Climate & Environment

Welcome to Climate Smart Rhinebeck, a task force of the Village Government.

We participate in NY State's Climate Smart Communities Program (CSC), representing the Rhinebeck Village government in collaboration with volunteers. Village Trustee Vanessa Bertozzi is the task force coordinator. We are bronze-certified in the New York State Climate Smart Communities program and a NYSERDA-designated Clean Energy Community.

Get Involved

Explore Initiatives

Explore what we are doing to reduce pollution and make our community safer in the face of climate change.

Climate Smart Rhinebeck Task Force works with the Village Board to on policy and public engagement programs. The goal of the task force is to meaningfully assist in building a more just, resilient, and livable future in Rhinebeck Village.

Meeting Our Goals Takes Planning

And we’ve done a lot of it! The buttons here link you to the critical planning documents that lay out a roadmap to 2030.

Featured News Related to Climate & Environment
Village of Rhinebeck Receives Silver Climate Smart Communities Certification
Village of Rhinebeck Receives Silver Climate Smart Communities Certification

The Village has earned Silver certification with 311 points and over 40 actions to make our community safer in the face of climate change

Read More →
Village of Rhinebeck Installs Heat Pumps at Two Municipal Buildings
Village of Rhinebeck Installs Heat Pumps at Two Municipal Buildings
Read More →
Communitywide Climate Action Plan
Communitywide Climate Action Plan
Read More →

Climate & Environment Announcements

NYS’s CSC Certification Program

New York State runs a nation-leading program for municipalities to reduce emissions and adapt to climate change. You can also visit NY State’s CSC website to browse through the over 100 actions and explore what other municipalities are doing across the state. After earning our Bronze-certification, the Village’s CSC profile was updated for the public to dig into detailed documentation of our work.

As our village certifies at higher levels of the CSC program (as we prove we’ve undertaken more and more of the actions), we receive higher rankings for our applications for NY State grants which will further fund our sustainability projects. The Rhinebeck Village Board, under Mayor Reardon, took the first steps by passing a resolution to become a Climate Smart Community in 2010. On January 10, 2020, the Climate Smart Task Force submitted our first public filing, and in March 2020 achieved Bronze level certification, one of only about 50 in NY State at the time. We submitted for Silver in summer of 2025. (CSC has no Gold certification FYI because it’s hard enough getting to Silver!)

The CSR Task Force

In 2019 Mayor Bassett and the Village Board formed a task force to run point on all things environment and climate, and Trustee Vanessa Bertozzi is serving as the coordinator.

The CSR Task Force is currently meeting quarterly, with the Compost Subcommittee meeting every other week. Core task force members are expected to manage projects which contribute specifically to the CSC framework and help us build a more sustainable future for Rhinebeck. We’d love to hear from you! Contact trusteebertozzi@villageofrhinebeckny.gov.

Members

Trustee Vanessa Bertozzi, Coordinator
Scout Pronto Breslin
Jennifer Breslin
Mary Burns
Angela Basile
Corinna Borden
Michael Forlenza
Carli Fraccarolli
Ashley Gamell
Katherine Killeffer
Liz Roth
Dorna Schroeter
Aurore Stanek
Kerri Karvetski
Chantal Collins
Lawrence Miller
Steph Gunning
Carol Urban
Mimi Joh-Carnella
Tom McKibbin-Vaughan

Task Force Members and special guests, Feb 12, 2020: (from left to right) Nan Jackson, Chantal Collins, Jennifer Breslin, Vanessa Bertozzi, Carli Fraccarolli, Dorna Schoeter, Ashley Gamell, Michael Forlenza, Sue Sie, Corinna Borden, Kathy Dobson (and babe).