Climate Smart Churchville

September 2024 Update:

The Village of Churchville is the first village in Monroe County to earn Bronze certification in the NY Climate Smart Communities program. Since 2022, we have been working to achieve this certification, and through the hard work of the Climate Smart Churchville Task Force and village staff, with the support of the board of trustees, we have reached our goal.

June 2024 Update:

The CSC Task Force and the Village of Churchville have completed enough actions to submit our application for CSC Bronze Status. We began this endeavor with some primary goals in mind:

• Gain an understanding of the village’s carbon footprint (greenhouse gas inventory, benchmarking, energy audits)
• Identify efficiencies and opportunities to decrease energy usage of village operations and facilities.
• Develop processes to track year-over-year progress in energy use reductions and GHG mitigation.
• Become the first village in Monroe County to earn Bronze Status.

With full support of village elected officials, this milestone is the result of hard work by the Task Force and village employees working together to meet our goals and position the village for the future. We are in the final stages of editing our application and will be submitting it soon!

In 2009, New York State launched the Climate Smart Communities (CSC) program, an inter-agency initiative that encourages local communities to take action on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to climate change.

In 2022, the Village of Churchville registered in the Climate Smart Communities program. To achieve CSC Bronze Certification, a series of actions developed by the NY State Department of Environmental Conservation must be completed. These actions provide a transformational roadmap for municipalities to guide them as they work to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, adapt to the effects of climate change, and thrive in a green economy. To learn more about the Climate Smart Communities Program, visit the NY State CSC website, which includes a complete list of NY Climate Smart Communities and their current certification status.

As the first action completed in the CSC Certification process, the Village of Churchville formed the Climate Smart Churchville Task Force (CSCTF) to plan and document actions taken toward our mitigation of and adaptation to climate change. The CSCTF is comprised of community members and village officials working together to achieve CSC Bronze Certification.

To date, the Village has completed 10 actions totaling 67 points towards the 120 points necessary for Bronze certification. Some of the actions include:

• • Annual Benchmarking Report
  • Undertaking an energy audit of the Village Office and DPW Garage
  • Install LED street lights
  • and more…

Meetings

The CSCTF meets at 3:30pm in the Village Hall the first Thursday of each month. If you are interested in volunteering or attending a meeting, just drop us a line.