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Penn State students present climate-action roadmap to Erie advisory council
Summary
Penn State LCAP students presented facility benchmarking, a fleet-electrification study and financing options to Erie’s Environmental Advisory Council, recommending benchmarking all properties, pursuing energy‑savings performance contracts and targeting nine firehouses for early upgrades.
Penn State students presenting under the university’s Local Climate Action Program (LCAP) told the Erie City Environmental Advisory Council on April 20 that their spring deliverables provide a practical, prioritized path for the city to lower emissions and modernize facilities.
"LCAP, or the local climate action program at Penn State, is designed to help local governments turn climate-related goals into practical, actionable strategies," Christian Bigger, a student presenter, said during the meeting. The team framed those deliverables around priorities from Mayor Devlin’s transition report and urged the city to use the work to inform five‑year capital planning.
The students reported that Erie’s 2024 government‑operations greenhouse‑gas inventory totaled about 30,000 metric tons CO2 equivalent, with wastewater treatment accounting for about 56% of that total, stationary energy 38% and transportation 6%. Their benchmarking covered 13 municipal properties totaling more than 450,000 square feet and roughly 9,000 metric tons of annual emissions; City Hall scored 66 on Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager, while the wastewater treatment plant scored 89.
Josh Smith, another student presenter, explained energy savings performance contracts (ESPCs) directly to the council: “The energy savings performance contracts are a mechanism that the city can dive into in order to bundle energy savings through upgrades with facilities...the savings that you would see is what would actually pay to do the work in the beginning,” he said. The students noted Pennsylvania’s Guaranteed Energy Savings Act as the statutory mechanism that enables municipalities to pursue ESPCs without upfront capital.
On fleet electrification, the team estimated a roughly 48.5% reduction in fleet‑related greenhouse‑gas emissions if recommended phases are followed, starting with light‑duty vehicles where technology and charging readiness are strongest and phasing in heavier or specialty vehicles later. The students emphasized aligning vehicle replacement benchmarks with funding cycles and identified state and federal grant pathways to reduce upfront costs.
During Q&A, council members asked which properties offered the most near‑term improvement potential; the presenters said the nine municipal firehouses were the clearest low‑hanging fruit for energy upgrades and that the team produced a targeted firehouse funding executive summary and a fleet executive summary that they will share for follow‑up. Presenters offered to meet again with staff to review documentation and next steps.
The students recommended that Erie adopt centralized benchmarking (for example, using Energy Star’s Portfolio Manager), pursue ESPC procurement to bundle priority facilities into actionable projects, and move forward on investment‑grade energy audits and grant applications such as the Keystone grant for steam‑system rehabilitation. A meeting with the administration to align the committee’s work and the mayor’s goals was discussed and tentatively scheduled by presenters for mid‑May, pending confirmation.
The presentation concluded with the student team offering documents and follow‑up meetings; the council encouraged members to review the executive summaries and consider short‑term action items to maintain momentum.
