The Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium: A State-Wide Collaborative Network for Sustainable Outreach, Education, and Action

This paper explores the organizational theory, programs, and concomitant challenges faced by a state-level higher education consortium for sustainability in the United States, the Pennsylvania Environmental Resource Consortium (PERC). We provide insights for other institutions of higher education that may want to form consortia or consider changes to existing consortia. PERC members collaborate to advance sustainability on member campuses, in local communities, and across the Commonwealth. PERC envisions thriving, just communities on a healthy planet, and seeks to inspire higher education communities throughout the Commonwealth to lead transformational sustainability efforts through example, expertise, and collaboration. This chapter provides a brief theoretical background in PERC as a collaborative. It shares history and context for PERC’s mission and activities as well as an overview of its programs. It includes reflections on challenges to collaboration and coordination, including from COVID-19, changing digital technology, disparities among PERC institutions, accelerating sustainability challenges in the Anthropocene, anti-intellectualism and hyperpartisanship in the Commonwealth and the United States, and PERC’s own staffing, volunteerism, participation, and funding challenges. The chapter closes by revisiting the organization’s 2021–2025 Strategic Plan as an invitation to consider how cooperation, coordination, and collaboration among higher education institutions can positively impact sustainability across sectors.