Take Action in Your Everyday Life
Quick Tips for Drawing Down Emissions
Reducing your carbon footprint means doing your part for future generations.
Purchase an electric vehicle.
Check out hand-outs from our EV-Curious community campaign. (Yes, we did make our goal and earned a $5000 grant!)
Bike around the Village rather than driving.
Volunteer to be a crossing guard for the Walking School Bus.
Get a free home energy audit or consultation with an energy coach.
NYSERDA offers free home energy audits. Volunteer energy coaches through New Yorkers for Clean Power will zoom or call you for an informative chat about your options.
Switch to LED lightbulbs.
Take advantage of tax rebates & incentives for heat pumps, solar panels, induction stoves, and more.
Check out Rewiring America’s tool for navigating the $ questions.
Reduce your food waste &
compost your scraps.
View CSC Task Force member Corinna Borden’s presentation from our 1/7/20 event at Starr Library.
Repair it! Don’t toss it in the landfill.
Recycle those hard-to-recycle items.
Leola and Jeff host a drop-off shed in the 7 Livingston St parking lot, free for the public to use. The concept was created by Rhinebeck Senior Katy Hall for her Girl Scout Gold Award! See what items you can drop off.
Calculate your carbon footprint.
Check out the EPA tool.
Don’t overdo your fall yard cleanup.
Save gas and time: Mulch those leaves in place! Lay off the leaf blower. Learn more.
Switch to a plant-based diet.
Quick Tips for Resiliency
Since we waited too long to do anything, climate change is now here, so we need to adapt to it.
Plant riparian buffers if your property is flood-prone.
Check out this PDF including recommended shrubs and trees from the Marist/Village Landsman Kills research project, in collaboration with DEC’s Trees for Tribs.
As more extreme weather increases in frequency, have a heat emergency plan.
Take shelter at cooling stations at Starr Library and Village Hall.
Learn about tree management and which species are no longer a good idea to plant.
Volunteer with the Village Tree Commission.
Support local farmers to be part of a more resilient food system.
Visit the Rhinebeck Farmers’ Market and/or join a CSA.
Check if your home is in a floodplain.
Plant a pollinator garden.
Track and remove invasive species.
Check out iMapInvasives. The Tree Commission has information about invasive insects and plants on their webpage.
Protect threatened species.
Make informed land-use choices.
Study up on your local habitats and biodiversity with our Natural Resources Inventory (NRI).
Join us for Big Night.
Each spring, track and protect migrating amphibians, markers of healthy ecosystems.
How dry is dry? Check to see Dutchess County’s drought status, and conserve water.
Share your abundance.
Is your raised bed growing more veg than you can eat? Donate your excess produce to Rhinebeck food pantries at Church of the Messiah or Rhinebeck Reformed Church. Feed HV, a local nonprofit, gets excess food to local shelters.
Previous Projects
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Energy Navigators
Rhinebeck ran a free program to help you save money on energy bills and transition to a more sustainable home.
Residents could meet Carli and Andrew, local residents and community volunteers—and graduates of a Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County program. They volunteered to be Rhinebeck's Energy Navigators, trained in home efficiency strategies and NY incentives. They met with neighbors for free consultations—making choices easier and more affordable for you, with rebates and other savings. See the video session Carli ran with Andrew.
New Yorkers for Clean Power still runs a similar program: Energy Coaches
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Biomimicry Youth Challenge
Biomimicry is an approach to design and engineering that looks for inspiration from the natural world. It’s an excellent tool for climate scientists and communities looking for solutions. The Biomimicry Institute is a great resource.
Rhinebeck Middle Schoolers placed first in the 2019 global biomimicry youth design challenge. The competition theme was focused on climate change and the students had a solution that dealt with adaptation to increased flash flooding and stormwater. “Team Futuristas, from Rhinebeck, NY, designed a permeable tile for courtyards to limit the amount of water pooling on the hardscape surface of a courtyard in their village.” CSC Task Force member Jennifer Breslin and Dorna Schroeter, local educator and biomimicry expert, were coaches for the team. The team talked about their project in their classes, shared it with the Board of Education, and Dorna and the kids showcased it at Drawdown Learn, the Rhinebeck Science Foundation’s Discovery Festival, and at the Rhinebeck Clean Power Expo (see Events).
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Drawdown Eco-Challenge
Rhinebeck placed 2nd in the global Drawdown EcoChallenge in 2019. CSC Task Force members who were leaders in this program created a website to share info most relevant to Rhinebeck residents.