Lansing village achieves bronze climate status

The village of Lansing now has bronze certification in New York state’s Climate Smart Communities initiative. 

The designation will help the village tap into state funding that could help improve its infrastructure and be better prepared to mitigate the effects of climate change. 

After five years of dedicated work in the program, Lansing received its bronze designation on July 15 . 

“For the past five years, the village’s CSC Task Force has completed actions and submitted evidence to our municipality’s dashboard,” said Mayor Ronny Hardaway.   

The statewide program supports local efforts to meet the economic, social and environmental challenges of climate change. Through the program, municipalities can access leadership recognition, grants and free technical assistance. 

Municipalities participate by signing a voluntary pledge and using the CSC framework to guide progress toward creating attractive, healthy and equitable places to live, work and play. 

The program’s goals include reducing greenhouse gas emissions, promoting an economy built on green innovation, increasing energy security and reliability, improving public health and safety, building resilience to resist the impacts of climate change and saving taxpayer dollars.

Municipalities in the program receive free technical assistance from regional CSC coordinators to aid with clean energy and climate initiatives. They can also access a network of state grant and rebate opportunities, such as the municipal zero-emission vehicle program that reduces the cost of electric vehicles and charging stations. Other grants can help fund climate change mitigation and adaptation projects.

To become certified, communities must adopt resolutions and take a CSC pledge. To further advance in the program and unlock more opportunities to reach their climate change goals, municipalities complete actions recommended by the state. These actions can determine whether a locality is in the “bronze” or “silver” tier, which showcases a municipality’s progress toward its goals. 

“The CSC program reviews certification applications from local governments three times a year,,” Hardaway said. “Once the CSC determined that we had more than 120 possible points from our submitted documents, they assessed our submissions and determined that we exceeded the minimum possible points which led to our village being certified at the bronze level.”

Hardaway said the last submission the village sent to the CSC was an action regarding a municipal policy on shaded areas. 

“This resolution documented the village’s understanding of the importance of community, public health, physical health and safety, mental health, and environmental health benefits related to shaded areas and structures,” the mayor said. “The resolution documented the village’s goals to plan new shaded areas or structures and evaluate existing shaded areas or structures on village property.”

Hardaway said the perks of being a CSC bronze community include better scores on grant applications for some state funding programs, state-level recognition for community leadership, a framework to organize local climate action and highlight priorities, access to resources, training, tools and expert guidance, and networking and sharing best practices with peers. 

For residents, Hardaway said, benefits include: 

• Cost savings through greater efficiency
• Greater energy independence and energy security
• Improved air quality from switching to clean energy
• Healthier, more walkable urban centers through smart growth
• Conservation of green spaces for recreation and biodiversity
• Reduction of future flood risk through climate change adaptation strategies
• Investment in an economy that supports sustainability and green businesses
• Greater engagement with residents who care about the future of their hometowns.

For Hardaway, the past five years have been worth it. He commended the village’s CSC Task Force, which has representatives from the village board and staff, members of the community, and liaisons from Cornell Cooperative Extension CSC.

“The accumulated points and the bronze-level certification were never the task force’s primary goals,” Hardaway said. “We wanted our village government to set an example for climate-change resilience and adaptation strategies and to provide resources of information and clean-energy solutions to our residents.”

Hardaway said that his informal motto for the task force is to “do the right things for the right reasons for our village” when deciding which CSC action items to pursue.” 

“We attained most of our goals,” he said, “and we look forward to new CSC-related actions and maintaining our past achievements as climate change challenges or threatens our village, its residents, and its businesses.”.