Official Project Title:
Swarthmore Area Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory & Action Plan Project
This project aimed to quantify greenhouse gas emissions and developed a Climate Change Action Plan in four Delaware County municipalities (Nether Providence Township and Rose Valley, Rutledge, and Swarthmore Boroughs). The goal of the project was to help residents, businesses, and municipal governments of the four communities reduce both energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions, making their activities, travel, and consumption patterns more environmentally sustainable.
As part of the project, data was collected and greenhouse gas emissions inventories were calculated for local municipal government operations and for the residents and businesses. With the inventories providing a baseline from which to evaluate future changes in greenhouse gas emissions, a Climate Change Action Plan was developed in consultation with project collaborators.
The project, funded by a grant from the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection through the Local Government Greenhouse Gas Pilot Grant Program, was implemented in collaboration with municipal government officials, Swarthmore College faculty and students, and the Wallingford-Swarthmore School District. Residents of the communities participated in the project through surveys of their patterns of energy use and their ideas for emissions reductions and via public meetings scheduled in each of the four municipalities.
