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Clean Energy Communities (CEC) 2023 Program Update Meeting - August 10 2023, 12:00pm - 1:30pm

Clean Energy Communities (CEC) 2023 Program Update Meeting – August 10 2023, 12:00pm – 1:30pm

By | Events & conferences
Clean Energy Communities (CEC) 2023 Program Update Meeting - August 10 2023, 12:00pm - 1:30pm

Funding for the Clean Energy Communities (CEC) program has been expanded! Join us on August 10th, 2023 from 12:00pm – 1:30pm (via Zoom) to learn how your municipality can take advantage of thousands of dollars in funding for Community Solar, Clean Heating and Cooling (Heat Pump), and Electric Vehicle Campaigns. Municipalities that have previously completed campaigns will be eligible for additional funding opportunities. The Hudson Valley Regional Council will provide an overview of the CEC Campaign Guidelines, and Sustainable Westchester staff will explain how our EnergySmart Homes and Solar Programs can support your municipality’s campaign efforts. Participating municipalities will also be on to share their experiences with and best practices for the CEC Campaigns. If you have any questions, email lauren@sustainablewestchester.org or call 914-242-4725 ext.122

REGISTER HERE

Summer 2023 Tabling Events

Summer 2023 Tabling Events

By | Events & conferences
Summer 2023 Tabling Events

Join Sustainable Westchester this summer as we share sustainability tips and tricks at an exciting lineup of events. Stop by our table at local farmer’s markets, outdoor festivals and concerts to learn how you can reduce your energy usage and lower carbon emissions.

Together, let’s create a greener and more sustainable future.

JULY

AUGUST

Earth Day 2023

By | News & Noteworthy, Our Blog

Earth Day 2023

This Earth Day, Sustainable Westchester had the honor of participating in events with numerous member municipalities around the County. Local communities in Westchester held well-attended festivals, clean ups, and educational events. We thank them for the opportunity to be involved with these events and look forward to many more.

New Yorkers For Clean Power Are Turning Up for NY HEAT!

By | News & Noteworthy, Our Blog

New Yorkers For Clean Power Are Turning Up for NY HEAT!

Authored By: Molly Levitt, Sustainable Westchester Intern

On Tuesday, May 23rd, proponents of the NY Home Energy Affordable Transition (HEAT) Act came from all over the state to voice their support in Albany. Three of our very own from Sustainable Westchester made the journey to aid in the effort to pass this important bill.

The NY HEAT Act is a landmark piece of legislation which will help shift New York State away from its reliance on oil and natural gas, and provide relief for residents struggling with the rising cost of energy. It ends subsidies for natural gas such as the “100 Foot Rule”, which requires utility companies to hook up customers to natural gas with no cost if they live within 100 feet of an existing gas main. It also retires old gas grids that are no longer necessary and empowers utility companies to replace them with zero-emission options. These measures will save energy customers $200 million per year in their energy bills. This bill supports zero-emissions forms of heating energy such as heat pumps, geothermal energy, and thermal energy networks, that don’t release dangerous pollutants and are safer for our communities. The bill will make sure to support the transition every step of the way so that jobs are not only preserved, but created.

The “HEAT” in NY HEAT stands for Home Energy Affordable Transition. Keeping true to the name, this law will cap home energy bills for low- and moderate-income New Yorkers at 6% of their annual household income, providing much-needed relief for these families. Between the rate cap and the moratorium on unnecessary support for outdated oil and gas systems, New Yokers for Clean Power (NYCP) estimates that the typical New Yorker will save as much as $75 a month on their energy bills.

Right now is a crucial time for this legislation. New York State just recently passed the 2023 budget, in which we saw some big wins for the environment. For instance, the new budget includes the All-Electric Buildings Act, which bans the use of fossil fuels in new buildings built in New York state. However, NY HEAT didn’t make it through to the final budget, which means the future of this bill has not been decided. There are only a few weeks left in this year’s legislative session. Time is running out to impact the upcoming year’s budget and legislative priorities.

Many elected officials from both houses of the state government who have sponsored or co sponsored NY HEAT spoke in front of the crowd. In fact, many of our own representatives from Westchester have supported this bill. Representatives Dana Levenberg, Chris Burdick, Maryjane Shimsky, Amy Paulin, and Steven Otis co sponsored the bill in the State Assembly. Senators Pete Harckham and Shelley Mayer co-sponsored the bill in the NY Senate. Additionally, among the demonstrators were many leaders from community-based organizations such as Mothers Out Front and No NBK Pipeline, an organization in Brooklyn that successfully blocked National Grid from building two new fracked gas vaporizers in environmental justice communities in Brooklyn.

Our Sustainable Westchester interns were part of this great demonstration. Afterwards, they met with elected officials who have cosponsored the bill package we are advocating for to personally thank them and ensure their continued support going forward. In fact, as the interns made their rounds, many of the representatives they tried to meet with were already on the floor, lending their voices to help pass NY HEAT.

NY HEAT is a vital, trailblazing piece of legislation that will put our state on the right path to carbon neutrality, safer communities, and affordability. We once again would like to shout out the other nonprofit organizations supporting NY HEAT and to all the assemblymen and senators co sponsoring the bill. Stay tuned for more updates on NY HEAT!

Three of our high school interns sitting on the Million-Dollar Staircase in the Legislative Office Building just after the rally for NY Heat. After this, they headed out to talk with elected officials. From left to right: Molly Levitt (yours truly!), Talia London, Jada Fleiss.

You may remember this unit of measurement – the mole – from your high school chemistry class. This is what one mole of a gas looks like. Did you know that your gas-powered car releases 200 moles of carbon dioxide and 10 moles of dangerous carbon monoxide into the air for every mile you travel? Thank you to the folks in Albany for this powerful demonstration of the effects of gas-powered vehicles. If you are able to, consider making the switch to electric, and walk and take public transit whenever you can!

The rally on the steps of the Million Dollar Staircase at 12:30. Demonstrators heard from community leaders, co-sponsors of the NY Heat Act from the State Senate and Assembly – who then went straight to the meeting on the floor to voice their support – and Patricia Fahy and Liz Kreuger, the sponsors of the bill in the Assembly and Senate, respectively.

Net-Zero Cities:Westchester County. A Clean Energy Fair Hosted by Rye Sustainability & Produced by Climate Now

By | Events & conferences

Climate Now’s Net-Zero Cities events are community-based forums designed to foster learning, make connections, and spread the knowledge needed to equitably decarbonize our cities nationwide.

What is a Net – Zero City?

“Net-zero” refers to achieving a balance between the amount of greenhouse gas emissions produced, and the amount of emissions removed from the atmosphere – beginning with dramatic reductions in emissions, also known as decarbonization. For cities, that means reducing emissions from buildings, transportation, electric power, waste, and other essential systems.

Stop by the Sustainable Westchester table in the Expo and attend PANEL 3: NET-ZERO HOMES & BUILDINGS: Discover how to transform your home into a Net Zero building. Get answers from experts on frequently asked questions like, what are common pain points? Where should you start? What are the incentives when it comes to comfort and costs? Learn where you can start on your path to home and building energy efficiency, where energy coaches are available, the relationship between cities, utilities, home heating and cooling, and more!

REGISTER HERE

2023 Rivertowns Earth Day Mayors Challenge kicks off March 23!

By | News & Noteworthy, Our Blog

2023 Rivertowns Earth Day Mayors Challenge kicks off March 23!

Mayors from Hastings to Sleepy Hollow engage in friendly competition; encouraging residents to sign up for Sustainable Westchester’s GridRewards to illustrate the importance of synchronicity when it comes to energy reduction. Challenge takes place now through April 28, 2023.

 

Photo Description: The Rivertowns Mayors are excited to encourage their residents to save money and energy with Sustainable Westchester’s GridRewards. Pictured from Left to Right: Dobbs Ferry Village Administrator, Richard Leins; Elmsford Village Administrator, Michael Mills; Mayor of Elmsford, Robert Williams; Sleepy Hollow Village Administrator, Anthony Giaccio; Mayor of Dobbs Ferry, Vincent Rossillo; Irvington Village Administrator, Larry Schopfer; Mayor of Hastings-on-Hudson Nicola Armacost; Mayor of Tarrytown, Karen Brown; Hastings Village Manager, Mary Beth Murphy; Tarrytown Village Administrator Richard Slingerland; Mayor of Ardsley, Nancy Kaboolian

 

Scroll down the page to see the current rankings!

Westchester County, NY, March 23, 2023 It’s GridRewards season once again and the Mayors of the Rivertowns are spicing things up as we head into Earth Month! GridRewards, a product of Logical Buildings, AI tech leader in sustainability, is an app designed to get large numbers of people to lower their energy consumption at the same time by getting paid to do so.

In order to alleviate stress on the grid when high energy demand is forecasted (think summertime heat waves), GridRewards users are prompted (via the app) to take simple, energy-saving actions, such as raising their thermostat a few degrees, or running dishwashers at off-peak hours. They are then compensated for their efforts — in cash.

Mayors from around the Rivertowns are urging residents, nonprofits and commercial property managers alike to sign up for GridRewards, especially as we near Earth Day on April 22nd. Niki Armacost from Hastings is leading the charge for her Village. “We’re very excited to participate in another Mayor’s Challenge this year using GridRewards! There are many actions people can take to reduce their carbon footprint, but GridRewards is one of the very simplest we’ve seen. And if we all work together – which is of course the real trick and the brilliance of the app, it is not only Rivertowns residents who win, but every person living within a few miles of a polluting Peaker Plant.”

This year, the municipality with the highest enrollment percentage, based upon population size, will win $1,000 from Logical Buildings, the company that developed GridRewards!

When so many users reduce their energy consumption at the same time, or in a synchronized manner, it effectively creates a distributed virtual power plant (VPP) and reduces the need for expensive, polluting, fossil-fuel-powered Peaker Plants — for those hot summer days or when the grid is overworked.

Avoiding the use of Peaker Plants, some feel, is the most important benefit of the GridRewards app. Peaker Plants are not only highly polluting and nearly always in marginalized communities, but over $4.5 billion dollars have been spent maintaining and running them since 2019, despite these power plants only being used 5% of the year. By helping to create a more stable and decarbonized energy grid for their entire region, GridRewards users can reduce our dependence on Peaker Plants.

GridRewards make sense not only for homeowners, but renters, building operators and more — essentially anyone who is paying for energy via a ConEd account. (An online ConEdison account is required for sign up and integration with the app.)

The Rivertowns Mayors challenge kicks off on March 23 and runs until April 28th. The app is free to download and there’s no cost to enroll or participate. You can find additional information on the GridRewards website.

The Results Are In! Hastings-On-Hudson Has Won the 2023 Rivertowns Mayors Earth Day Challenge for GridRewards

This past Earth Month, the Rivertowns Mayors took on an exciting challenge: enroll the most residents in Sustainable Westchester’s GridRewards to help reduce carbon emissions. Hastings took the top spot, enrolling 109 residents and earning the Village a $1,000 prize! Many thanks to all the municipalities who participated and to all the residents who signed up! Together we can reduce carbon emissions and pollution!

Last Updated on May 2, 2023

About GridRewards

GridRewards was developed in 2019 by Logical Buildings, an AI technology solutions leader in sustainability, smart building and virtual power plant software and a solutions provider for the built world. The firm’s revolutionary technologies combat climate change by empowering residential, commercial, and industrial energy users to earn money, enhance building health and reduce carbon footprints through user-friendly, award-winning mobile apps. GridRewards was initially introduced as a digital program in 2019. It was launched as a free app in spring 2021 and is downloadable via the Apple Store and Google Play. Logical Buildings, which was founded in 2012 as a smart building technology software developer, IoT and DER systems integrator, and smart building services provider, currently operates in major national urban markets, including New York, Boston, Dallas, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Camden, Chicago, and Miami, and more. To learn more, visit logicalbuildings.com and follow Logical Buildings on LinkedIn.

About Sustainable Westchester:

Sustainable Westchester is a nonprofit consortium of Westchester County local municipalities facilitating effective collaboration resulting in sustainability initiatives and cutting-edge innovation. Our goal is to bring socially responsible, environmentally sound, and economically viable solutes that create resilient, healthy, vibrant, sustainable communities. For more information, contact Lauren Brois at (914) 242-4725 x122 or Lauren@SustainableWestchester.org or visit SustainableWestchester.org for general information.

GridRewards for Businesses and Nonprofits: Hosted by the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce & Nonprofit Westchester

By | Events & conferences

Blurb: Join the New Rochelle Chamber of Commerce and Nonprofit Westchester on Wednesday, April 12th for a half hour webinar about GridRewards, a demand response tool that pays your business or nonprofit to reduce electricity usage at key times. Learn about the fundraising component, how to enroll your buildings and show the community you are taking action on Earth Day.

Register here: https://bit.ly/GridRewards

Join Sustainable Westchester’s GridRewards Earth Month Cohort

By | Events & conferences

Reduce carbon emissions, earn cash, and be a sustainability leader in your community: Join Sustainable Westchester’s GridRewards Earth Month Cohort!

GridRewards is an app (available for both mobile and desktop) that tells you when and how to reduce electricity. This demand response program helps ConEd customers to alleviate stress on the energy grid during the summer months — when energy demand is at its highest, and the electricity grid is at its most polluting state. In addition to reducing carbon emissions, GridRewards serves as a revenue generating tool for community groups, municipalities, businesses, nonprofits, libraries, and houses of worship by reducing overall energy consumption.

In the lead up to Earth Day, Sustainable Westchester will be building momentum around GridRewards to encourage energy and cost savings throughout Westchester County. Those who join will receive training, a customizable marketing toolkit, and additional resources to promote GridRewards in your community.

How can I get involved? There are many ways for community members to use GridRewards:

  • Enrolling your building(s) in GridRewards to reduce energy usage + earn cash;
  • Promote GridRewards to your members as an easy, impactful action for Earth Day;
  • Using a referral code to raise money for your organization;
  • All of the above!

What’s the timeline? To maximize energy and cost savings, we aim to sign up as many customers as possible before April 28th, 2023. Businesses and individual households alike can benefit from using GridRewards at any time, those who sign up before the end of April can earn the most cash from participating in summertime demand response events.

Join the Cohort!

Register for an optional training session on Tuesday, March 14th at 12:00-1:00. Who should attend?: Volunteers, libraries, community groups and anyone that wants a GridRewards overview. Learn how GridRewards is a demand response tool and get volunteer training. RSVP Here

Questions? Contact Lauren Brois at Lauren@SustainableWestchester.org

Inflation Reduction Act Town Hall with Representative Bowma

By | Events & conferences

Thursday, March 16th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm at the New Rochelle High School Theater next Wednesday night. http://bit.ly/3kH2Q0c

Representative Jamaal Bowman and the League of Conservation Voters are hosting a town hall notifying constituents of the large-scale investments made possible through the Inflation Reduction Act.

They will discuss:

  • Individual benefits found in the IRA bill.
  • Instructions on how to combine NYS and Federal tax credits for optimal savings.
  • Information about the types of rebates, tax benefits and incentives.
  • All who are interested in attending the town hall, should register here.