New staff gives Evansville’s environmental protection agency renewed momentum
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Evansville’s new climate action director and climate and compliance specialist are working to revamp the city’s environmental protection agency with a renewed purpose and direction.
Lauren Norvell, the climate action director, technically started her position in June under former Evansville Mayor Lloyd Winnecke’s administration. She said the department’s mission is to lead the region in collective action to improve air quality and climate resilience, with the support of new Mayor Stephanie Terry.
“The world is seeing huge impacts of climate change, the biggest one being more severe weather,” Norvell said. “Even in Evansville … we are having wetter winters, more rain when we don’t need it, drier, hotter summers, more severe tornadoes, more severe dry spells, longer dry spells.”
Nicole Chandler, the climate and compliance specialist, was also hired last year but didn’t officially start until 2024. She’s focused on laying the foundation for long-term goals and facilitating lasting change.
“My main role is to respond to questions, concerns and complaints around air quality while also helping engage the city and public with climate action in the area. That also includes things like helping identify funding sources, so grants for potential projects, and then to help implement those projects,” Chandler said.
Norvell plans to rebrand the department as Evansville Climate Collaborative. She will present an overview of the agency to city council on Feb. 12. Norvell and Chandler are also working to revise the 2021 Evansville Climate Action Plan.
‘We need to up our game’
According to Norvell, the Evansville Environmental Protection Agency—not to be confused with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency—has been vacant for five years.
“I was the first to be hired to resurrect the agency with a new mission,” she said. “The city or county has never had anyone focused on climate and climate action to improve climate resiliency.”
Terry said in a written statement that she supports the vision for a rebranded Evansville Climate Cooperative.
“One of the critical elements as we work to move Evansville forward together is to make our city more environmentally friendly and more environmentally resilient,” Terry said. “As a city, we need to be a leader in climate initiatives, while at the same time working alongside our community partners to maximize the impact of creative, proven climate solutions in Evansville.”
Before her current role, Norvell was the conservation education curator at Mesker Park Zoo & Botanic Garden. Chandler was finishing a master’s degree in environmental science at Indiana University when she heard about the opportunity through a network of climate activists.
“Growing up in Evansville, there didn’t seem to be a lot of climate-forward action. So this is great to see [Evansville Climate Collaborative] get started,” she said.
Evansville’s first climate action plan debuted in 2021 during Winnecke’s administration.
“[Winnecke] worked with a group of stakeholders and IU’s Environmental Resilience Institute … There were, like, eleven other towns in Indiana doing it at the same time,” Norvell said. “The goal of the plan is to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2050, to improve air quality, and to improve our resilience to climate impacts that we’re already seeing.”
However, Norvell said climate science has moved so fast in the last three years that the city’s climate action plan is outdated. The Paris Agreement, an international climate change treaty, calls for emissions to be reduced by 45% by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050.
Besides updates, Norvell and Chandler said Evansville’s climate action plan must also be more defined.
“We need to revise it to be a little bit more detailed with metrics that measure success. There are no goals stated in it other than the greenhouse gas emission reduction overall. There are no individual metrics to say, ‘Yeah, we’re successful for this particular strategy,’” said Norvell.
“We need updated data and more specific data on things that we didn’t originally get in the original one,” Chandler added.
Evansville Climate Collaborative
The purpose of reinventing the city’s environmental protection agency as Evansville Climate Collaborative is to get more people involved beyond government, according to Norvell.
“We’re charged with implementing this climate action plan and all of the strategies, which involves many city and county departments, but also organizations out in the community, business, industry, not-for-profits, economic development groups, academia,” she said. “We’re trying to get away from the image that all we do is regulate and enforce. Instead, we want to work with people to incentivize good change and collaborate with them to make it happen.”
Norvell intends to start the process of revising the climate action plan in March and include a focus on energy consumption.
“We will have a strategic plan to reduce our energy consumption across sectors community-wide, which will save everyone money, reduce the amount of energy we’re using and hopefully avoid blackouts from a higher energy demand,” she said.
Norvell wants input on revising the climate action plan from various sources. The staff plans to work with community groups and citizen advocates involved in climate action. The pair is already collaborating with Lauren Kuester, the resiliency coordinator for Evansville at Earth Charter Indiana, the community outreach coordinator at Urban Seeds and a climate activist.
“There are a lot of new activities taking place, more resources that are readily accessible. That was not the case even a few years ago when the climate action plan was created. So people are feeling a new energy of sorts, that things are actually more possible than maybe they would have been beforehand,” Kuester said.
Kuester views her role as a connecter among Evansville Climate Collaborative, climate action groups, climate activists and residents to ensure there’s no duplication of efforts and they’re working together to combat climate change.
“The main thing I want [the city department] to continue to do is focus on the collaborative aspect, not just among all these different groups, but also listen to the community about what they need to help their own micro-environments,” she said. “When people have active tools that they have access to that activate them towards feeling like that they are working towards solutions, that’s where you really start to see real systems change.”
Norvell agreed collaboration is essential to make climate action successful in Evansville.
“There’s much more acceptance and demand for action to try to help our community be more resilient to these climate change impacts and contribute less to further climate change,” Norvell said. “If we’re going to reach carbon neutrality by 2050, everyone has to participate.”
“It fundamentally comes down to caring. Understanding that this literally is a make-it-or-break-it scenario,” added Kuester. “And if I don’t put my entire self into it, then I’m also part of the problem. I don’t see other solutions of being passive.”