“Sustainable Tompkins” is now “Sustainable Finger Lakes.” As our programs evolve and expand beyond Tompkins County we have rebranded. The content on this site is currently being migrated to our Sustainable Finger Lakes website and we will soon retire this site. Go to our Sustainable Finger Lakes website to get all of our latest updates!

News & Events

Neighborhood Mini-Grant Program Featured in Ithaca Week

Photo by Caroline Grass

Ithaca College publication Ithaca Week showcased the Sustainable Finger Lakes Neighborhood Mini-Grant Program in an article by Caroline Grass, featuring interviews with Neighborhood Mini-Grant Coordinator Sasha Paris and the recipients of two April 2023 grants supporting native botany education at the Marshy Garden Project and the Lansing Center Trail. This program has benefited people throughout Tompkins County to an incalculable degree since it began in 2008, and is in dire need of new supporters.

For the full article, visit https://www.ithacaweek-ic.com/mini-grant-program-helps-grassro

 
Neighborhood Mini-Grant Applications Due October 1

Do you have an idea for a project to make our community more sustainable, resilient, or inclusive? Need a little help in covering the costs? Sustainable Finger Lakes is accepting applications for our fall 2023/winter 2024 round of Neighborhood Mini-Grants.

The Sustainable Finger Lakes Neighborhood Mini-Grant program supports initiatives improving environmental sustainability, equity, and environmental, economic, and social justice in Tompkins County. Since it began in 2008, it has awarded more than $85,000 in 221 grants to innovative grassroots projects throughout the county.

Grants range from $150 to $750 and support initiatives promoting sustainable food systems, alternative transportation, waste reduction/reuse, energy conservation/fossil fuel use reduction, and environmental education, and addressing social and economic inequality.

Proposals are reviewed biannually by a team of community members. The program is sponsored by NYSEG, Craig Riecke, and local donors.

Individuals, organizations, and neighborhood groups are welcome to apply, as are local microbusinesses seeking to green their operations or extend their products or services to low-income clientele. Priority is given to new and/or small entities with relatively few sources of support.

Successful initiatives supported by Neighborhood Mini-Grants in recent years include the founding of the Freeville Farmers Market, establishment of the Finger Lakes Toy Library, creation of the Project Abundance neighborhood garden in Ithaca, restoration of a disused and overgrown trail in Dryden, and bicycle maintenance education workshops in Ithaca.

Applications must be received on or before October 1, 2023. To request an application form, or if you have questions, please call (607) 272-1720 or email sasha@sustainablefingerlakes.org.

 
Neighborhood Mini-Grants Support Rural Initiatives

From staple foods to bicycling infrastructure to botany education, small locally-based initiatives can help to meet the needs and improve the lives of people in rural areas. In April 2023, Sustainable Finger Lakes awarded a total of $2,500 in four Neighborhood Mini-Grants supporting such projects across Tompkins County.

Artist/ecologist Ash Ferlito and ecological landscape designer Brandon Hoak have created and maintained the Marshy Garden, a habitat restoration project and educational venue at The Soil Factory south of Ithaca. This year, they seek to increase the garden’s biodiversity and habitat value, along with expanding the on-site array of educational programming for college students and the public. A Neighborhood Mini-Grant will support their purchase of native plants for this purpose from Grow Wild Nursery in Brooktondale.

The organization Friends of the Lansing Center Trail will install informational plant identification signs in the native plant garden near the entrance to the popular Lansing Center Trail in the Town of Lansing, aiming to educate trail visitors and encourage gardening with native plants. A Neighborhood Mini-Grant will contribute to the purchase of these signs.

The organization Groton Community Cupboard, formerly Groton Food Providers, runs a food pantry serving a large and growing need for food assistance in an area without a full grocery store. They are moving the food pantry to a new location, which will need renovation, and striving to maintain operation during the transition. A Neighborhood Mini-Grant will help to pay the expenses of this endeavor.

Dryden resident Kate McKee will install bike racks at four small businesses throughout the Village of Dryden to facilitate local bicycle travel. A Neighborhood Mini-Grant will pay for the racks, along with chains and locks.

The Neighborhood Mini-Grant Program provides seed money to diverse initiatives to build environmental, economic, and social resilience and well-being in Tompkins County. The program is sponsored by NYSEG, Craig Riecke, and local donors. The next deadline for the Mini-Grant program will be October 1, 2023. To request an application or learn more, email sasha@sustainablefingerlakes.org.

 
Signs of Sustainability
Earth Day is Only a Place to Start

Tompkins Weekly      4-10-24

By Aaron Fernando

While traveling years ago, I made friends with perhaps the only person I know who has a negative carbon footprint.

He plants trees for a small stipend. He doesn’t own a vehicle, and when he needs to get around, he borrows a small motorcycle. Mostly, he walks. He has never taken a flight. His family lives in a dwelling made of cloth, scrap metal, and plastic. His home has no electricity, and when he charges his phone, he uses solar power from nearby buildings because the electrical grid has been non-functional for years. He has little education and no meaningful economic opportunities. His name is Krichna, and he is a 26 year-old Haitian.

If we focus on a simple, individualistic metric—the carbon footprint—Krichna is doing amazing. But if we understand the world in all its fullness and empathize with real people, we know that all is not right with this oversimplified understanding of sustainability. If you feel Krichna is not thrilled with his life, you would be correct. He wants to move to the United States, where our carbon footprints are massive. He wants this because the quality of life he experiences with a negative carbon footprint—in the inequitable and unjust world we have arrived at today—is completely untenable.

Read more…

Reclaim Earth Day

Tompkins Weekly    3-27-24

By Dan Antonioli and bethany ojalehto mays

On April 22, 1970, one of the world’s most significant environmental movements, Earth Day, was launched. Earth Day set in motion an ecological focus to highlight the vulnerability of Planet Earth in the face of Anthropocene ecocide.

In 1970, social protests were raging. The “ecology movement” was born out of the radicalism of the anti-war movement and a host of other social movements that were inextricably linked to the organizing of the 60s. Earth Day thus had punch, drama, and made bold statements.

At the time, there was no Environmental Protection Agency, no penalties for corporate polluters, and little impetus to address environmental problems.

Read more…

Neighborhood Mini-Grants Build Sustainability, Equity, and Resilient Communities

Tompkins Weekly          3-13-24

By Sasha Paris

Humans and “the environment” that sustains us are not separate. Environmental damage, economic inequity, and social injustice are interwoven in many ways, and their solutions must be as well. This is the philosophy of Sustainable Finger Lakes, carried out in our work, including our Neighborhood Mini-Grant program.

Since 2008, we have awarded 224 Neighborhood Mini-Grants (NMGs) to individuals, community groups, organizations, and micro-businesses throughout Tompkins County, that are making our communities more sustainable, equitable, and resilient. As much as possible, we strive to fund projects that address multiple problems, such as providing more equal access to resources while reducing environmental impacts:

The Finger Lakes Toy Library, established in 2016-17 with NMG assistance and now flourishing in the Ithaca Mall, reduces the buying and disposal of toys while broadening access to toys and fostering a culture of sharing and social connections.

Read more…




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Energy and Equity Go Hand in Hand
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“Getting Climate Action Right”
by Osamu Tsuda, member of Sustainable Tompkins Board of Directors

Climate Change – we hear about it a lot these days. Whether it is your neighbor talking about how the weather has become more extreme over the past decade or news reports about how we need to pass climate policy to avoid catastrophic disasters, the information and chatter on the topic can be overwhelming. From violent storms in the south, extensive wildfires in the west, severe flooding in the east, to melting ice caps in the north, as individuals we can feel quite helpless at times and resort to blocking it all out. Maybe if we wait long enough the problems will resolve themselves. After all, what kind of impact could we really have as individuals? 

As it turns out, there is a lot we can do! It is often easy to see all the destruction happening around us and forget or ignore the amazing resilient nature of human beings. Despite the delays and controversy, there have been many efforts to address the major threat of Climate Change, and now New York State is in the process of developing a climate action plan that will shape the fate of our state and the nation as a whole.  Read more…

 
Register today for “Finger Lakes Forecast: Climate Disruption & Food Security” (April 27)

Our new webinar series, Finger Lakes Forecast, focuses on how climate change will impact life in the Finger Lakes Region and what people can do for themselves and their communities to prepare. This webinar series is free and open to the public. The first of these webinars, Climate Disruption and Food Security, will take place at 12pm EST on April 27 and include a screening of Uplifted Ithaca’s short documentary, Our Farmers in Flux: Adapting to Climate Change, followed by a panel discussion with Graham Savio, Cornell Cooperative Extension Tompkins County; Katie Hallas, Tompkins Food Future; Klaas Martens, Lakeview Organic Grain; and Chaw Chang, Stick and Stone Farm. Register online. https://bit.ly/Apr27forecast

On May 25th, we will host our second Finger Lakes Forecast webinar which will explore ways residents of the Finger Lakes can reduce flood risk for their homes. Additional topics to be covered in the webinar series include Policies to Reduce Harmful Algae Blooms in the Finger Lakes, Land Use and Renewable Energy, Public Health in a Hotter Finger Lakes, and FLX Demographic and Economic Trends.

Sustainable Tompkins is a citizen-based coalition working towards a more sustainable regional community. We advocate a systems approach to build the infrastructure and social capacity for more sustainable ways of living and working. Our projects and programs have focused on energy efficiency, climate protection, green purchasing, sustainable community development, green collar jobs, sustainable enterprise, and economic/ecological justice. Our office is open by appointment at 309 N. Aurora Street in Ithaca.

To learn more, email our Outreach Coordinator at sarah@sustainabletompkins.org.

 
Sustainable Tompkins Puts Sustainability on the Map

screenshot of section of sustainability mapThe Sustainable Finger Lakes Map created by Sustainable Tompkins provides a visual interface for people interested in learning more about the regional sustainability movement. People are coming together across our region to relocalize the economy, make our systems of local governance more just and democratic, and protect our land, air, and water for future generations. The Map currently has over 800 entries and allows visitors to quickly search 8 main categories of sustainable living for local programs, businesses, and activities. Regional businesses or groups are invited to put themselves on the Map! If they are working on some aspect of a more sustainable system, they can register online and submit a short description of their sustainability efforts, and contact information. Submissions are reviewed on a weekly basis.

With a shared goal to assure a future landscape in which all of us can thrive despite the many changes underway, community members are invited to help build this map of the sustainability and democracy movement in the Finger Lakes Region. Residents can add what they are working on, plug in where they can make a difference, and spread the word to share with others. Visit the Map to discover the creative and the compassionate, the solidarity builders and the self-reliant, the pioneers and the protectors of a sustainable future.

Recent additions to the Map include Lev Kitchen, Central New York Labor Federation, Food Policy Council of Tompkins County, and Oxbow Farm. Located downtown on the Ithaca Commons, Lev Kitchen is one of Ithaca’s newest restaurants and features Yemeni flatbread called Malawach and the amalgamation of distinctive cuisines and cultures from countries such as Israel, Lebanon and Syria. Opened in March 2022, they aim to embrace business transparency, explore what it means to be a “sustainable” food service operator, and support food security by donating 1% of all revenues to the World Food Program and their relief efforts around the world. Read more…