Virginia’s First University Team to Develop and Implement Community Energy Action Plans
In 2020, GM Adjunct Professors Paul Bubbosh and Joel Hicks created the Local Climate Action Planning Initiative. Both professors were looking to demonstrate how a university, both its faculty and students, could assist vulnerable and marginalized communities in improving their environment, public health, and finances. While both professors had successfully developed the Manassas City Climate Action Plan, the first GM-developed climate action plan (CAP) for an external community, this effort was developed without any student participation. Both Bubbosh and Hicks decided to develop a program whereby students, working in internships and courses, could convert academic exercises in research, analysis, modeling, education, communication, and writing into real-world application towards helping communities develop and implement a CAP. In short, the LCAPI is about flexing the talent and resources a university has to offer to assist those who may lack the resources and capabilities to complete a CAP.
As background, the LCAPI is a university model that coordinates faculty and student efforts with elected municipality leaders and key community stakeholders to reduce emissions, conserve energy funds, and create more resilient communities. The LCAPI university model focuses primarily on the energy sector (buildings, transportation, electric grid, water, wastewater, and solid waste). The program is housed in GM’s policy school within its Center for Energy Science and Policy.
While CAPs are popular in progressive, wealthy, and urban areas throughout the country, they are less popular in rural and conservative areas. Professors Bubbosh and Hicks view this omission as an opportunity to engage with and work with rural communities to bring rural communities into the fold of energy savings and community resilience. While the program uses “climate action” as part of its title, it meets the communities where they are which may require using different communication approaches. As such, the effort in rural communities comes under the banner of “energy action plans” with a focus on saving energy costs and ensuring a more resilient community in the face of costly weather-related events (flooding and heat). The program, as designed by Bubbosh and Hicks, has four phases.
- Phase 1: Community Profile & Recruitment
- Phase 2: Baseline Inventory Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions
- Phase 3: Task Force Education, Engagement, and Plan Development
- Phase 4: Plan Implementation
In Phase 1 (Community Profile & Recruitment), LCAPI recruited a team of four students (George Lynch, Jordan Davis, Javonna Thompson, and Olivia Ray Nealon), both undergraduates and graduates, from three different GM schools. A recent Schar MS graduate, Elliot Meyer, was hired to lead the team. Elliot Meyer and the student team conducted in-depth research on Virginia municipalities to develop profiles on several target municipalities in rural areas. The profiles included information on history, culture, economics, and politics. The team also examined vulnerabilities such as public health, pollution, energy cost, income, race, and proximity to other polluting sources (landfills and hazardous waste sites). With these profiles, the LCAPI contacted, briefed, and recruited municipalities to join GM’s effort at developing energy action plans. Of particular interest to municipality leaders was the possibility of securing federal and state grants, loans, and other incentives by having an energy action plan in place. At the end of this phase, the LCAPI met its goal of recruiting three municipalities to work with (City of Danville, City of Martinsville, and Henry County).
In Phase 2 (Baseline Inventory Analysis of Greenhouse Gas Emissions), Professor Hicks taught GM’s first course on GHG Modeling (“Greenhouse Gas Inventory-Based Climate Action Planning,” GOVT 490/POGO 550). The class had 15 students comprised of undergraduate and graduate students representing several GM schools. This course focused on the different steps of the GHG emissions inventory and accounting development process: (1) developing the scope and plan inventory, (2) collecting data and quantifying GHG emissions, (3) developing a GHG inventory management plan, and (4) setting a GHG emission reduction target, tracking, and reporting progress. Students applied the most widely used GHG accounting standards for organizational reporting and categorization (Scope 1, 2, and 3). At the end of this phase, LCAPI had published and briefed senior leadership on three GHG Inventories for each partner community. You can access the GHG inventories here.
In Phase 3 (Task Force Education, Engagement, and Plan Development), the LCAPI recruited a new team of four student interns, both undergraduates and graduates representing several schools (George Lynch, Rebecca Grossi, Jared Weaver, and Elza Thomas). Along with Elliot Meyer, Paul Bubbosh, and Joel Hicks, the LCAPI team convened a series of four in-person public meetings with each community’s task force (each municipality had nominated key stakeholders in their community to serge on the task force and GM strived to ensure that there was equitable representation of marginalized groups in each task force). The public meetings were intended to (1) educate the task force about local energy and resiliency factors; (2) educate the task force about potential strategies to reduce energy emissions, conserve finances, and prepare for a more resilient community; (3) seek consensus on goals, strategies, and actions to address emissions, savings, and resiliency; and (4) produce a final energy action plan report for municipality adoption. At the end of this phase, the LCAPI produced three final reports and briefed senior elected leaders. You can access the energy action plans here.
Finally, in Phase 4 (Plan Implementation), the LCAPI recruited a new team of four student interns, all undergraduates representing several GM schools (George Lynch, Rebecca, Grossi, Ella Raymond, and Ha N Le). In this phase, the LCAPI team took each municipality energy action plan and assisted the municipality in implementing specific plan actions. For example, the LCAPI team designed outreach and educational material about installing and using energy efficient and clean energy technologies and practices, prepared a plan for future deployment of EV charging stations in public spaces, and developed survey questions to understand residents’ interest in buying energy efficient technology. Of note, the LCAPI team successfully wrote a federal grant application for one county to submit for funding EV charging infrastructure.
The LCAPI team worked on these municipality projects over a 12-month timeframe. Funding came from a university grant (Strategic Investment Fund). Additional assistance came from key faculty members, such as Professors James Kinter and Ed Maibach of the Virginia Climate Center.
Like many universities, GM has a great deal of talent and resources, as shown by its impressive education, research, and publications. The LCAPI demonstrates another side of a university’s potential, and that is the ability to help communities. At the end of this process, Professors Bubbosh and Hicks demonstrated that a university like GM could successfully translate student and faculty research into tangible and meaningful impacts on marginalized and disadvantaged communities.