Penny Drexel

The Collaborative Work of Carbon Reduction

Allegheny College has always been a place where ambitious goals are set. Students are action-oriented in addition to learning beyond their majors and minors. This is never more evident than when students collaborate to reach campus sustainability goals.

With a cache of partners across campus, the sense of community in environmental science and sustainability is deep.

This was most definitely the case when Kelly Boulton ‘07, director of sustainability, began leading the journey toward campus carbon neutrality, which the College achieved in 2020. The achievement was recognized by the United States Department of Energy in 2023 as part of their Presidents’ Climate Leadership Commitments. Her efforts are fortified by ESS students, whose work enabled attaining the ambitious goal.

The accomplishment reflects more than a decade of effort to achieve efficiency in operations, engage students in research and action, and build collaborations with partners in our local community, the federal government, and the national collective of sustainability leaders in higher education. The research, engagement, and ingenuity of students led to a wide range of sustainable aspects of campus life, including rain gardens, environmental community art, a comprehensive composting program, green roofing, LEED® certified buildings, geo-exchange heating and cooling, porous parking lots, wind generated electricity, and an annual campus-wide energy challenge.

When Allegheny College ESS graduates go onto a wide array of next steps, they start their journeys equipped with real-world experience and tangible accomplishments.

Cultural Criticism of Energy and Environmental Justice

Making difficult subjects accessible is a hallmark of Allegheny College faculty. Finding that relatable entry point for students to begin learning can take many forms. In the ESS department, that often means getting outdoors, and sometimes getting out of intellectual comfort zones, too.

Cultural criticism related to energy and environmental justice in contemporary U.S. culture takes many forms.

From literature and movies to graphic novels and photography — it can all help us to reflect and reimagine our relationships to the more-than-human world. The Indian writer Amitav Ghosh says that, “The climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination,” and Assistant Professor Delia Byrnes agrees. She teaches her environmental science and sustainability students that cultivating our critical imaginations through art and storytelling is a vital part of building climate resilience and shared understanding.

Students often voice excitement at learning about the broader systems that have contributed to planetary degradation–systems such as capitalism, colonialism, racism, and heteropatriarchy, to name a few. A side-effect of the burden of climate change — what’s often referred to as eco-anxiety, climate anxiety, or climate despair — can affect ESS students. Students sometimes think it’s a depressing major and can feel hopeless, overwhelmed, and despairing. These are completely logical emotional responses to the world they’ve inherited. But “doom-spiraling” forestalls action: why bother working for change if it seems hopeless?

To combat this, Byrnes created a project called “Another World is Possible: An Ecotopian Podcast” in which students worked in small groups to develop and research their own “ecotopian” (eco-utopian) word or concept that can help us conceptualize justice-based solutions to an environmental problem. This project culminated in student-produced podcasts to communicate their research and storytelling to a broad audience. Students invented words like “dichotomyth” (dichotomy + myth) that theorizes the problematic dichotomy between humans and the nonhuman world, and “traumaship” (trauma + friendship) to develop an understanding of how Gen Z’s shared grief around climate change can be mobilized toward community resilience.

The Role of Aquatic Mammals in the Watershed

Allegheny students have always been able to work with the rich natural resources abundant in the region. Wildlife provides an interactive, outdoor classroom that offers endless opportunities for study and research. As always, students partner with local organizations to produce meaningful science for the benefit of all of us who live and work in the area.

French Creek is considered one of the most biologically diverse streams east of the Mississippi River, and Allegheny students have been lucky enough to study it for decades.

One of the French Creek residents, the otter, is a key figure in the ecosystem. Because these aquatic mammals mark their territory on land, students can study their latrines. The odor attracts other mammals to the Creek and they too will mark territory. By studying the content of those latrines, students learn what those predators are eating, enabling insight to which fish are being consumed. “This look into biodiversity provides a link to which species are necessary for the environmental health of the area,” says Assistant Professor Kelly Pearce.

Otters are top predators in the system. If the Watershed is unhealthy for example, we have poor water quality. This could cause fish die-offs, and ESS students will see that represented in the otter population. Healthy otters are indicators of healthy ecosystems. The very fact that there are otters in the French Creek means that there’s a robust food web underneath that can support their population. This indicates high quality water.  

Making these discoveries and connections develops Allegheny students into future conservationists and Watershed stewards. They begin to understand the connection between humans and wildlife and the incredible biodiversity here and in the world. 

Learn more about Allegheny’s Watershed Conservation Research Center

Teaching the Who, What, When and How Behind the Why

College campuses have always been places where students rally and argue and dissent. College-aged students are prime for self-experimentation and exploration, as they discover who they are and who they will be. Part of this is having opinions.

Allegheny College encourages curiosity and discourse, and environmental science and sustainability are certainly areas ripe for debate.

Professor Eric Pallant has long argued over his 37 year career at Allegheny that students can voice their opinion, but they have to back up why they agree or disagree with a certain thing. Against fracking? Fine. Why are you against it? Pallant says, “I think you can be an activist, but you cannot in our department, for the most part, be simply opposed to things.” This is especially true in the ESS department. So much of environmental science is exploratory, like the installation of solar panels on area buildings. Students who were involved in an energy audit for a local organization were excited to imagine the possibilities of solar panels as a renewable energy solution. But the audit resulted in a lesson in reality. The cost greatly outweighed the benefit, and the project did not move forward.

This preparation for the real world of work is useful. Students from Allegheny go out into the workforce prepared to back up their ideas with facts. Every graduate of the environmental science and sustainability program has published and presented at least 4 or 5 papers to various external entities by the time they graduate. This is particularly helpful in the area of environmental justice, which can be a tough sell. Students are taught that they might be coming to a problem that a lot of others before them tried to solve. If they want to build a better mousetrap, they better understand how to do it in a way that makes sense.

Local Level Climate Action

Everything the environmental science and sustainability department does is intentional, with an eye toward contributing to society. And it’s only natural that that would include the local area. There is much opportunity to support Meadville residents in wrangling the challenges of climate change. In particular, those most vulnerable in lower income areas of the community.

Students must understand every aspect and impact of environmental science on humans. Part of this is studying how climate change affects our most vulnerable neighbors.
 

At Allegheny College, environmental science isn’t a theory or something in a textbook. It is a series of problems to be studied, with actionable solutions. In this way, Matthew Bethurem’s students’ work in Meadville delivered. Students conducted a climate vulnerability assessment to illustrate the need for certain infrastructure change to relieve some of the challenges faced in the lowest lying areas of town.

Bethreum notes that there are myriad different impacts associated with the planet being hotter over time and location matters. Lower income residents tend to live in the area’s floodplain, rendering them more vulnerable to heat, flooding, property damage and health issues caused by the climate. This region is also one of the fastest warming places in the lower 48 states. We know that going forward, there will be more days that are above 90 degrees Fahrenheit in the summertime. Meadville residents historically don’t have air conditioning, but will need it going forward, which can be a cost issue for some households. Energy efficiency and educating local landlords to update weatherization materials was part of the students’ work.

A key tool in the climate vulnerability assessment was through Geographic Information System (GIS) work. This created useful maps that evolved into the specifics of a Climate Action Plan for Meadville. The understanding of this tool and the ability to present real solutions to the City Council on a multi-year basis is a powerful opportunity for students to learn the practical ways to face climate change.

Field-Based Research for Economic Development

Sometimes making the connection between environmental science and the cost of investing in its study and practical application can seem elusive. ESS faculty constantly invest time in finding community collaborations and projects for students that will make those connections.

For the past 50 years, students have produced work that demonstrates value to others.

The practical benefits of an environmental science education at Allegheny are far-reaching. For example, when the Erie National Wildlife Refuge was in jeopardy of being defunded, ESS

Department Chair Professor Terry Bensel devoted an entire semester to studying the economic benefit of the Refuge. He says, “We spent that class studying things like water quality, air quality, wildlife habitat, and the impact of the recreational activities out there on the local economy from hotel stays to hunting supply and fishing supply stores. Local restaurants, gas stations, anything that somebody coming to the refuge from out of the region would spend money on. We did surveys of hundreds of local residents to gauge their attitudes about the refuge and their willingness to pay for participating in it.

The students distilled all of their research into a report that laid out a compelling argument that the refuge provided millions of dollars in benefits to the local region and economy.” Because of the work of Bensel’s students, the Refuge submitted that report to the U.S. Department of the Interior, and their budget has not been cut. 

This connection between the economics and environmental science is more important than ever to confront, manage, and solve the issues of our time.

Lynne ’95

Government Affairs Professional

“Each step of the way throughout my career was intentional and had one common denominator: ensuring the safety of U.S. citizens through influential advocacy on matters of public policy. This is my passion. And it began in Dr. Bensel’s class.”

At Allegheny

Environmental Studies, Economics
I was a senior in a class related to public policy and environmental studies. A fellow student was known for being very active in class discussions and passionate about the subject, but he sometimes would angrily lecture the rest of the class, which was quite off-putting. I learned that getting people to change their behavior to adopt best practices was as much about the delivery as it is about the education and facts.

At Work

Director, Policy & Practice, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America
Fast forward 29 years. A large part of my job is to help the members of my professional society educate public policymakers, health policy influencers, and other collaborators so that new laws and regulations are based on evidence-based data and science that is supported by a consensus of subject matter experts. To be successful, I, with the support of my organization’s leadership, must build relationships and craft messaging that can be heard without hostility and holds room for constructive debate.

Jennifer ’16

Youth Education Advocate

“Find what energizes you, work hard, strive to improve, support and encourage others, communicate clearly, let the little things go, and try to find the fun in everything you do!”

At Allegheny

Environmental Studies, Studio Art
Throughout my time at Allegheny, I helped run an aquaponics system — I learned how to fix water pumps, treat nutrient deficiencies in the plants, keep the system clean, raise baby fish, treat injured fish, and germinate, grow, and harvest plants. One of the most valuable lessons I learned was when Professor Eric Pallant asked me to draft an inventory of the current aquaponics supplies and make a budget for supplies that needed to be ordered in the future. The challenge set me up for success down the road; he trusted my expertise as someone who had been working on the system and made me believe in my ability to take on large projects and have them succeed.

At Work

Youth Climate Advocacy Committee Coordinator, Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens
My current role is coordinating Phipps Conservatory’s Youth Climate Advocacy Committee and EcoLeader Academy summer program. These programs provide opportunities for high school and college-age youth to advance their knowledge of sustainability, the environment, climate change, and environmental and climate justice through hands-on activities, discussions, and presentations from experts in these fields, and working on climate action or environmental justice projects of their choice. I am so honored to be able to provide support, resources, and funding for these brilliant students to tackle the issues they find most important. They inspire me every day with what they accomplish.

Both programs fall under a larger project called the Climate Toolkit, which was founded by Phipps and offers a platform for institutions to share what is or is not working for them and ask for assistance and knowledge.

Hannah ’17

Electric Mobility Developer

“I’ve learned how to have conversations and communicate sustainability topics with diverse stakeholders in a way that is balanced and productive.”

At Allegheny

Environmental Studies, Global Health Studies
My most memorable ES class was Eric Pallant’s Soil to Plate course. Filled with a variety of field trips from a dairy farm to a chicken farm to a frozen food manufacturer, we explored the food industry from top to bottom. I gained a deeper appreciation for small farmers in our region and the amount of work and planning it takes to run a farm, and it sparked a new interest to explore sustainable agriculture, food access and equity, and food economics. It all informed my Comp, which focused on hydroponics, as well as my first job after graduating working on the French Creek Food Hub.

At Work

Project Developer, Transportation Electrification, Duquesne Light Company
Working for an electric utility with a grid that’s default generation is 70% carbon free, I feel like I am directly helping customers and the Pittsburgh region experience the benefits of electric mobility. The work my team is doing is helping to improve local air quality and the health of region. One project I managed was a charging installation for one of the first electric school bus deployments in our territory. Now I know those kids are no longer breathing in harmful emissions on their daily commute to school.

Carolyn ’73

Environmental Safety Pioneer

“That brand new ‘Aquatic Environments’ major 50 years ago has grown into an amazing program! So proud to be its first graduate.”

At Allegheny

Aquatic Environments
I was one of many potential biology majors when Dr. Sam Harrison approached me with the chance to be part of a new major called “Aquatic Environments.” One of the objectives of the new major was to prepare graduates to enter the growing environmental field right out of college. It worked for me. Two weeks after graduation, I was hired by an environmental consulting firm doing studies on Lake Ontario. After two years, I earned a Masters in Environmental Engineering. Thank you Sam!

At Work

Environmental Safety Staff, Johnson & Johnson
I worked on a corporate team responsible for the health and safety of employees as well as compliance with federal and state regulations.