Two O’Neill graduate students recently helped communities in Indiana take an important step toward promoting environmental sustainability: creating a climate action plan (CAP).
Carolyn Townsend, MPA-MSES’21, and Madeline Miller, MPA-MSES’20, were part of the Resilience Cohort through IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute. Through this program, Townsend and Miller were matched with different Indiana cities to help them prepare for environmental change by setting science-based emission reduction goals and developing a roadmap to significantly reducing emissions by 2050.
As an Indiana Climate Fellow in the Indiana Sustainable Development Program during the summer of 2020, Townsend worked with the City of Evansville to develop practical, achievable strategies and establish community buy-in. She and her colleague Timothy Weir conducted a public survey which received over 1,800 responses, hosted public town halls, handled media, and met with a variety of community and external stakeholders.
“I’m most proud of the extensive community engagement we did to create a truly community-driven movement,” said Townsend. “I strongly believe that a strategic plan developed by any city will not succeed unless the entire community is included throughout the planning process and implementation phase.”
Evansville unveiled their CAP in February 2021. The plan included 58 specific recommendations for action related to transportation, buildings and energy, waste and local food, agriculture, and green space.
Townsend says she is “excited to watch cross-sectoral partnerships implement the CAP moving forward,” particularly as they relate to buildings and agriculture. “The Evansville community is already making strides to reduce emissions by retrofitting buildings with more energy efficient devices, including LED lighting, HVAC, and solar. There is also a newly established Food Commission, which will help increase access to fresh, healthy food through the farmers markets, community gardens, and education initiatives noted in the CAP.”
Townsend is currently working on a CAP with the City of Carmel as a research associate with the Gnarly Tree Sustainability Institute, a women-owned, Bloomington-based consulting firm run by O’Neill graduates.
In Zionsville, Miller contributed to the town’s CAP by helping to forecast future greenhouse gas emissions against the community’s projected population growth. She helped to conduct an inventory of the energy currently used in buildings, transportation, and waste disposal, and used this information to create tangible recommendations for lessening the community’s environmental impact – like encouraging curbside compost pickup for Zionsville residents.
“I am very proud that I could help the Zionsville community take these important first steps towards building climate resilience here in Indiana,” said Miller. “This experience deepened my interest in climate action, sustainability, and environmental justice. I plan to keep all the information I learned about these topics in mind as I start my post-graduate environmental career and continue learning about them moving forward.”
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