Community Engagement for Industrial Decarbonization Projects

The PA Department of Environmental Protection’s Reducing Industrial Sector Emissions in Pennsylvania (RISE PA) program enables participating companies to lower their emissions and decrease costs. An additional 10% of benefits can be accessed if the applicant completes a Community Benefits Plan (CBP).

Community benefits plans are frameworks that allow for community groups and municipalities to work in tandem with firms to determine impactful investments that contribute to community health, economic outcomes, and environmental benefits.

This webinar will also cover the requirement that large projects utilizing the Community Benefits Bonus have a commitment to a Community Benefits Agreement – speakers will explain the difference between a plan and an agreement and how to meet the requirement.

These webinars will provide an overview of what needs to be included in your PA RISE Community Benefit Bonus materials and showcase successful examples in Pennsylvania and beyond. Speakers will cover the following information:

• The framework of the RISE PA Community Benefits Bonus, including detailed definition of the four key goals your plan must address.

• How to use qualitative and quantitative data to shape the required SMARTIES milestones (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, Timely, Impactful, Equitable, and Supportive)

• Effective approaches for meaningful community partnerships.

You will come away understanding what is required to submit a successful Community Benefits Bonus, and where you can go for help to achieve this.

For questions about these webinars, please contact: Emily Brown, Director of Government Funding at the SWPA Municipal Project Hub at emily@swpahub.org

About our Speakers

Patricia M. DeMarco is a Pittsburgh author with a doctorate in Biology from the University of Pittsburgh. She has spent a fifty-year career in energy and environmental policy in both private and public sector positions. She now writes and lectures in the fields of sustainability, energy and environmental policy, and natural history. 

She learned her craft in public policy from Connecticut Governor Ella T. Grasso, for whom she served as policy advisor to the National Governors Association Low Level Nuclear Waste Compact negotiations. Following her position as Demand Side Manager for the Connecticut Municipal Electric Energy Cooperative, she served is a Commissioner of the Regulated Utilities Commission of Alaska.  

She returned to Pittsburgh in 2006, and served as Executive Director of the Rachel Carson Homestead Association then as Director of the Rachel Carson Institute at Chatham University, where she now holds an appointment as Senior Scholar and Adjunct Faculty.  

She sits on the Board of Trustees for Phipps Conservatory and Botanical Gardens, and for The Allegheny Land Trust. She is also a Principal Associate in The Main Street Associates, headquartered in Braddock, PA.

In his 3.5 years at Fourth Economy, Ross Berlin has worked extensively on projects related to economic development, industry cluster growth, and organizational strategy. Ross excels in research and engagement relevant to fact-finding, best practices, and benchmarking, helping clients understand the bigger picture of economic problems and potential solutions.

Often leading creative forms of stakeholder engagement, interactive ideation sessions, or critical research for the development of policy and programs, Ross frequently works directly with clients to ensure that quality research and ideas drive action-oriented plans.

His research and expertise have helped drive projects across the country, from Louisiana and Georgia to Rhode Island and Indiana. Ross is a native of Atlanta, GA and resides in New Orleans, LA.