions that effectively address shared challenges and opportunities related to climate change.

Combustion of fossil fuels is warming Earth’s atmosphere and changing the climate, disrupting the delicate balance of Earth’s ecosystems. Climate change is already affecting Indiana communities by straining city infrastructure, adversely affecting human health, and causing disruptions to the local economy. It is important to address these climate impacts now, as climate change will become much more severe in the coming decades, contributing to additional strain on vulnerable populations, social systems, and overall community resilience. 

Actions by a regional climate alliance are key to addressing climate change because many emissions are produced and can be reduced at a regional level with immediate positive impacts on regional communities' quality of life. Climate change represents an opportunity for regional communities to take this action and lower their carbon footprint through more efficient infrastructure and sustainable development. Transformation of Indiana’s energy infrastructure will be essential to meet climate goals due to the current utilization of carbon-intensive fuel sources for electricity generation. This transition towards renewable and low-carbon fuel sources represents a chance to collectively reduce regional communities' carbon footprint. Directing the community’s energy investments towards renewable sources will create a more diversified and resilient energy system, while also fostering local job creation. The promise of innovation, technological, and social change that climate action can bring represents the possibility of improved environmental, economic, and equity outcomes across the region.  

Project 46 seeks to secure funding to address the impacts of climate change. This funding will provide the means necessary to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by investing in large-scale regional projects such as solar energy, electric vehicle charging infrastructure, fleet electrification, and building electrification and energy efficiency. Project 46 will also seek funding to address the impacts of extreme weather events across the region, including (but not limited to) investing in green and gray infrastructure improvements to reduce flooding.

Project Details

• Department: Economic & Sustainable Development
• Department Head: Jane Kupersmith (Director for ESD)

Important Dates

• Questions Due: 2026-03-30T21:00:00.000Z
• Answers Posted By: 2026-04-01T21:00:00.000Z

Addenda

• Addendum #1 (released 2026-03-26T14:31:48.118Z) —

  RPF Addendum #1

• Addendum #2 (released 2026-03-31T13:58:47.182Z) —

  RFP Addendum #2

Evaluation Criteria

• Responsiveness/Completion of Proposal (15 pts) —

  Were all the requested documents and information requested included with the proposal?

• Experience/Qualifications (25 pts) —

  Firm's experience working within the requested Service arena; firm's experience working with Municipalities and their ability to complete the Scope of Work on time, and on budget.

• Proposed Solution and Scope of Services (25 pts) —

  Does the Firm understand what it will take to successfully achieve the goals and objectives of the requested services? How well does the Firm meet the technical and functional requirements as described in the Scope of Work?

• Budget (35 pts) —

  Does the budget seem reasonable for the Scope of Work proposed; does the budget provide the alliance good value?

Submission Requirements

• Proposal Requirements (required) —

  Did you read through and confirm that you met all of the proposal requirements including the sections:

  1. General Conditions
  2. Special Provisions and Specifications
• Proposal Documents (required) —

  Please Upload your COMPLETE Proposal here, which includes the following:

  1. Bid Summary
  2. Statement of Experience and Qualifications
  3. Non-Collusion Declaration
• Proposal (without Cost Proposal) (required) —

  Please Upload your COMPLETE Proposal here. Upload fee proposal separately in the next step.

• Separate Cost Proposal (required) —

  Confirm that your fee proposal is not attached in your Proposal and is attached separately here.

• Bid Bond (required) —

  Each bid shall be accompanied by a certified cashier’s check, or bid bond, in the amount of 5% of the total bid price, payable toCity of Bloomington, as a guarantee that the bidder, if its bid is accepted, will promptly execute the Agreement. The bidder shall guarantee the total bid price for a period of 60 days from the date of the bid opening.

  Please scan and upload a copy of your bid bond/cashier's check. Bidder must also MAIL bid guarantee with a postmarked date no later thanThursday, April 2, 2026 addressed to:

  City of Bloomington
  Julie Martindale
  401 N. Morton St.
  Bloomington,IN47403

  Please have the Bidder Name, Contract Title ("RFP for Project 46: Southern Indiana Regional Climate Alliance Consulting Services"), and Contract Number ("TBD") listed clearly on the outside of the envelope.

• Contract Execution, Payment Bond, Performance Bond, and Certificate(s) of Insurance (required) —

  The contract shall be executed by the successful bidder and shall be returned, together with the Payment Bond, Performance Bond and Certificate(s) of Insurance to City of Bloomington so that it is received within 14 working daysafter the bidder has received the contract for execution. Failure to do so shall be just cause for forfeiture of the proposal guaranty.

• Bid Bond (required) —

  Will this solicitation require a bid bond?

• Electronic Pricing Table (required) —

  Would you like to have bidders respond to an electronic pricing table through ProcureNow?

  Some examples of of when to say "yes":

  1. This is a quote for goods or commodities
  2. This is a public works bid, with a pricing table that can be uploaded into ProcureNow from an excel spreadsheet
  3. Seeking services for hourly rate schedules
• Separate Fee Proposal Upload (required) —

  If you are NOT using the Electronic Pricing Table option, will you want your bidder to separate a Price Proposal from the rest of their Response? You'll want to do this if you open your bids initially WITHOUT showing price, and then come back in after a technical evaluation to unseal pricing later.

• Evaluation Committee? (required) —

  Will there be an evaluation committee to review the proposals and score them based on weights and multiple criteria?