Drawing Down our Greenhouse Gasses
Because we care about this beautiful place where we live, our neighbors, and the earth.
Climate change is caused by the “greenhouse effect”: gasses in the atmosphere trapping the solar heat from the sun. Emissions such as carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels and methane from organic decomposition are a couple of the most well-known. What are we talking about here? Burning gas from cars and fuel oil to heat homes, and food waste decomposing in landfills — these are just a few examples, but all things you and our local government can make better! This area of our website organizes information on how you can improve your household and what our local government is up to as well.
The Village is drafting its Communitywide Climate Action Plan.
On September 22, 2024, Village Trustee Vanessa Bertozzi presented a proposal for how the community might align around a goal at a “Step by Step” workshop at Starr Library.
Do you know what our community in the Village of Rhinebeck generates in terms of greenhouse gas emissions?
Over 27,000 metric tons of CO2e!
The #1 contributor is transportation (44%).
We should walk and bike more. Switch to electric vehicles. And fly less.
The #2 contributor is heating and cooling our homes (23%).
We should tighten our houses’ envelopes and add insulation. Switch to heat pumps or geothermal to get off oil or propane. And subscribe to a solar farm for electricity.
Community-wide Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory
Starting in Fall 2023, Trustee Bertozzi was joined by volunteers Michael Forlenza, Tom McKibben-Vaughn, and Mimi Joh-Carnella to undertake a community-wide GHG emissions Inventory (now published). We are now working on a Communitywide Climate Action Plan.
We continue to be supported by the Hudson River Valley Council (HRVC) as part of a cohort of Towns and Villages across the mid-Hudson region. We meet monthly on zoom.
Explore More Projects that Reduce Emissions:
Did you know the Village converted all its cobrahead streetlights to LED?
Watch Trustee Bertozzi’s presentation. Start at 42min in.
Here you see our “Business as Usual” (BAU) forecast. This is what we will see if we take no proactive actions. Interestingly, the emissions slope downward, mainly due to the decarbonization of the electrical grid in our area.
Municipal Operations Climate Action Plan (CAP)
In Fall 2023, with help from volunteer Michael Forlenza, Trustee Bertozzi is creating the Climate Action Plan (CAP) for the municipal operations of Rhinebeck Village. The project uses the ICLEI Clearpath tool to do trend forecasting and visualize which actions would result in reductions of emissions.
The Village has set a goal of 40% reductions in emissions from 1990 levels by 2030. The goal matches that of NY State's ambitious and nation-leading Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act.
The plan details 3 core reduction strategies the Village would need to do to hit our goal by 2030:
Pass a CCA
Convert Village Hall/Firehouse off of fossil fuel heating/cooling
Start transitioning the municipal fleet to EV
If we can do these things, plus a few things already planned and accounted for, then here’s what hitting our goal would look like below.
Municipal Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory
For our efforts to mitigate climate change, we need to have a data-driven approach to understanding the carbon footprint of municipal buildings and operations.
We are thrilled to be part of a 9-municipality CAPI grant to get group support for the process of gathering data on the local government’s emissions and then create a Climate Action Plan. The project uses the ICLEI Clearpath tool. Kickoff of the CAPI cohort was delayed due to COVID, and we got started in 2023. In Summer 2023 we published our GHG Emissions Inventory for the Village’s Government Operations. You can watch a short presentation we did for the CAPI cohort here (start at 40min20sec).
In February of 2024, we published our draft Government Operations Climate Action Plan and the Village Board requested public comment before March 5. In March of 2024, the Village Board officially adopted the Government Operations Climate Action Plan. This is not a legally binding plan, but it lays out our target and we plan to shoot for it!
CCA
The Village of Rhinebeck is currently exploring a Community Choice Aggregation program for Village ratepayers. This would enable the Village Board to broker a rate for 50-100% renewable electricity by default. Please explore this page to get more information.
Policy Changes
The CSC program also recommends policy changes—some large, some small—that enable our operations to shift to lower carbon.
We plan to create a fleet efficiency policy to transition to electric vehicles as they become available and within feasible price range.
We adapted our procurement policy to be environmentally-preferable. In other words, to require the Village government to seek out products and services that serve our sustainability goals, in many cases producing less carbon and waste.
In June 2020, the Village and Town secured a graduate student intern from Bard’s Center for Environmental Policy with a grant from The New World Foundation. David Chernack reviewed the 1993 Rhinebeck Village Comprehensive Plan and the Town’s 2009 Comprehensive Plan, looking for actions which weren’t implemented and making policy recommendations that reflect a current perspective on best practices. This has informed the Village’s current project to update the 1993 Comprehensive Plan with environmental and climate elements.