With grant funding from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Allegheny College environmental science professor Jennifer DeHart and a group of environmental studies students have begun a two-part project to help the City of Meadville reduce energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions.

“This project not only serves the city well, promising to make Meadville the first municipality in the region to have a professionally developed greenhouse gas inventory and climate action plan, but it will also provide students with real-world, hands-on experience, a major component of Allegheny’s well-regarded environmental science department pedagogy,” said DeHart.

“Beyond that,” she said, “by participating in such a meaningful community-based research and service learning project, these students will undoubtedly develop a stronger connection to the Meadville community.”

“The city is fortunate to have an institution like Allegheny located here,” said Meadville City Manager Joe Chriest. “We can build upon the expertise Jennifer DeHart has gained on similar projects and use it to our benefit. We have also joined the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives to provide the tools necessary to complete the inventory and to see what other cities around the world are doing.”

What will happen

Part one of the project, which began this month, involves completing a greenhouse gas inventory, including the development of emissions projections for the city. In part two, DeHart will work with stakeholders in the community to develop a climate action plan, which will help the city move toward a mutually agreed upon emission reduction target.

Andrew Pfeifer, a senior from Wyckoff, N.J., with a major in environmental science and minor in German; Brendan O’Leary, a junior from Birmingham, Mich., with a double major in environmental science and environmental geology and a minor in religious studies; and Sam Elliot, a junior from Henrietta, N.Y., with an environmental science major and English minor, will work with Chriest and DeHart to complete a baseline inventory of such contributors to greenhouse gas emissions as vehicle emissions, waste water, solid waste, natural gas, electricity and refrigerants.

“Our intention is to create an inventory that is comprehensive, covering to the greatest extent possible all of the energy expended by the City of Meadville,” said Pfeifer.

The second part of the project, developing an emissions reduction target and climate action plan, will take place in concert with the inventory work.

“As we begin to see some of the numbers and get a sense of where the most easily achieved energy savings can occur, both at the municipal level and community wide, we’ll work with area stakeholders to start to create consensus with respect to goals and strategies,” DeHart said. “Putting it all together, from inventory data and goals to strategies and tactics, into a climate action plan that engages our citizens in creating effective solutions is the ultimate objective of the project.”

Individuals or organizations that would like to become involved in developing Meadville’s climate action plan should contact DeHart at jennifer.dehart@allegheny.edu.

DeHart has collaborated and directed similar projects on a variety of scales including institutions (Allegheny College), multiple counties (the Global Change in Local Places NASA research project) and states (North Carolina). In her past work she has collaborated with the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives support staff and used the council’s software for inventorying, projections and modeling mitigation strategies. Since 2001, DeHart has been an active member of the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium (PERC) energy and climate committee.