Lansdale Environmental Advisory Commission members Rege McKenzie, left, and Mike Bueke staff an EAC table at a borough First Friday event in 2024. (Photo courtesy of Lansdale Environmental Advisory Commission)
Town commission touts green goals, April 26 Earth Day event
A group of Lansdale residents is helping the town go green and has developed big goals for Lansdale to pursue over the next decade.
Council heard an update Wednesday night from the town’s Environmental Advisory Commission on that group’s recent activities and what they’re urging the town to do next.
“We’re always here to try to support you,” said EAC chair Rob Gladfelter.
The Environmental Advisory Commission was first established in the summer of 2019 as an all-volunteer board dedicated to discussing and debating all things environment-related, but COVID-related delays meant no members were appointed until summer 2021. The next year, that group gave council an update on their monthly meetings and appearances at local events to discuss all things green, and EAC members brought council up to speed on Wednesday night about what they’ve been up to lately. A dedicated website and mission statement for the commission have been established, members appear at town events, and discuss hot topics at their monthly meetings.
“We have a very good, diverse group, with a lot of different skillsets: everything from environmental science, sustainable design, art and architecture, and urban planning. One thing we’re always looking for is opportunities to work with council,” he said.
The EAC meets on the third Thursday of each month, and hosted an Earth Day “Hoe-down” in 2024 featuring country music, crafts, and games along with info about how to make every day Earth-friendly; a similar Earth Day celebration is slated for April 26 at Whites Road Park, starting at 10 a.m. and featuring nature and bird walks, conservation tips, environmental info and more.
“We learned a lot from (the 2024 event), and it’s not going to be quite as big this time, but we are having another event, to try to get people to understand the nature that’s right here in our backyards,” Gladfelter said.
The EAC has also hosted nature-themed scavenger hunts for kids, rain barrel workshops showing how to best use water that falls from above, electronics recycling events, and met with similar groups across the region, and appeared at the town’s monthly First Friday festivities to spread the word.
They also talk about bigger topics during those monthly meetings: “We continue to look at renewable energy, and how that works, and how we can help our citizens with energy savings,” Gladfelter said.
Other topics on their to-do list lately have been street trees, plastic reduction, dark skies and light pollution, and promoting sustainability. The EAC is also working with North Penn High School’s student EnAct (Environmental Action) club to promote that group’s green-themed events and get input from students on their priorities.
As for the dark skies, Mayor Garry Herbert presented a proclamation to the chairman declaring April 21-28 as “Dark Skies Week” in Lansdale, noting the significance of light pollution and calling on residents to reduce it if possible.
“The experience of standing under a starry night sky inspires feelings of wonder and awe, encouraging a growing interest in science and nature, particularly among young people,” read the mayor from the proclamation.
Lansdale Mayor Garry Herbert, left, presented town Environmental Advisory Commission chairman Rob Gladfelter with a proclamation declaring April 21-28 to be Dark Skies Week in the borough during the council meeting on Wednesday, April 16, 2025.“80 percent of the world’s population, including many people in the borough of Lansdale, live under a dome of light pollution, excessive artificial lighting at night that disrupts natural darkness, and may never experience the visual wonder or ecological and health benefits of living under a dark sky,” Herbert said, before presenting the proclamation to Gladfelter.
EAC vice chair Connie Lezenby then presented a topic the EAC has discussed for roughly three years: a clean energy resolution calling on the town to seek its own power from only green sources.
“This is really important, for maybe 100 reasons. Especially that hopefully, it will save money for the borough, and for the borough’s businesses and residents, and also create a clean environment,” Lezenby said.
Working with staff and council members, the EAC’s members developed a resolution summarized by high school junior and EnAct member Joni Marie Stuchko.
“The primary objectives are: the municipal buildings transition to 100 percent clean, renewable energy for heating, cooling and lighting by 2035. As municipal vehicles are replaced, priority will be given to transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy sources by 2035. Create a plan for borough commercial and residential building owners to begin a transition for their buildings and transportation to 100 percent clean, renewable energy, and to use energy-reducing improvements in construction and renovations,” she said.
And one more goal for the town-run electric utility: “Lansdale Electric company to provide 100 percent clean, renewable energy via local renewable sources, and purchasing electricity created by renewable sources, by 2050,” Stuchko said.
A plan developed in 2021 by outside consultant Blue Sky Power spells out tactics and projects the town could take toward adding more renewables, increasing power reliability and lowering costs, Stuchko added, and the EAC could work with the council and the electric committee to update that plan and set clear goals.
“The goals are ambitious, because the need is great to reduce air pollution, reduce record high temperatures that threaten our areas with drought and fire, reduce the cost of energy, reduce the number and intensity of storms which threaten floods, and to create healthy, thriving communities,” she said.
The town currently generates nearly 50 percent of the electricity needed to power municipal buildings, via the solar arrays atop borough hall and at the electric complex on Ninth Street, EAC members told the council.
If and when Lansdale adopts the resolution, it would become the 45th community in southeast Pennsylvania to do so, and could work with other similar communities in grouping, like a proposed regional power consortium to combine their efforts. Councilman BJ Breish asked if any of the communities that have passed the renewable energy goals so far have met their goals by purchasing renewable energy credits from utility companies, and Lezenby said those aren’t the commission’s preferred approach.
“It would make more sense to use that additional revenue to invest in infrastructure. That would offset the costs,” Breish said, before asking that group to also consider long-term costs of any new green sources like solar panels: “If we’re going to invest in generating this renewable energy, we’re also going to take the savings, and set some aside, so we can keep it replaced if needed, or maintained.”
And Carroll, the electric committee chairman, added a request for the environmental group: “I like lofty goals. I think some of the goals are lofty, but I love the spirit of it. My only request is: don’t let the dialog stop here.”
“We’re always happy to have you in, and keep the dialog going, because it’s going to be 2035 before we know it. So let’s make sure we do the work along the way,” Carroll said.
Lansdale’s Environmental Advisory Commission next meets at 6:30 p.m. on May 15 at the borough municipal building, 1 Vine Street. For more information, visit www.Lansdale.org.
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