January 2022
Wednesday January 19, 2022
Meeting chair: Bill Greene
Bill Greene Chair, welcomed guest speaker Melissa Everett, PhD, Executive Director of Sustainable Hudson Valley.
Melissa Everett
Melissa spoke about the great progress New York has made on climate change and its admirable goals, but she has also developed a regional climate action strategy for the Hudson Valley that focuses on the critical paths for attaining those goals. Plans are great, but it’s important to figure out who needs to be involved and how WE can fit in — we being citizens, nonprofit groups, local governments and other organizations — and how we can help broad swaths of our fellow citizens play a role.
Scenic Hudson has developed a solar siting tool that is a good example of the kind of activities we need to be seeing more of. If we are going to install enough solar panels to meet climate goals, a critical part of the path is finding good sites for vast solar arrays and solar farms to be installed. Scenic Hudson works with the local leaders whose involvement is essential, and it seeks non-profit groups to encourage participation.
Another example might be the Pollinator Pathway our new committee is working on or the Repair Café movement. When many people undertake a climate friendly action, whether it’s propagating native plants or restoring things to usefulness, the collective effect is the one we are looking for.
To learn more, check out the slides from Melissa’s presentation and the “DRAFT Regional Climate Action Strategy.”
The Draft Scoping Plan from the CLCPA was published in late December, and the public has until May 1st to file comments. Bill agreed we should try and read some of the scoping doc and see how we could support Melissa’s plans. (If you get into reading that and want to discuss it, please email us.)
Committee Updates
Hike report. Julia reported approximately ten people participated in the Sustainable Warwick Annual Hike on December 19th. Soňa Mason led the hike and made sure everyone learned about which plants were native and which were invasive. It was an enjoyable event, but when the pandemic allows, we all look forward to sitting down for a potluck dinner.
Book Club: Christina shared the good news that the library wants the SW Book Club to be one of their public book clubs, which means they will be the formal host of the book club and will advertise meetings through their newsletter and other channels. Last month’s book was “The New Climate Wars” by Michael Mann. The next meeting will be on February 8th at 3.00pm via Zoom to discuss “Finding the Mother Tree” by Suzanne Simard.
Pollinators Pathway: Bill G outlined the webinar scheduled for Monday, January 25th at 7:30 PM in which Soňa Mason and Pam Golben described how to grow native plants from seeds. (Thanks to Peter Hall for posting a recording of the webinar.) They have also made free native plant seeds available at Albert Wisner Public Library. This is one of the first events of the Pollinator Pathway Project that several members have been working on. Email growlocalGWL@gmail.com to join the Pollinator Pathway Project.
Green Screen. The members of the Green Screen Committee will interview candidates in the Village of Warwick mayoral and trustee races. Contact Bill Greene if you would like to participate.
Climate and Energy Committee: Bill Makofske reported that a couple members of the SW Climate and Energy Committee (Michael and Bill) presented sustainability information to the Village of Warwick Master Plan Committee 3 weeks ago.
They provided 3 recommendations:
Incorporate the 2020 Stretch Code as the Village’s building code;
provide planning for more active and passive solar use on single and multi-family housing, businesses and public sites;
Plan for replacing fossil fuel heating and water heating with advanced heat pump technology at a variety of scales.
Their arguments included that O&R is planning to decrease its gas sales in the very near future (NYC has already moved in this direction by banning new natural gas hookups). Diminished availability of natural gas is expected in the near future. The stretch code makes it easier and cheaper to add heat pumps to new construction by reducing energy costs by 10-12% with a payback in single homes of < 6 years. We also pointed out that geothermal heat pumps have considerable advantages in cost and efficiency when scaled up for multiple homes, communities, and larger buildings. As the grid becomes more renewable in accordance with NYS law, heat pumps will be both pollution and GHG free.
Bill confirmed that all three proposals may be included in the Master Village plan. This is very exciting and rewarding news and Bill and Michael were thanked and praised for their efforts.
Other Sustainability News
Michael told the meeting about a new app for cell phones called RecycleCoach that is now live in Orange County. This app can be downloaded wherever you get your apps, and it has very helpful information about what, where and how to recycle things. Don’t use cell phone apps? Check out recyclecoach.com.
Elizabeth Knight confirmed that there will be a Too Good To Toss event this summer — not in the spring!
The Riverkeeper event for cleaning tributaries of the Hudson River will be held on May 7th this year. Christina Thomas is looking for a co-manager to help out.
Upcoming ZOOM Events
Refrigerants: Solutions for the Super GHGs Lurking All Around Us
This webinar is at 7 PM, Thursday, January 27th.
Register in Advance
Climate Resilience Plan
This is a public meeting held by Orange County on Wednesday, Jan. 26, 2022, from 7:00 – 8:00pm.
R.S.V.P. here in advance to attend this meeting.