April 22, 2024Connecting with the Community: Lancaster County Climate Summit
Earth Day is a timely reminder to support environmental protection initiatives in Lancaster City and beyond. Discover the various ways the city is championing environmental causes, and learn how you can join in to support the planet we call home.
Lancaster County Climate Summit: A Community Collaboration
This year, the 2nd annual Lancaster County Climate Summit is being held in collaboration with RegenAll and Millersville University at the Ware Center on April 26 and 27, 2024. The summit provides a way for the community to connect, learn and address climate awareness in Lancaster.
Addressing Climate Progress Locally
Eric Sauder, the president and founder of RegenAll, explains the importance of this summit. “We’re at an important crossroads where our decisions matter. The climate solutions we need to help create a more resilient and equitable world that works for everyone exist now. The summit is a chance to learn how we can work in our households, businesses and communities to make real climate progress.”
The Lancaster community is a big part of the summit as all sessions and the organizations tabling are local from Millersville University, or are representatives from local community organizations. All of the content created is completely by the community!
Engaging Sessions and Community Participation
Sauder explains what the summit will consist of. “There are 12 phenomenal sessions addressing renewable energy, water projects, business sustainability and transportation among other topics. Each includes tangible ways that individuals can personally engage in working toward climate progress. Additionally, I will be providing the second annual State of the Climate talk where I visit the local status of climate progress in Lancaster.”
As this is the second annual year for the summit, Sauder notes that the need for a fun and enjoyable way to address climate change inspired the start of the summit last year. “We felt a need to provide a fun and interactive local climate event that helped gradually inspire the belief that climate was a challenge that we could rise to address together. Making this a regular, annual event provides the chance for us to all check-in, share progress and keep moving forward.”
The Importance of Local Engagement
Additionally, Sauder also recognized the need for a local climate summit as he notes that climate work starts at the local level. “Climate work is fundamentally local. Each year, nations gather to have global climate conferences, but it is through these local conversations that so much of the work actually happens.”
“For example, we now have phenomenal climate legislation in the US through the Inflation Reduction Act to fund implementation of many different climate solutions, but without local organizations working to apply these funds in our community, Lancaster won’t receive these benefits,” Sauder notes.
Supporting Environmental Initiatives in Lancaster
Another group working to help the environment in Lancaster is the Lancaster Conservancy. They work to protect the land from development and ensure it stays in its natural state. Since its founding in 1969, they have saved over 10,000 acres of land! Additionally, they manage the land they own in 50 nature preserves and care for over 45 miles of hiking trails.
Overall, Sauder emphasizes a few ways that Lancaster residents can support environmental protection, including promoting the summit to their friends and family, and connecting with RegenAll on ways to get involved in local climate work.
