Weaving Sustainability into the Fabric of Community
Monday, April 23, 3 pm, 209 Stratton Hall, Wells College, Aurora
Gay Nicholson, President and Program Director at Sustainable Tompkins, presents Weaving Sustainability into the Fabric of Community, as part of Sustainability Celebrating Scholarship and Engagement, a day-long event for Wells College students and members of the community.

WALMART Community Connect
Saturday, April 28 10 am -3 pm, Ithaca Walmart
Sustainable Tompkins will be one of several community organizations participating in Walmart’s Community Connect event. We’re looking for volunteers to help us conduct a brief survey with Walmart customers about their personal sustainability practices and knowledge of Sustainable Tompkins. This is a great opportunity to expand our visibility in the community and introduce new people to our work. To volunteer for 2-hour shifts please contact Karen@SustainableTompkins.org.

Finger Lakes Bioneers Presents: An Ecology of Mind
Saturday, April 28, 1-4 pm, Cinemapolis, 120 E Green St, Ithaca
Part of the international tour by director Nora Bateson will introduce her new documentary An Ecology of Mind to the local community. The 60-minute film presents a richly engaging profile of the very relevant ideas and spirited outlook of her father Gregory Bateson — an influential figure in a number of arenas of thought and applied research related to systems thinking. The afternoon event will include Nora and other panel members in a stimulating exploration of themes related to systems thinking, biomimicry, indigenous wisdom, and the interwoven economic, political, and environmental problems we face. Panelists include Derek Cabrera of ThinkWorks and Dana Levy of NYSERDA’s Industrial Research Program.
Thanks go out to NYSERDA, Finger Lakes Environmental Film Festival, andSustainability at Ithaca College for support of the programming. Visitwww.wemakeourfuture.org for details. Tickets available at the door (discounts for ST members).

Skinner was recognized for her work as the founder and coordinator of SewGreen, a not-for-profit organization located in downtown Ithaca. SewGreen operates a reuse shop for sewing materials and provides sewing education to the community. Programs include a free teen apprenticeship program, jobs for lower-income youth and older workers, college internships, and sewing classes for all ages.

Among others, previous recipients of the award include Gay Nicholson, president of Sustainable Tompkins (2008); Mary Grainger, an active volunteer with a number of local human services organizations (2009); and Noel Desch, for his volunteer work with the Rotary Club of Ithaca, the Tompkins County Chamber of Commerce, and other charitable groups (2004).

The Cornell Tradition is a fellowship program that recognizes and rewards outstanding students dedicated to work, service, and scholarship. Debra Newman was a Cornell Tradition fellow who exemplified these ideals. Newman died in an automobile accident in 2002. Shortly after, the Community Recognition Award was renamed in her memory.

Skinner’s nomination was reviewed by a committee of students, alumni, staff, and community members. The award also includes $1,000 to be designated as a charitable contribution to an organization of the recipient’s choice. Skinner announced that the award will go into a college internship fund at SewGreen.

For more information about The Cornell Tradition, visit www.commitment.cornell.edu or contact the office at 607-255-8595. For more about SewGreen, visit www.sewgreen.org or call 607-319-4106.

This vision was first created in images by over 100 local residents at the Building Bridges workshop on November 15-16, 2011.  The pictures showed people of all ages, in the city and in rural areas, celebrating life, experiencing an abundance of local food, engaged in a thriving local marketplace rich in culture and diversity, using renewable energy, and connecting across former divides.

In words, we envision a community that is earth-centered, people-centered, fair, and equitable. We envision a Tompkins County that identifies itself by its human rights and ecojustice values, and exemplifies for other regions and communities throughout the nation how to live by these values. In this vision, all citizens can be heard, recognize their interdependence and are active in shaping the priorities of this community. Our commitment to Tompkins County is not isolationist; rather, it is made with a view toward maximizing the benefits of our actions with respect to other communities, ecosystems, and people across the world.

Key Elements of a Sustainable Future, as derived from Building Bridges discussions:

Equity:
Our social economic and political structures are based on equality, inclusion and fairness. This means:
•    Everyone has a purpose, is valued, feels safe, cared for, included and is able to get basic needs met.
•    Structural poverty, racism, and other forms of discrimination are eliminated.
•    All of our educational institutions have eliminated achievement gaps across lines of race, class, gender, and disability status, and support all students to achieve their full potential.

Environment:
Our social, economic and political decisions are framed by respect for the earth and our local and regional ecosystem. This means:
•    All have sufficient water and air that is clean and safe.
•    Energy comes from renewable sources to the extent possible.
•    Waste is eliminated or minimized and managed in an ecologically sustainable way
•    Our carbon emissions have been reduced to a level that our ecosystems can safely process
•    We have a countywide transportation system that is energy-efficient, accessible, and convenient.
•    We use sustainable methods to grow much of our own food for local distribution.

Economy:
Our economy supports the well-being of everyone who lives or works in Tompkins County including previously marginalized communities and individuals. This means:
•    We have full employment at a wage that sustains a high quality of life.
•    Our workforce development and preparation systems are efficient, effective and ensure that everyone who wants to work will find a job.
•    We invest our money locally and support local businesses and entrepreneurs.
•    Local money and skills are used to the degree possible.
•    Housing is affordable, safe, and energy efficient.

On Nov. 15-16, over 100 community members — representing government, business, community programs, individual entrepreneurs, foundations and investors – came together to strengthen relationships, develop a shared vision, and identify ways to build bridges between local sustainability and social justice efforts that will result in a socially just, resilient regional economy that preserves and maintains our natural environment.

The initiative identifies equity as the preferred driver of both economic development and ecological sustainability, and prioritizes jobs for low-income people both in the city and in rural towns. The ultimate goals are eliminating structural poverty and racism, creating a local economy that works for everyone, and protecting the ecosystems that sustain the region.

The response to this two-day effort was very positive. Participants built new relationships and made many concrete commitments to new or renewed action, while also acknowledging the serious challenges and real work ahead. The planning group is committed to maintaining the momentum from the Building Bridges workshop and drawing more people into the initiative. More information about what happened at the workshop and some of the commitments that were made to move this agenda forward are available on the Dorothy Cotton Institute website. Breakthrough Communities, a national organization that advocates an inclusive green economy, helped design and conduct the two-day event.

Nicholson is president of Sustainable Tompkins.

The Center for a New American Dream recently interviewed Sustainable Tompkins President Gay Nicholson to share some of the history of our local sustainability movement with their national audience.  The Center for a New American Dream helps Americans to reduce and shift their consumption to improve quality of life, protect the environment, and promote social justice.  Their goal is to cultivate a new American dream—one that emphasizes community, ecological sustainability, and a celebration of non-material values, while upholding the spirit of the traditional American dream of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.  Gay joined their Board of Directors in 2008 after having served as an outside consultant to the organization.

Check out the interview and get some of the background on ST’s history and aspirations for the future.

The Finger Lakes Bioneers, in association with Sustainable Cortland and SUNY Cortland, present the Cortland premiere of FREEDOM, a 90-minute documentary film by Josh and Rebecca Tickell this coming Monday, October 10 at 7:30 pm. The film explores an array of greener fuel solutions and technological alternatives to address the dilemmas of our fossil fuel-dependent society. The national tour of the “Freedom” eco-bus, visiting around 50 cities, is stewarded by Boise Thomas, a young Cortland native who went west and has developed and hosted programming for Discovery Communications’ channel Planet Green and for the G Living lifestyle network. He will participate in the audience Q&A after the film along with representatives from Sustainable Tompkins and Sustainable Cortland. Other local groups advancing the community conversation about our ecological ‘footprint’ will be tabling.

The 90-minute film will screen at 7:30 PM Monday, October 10th. Public is invited and admission and parking is free. Location for both events is the Corey Union on the campus of SUNY Cortland. From 6-7:30 the traveling bus, which doubles as a clean-energy laboratory and a “green” mobile entertainment system, will be open for tours in front of Corey Union.

The “FREEDOM TOUR” (http://thefreedomfilm.com) is a nearly four-month excursion across the US that focuses on displacing gasoline with renewable alternatives. The “FREEDOM BUS” is traveling to movie theaters and colleges across the US and into Canada supporting the release of the “FREEDOM” film. The bus has been retrofitted to carry 18 solar panels, an E85 bio-fuel engine and power generator, energy efficiency, wind, solar and water displays, eco-building materials and a projection system for outdoor viewing and presentations.  The film is produced by the filmmakers of the 2008 Sundance Audience Award winning film “Fuel.”

There will also be screenings of the film and visits by the bus at Cortland High School where Thomas graduated and at Onondaga Community College which he also attended. These will occur on Friday, October 7th. The film screens on the OCC campus at 1:30 PM in Storer Auditorium. The bus will be parked there for tours. Boise Thomas will be available to meet with public and press at all events.

There may be more screenings in the area so stay tuned to the Finger Lakes Bioneers website: www.wemakeourfuture.org for updates.

Finger Lakes Bioneers has hosted two regional conferences and helped link central New York audiences to the work of Bioneer innovators (www.Bioneers.org).  This year’s film series in Auburn, Cortland, Elmira and Watkins Glen seeks to connect communities across our region on topics related to our shared future.

The 22nd annual Bioneers conference will be held October 14-16 in Marin County, California.  It is a leading-edge forum and environmental conference that brings together social and scientific innovators. This year’s speakers include Phillipe Cousteau, Amory Lovins, and Gloria Steinem.

We talked with her at length about the many benefits of worker-owned cooperatives and Sustainable Tompkins’s new study group on worker coops.  If you are interested in joining the Worker-Owned Cooperatives group or our Local Green Investing group, email Gay@sustainabletompkins.org.

The photo features Demarquis Graves of the Youth Farm Project, a collaboration between students from Lehman Alternative Community School, Southside Community Center, and the Full Plate Collective. The Youth Farm Project received a $750 Sustainable Tompkins Neighborhood Mini-Grant in June, 2010. (Photo by Rachel Phillipson)

Energy security and climate protection are interwoven global issues with highly local solutions according to local nonprofit Sustainable Tompkins. “We need to reduce fossil fuel use across the board in order to slow global warming and strengthen our local economy,” says President Gay Nicholson, “and that means taking responsibility for our own fossil carbon emissions while making sure that everyone in our community is supported in their efforts to be more energy secure.”

Their Finger Lakes Climate Fund was designed with this in mind. Donors to the Fund can calculate the carbon emissions from their travel or building use, and make a donation to remove an equivalent amount of carbon from the atmosphere. Those carbon reductions are achieved by helping modest-income residents reach their energy security goals by investing in energy efficiency and renewable energy.

LeChase Construction of Rochester understood that direct connection between energy security and climate health when they volunteered to offset the carbon emissions for all of the participants at Cornell’s recent “Big 10 & Friends Utility Conference.” LeChase is a partner in Cornell’s climate action plan, and led the team that built Cornell’s new cogeneration plant, which has reduced emissions for the university by over 20%. “Our company is working nationwide to help institutions decrease their dependence on fossil fuels through green building design and alternative energy sources,” notes Paul Sugnet, LeChase Senior Vice President, “and I’ve been impressed by Cornell’s leadership and commitment to reducing their emissions to net zero by 2050. We realize that travel to exchange ideas and share research results is essential for a university, so we decided we would facilitate yet another step toward their climate protection goal by arranging to offset carbon emissions related to this conference.”

Air and car travel for the 85 conference attendees added up to 78,709 miles or roughly 23 tons of CO2 emissions. Offsets to the Finger Lakes Climate Fund are set at $20 per ton, so the travel-related emissions for the conference cost $460 to offset. This contribution to the Fund will go a long way toward helping a local family become more energy secure. Grants from the Finger Lakes Climate Fund are awarded to families below the median income to help them go forward with energy improvements that will save them money and reduce their emissions.

For example, the Ellis Family received a grant to help purchase an efficient wood pellet stove along with some insulation and air sealing performed by Tompkins Community Action. Another awardee, first-time homebuyer Jill Rosentel of Lansing, received the maximum grant of $1500 to upgrade to a highly efficient furnace and have major insulation work done on an older home by ASI Energy. These projects will reduce carbon emissions by an amount equal to or greater than that emitted from the travel and building use by the Fund’s donors – thus creating the carbon offset and “neutralizing” the donors’ emissions. As an add-on benefit, both households will be less vulnerable to rising fossil fuel prices and better positioned to remain stable and secure property owners. Over the long term, everyone benefits – the university, the homeowners, local energy contractors, and the community.

Ed Wilson, Sustainable Energy Team Manager of Cornell’s Office of Energy & Sustainability, endorsed the effort saying “The ability to offset the CO2 emissions for those attending our conference was welcomed by all.  The conference centered on utilities, basically energy and associated emissions.  It was a great conference and offsetting the emissions locally raised the bar for future conferences.  The Finger Lakes Climate Fund provided a real added value.”

“We always advocate for people to consume energy responsibly and reduce their emissions as much as possible,” noted Nicholson of Sustainable Tompkins “but we recognize that some emissions are unavoidable. We don’t expect people to give up meaningful travel or shift their buildings to renewable power sources all at once. But we can all get on the path to energy security and help others in our community while doing so. That’s the beauty of this program.”