Carlisle, PA

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Climate Action Plan

Carlisle Borough is one of 20 communities participating in the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection's Local Climate Action Assistance Program to address climate change at the local level. We entered the program in the fall of 2019 and teamed up with students from Dickinson College's Center for Sustainability Education to measure greenhouse gas emissions in the Borough. The group calculated greenhouse gas emissions for the years 2016 and 2017. This inventory served as the baseline to identify and prioritize emission sources for action, develop strategies for reducing emissions, and set goals.
In 2020, Borough Council passed a Climate Action Resolution that commits the Borough to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 26% by 2025 and 80% by 2050, compared to 2005. A commission consisting of four teams and an executive committee was formed to develop a Climate Action Plan to achieve those goals. In January 2022, the Borough's first-ever Climate Action Plan (CAP) was unanimously approved by Borough Council.

The Climate Action Plan's objectives and action items are broken down into several different sectors:

Transportation
Commercial
Residential
Municipal Operations
Solid Waste

Below are several objectives/actions outlined in the CAP for some of the different sectors.
Transportation

Increase the adoption of electric and alternative energy vehicles in the vehicle fleet.
Promote the adoption of electric vehicles by households and businesses to achieve 30% of the light-duty fleet by 2035 and 90% by 2050.
Incentivize and accelerate the adoption of electric and alternative energy vehicles in commercial and industrial uses to achieve 15% of the medium and heavy-duty fleet by 2035 and 45% by 2050.
Convert the entire municipal light-duty vehicle fleet to electric or alternative energy by 2035 and convert the remaining medium and heavy-duty municipal vehicle fleet to electric or alternative energy by 2050. (Also falls under Municipal Operations)
Use existing incentives to complete a comprehensive fleet assessment of all municipal light, medium, and heavy-duty fleet vehicles to inform the development and implementation of a multi-year strategy, including procurement benchmarks. (Also falls under Municipal Operations)
Convert the Carlisle Area School District bus fleet to electric/low-carbon by 2035.
Reduce community vehicles' miles traveled (VMT) 10% by 2035 and 25% by 2050.

Residential

Reduce energy use in residential buildings by 40% in 2050.
Energy-efficiency retrofits for existing homes. 40% of existing residential homes participating in energy-efficiency programs by 2035 and 70% by 2050.
Net-Zero new residential homes. Increase the percentage of new residential building areas that produce as much energy on-site as it uses to 5% by 2025, 35% by 2035, and 65% by 2050.
Establish Energy Use Intensity (EUI) benchmark for new residential buildings.
Residential Electrification. Reduce use of natural gas, fuel oil, or propane for space and/or water heating (60% of households in Carlisle in 2017) by switching 50% to electricity by 2035 and 80% by 2050.
Increase the percentage of households with rooftop PV solar installations or residents who are participants in commercial solar projects to 10% by 2025, 25% by 2035, and 40% by 2050.

This section contains helpful resources and links.