Yorktown Receives Bronze Climate Smart Communities Designation
(August 4, 2022) – New York’s Climate Smart Communities program has awarded Yorktown a bronze designation for reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building local climate resilience.
The state noted Yorktown officials’ efforts to streamline the permitting process for battery energy storage systems to help drive the decarbonization of the energy supply and to reduce energy demand and power outages.
“The Town of Yorktown for years has been a tremendous steward of our environment and leader when it comes to reducing our carbon footprint and combatting climate change on the local level,” said Supervisor Matt Slater. “When I took office, I made it a mission for us to be recognized by the state as a Climate Smart Community and it’s taken a lot of work. It’s taken an incredible team effort. It’s taken a fantastic task force to come together.”
Yorktown’s work to achieve the designation included a greenhouse gas inventory, new solar arrays and solar batteries ordinances, a conversion of streetlights to light emitting diodes, upgraded lighting at the public library, adoption of an environmentally preferable purchasing policy and the creation of a food scraps recycling center at Downing Park.
“We know that the state has established really ambitious climate goals,” said Julie Tighe, president of the League of Conservation Voters. “A lot of the work that is going to be necessary for us to achieve those goals really happens at the local level and I think having local government leadership helps shine the path for what the private sector can be doing or we as citizens can be doing.”
Yorktown’s certification process was led by the Town’s Climate Smart Communities Task Force, which developed a strategy and work plan for establishing a baseline for the Town’s current emissions, and then recommended reduction targets, among other work.
“Before Supervisor Slater was in office, he saw the hard work and the deep dive that was started when it came to moving us forward into becoming a Climate Smart Community,” said Councilwoman Luciana Haughwout. “With his commitment, he was able to encourage this beautiful task force to lead by their intellect and also their vision.”
Established in 2009, the interagency Climate Smart Communities program provides guidance and technical support to local governments to act on climate change. To date, 356 local governments representing more than 9.4 million New Yorkers adopted the Climate Smart Communities pledge.
“We look forward to working with our Climate Smart Communities and other local leaders who are ramping up clean energy, improving climate resiliency, and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, among other actions, to benefit quality of life and advance the state’s climate goals,” said DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos.
Contact: Yorktown Supervisor Matt Slater, 914-962-5722 x201 or mslater@yorktownny.org
