Petition seeks to drastically reduce Penn State’s carbon footprint within 35 years

Penn State might be setting its sights on becoming America’s leading energy university, but two scholars are asking the school to make a very specific commitment.

In a Care2 online petition, Penn State Sustainability Institute graduate assistant Peter Buckland and assistant professor of history and religious studies Jonathan Brockopp are asking the university to commit to total carbon neutrality within the next 35 years.

As of Thursday, the petition had garnered 7,046 supporters.

“Over the last few years, Jonathan and I became more concerned about the escalating changes to Earth’s climate and the damage we are seeing to people’s livelihoods, the biosphere, and all the wicked predictions,” Buckland said in a press release. “We at Penn State have one of the most robust and elite climate science and climate conflict networks of any university in the world, yet we have an administration that has been conspicuously silent.”

Buckland stressed to the Centre Daily Times that the petition focused on an issue he cared deeply about, but also that it was a personal decision for him, apart from his work at the Sustainability Institute.

The petition asks the university to create a task force to address the challenge, commit to it publicly, including representing the goal in the upcoming strategic plan, and to “identify and revise policies that currently limit efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through its operations, purchasing, and investments and should integrate sustainability throughout its curriculum and culture.”

At last week’s board of trustees meeting, President Eric Barron unveiled his goal to make Penn State the nation’s premier energy university, working across colleges and disciplines, including touting its sustainability progress.

Steve Maruszewski, assistant vice president of the Office of Physical Plant, has often spoken about sustainability in the university’s buildings and processes.

“These are enormous challenges, not only for Penn State but for all of humanity. As President Barron indicated just last week in a presentation to the Board of Trustees, we are committed to a comprehensive, university-wide initiative to not only address environmental impacts but to explore, educate and innovate the policies and technologies of a new energy future,” he said.

“We have not yet received this petition officially, but we do plan to take a careful look at the requests,” Maruszewski said. “The university’s current sustainability efforts are thoughtful, deliberate, actionable, researched and flexible depending on changes in technology. We are committed to combating climate change, and the work to date of our Office of Physical Plant, the Sustainability Institute, the formation of an Energy Policy Working Group and the president’s actions all point to our overarching desire to be part of the solution.”

At the recent meeting, Barron, a former professor of earth and mineral sciences, called energy “one of the most compelling topics in the world,” stressing the need to make it “abundant, affordable, safe and clean.”

The petition is due to be presented to Barron, Provost Nick Jones and Vice President of Finance and Business David Gray in December.

The petition can be found at http://www.thepetitionsite.com/606/959/306/.

This story was originally published November 26, 2015 at 9:09 PM with the headline "Petition seeks to drastically reduce Penn State’s carbon footprint within 35 years."