Sustainability Teaching Network

Friday 14 November 2025, 1–2pm

Online via MS Teams

If you haven’t already subscribed to the STN and wish to join the presentation, please email the secretary.

Given the timing of the meeting, you are welcome to eat lunch while you listen to the presentations.

This seminar will feature Dr. Peter Buck, who will share two successful projects from Penn State that meet global demands for sustainability and climate education at scale.

Dr. Peter Buck: Sustainability Education Policy and Programs: A View from Pennsylvania

In this presentation, Peter Buck (Penn State University, Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering and Sustain Penn State) will share two successful projects from Penn State that meet global demands for sustainability and climate education at scale. In the first half, Buck will share how Penn State faculty, staff, and students developed a set of institution-wide sustainability literacy outcomes, the outcomes themselves, and the process currently under way to identify and support curriculum that meets those outcomes. In the second half, he will share about the Local Climate Action Program (LCAP). This immersive, two-semester sequence of courses, pairs undergraduate and graduate students with Pennsylvania municipalities, counties, and state agencies to a) conduct greenhouse gas inventories that meet the U.S. Community Protocol and b) develop climate planning politics, projects, programs, and partnerships. The LCAP is not a Penn State venture alone, but a hyper-collaborative program shared between Penn State, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, ICLEI USA, and numerous NGOs, businesses, and individuals. Buck will share its mission and goals, course outcomes, processes, calendar, and deliverables/assignments, as well as the program’s successes and challenges.

Bio

Dr. Peter Buck is a noted communicator, connector, and catalyst for climate action and sustainability in educational organisations, policy and public service. Buck is the Director of Education at Sustain Penn State, Co-Director of Penn State’s Local Climate Action Program (LCAP), Associate Teaching Professor in the John and Willie Leone Family Department of Energy and Mineral Engineering, and the Education Team Lead on Prepare PA, a statewide initiative to coordinate and uplift capacity across the Commonwealth to support Pennsylvania’s climate readiness. He has also held elected and appointed office at the municipal, regional, school district, and state level, including as the Chair and Vice Chair of two working groups on climate planning and solar power aggregation. This pro-democracy and pro-climate work has been recognised with the Ryan Moser Reilly Institutional Leadership Award from the Engagement Scholarship Consortium, been recognised on the floor of the Pennsylvania State House of Representatives. Pennsylvania Solar Center, the World Resources Institute, Rocky Mountain Institute, as well as Penn State with the Barash Award for Human Service. Additionally, Buck has testified before the Pennsylvania Local Government Commission, the Legislative Reapportionment Commission, and Legislative Climate Caucus. He loves spending time with his wife, son, and dogs, playing and writing music, and single speed mountain biking.