Do Something
Take Action in Your Everyday Life
Drawing from the actions presented at 2019’s Rhinebeck Clean Power Expo, nonprofit Sustainable Hudson Valley, with help from CSC Coordinator Vanessa Bertozzi, put together a compendium: Recipes for a Cleaner, Greener Lifestyle: A Hudson Valley Resident’s Guide to Practicing Everyday Sustainability.
This “recipe” book provides tips in how to work on your green-living checklist.
Quick Tips for Drawing Down Emissions
Reducing your carbon footprint means doing your part for future generations.
Purchase an electric vehicle.
Check out hand-outs from our EV-Curious community campaign. (Yes, we did make our goal and earned a $5000 grant!)
Get a free home energy audit.
Take advantage of tax rebates & incentives for heat pumps, solar panels, induction stoves, and more.
Check out Rewiring America’s tool for navigating the $ questions.
Bike around the Village rather than driving.
Volunteer to be a crossing guard for the Walking School Bus.
Switch to LED lightbulbs.
Reduce your food waste &
compost your scraps.
View CSC Task Force member Corinna Borden’s presentation from our 1/7/20 event at Starr Library.
Stay tuned for our Compost program or
compost in your backyard.
Repair it! Don’t toss it in the landfill.
Don’t Overdo Your Fall Yard Cleanup
Save gas and time: Mulch those leaves in place! Learn more.
Recycle Those Hard-to-Recycle Items
Leola and Jeff host a drop-off shed in the 7 Livingston St parking lot, free for the public to use. The concept was created by Rhinebeck Senior Katy Hall for her Girl Scout Gold Award! See what items you can drop off.
Switch to a plant-based diet.
Quick Tips for Resiliency
Since we waited too long to do anything, climate change is now here, so we need to adapt to it.
Plant riparian buffers if your property is flood-prone.
Check out this PDF including recommended shrubs and trees from the Marist/Village Landsman Kills research project, in collaboration with DEC’s Trees for Tribs.
Learn about tree management and which species are no longer a good idea to plant.
Volunteer with the Village Tree Commission.
Check if your home is in a floodplain.
As more extreme weather increases in frequency, have a heat emergency plan.
Take shelter at cooling stations at Starr Library and Town Hall.
Support local farmers to be part of a more resilient food system.
Visit the Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market and/or join a CSA.
Plant a pollinator garden.
Track invasive species.
Check out iMapInvasives.
Protect threatened species.
Join us for Big Night.
Each spring, track and protect migrating amphibians, markers of healthy ecosystems.
Make informed land-use choices.
Study up on your local habitats and biodiversity with our Natural Resources Inventory (NRI).
How dry is dry? Check to see Dutchess County’s drought status, and conserve water.
Share your abundance.
Is your raised bed growing more veg than you can eat? Donate your excess produce to local food pantries through Dirty Gaia or Feed HV, a local nonprofit that gets excess food to local shelters.
As part of the Rhinebeck Clean Power Expo, Oblong Books recommended their curated list of the best books related to climate change:
Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warmingby Paul Hawken, Tom Steyer
The Biofilia Effect: A Scientific and Spiritual Exploration of the Healing Bond Between Humans and Natureby Clemens Arvay
Timefulness: How Thinking Like a Geologist Can Help Save the Worldby Marcia Bjornerud
Sprout Lands: Tending the Endless Gift of Treesby William Bryant Logan
Losing Earth: A Recent Historyby Nathaniel Rich
The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Thingsby Peter Wohlleben,
The Uninhabitable Earth: Life After Warmingby David Wallace-Wells
Energy: A Human Historyby Richard Rhodes
F**K Plastic: 101 Ways to Free Yourself from Plastic and Save the Worldby Rodale Sustainability
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plantsby Robin Wall Kimmerer
Falter: Has the Human Game Begun to Play Itself Out?by Bill McKibben
Read Up
Creating and Supporting Participation and Connections
Rhinebeck’s CSC Task Force creates original programming and educational resources, as well as partnering with like-minded groups to foster engagement around local climate change action.
Education and Engagement Strategy
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These resources and events, our website and social media—these are all stemming from our Education and Engagement strategy, which you can read here.
Let us know if you have resources or events you'd like us to share.
Prior Initiatives
Meet with our Energy Navigators
Rhinebeck ran a program to help you save money on energy bills and transition to a more sustainable home.
Residents could meet Carli and Andrew, local residents and community volunteers—and graduates of a Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County program. They volunteered to be Rhinebeck's Energy Navigators, trained in home efficiency strategies and NY incentives. They met with neighbors for free consultations—making choices easier and more affordable for you, with rebates and other savings.
Rhinebeck's Climate Smart Communities Task Force hosted this program to support our sustainability goals.
Free and open to any Rhinebeck Town or Village resident.
Participate in Drawdown EcoChallenge 2020
Rhinebeck placed 2nd in the global Drawdown EcoChallenge in 2019. CSC Task Force members who were leaders in this program created a website to share info most relevant to Rhinebeck residents.
Biomimicry Youth Design Challenge
Biomimicry is an approach to design and engineering that looks for inspiration from the natural world. It’s an excellent tool for climate scientists and communities looking for solutions. The Biomimicry Institute is a great resource.
Rhinebeck Middle Schoolers placed first in the 2019 global biomimicry youth design challenge. The competition theme was focused on climate change and the students had a solution that dealt with adaptation to increased flash flooding and stormwater. “Team Futuristas, from Rhinebeck, NY, designed a permeable tile for courtyards to limit the amount of water pooling on the hardscape surface of a courtyard in their village.” CSC Task Force member Jennifer Breslin and Dorna Schroeter, local educator and biomimicry expert, were coaches for the team. The team talked about their project in their classes, shared it with the Board of Education, and Dorna and the kids showcased it at Drawdown Learn, the Rhinebeck Science Foundation’s Discovery Festival, and at the Rhinebeck Clean Power Expo (see Events).