Greenwood, South Carolina is doing something that relatively few communities its size have attempted: taking a systematic look at whether its plans match its vulnerabilities and building a cross-sector coalition to act on what it finds. For a smaller city in a rural county that kind of proactive, evidence-based work takes real commitment. VisionGreenwood and Sustain SC, two organizations that have invested for years in Greenwood’s future, brought the Shi Institute in to provide the analytical backbone: a structured review of seven existing community plans, and the facilitation to turn those findings into action.
The work focused on crafting a road map for the recently launched Greenwood Resilience and Sustainability (R&S) Council, a cross-sector coalition bringing together local leaders around shared community resilience priorities. The effort required deep partnership. VisionGreenwood leveraged strong local connections and provided funding; Sustain SC brought regional relationships and industry experience; the Shi Institute contributed the analytical expertise, plan review, and facilitation.
What the Research Revealed
The Shi Institute conducted a structured review of all seven existing community plans for Greenwood, systematically coding 482 actions and 269 concerns against a framework of 50 distinct “shocks” (acute events like floods or cyberattacks) and “stressors” (long-term trends like housing instability or drought). The analysis surfaced several significant mismatches between what Greenwood’s plans prioritize and what the community actually faces.
- Responses to extreme heat are nearly absent from local plans: The SC Office of Resilience identifies extreme heat as the #1 inland hazard in the state. Climate projections point to 50 or more additional days above 95°F annually for the region by 2100. Yet across all seven plans reviewed, committed actions to address extreme heat were almost nonexistent — a significant planning gap given the documented trajectory.
- Drought actions are underscaled for the threat: Greenwood has experienced three major droughts in the past 21 years, and long-term trends point toward drier summers ahead. Local plans do contain some actions related to drought and water, but the volume and specificity of those commitments falls well short of what the documented risk warrants.
- Social stressors rarely appear in formal plans — but they shape who recovers: Workshop participants named drug and alcohol misuse and food insecurity among their primary community concerns. The plan review found near-zero committed actions addressing either across all seven documents. These aren’t peripheral issues. Chronic social stressors don’t just reflect community challenges — they shape who can actually prepare for, and recover from, acute climate events. A household managing food insecurity or substance use disorder has a fundamentally different capacity to respond to a heat emergency or a prolonged drought. One important contribution of this work was helping participants see resilience not just as disaster preparedness, but as the sustained effort to keep people safe, stable, and connected — a framing that connects climate work to the community concerns participants already care deeply about.
- Priority areas where the Council can accelerate progress: Not all findings were gaps. Affordable housing, public transportation, and economic development emerged as areas with meaningful plan-level commitments — places where the R&S Council is positioned to support and amplify existing efforts rather than build from scratch.
From Research to Action
The findings informed two facilitated workshops — held on March 26 and April 30, 2026 — that brought together stakeholders from across Greenwood’s public, private, and nonprofit sectors. The first session prioritized the shocks and stressors that matter most to the Council. The second translated those priorities into specific action items for the R&S Council to lead or support, distinguishing between areas where the Council should catalyze new efforts (gap areas) and areas where it should work alongside existing initiatives (priority areas).
What This Kind of Work Makes Possible
Greenwood’s willingness to ask hard questions about its own plans — and to bring the right partners to the table to help answer them — is the kind of leadership that makes real resilience possible. The Shi Institute provides the analytical depth and facilitation capacity to make that process rigorous and actionable, turning a stack of planning documents into a clear picture of where to focus energy next. As a registered Climate Adaptation Practitioner through Climate Smart Communities, we bring nationally recognized standards to this work. If your community is ready to take a deep look at where its plans fall short — and build the partnerships to close those gaps — reach out to learn how we can help.
