Date: March 6, 2024
Time: 5:30-6:30PM
Concerned about high energy bills? Join NYS Senator Shelley Mayer, Sustainable Westchester, and the Public Utility Law Project to learn how to combat high energy bills through assistance programs and home energy upgrades in this webinar on March 6, 2024 from 5:30-6:30 PM.
Date: Thursday, February 29, 2024
Time: 7:00pm – 7:30pm
Join with the Westchester Youth Congress and students from other schools to take action on environmental injustice and reduce pollution with Sustainable Westchester’s GridRewards Earth Day Cohort.
Register for the webinar and learn more about joining the GridRewards Cohort for High Schools. At the webinar you’ll get a preview of marketing resources to help promote your GridRewards campaign. Use the marketing materials to motivate people to sign up for GridRewards as an Earth Day Action. Share materials online, at your school events, in backpack mail or however you best communicate to your community and/or members. Sustainable Westchester also has ample supplies you can pick up from our office for distribution. Attending the webinar is no-obligation.
Date: Friday, February 23, 2024
Time: 12:00-12:30pm
Sign up for the webinar to learn more about Sustainable Westchester’s GridRewards Earth Month Cohort. Members of the cohort will receive training, a customizable marketing toolkit and additional resources. Join the webinar on Friday, February 23rd from 12:00-12:30.
Sustainable Westchester’s GridRewards is a useful tool for Community Groups, Municipalities, Businesses, Nonprofits and Houses of Worship to both reduce their carbon emissions and act as a sustainability leader to inspire community action.
GridRewards is a demand response program. It helps to alleviate stress on the energy grid during a handful of times in the summer when the energy grid is the most polluting. Get involved by enrolling your building(s) to participate and earn cash by reducing energy at key times. Take it a step further by promoting GridRewards to your members to encourage an easy and impactful action for Earth Day.
Questions? Contact Lauren Brois at [email protected]
City Schools Receive $23,943 Rebate from Sustainable Westchester and Logical Buildings
for Innovative Efforts to Conserve Energy, Demonstrating Climate Leadership
New Rochelle, N.Y. January 22, 2023 – At a celebration at the New Rochelle High School Library on Wednesday, January 17, Sustainable Westchester, a leading advocate striving to make Westchester communities safer and more resilient against the threats posed by climate change, and Logical Buildings, an award-winning climate technology provider, presented the City School District of New Rochelle with a rebate check for $23,943 in recognition of its leadership in reducing energy use among school buildings.
Cooling can be a significant energy challenge for school districts, and amid a rapidly warming planet, there is increasing pressure on buildings – which account for nearly 40 percent of global carbon dioxide emissions – to improve sustainability measures. Pioneering carbon emissions and energy tracking through artificial intelligence, Logical Buildings’ SmartKit AI technology detected peak energy demand at key points during the summer of 2023, and the school district reduced energy usage at five schools by approximately 700 kW, which resulted in $23,943 in savings. New Rochelle is the first school district in New York to participate in Logical Buildings’ Demand Response Program.
City School District of New Rochelle Superintendent Dr. Corey W. Reynolds accepted the $23,943 rebate presented by Lauren Brois, director at Sustainable Westchester, and David Klatt, COO of Logical Buildings.
“Strategically curbing energy consumption during peak times aligns with our school district’s goal of managing resources efficiently and economically. It seamlessly connects with the priority of our Green Schools Committee to reduce the school district’s carbon footprint,” expressed Superintendent Dr. Corey W. Reynolds. “The acknowledgment through this rebate is a testament to our dedication to fostering an environmentally sustainable school district, ensuring a greener future for our students and community alike.”
“By partnering with Sustainable Westchester, the City School District was able to take advantage of an innovative demand response program, earn significant funds and reduce pollution,” said City of New Rochelle Council Member Sara Kaye. “I want to commend the students, the faculty and administrators for their advocacy and taking this important step toward confronting climate change.”
A total of five schools were activated on the platform: New Rochelle High School, Trinity Elementary School, William B. Ward Elementary School, Columbus Elementary School and Albert Leonard Middle School. The program was initiated by the City School District Facilities Department in support of one of the Green Schools Committee’s priorities of developing a comprehensive utility management program that maximizes conservation of natural resources. The district implemented simple measures, like shifting buildings’ cooling schedules and temperature setpoints to reduce energy at key times, and the program remarkably had limited to no impact on students and staff comfort levels. The district is currently exploring opportunities to expand its role by adding additional buildings in summer 2024.
“We have been working with Logical Buildings to bring energy technology solutions to residents, businesses, and municipalities throughout Westchester County, and we are thrilled to be involved in this partnership with the City School District of New Rochelle,” said Lauren Brois, director at Sustainable Westchester. “Enabling this type of technology can help school districts throughout Westchester not only reduce pollution in environmental justice communities, but also earn savings that can have a tremendous impact.”
“As we move towards a more electric and decarbonized world, becoming grid-interactive and using electricity smarter is both critical and valuable to the utility as well as energy users,” said David Klatt, COO of Logical Buildings. “The City School District of New Rochelle is a leader in climate innovation, showcasing the power energy users can have to collectively reduce energy when it matters the most and earning money for it.”
Sustainable Westchester regularly partners with Logical Buildings to offer technology-driven energy savings programs to Westchester County municipalities, residents, and businesses. For example, GridRewards pays consumers to lower their energy consumption during periods of extremely hot weather when people typically crank their air conditioners and electricity demand spikes. More than 4,000 residents and businesses in Westchester County have signed up for GridRewards to date, and on average, each residential user received a direct cash payment of $80, with the top commercial users earning more than $20,000. During the summer of 2022, users’ combined efforts reduced energy consumption by 7MW, enough electricity to instantaneously power 25,000 homes. Con Edison-serviced municipalities, businesses, and residents are all eligible to participate in GridRewards.
School districts interested in learning more about partnerships with Sustainable Westchester and Logical Buildings can contact Lauren Brois, Director at Sustainable Westchester. Contact: [email protected] or 914-242-4725, ext 122.
Case Study:
About Sustainable Westchester
Sustainable Westchester is Westchester County’s leading advocate for local municipalities striving to make their communities safer and more resilient against the threats posed by climate change. It plays a critical role in helping members achieve the goals of New York’s landmark Climate Act by supplying large-scale renewable electricity, implementing innovative clean energy solutions, increasing energy efficiency, saving taxpayers money, and promoting equity and environmental justice. Its diverse hub of popular and high-effective programs developed for municipalities includes Westchester Power, Community Solar, EnergySmart Homes, Commercial Clean Heating & Cooling, GridRewards Demand Response, Electric Vehicle (EV) Charging Infrastructure, Zero Waste Recycling, and Sustainable Landscaping.
About Logical Buildings
Logical Buildings is an industry-leading sustainability, smart building, and virtual powerplant software and solutions provider for the built world. Our revolutionary ESG technologies combat climate change by empowering residential, commercial, and industrial energy users to earn money, enhance building health and reduce carbon footprint, all from within user-friendly, award-winning mobile apps. Founded in 2012, the company now operates in major national urban markets, such as New York, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Camden, Chicago, Miami, and more. To learn more, visit logicalbuildings.com and follow Logical Buildings on LinkedIn.
About the City School District of New Rochelle
With nearly 10,000 students in 10 schools, the City School District of New Rochelle, through an active partnership amongst the community, parents, staff, and students, provides a high-quality and challenging education for every child in a safe, nurturing environment that embraces rich diversity and drives success. Resource Management is one of the CSDNR’s four strategic directions – where we maximize resources and identify operational efficiencies to provide and support the delivery of a high-quality education. Learn more here: nred.org
40 Green Street rooftop solar array.
On December 7, 2023, Sustainable Westchester proudly unveiled a new electric vehicle (EV) fast charging station that is demonstrating a first-in-its-kind concept of fast-charging electric vehicles fully from renewable energy, in this case, from solar Photovoltaic (PV). The solar PV arrays and chargers are located on top of 40 Green Street, home to the Sustainable Westchester office as well as the Mount Kisco Police Station, and the Mount Kisco Historical Society.
The project involves a complex system of an 85 kW solar photovoltaic array that captures energy from the sun, stores it into a 180kWh on-site battery, and twin Jule 75 kW DC fast chargers that can charge any kind of electric vehicle with more than 100 miles of range in under 24 minutes. This unique system is thus completely independent from the grid, which ensures that the EV charging at the facility will not operate on fossil fuels derived energy and reduces the impact on the demand on the grid.
The impact of the “Sunshine to EV” project extends well beyond powering EVs: excess electricity generated by the facility is prioritized for low-and moderate-income (LMI) households through Sustainable Westchester’s Community Solar program, which aims to equitably share the benefits of clean energy among historically underserved communities.
Pictured L to R: New York State Senator and Chair of the Senate Environmental Conservation Committee Pete Harckham, Westchester Deputy County Executive Ken Jenkins, NYS Assemblyperson Chris Burdick; Sustainable Westchester Interim Executive Director Jim Kuster; Anthony Fiore, Chief Program Officer, NYSERDA; Mayor Michael Cindrich, Mt Kisco; John Petronella, NYS Department of Environmental Conservation; Peter McCartt, Westchester County Director of Energy & Sustainability; William Serratore, Director of Sustainability, City of Yonkers; Theresa Flora, Mount Kisco Trustee; Michel Delafontaine; Sustainable Westchester Director of Business Development.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony at Sustainable Westchester’s Mount Kisco headquarters was attended by a diverse range of state and local elected officials, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, EV charger manufacturer Jule, Con Edison, renewable energy industry leaders and environmental advocates.
The cutting-edge initiative proves the possibility for this charging concept to be replicated throughout New York in service of the State’s visionary climate, clean energy, and environmental justice goals. The system was partially funded by a $250,000 grant through the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Zero Emission Vehicle Infrastructure program, and also supported by the North American EV charger manufacturer Jule. The effort builds on recent progress to expand EV charging infrastructure in Westchester County, including the addition of 90 new stations by the City of Yonkers in April 2023, and 34 new stations by the Village of Tuckahoe.
75 kW DC Jule fast chargers
Read more in our featured article about NYCEEC’s participation in Sunshine-to-EV:
Fecha: 6 de Febrero de 2024 Hora: 4:00-8:00PM
¿Está preocupado por las facturas de energía caras? ¿Necesita asistencia con financiamiento para proyectos en su casa o apartamento que pueden ahorrar dinero y energía? Pase por el Evento de Asistencia Invernal en Peekskill, el 6 de Febrero de 2024 (si nevando: 8 de Febrero), en cualquier momento entre las 4:00 pm y las 8:00 pm. Reúnase con representantes de: Department of Public Service (Departamento de Servicio Público), NYSERDA, Homes and Community Renewal, Peekskill Conservation Advisory Council y Mid-Hudson Smart Energy Choices. Para una solicitud más facil, trae una copia de sus facturas de energía y/o una carta de SNAP/HEAP/TANF/SSI. No es necesario registrarse para el evento, pero lo recomendamos. Confirma su asistencia aquí: https://bit.ly/WinterAssistance24
Dirección: Sun River Health, 1037 Main St, Peekskill, NY 10566
Se proporcionará pizza.
¿Preguntas? Llame a Lauren K al 914-242-4725 x126
Date: Tuesday, February 6th Time: 4:00-8:00PM
(Snow date: Thursday, February 8th)
Concerned about high energy bills? In need of financial assistance to implement energy saving projects in your home or apartment? Stop by the “Peekskill Winter Assistance Workshop” at Sun River Health on Tuesday, February 6th (snow date 2/8/24) anytime between 4:00pm-8:00pm. Meet with representatives from the Department of Public Service, NYSERDA, Homes and Community Renewal, the Peekskill Conservation Advisory Council and the Mid-Hudson Smart Energy Choices team. For an easier application, bring a copy of your energy bills, and/or your SNAP/HEAP/TANIF/SSI approval letter. Registration is not required but requested, please RSVP here: https://bit.ly/WinterAssistance24
Location: Sun River Health, 1037 Main St, Peekskill, NY 10566
Pizza will be provided.
Questions? Contact Lauren at 914-242-4725 x126
How to Take Advantage of Green Incentives
Free workshop on December 10, 2:00-3:30 p.m. at the Croton Library, hosted by Croton100 and its decarbonizing partners. Topics include savings on heat pumps, home energy efficiency, EVs, induction and electric stoves, related electricity upgrades, and utility-sponsored savings for clean electricity. Learn from experts and neighbors who have decarbonized. This program will cover Federal, NY State and utility financial incentives.
Location: Croton Library, 171 Cleveland Dr, Croton-On-Hudson, NY 10520
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