September 2022
Sustainable Warwick Minutes
Wednesday September 28, 2022
Meeting chair: Michael Helme
Presentations
Climate Smart Community: Tom McKnight spoke about the Village of Warwick’s start on becoming a Climate Smart Community, a New York State program that supports local climate action. The Village has already completed enough actions to qualify for Bronze Certification and has the potential to reach the Silver Certification level. If you are interested in volunteering, email Tom: TMcKnight@villageofwarwick.org
Community Choice Aggregation: Peggy Kurtz of Joule Community Power gave a fascinating presentation on Community Choice Aggregation. Here are some of the main points we heard about:
In New York State, residents of towns or villages that adopt CCA have more options for their electricity supply.
In most cases, residents who participate in the CCA will enjoy savings on their electricity bills, but anyone can opt out.
A CCA can help seniors and other vulnerable residents avoid high priced energy supply companies (ESCOs).
The CCA can also support renewable energy in New York State and promote the development of community solar.
Check out our new web page on CCA at this link and watch the video of Peggy's presentation.
Committee Updates
Food-Scraps-to-Compost: The enthusiasm with which the Food-Scraps-to-Compost pilot program has been met is beyond our expectations – people immediately recognize the value of composting and are relieved that it’s being initiated.
This pilot is a collaboration with Greenwood Lake Farmers Market, Grow Local Greenwood Lake, the Warwick Chamber of Commerce, Warwick Farmers Market, Cornell Cooperative Master Gardeners, Oasis Farm, Orange County DPW and Sustainable Warwick. Each organization provides some aspect of the education, the space/site, advertising, printing, composting, consulting, and volunteers. Before this pilot was launched, many of these organizations agreed in principle to collect food scraps, but it wasn’t until Sustainable Warwick joined that all the other pieces fit together to form a real project. Our presence at the Farmers Market will continue until November 20th – the end of this season.
So far, we’ve covered the volunteer slots, and expect to have them covered until the last Farmers Market. We expected to collect a very small amount of food scraps each week, but each week the volume has grown, and we’ve now gotten to a weekly high of 9 five-gallon-buckets of scraps. Cafes have also donated coffee grinds and vegetables, and are keen to have this continue.
Thanks to the volunteers from Sustainable Warwick, there seems to be a recognition that recycling food scraps is a viable, sustainable, achievable goal. On behalf of Sustainable Warwick, Roger Moss has submitted an application for a grant from Hudson Valley Climate Action Network to expand the program next year.
Pollinator Pathway: Our Pollinator Pathway continues to encourage people to register their yards to be part of the pathway. Contact Bill Greene at SteeringCommittee@sustainablewarwick.org for more information.
Zoom Garden Plot: The Zoom Garden Plot will host its last episode of Season 3 next Monday, October 10, at 7:30 PM. Gardeners of all skill levels are welcome to ask questions and share wisdom. (GrowLocalGWL@gmail.com)
Book Club: The Sustainable World Book Club continues to meet via Zoom on second Tuesdays at 3 PM. The title for September was Dark Money, but Jane Mayer. For October we are reading The Flag, The Cross and The Station Wagon; A Graying American Looks Back at His Suburban Boyhood and Wonders What the Hell Happened, by Bill McKibben. Contact: BookClub@sustainablewarwick.org.
Are you using the Recycle Coach app? Orange County, the Village of Warwick and the Town of Warwick are all contributing information on how and what to recycle locally. Get the app and stay informed.
Mark your calendar: At our next meeting on October 26th at 7:30 PM, Cal Trumann of New Yorkers for Clean Power will do a presentation entitled, “Green the Grid & Electrify Everything.”
Looking for a way to get involved?
We need your help! Our SW Facebook page is floundering, can you make it work better for us? It would involve posting upcoming SW events and action items on sustainability issues, etc. We can provide you with all the updates and information, if you could login and post these things on Facebook and generally keep an eye on the page. Please let us know if you are interested! Contact steeringcommittee@sustainablewarwick.org
Minutes by Michael Helme