PALMER TWP., Pa. — A graduate student almost 2,000 miles west of the Lehigh Valley is helping officials study and stem the impacts of climate change — without ever stepping foot in the township.
“I have not been to Palmer Township yet,” said Sean Nichols, of Eden, Colo., during a recent phone interview. “We just Zoom or we email or we call each other, and that works really well and everybody's super friendly.
“But it is interesting helping this community out and having never been there.”
Nichols is one of several students taking part in Penn State’s Local Climate Action Program, or LCAP. Through the program, upper-level students are matched with municipalities across the commonwealth to create a greenhouse gas inventory and, from those findings, a climate action plan.
It’s a win-win, both students and officials said, as students get real-world, hands-on experience while municipalities — and residents — benefit from the climate planning they complete.
“Local governments sit at the front lines of a changing climate but often lack the time and resources to begin responding to the challenge,” said Brandi Robinson, LCAP co-director.
“The evolving workforce demands that our students understand greenhouse gas accounting and climate policy planning across various scales, and yet our traditional undergraduate curriculum has been slow to integrate these skills.
“Our LCAP provides both students and government partners with those unfulfilled needs.”
‘Very layered and complex’
Nichols has been working with township officials since last fall. Like every student in the program, his first assignment was to complete a greenhouse gas emissions inventory, which quantifies emissions for a region by sector, such as transportation or energy usage.
“We acquire the data from the townships and the different utilities and local organizations on the ground there,” Nichols said. “And then we put the data into [ICLEI ClearPath software] and do a little math — some unit conversions and things like that.”
Learning how to assemble the greenhouse gas inventory accurately and correctly is important, he said.
“It's not just a matter of how much electricity or how much CO2 equivalent comes out from electricity,” he said. “It's different sources of electricity, different sources of natural gas, heating fuel and transportation — transportation emissions are very, very layered and complex segments.”
The inventory found Palmer’s sector with the most emissions was industrial energy, at 45.2%, according to the inventory, published on the township’s website. The next largest contributors were transportation and residential energy, at 21.3% and 17.3%, respectively.
Paige Strasko, the township’s environmental administrator, said it was “definitely interesting” to see that transportation was one of the biggest emission factors in the township.
“When [Sean] presented to the supervisors last year, one of the points that they talked about, especially with transportation is the [highway system]," Strasko said. Routes 33 and 22 cross through Palmer Township and Interstate 78 runs just south of it.
“Those play a large factor in the emissions in the township and almost skews those numbers in a way since the township can't really regulate anything on state highways.”
From ‘nebulous’ to ‘tangible’
Nichols isn’t the only LCAP student making a difference in the Valley’s climate change planning.
Kelli Volkomer, of York, was paired with Lower Macungie Township through the LCAP program. After completing the municipality’s greenhouse gas inventory during the fall, which found commercial and industrial energy to be the top emissions-producing sector, she had four focuses during the spring semester.
“The first was a community survey because the first thing they wanted to do was to understand what the residents' preferences and priorities were – What does the community want the government to address?” Volkomer said. “And then the second part was an open space analysis.”
She also worked on an analysis of the township’s yard waste and composting facilities — “essentially a mini greenhouse gas inventory” — before presenting the package to municipal officials.
“All science is data-driven, but to really make it impactful for the community, you really need the community's input and what they're looking for,” Volkomer said.
And, climate change can often be a tricky topic to tackle.
“By producing this greenhouse gas emissions inventory, you get to put a picture in front of local government that says, ‘This is what it looks like. Now how do we do better?’ So, it makes those nebulous concepts so much more tangible.”Kelli Volkomer
“Climate change is this nebulous concept — it's like what is it and what can I possibly do to have any impact on it?” she said. “But the LCAP program tells you specifically what impact you can have on it.
“By producing this greenhouse gas emissions inventory, you get to put a picture in front of local government that says, ‘This is what it looks like. Now how do we do better?’ So, it makes those nebulous concepts so much more tangible.”
Her time with the township is also complete. Volkomer said it’s a bittersweet ending.
“Over the last year, we've really formed a relationship, and I care about this team,” she said. “And I'm really going to be sad when it's over, but I'll be interested in following where they go next.”
Supporting communities
Palmer has never had a climate action plan — but that’s changed.
The plan Nichols created “basically just details the strategies and pathways that they can use specific to Palmer to continue their adaptation measures, and then further establish more mitigation measures throughout the township,” he said.
LCAP leaders describe the planning as a kind of menu that can be ordered from, he said.
“It's super flexible, you can change timeframes, you can change budgets — obviously, funding can be hit and miss depending on government programs, taxes, you know, things like that,” he said. “One of our short-term activities that they're already starting is the construction and completion of riparian buffers to mitigate flooding.
“And then for a long-term or medium-term plan, installing rooftop solar panels on all government buildings, and then additionally, working with the schools to install solar panels there or solar arrays out in their open land,” he said. “That has a lot more funding and obviously a lot more red tape, a lot more moving parts.”
He’s also designed six community engagement flyers — another important tact as climate change continues to be a polarizing topic.
“I feel that information is a way to at least start a dialogue,” he said. “And so we've assembled these community engagement fliers to be transparent about some of these issues, but also say, ‘Hey, here's household sustainability measures you may not be aware of,’ or ‘Here's free programs from your local utility to help improve your home efficiency that don't cost any money.”
At the end of the day, we have to work for the people and places where people live, work and play.Peter Buck, co-director of Penn State's Local Climate Action Program
Reducing energy use, and saving money, while building resiliency for all, is the goal, LCAP officials said.
“At the end of the day, we have to work for the people and places where people live, work and play,” said Peter Buck, LCAP co-director. “The Local Climate Action Program supports communities like Lower Macungie and Palmer townships to meet their community’s long-range planning needs while simultaneously bolstering the state, national and global efforts to draw down carbon emissions, and building a stronger economy.”
Any municipal officials interested in participating in the 2024-2025 LCAP cohort can get more information via the program’s website.
