Pennsylvanians are invited to #MakeClimateAClass for Earth Month

Statewide Solve Climate by 2030 webinar will explore ways students and faculty can lead on climate action in Pennsylvania

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. -- On Wednesday, April 7, at 7 p.m., students, teachers and community groups from across Pennsylvania will bring climate change into their classrooms and learn how they can make a difference this year and over the next decade as part of the national Solve Climate by 2030 movement. Registration for the free event is available here.

 

Penn State’s Sustainability Institute -- in collaboration with the Bard Center for Environmental Policy and webinars hosted by more than 100 universities in 45 countries around the world and almost all 50 US states -- will be hosting an interactive Solve Climate by 2030 webinar with top experts on climate solutions and climate justice in Pennsylvania. The target audience is teachers and students who want to #MakeClimateAClass, ensuring that climate change isn’t just relegated to environmental science classes but becomes part of the curriculum in every discipline: psychology, political science, engineering, literature, natural science, art, communication, music, economics, philosophy and more.

 

“It has been a long year – with COVID sickening over a million Pennsylvanians, putting millions out of work and forcing students to take many classes remotely not to mention climate change continuing to accelerate its impacts on Pennsylvania – yet there is cause for optimism,” said Peter Buck, academic programs manager at SI, who will emcee the event. “While vaccinations offer hope for an end to the pandemic, we’re also seeing Pennsylvanians starting to take on climate change with a can-do attitude. From solar power adoption, to soil-smart agriculture and to electric vehicle adoptions, we are seeing concrete action at all levels of the state.”

 

Nationwide, the webinar discussions will focus on the big and the small, exploring both collective and personal things we can do in our communities and our universities over the next year to help solve climate change. The Pennsylvania edition will focus especially on how community relationships can make a difference. Speakers include:

• Christine Knapp, chief sustainability officer for the City of Philadelphia
• Tykee James, government affairs coordinator for the National Audubon Society and co-organizer of the first #BlackBirdersWeek
• Pam Adams, sustainability planner for the Centre Region Planning Agency
• Brandi Robinson, chair of the Centre Region Climate Action and Adaptation Planning Technical Advisory Group

 

Teachers can use the webinar to #MakeClimateAClass by assigning it as homework. There are one-page Teachers Guidesavailable to lead a one-class period discussion about climate change from the perspective of your subject area. The guides, for over two dozen different disciplines, have been developed by the global climate education project based at Bard College in New York. They are available in English, French and Spanish.

 

“The world’s top climate scientists have told us we have ten years to act to hold global warming to the low end.” said Dr. David Blockstein, co-director of Solve Climate by 2030. “This April, students deserve a class period to talk about climate solutions and climate justice—from many different disciplinary perspectives. Join one or more webinars in early April and ask every teacher you know to #MakeClimateAClass.”

 

Solve Climate by 2030 is free and open to all, but pre-registration for Pennsylvania’s event is required. For more information about the national movement visit www.solveclimateby2030.org. For questions or further information about the Pennsylvania event, contact Peter Buck at  peterbuck@psu.edu.

 

Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium

Inspiring higher education throughout PA to lead transformational sustainability efforts through example, expertise, and collaboration. 

2021 Campus Sustainability Champions

Call for Nominees

Deadline: Wednesday April 21, 2021 by 5:00 PM

 

Who are Campus Sustainability Champions?

PERC Member Schools are invited to nominate people from their campuses as Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium Campus Sustainability Champions (CSC). The Campus Sustainability Champion title is awarded to students, faculty, administrators, and staff of Pennsylvania colleges and universities who have made meaningful contributions benefiting social, economic and/or environmental sustainability on their campus, in their community, or in society at large.  Contributions can be in areas of teaching, research, co-curricular programs, campus culture, community service, and campus operations, including food recovery.

What are the nomination categories?

Each PERC Member School may make up to four total nominations, two in each of the following categories: 

 (i)         Student

(ii)      Non-student

Nominations in either category can be for an individual or for a group.  Nomination of a group that includes students and non-students should be made in the non-student category, unless the group is led predominantly by students.

Schools with multiple campuses may submit additional nominations - please contact the PERC associate director for further details at associatedirector@pagreencolleges.org.

Who submits the nominations?

Nominations are submitted by your school’s PERC representative. To find out who is your school’s representative, visit pagreencolleges.org/reps.

 

How are nominations submitted?

PERC representatives may submit nominations by completing the Student Nomination Form and/or the Faculty, Staff or Administrator Nomination Form. 

 

What information is needed for the nomination?

Specific information requested includes:

• Name of the individual or group nominated

• Email address and phone of the nominee(s)

• A 250-word description of the individual or group, explaining why the nominee is deserving of recognition as a PERC Campus Sustainability Champion.

• A link to a website that provides additional information may be included.

• The nominating paragraphs will be posted on the PERC website, so please write in a style and with language suitable for a general audience.

 

You may look at PERC’s website to see the list of prior Campus Sustainability Champions.  

 

Who makes the selections?

The PERC Executive Committee will select CSCs from among the nominees submitted by the school’s PERC Representative.

 

How are awardees recognized?

Awardees are normally invited to the annual PERC conference, however due to Covid safety measures, there is no conference this year.  Instead, we will be hosting a virtual award ceremony as part of an evening PERC event on May 4. Awardees will receive a certificate, and their accomplishments will be celebrated on our website.

 

When are nominations due?

Nominations must be received by Monday, April 19, 2021 5:00 PM.  Champion Awardees will be notified a week in advance of the award ceremony and asked to provide a PPT slide with photo(s), their names, and short description or title of the project which can be used at the awards ceremony in announcing the winners. 

Environmental Justice in Pennsylvania
EJ in PA

Building an Active Environmental Justice (EJ) Network in Pennsylvania through Education, Participation and Action.   

The Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium (PERC), City of Harrisburg Environmental Advisory Committee, and Harrisburg University of Science and Technology are hosting an EJ in PA (Environmental Justice in Pennsylvania) event on April 6, 2021. 

This Summit is a virtual, one-day event that will bring the audience of community members to activate local Environmental Justice hubs around Pennsylvania. The event will build on existing Environmental Justice work and events, with the focus of supporting ongoing activity through the EJ community following the event. 

Click HERE to read more about the event.

Join us tomorrow, Tuesday, February 16, at noon (EST) for the sixth webinar in PERC's Public Health and Sustainability: Partners by Nature lunchtime colloquium, "Agricultural Mental and Family Health."  We will be joined by Tara Haskins of the AgriSafe Network and Ginger Fenton and Cynthia Pollich from Penn State Extension.  

You can join us for the event at this Zoom link:  https://psu.zoom.us/j/95325851927. Please feel free to share this link with any colleagues you think would be interested in the event.

We look forward to having you join us for this important conversation!

Peter Boger and Peter Buck, Penn State University's Sustainability Institute
Lisa Davis, Pennsylvania Office of Rural Health
Rebecca Kishbaugh, Pennsylvania Department of Health, Division of Cancer Prevention and Control
Ruth McDermott-Levy, Villanova University, Fitzpatrick College of Nursing
Britani Peterson, Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium (PERC)

Susquehanna River Symposium
A VIRTUAL SYMPOSIUM
Bucknell Center for Sustainability & the Environment
Hosted November 6th-7th, 2020

"Since 2006, the annual Susquehanna River Symposium has connected students, scientists and engineers from throughout the Susquehanna River region. Participants share ideas about issues within the watershed and increase awareness of river health, environmental policy and sustainability issues facing the mid-Atlantic. In addition to scientific panels and keynote speakers, the event also features a student research poster competition, open to college and university students from throughout the region.  The keynote speaker for this year's Symposium was DCNR Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn."

The session recordings, oral presentations, and poster presentations are all available online here: http://riversymposium.scholar.bucknell.edu/

Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues Presents: The state of environmental justice in pennsylvania

Wednesday, October 14, 2020
Virtual program on YouTube live, 7 p.m.
http://clarke.dickinson.edu/environmental-justice-in-pa/

Environmental justice aspires for all people- regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, or socioeconomic background – to have equal access to a healthy environment, including avenues to participate meaningfully in decisions regarding their environment. Environmental injustice examines which communities and places are disproportionately exposed to environmental health risks from industrial, municipal, commercial operations, or government policies. Research in the field of environmental justice has shown that people living in poverty, as well as Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) and their communities, are disproportionately impacted by environmental degradation and pollution.  This panel will focus on environmental justice work occurring in Pennsylvania, bringing together community representatives and members of the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection Environmental Justice Advisory Board to discuss progress and challenges to achieve environmental justice in the Keystone state. Panelists will reflect on the diversity of activism and legal actions taken to achieve environmental justice. Presenters will highlight contemporary and future efforts to ensure that all Pennsylvanians enjoy a healthy and safe environment.

This program is sponsored by the Clarke Forum for Contemporary Issues.

Panelists:

Saleem Chapman, City of Philadelphia
Veronica Coptis, Center for Coalfield Justice
Adam Cutler, Fox Rothschild, LLP
Horace Strand, Chester Environmental Partnership
Heather Bedi (moderator), Dickinson College

Climate Change and Public Health Infrastructure:
Issues of Emergency Preparedness

Join us on Tuesday, July 28 at noon for our third installment of Partners by Nature: Public Health and Sustainability. Our topic is "Climate Change and Public Health Infrastructure: Issues of Emergency Preparedness." Building on our discussion of how climate change has and will continue to impact Pennsylvanians--particularly the most vulnerable among us--three speakers will address the impacts on emergency services and infrastructure across the Commonwealth.

LINK FOR REGISTRATION: https://forms.gle/DCWPnPVoBZnzHAft8

Our panelists include:

- Scott Buchle, Life Lion EMS, Milton S. Hershey Medical Center

- Heidi Kunka, PA Department of Environmental Protection

- Christian Martin-Gill, Department of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

UN Sustainable Development Goals Impacted:
GOAL 3: Good Health & Well-Being
GOAL 13: Climate Action

Gratitude 
This event is made possible by dues from PERC Member Institutions and by the support of PERC's sponsors, including Sodexo, NextEra and our newest sponsor, Terrasol Energies. Thank you.

Congratulations to the New Leadership of Students for Sustainable Action at West chester university

Students for Sustainable Action (SSA), a campus environmental advocacy group, has new leadership for the 2020-21 academic year. Congratulations to Nicole Caruso, Jennifer Gaffney, Kelly Johnson, and Ashlyn Hickey!

Check out the SSA on RamConnect for more info and to join: https://ramconnect.wcupa.edu/student_community?club_id=22300.

Our thanks go out to PERC Member Institution Harrisburg University for being the first to pay their 2020-2021 dues. We know that the pandemic has brought financial uncertainty to many higher education institutions and we appreciate HU’s prioritizing the sustainability work that PERC and its member institutions achieve together. Thank you—and thanks to all our member institutions.

hh The Campus Sustainability Champion title is awarded to students, faculty, administrators, and staff of Pennsylvania colleges and universities who have made meaningful contributions benefiting social, economic, and/or environmental sustainability on their campus, in their community, or in society at large. Contributions can be in areas of teaching, research, co-curricular programs, campus culture, community service, and campus operations, including food recovery.

2020 CSC Honorees  will be posted daily!  Keep your eyed peeled on social media and our home pages to learn more about our winners!

https://pagreencolleges.org/2020_CSCs