UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Penn State students are making an impact on climate change at the local level by helping officials across Pennsylvania track the carbon footprint in their communities and recommending ways to reduce it.
On Earth Day 2024, Penn State is recognizing more than 30 undergraduate and graduate students from the University Park campus and Penn State World Campus who have participated in the Local Climate Action Program. The students have worked with almost 20 government agencies in Pennsylvania over the past two academic years, and the experience has given them the opportunity to use their Penn State education to benefit communities across Pennsylvania.
Through the Local Climate Action Program, students are paired each fall semester with a municipal government or state agency to create an inventory of greenhouse gas emissions using publicly available data.
In the spring semester, using the inventories, the students work with government officials to identify the next steps in reducing the area’s emissions and assist with projects, such as drafting climate action plans, creating community surveys or updating rooftop solar ordinances. The documentation the students put together can also be used when the governments seek out federal funding for energy projects.
Supporting local climate action efforts
The Local Climate Action Program is led by Penn State Sustainability. The University’s chief sustainability officer, Lara Fowler, applauded the work of the Local Climate Action Program “for providing much-needed assistance to local and state governments.”
She observed that students help set the stage for further action by communities and state agencies, which helps set them up for potential state and federal funding opportunities.
“You need a plan to apply for funding. By working closely with communities, the students’ work can help deliver significant benefits now and in the future for these communities,” Fowler said.
The students are studying environmental- and sustainability-related degree programs offered in residence at University Park or online through Penn State World Campus. Students who apply and are accepted work closely with co-directors Peter Buck, a program manager with Penn State Sustainability, and Brandi Robinson, an associate teaching professor in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences who teaches online through World Campus. The students receive course credit while completing their projects remotely.
“The Local Climate Action Program creates an engaging, sustained experience for students to create a positive impact in local communities by helping local governments advance their climate initiatives,” Robinson said. “Most academic curriculum doesn’t yet prepare students to inventory greenhouse gas emissions or engage in climate action planning despite this need growing in all sectors of society. We’re proud to support local climate efforts in our Pennsylvania communities while training our students for exciting careers in government, the private sector and more.”
Working across Pennsylvania
The 2022-23 academic year was the first year Penn State led the program after taking over its management from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection. That year, students worked with municipal officials in Scranton, Reading, Eric, Doylestown and State College, among others.
In the 2023-24 academic year, municipal partners include Solebury Township in Bucks County, Mechanicsburg in Cumberland County, Conshohocken in Montgomery County and Palmer Township in Northampton County. Students were also paired with Centre County government and the Pennsylvania Department of Conversation of Natural Resources.
Vijay Chiluveru, a master’s student in energy and mineral engineering with the College of EMS at University Park, is one of three students paired with the Department of Conservation of Natural Resources. He said the student team has been scoping the sources of emissions from the operations of the state agency that maintains state parks and state forests.
Chiluveru said once the team completes the inventory, they will write a comprehensive report with recommendations to optimize DCNR’s operations with sustainability in mind.
“It is deeply satisfying to see my talent and skills put to effective use in addressing the DCNR's need to benchmark their operational greenhouse gas emissions,” Chiluveru said. “DCNR is a large governmental organization whose active participation in the LCAP program is a glowing testimony that our collective efforts here are considerable and noticeable.”
On April 30, Chiluveru and the students on his team, Kathy Cappelli Breier and Omar Padilla, will present to DCNR higher-level managers about the climate action project.
“Penn State has a rich history and deep expertise in sustainability and climate change, so partnering with the Local Climate Action Program was a natural fit,” said Greg Czarnecki, a director of applied science at DCNR. “Each of DCNR’s 124 state parks and 2.2. million acres of state forests are much like small communities. Our parks and forests contain more than 4,000 buildings, 173 water treatment plants, hundreds of roads and bridges, and each has its own fleet of light- and heavy-duty vehicles, so this project is much like the others LCAP does but on a much bigger scale.
“This analysis will help us identify areas where we can reduce emissions and eventually achieve carbon neutrality in our day-to-day operations.”