History

The original ACSP Task Force on Climate Action created by the 2021-2023 ACSP President Marlon Boarnet had three charges: 1) how ACSP can become a leader on climate planning research; 2) how it should enhance curriculum around climate change; 3) how the Association itself (chiefly, its conference) can better embody a commitment to decarbonization and climate justice.

Tasks accomplished in these areas include:

Climate Careers Panel Series

Climate Action Task Force Panel Series on Climate Careers: (View Panel Descriptions and Details: PDF)

• Climate Migration and Housing: Watch the Webinar >
• Decarbonization and Transportation: Watch the Webinar >
• Climate Planning in Local Government:  Watch the Webinar >

Results:

• Organized 2021 ACSP Conference theme on Climate Change and Social Justice.
• Synthesized conference theme events into a 6-page memo highlights trends and gaps in research on this topic within the planning research community (especially the need for more tracks to engage with climate change and the geographic imbalance in research coverage).
• Wrote a perspective essay on where the field needs to go to demonstrate climate leadership (under review at JPER).
• Penned an op-ed in The Hill, American Needs a National Climate Adaptation Strategy.
• Organized a special issue with Joan Fitzgerald (CATF ally) in the Journal of Planning Literature (coming out May 2023) on Planning for Climate Transformation.
• Reviewed how much climate change is discussed in top planning journals (JPER, JAPA).

Curriculum:

• Hosted an online workshop in August 2021 on teaching climate in planning courses (see Padlet 1 and Padlet 2) that was attended by over 30 people.
• Organizing a syllabus repository of climate related courses (see below - in progress by Ward Lyles who partnered on curriculum development).
• Advocated successfully for PAB to include language on climate change in its requirements. Drafted a letter to PAB after initial revision did not adopt climate language, with around 100 signatories. This led them to ultimately include language on climate more forcefully.
• Engaging with UN-Habitat's Planners for Climate Change (P4CA) to identify pedagogical needs across planning universities.

Other ACSP Activities:

• Inventoried carbon emissions due to conference travel - essentially zero during COVID years, but we are adding questions to this year's post-conference survey to sample the emissions contributions of participants.
• Surfaced strategies for inclusive conference design and sequencing to reduce emissions and increase / equalize access (in the JPER article).
• Convened conference roundtables sharing progress from the task force with the community, as well as holding substantive panels on climate justice.
• Created a climate change listserv, posted on ACSP's website. Go to: https://groups.google.com/g/acspclimate and click "Join group."
• Climate Action Task Force PowerPoint (PDF) presentation by Elisabeth Hamin at the ACSP 2023 Administrators Conference.
• Proposed and it was determined that the task force become a special committee of the Association (Spring 2023).
  

Current Committee Charge

• Expanded engagement with climate research and pedagogy across ACSP tracks – especially in housing, transportation, finance, and data analytics, because they are central to planning and implementing change in the built environment.
  
  
• Engagement with external U.S. climate-related planning institutions (such as HUD and FEMA) and networks (such as APA, U.S. Sustainability Directors' Network, ICLEI, Climate Mayors, National League of Cities, and Climate Justice Alliance) to develop a platform for identifying practitioners' research needs and connecting them with planning faculty and student researchers. Translate and elevate the salience of climate research by ACSP members, and bring these organizations' case-based examples, stories, and staff experts into climate teaching among ACSP schools.
  
  
• Support the 2023 conference organizers in promoting climate-oriented sessions and field trips in Miami.
  
  
• Continue to develop and disseminate digital teaching resources, such as case studies, lecture videos, and syllabi, that will help all ACSP schools meet PAB requirements for climate teaching and enhance knowledge sharing. Host pedagogy related sessions at or before the 2023 conference.
  
  
• Center planning for climate equity and justice as an integral component of all the above activities, both in terms of how the Task Force engages with others as well as in the substantive content.
  

ACSP’s Climate Community Exchange

What is this?
This knowledge exchange exists to advance teaching of climate change planning by facilitating the sharing of syllabi and other resources.

Who is this for?
Any instructor teaching climate planning anywhere in the world. However, in line with ACSP’s mission, the Exchange focuses on Canada and the United States. A complementary international site for sharing resources can be found here.

Where did it come from?
This project arose as an outshoot of the ACSP Presidential Committee on Climate Change and a National Science Foundation grant on fostering networks of compassionate risk reduction (#175696). Following an August 2021 interactive workshop on teaching climate change that drew dozens of scholars, a group of scholars who have written pedagogy articles and led sessions on pedagogy through ACSP saw the need for an easy way to share resources. The Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) agreed to build and host this site.

Reward for those who have shared materials?
There is no one way to say thank you. We encourage a thank you to send an email to the contributing instructor if you find a submission helpful. If you borrow, copy, or otherwise draw heavily on someone else’s work, especially the work of early career scholars, please send them a formal note that can be referenced in a teaching statement or added to a teaching portfolio, the more specific the better. Another good practice is to provide documentation in teaching materials, which could be done with a citation, end-note, or other simple statement.

How do I share what I am doing?
Click on the link below and complete the submission form. Complete the fields, and you’ll be prompted to send a .pdf of your syllabus. ACSP staff will upload materials regularly. If you do not see your material loaded within one week of submission, please email Damien Raimondi: damien@acsp.org.

Disclaimer Statement
This Exchange is a crowdsourced resource. While ACSP staff will do their best to ensure the basics of quality control – such as assuring that submissions are from instructors, not bots – ACSP is not capable of close review of submitted materials and is not responsible for what is shared by instructors. Similarly, once material is shared on this exchange, ACSP cannot control who accesses it or how it is used. If you are submitting materials, you might consider establishing a Creative Commons copyright (https://creativecommons.org)

Syllabi Content Submission
Click the link below to submit your course content to add to the table below.

Submit Syllabi Here >

Climate Action Resources

Please share ideas and resources here by submitting an ACSP news form or emailing   news@acsp.org

• WORLD PLANNERS’ ABU DHABI DECLARATION 2020: 
  We, representatives of the planning profession of the world, dedicate ourselves to working together, and with others, to tackle the challenges of the scale and pace of urbanization, informal settlements, the dire consequences of poverty and inequity, and the hazards posed to both humans and the environment by climate change and natural disasters.