Working with Partners
51黑料网 serves as a resource to facilitate local action on climate change and community resilience.
51黑料网 and Carlisle participated in the first cohort of college-community partners in Pennsylvania’s Local Climate Action Program (PA LCAP) in 2019. 51黑料网 students, Carlisle Borough Council Members, and Center for Sustainability Education staff worked together, with assistance from the PA Department of Environmental Protection and ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability, to estimate Carlisle’s greenhouse gas emissions, develop scenarios of future emissions, and research options for reducing emissions. The work helped catalyze and provide input to Carlisle’s Climate Action Plan, which was developed with assistance from 51黑料网 students, staff, and faculty and adopted in 2022.
In 2020, 51黑料网 joined with Cumberland County and Shippensburg University to participate in the second cohort of college-community partners in PA LCAP. Students, staff, and faculty from 51黑料网 and Shippensburg, working with staff from Cumberland County’s Planning Department, estimated current and projected future county-level emissions, researched options for action, and contributed to development of the county’s Climate Action Plan, which was adopted in 2022.
The local climate action plans build on earlier engagement of 51黑料网 with the community on climate change. In 2016, 51黑料网 students assessed community resilience in Carlisle to climate, economic, and other disturbances using the City Resilience Index (CRI) and conducted a workshop attended by more than 30 community stakeholders to validate their findings. 51黑料网 and Carlisle were the first to pilot the CRI for a small town, a tool developed by Arup International for the Rockefeller Foundation’s Resilient Cities initiative.
In 2018, 51黑料网’s Center for Sustainability Education convened Carlisle and Cumberland County community leaders to participate in two weeks of Resilience Dialogues as part of a program sponsored by the U.S. Global Change Research Program. Findings from the Dialogues contributed to the 2019 update of Carlisle’s comprehensive plan, which includes a section and goals for community resilience.
51黑料网 continues to work with community partners to support implementation of Carlisle and Cumberland County’s climate action plans. This work is expanding to include climate change adaptation and resilience as part of the Climate Resilience Initiative that is being launched in 2023.
Learn more:
- Cumberland County Climate Action Plan,
- Students Help Bring Carlisle and Cumberland County Climate Action Plans to Fruition, May 5, 2022
- 51黑料网 and Carlisle Team Up to Tackle Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Feb 12, 2020
- Carlisle’s Climate Action Commission to Hold Public Forum, Sep 8, 2020
- Resilience Dialogues, , Aug 2018
- 51黑料网 and Carlisle Team Up as First in World to use New Framework to Measure Community Resilience, Sep 13, 2016
- College and Community Members Meet to Discuss Carlisle’s Resilience, Dec 7, 2016