The New York State Climate Smart Communities Program (CSC) is a statewide initiative led by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation that supports municipalities in reducing greenhouse gas emissions, strengthening climate resilience, and building more sustainable communities.

On September 5, 2024, Irvington was recognized with CSC Silver certification, the highest level currently awarded. Over the past decade, more than 425 communities have participated in the program. To date, 146 have achieved Bronze certification, and only 17, including Irvington, have reached Silver.

Irvington earned this distinction through a focused six-month effort involving 23 volunteers from the Climate and Energy Committee and the broader community. While 300 points were required for certification, Irvington submitted 379 points and was awarded 335. A core group of residents completed most of the 44 actions, including reviewing municipal inventories, calculating emissions, preparing reports, measuring tree canopy, collaborating with Department Heads, developing educational materials, documenting progress, and updating Village systems.

This achievement reflects both sustained progress and strong community engagement. Reviewing the program’s 115 possible actions also served as a strategic exercise, clarifying what Irvington has already accomplished, what is achievable in the near term, and what remains ahead. It has provided a practical roadmap for continued climate action, particularly as the State considers introducing a future Gold certification level.

We would like to give special recognition to the resident volunteers whose notable contributions were instrumental in our success:

• Lisa Antonelli, leader of our GPTF Waste Nothing Committee, completed eight tasks by collaborating with various departments and proactively solving challenges, such as measuring buildings and purchasing waste bins. Lisa continues to develop initiatives for long-term, village-wide waste mitigation.

• Bill Estes also completed eight impressive tasks, including researching and proposing policies, reviewing Village reports and plans, and facilitating Irvington's enrollment in the State Environmentally Preferable Purchasing Program.

• Bruce Bell took on the most complex tasks, measuring GHG reductions in government buildings. His efforts included helping the Village to upgrade to Energy Star Portfolio Manager and will continue to be used to gauge progress towards our Climate Action Plan goals.

• Ilene Bach and Juliette Hartel tackled the various fleet-related tasks, uncovering opportunities to further improve the Village’s vehicle management and emissions reductions.

• Sara Rubinow enhanced our progress-tracking system and meticulously reviewed every submission to ensure that we met all program requirements.

Perhaps the greatest achievement throughout this process was the sense of community built through our weekly meetings. 

Irvington received the New York State Bronze level Climate Smart Community Certification on March 4, 2021. We are currentlly working towards Silver status. 

"New York State's Climate Smart Communities program supports municipal efforts to meet the economic, social, and environmental challenges posed by climate change. The village of Irvington completed 17 actions to achieve bronze-level certification, including a flood mitigation plan covering all local waterbodies and an energy audit of the historic village hall building. Irvington, as part of the Sustainable Westchester consortium, also implemented a community choice aggregation program in 2016 to reduce energy costs and prioritize purchase of renewable power for its residents."  - NY DEC

Irvington is joining its neighboring Rivertown villages of Dobbs Ferry and Hastings-on-Hudson in this important endeavor. 277 Registered communities, impacting more than 8MM NYS residents have made a commitment to act by passing the CSC pledge. Certified communities are the foremost leaders in the state.

Find more detail at the CSC  webpage and factsheet.

The overall goal for this program is to:

Reduce GHG emissions
Save Taxpayers money
Build a more resilient & attractive place to live
Provide municipalities with a robust framework to guide their local climate action
Demonstrate and recognize leadership on climate action
Offer concrete actions that addresses increased awareness and concern about climate change from village residents
Address growing concern and activism of children in our village and beyond
Make Irvington better positioned for funding/grants- DEC & other NYS grants. DF received $300k grants aided by their CSC performance. $11 m available to certified communities

For more information on the program you can go to: https://climatesmart.ny.gov or reach out to Village Administrator, Larry  Schopfer.

PE1 Action: Pass Resolution Adopting the CSC Pledge - 4 Points

PE1 Action: CSC Task Force - 20 Points

PE1 Action: CSC Coordinator - 10 Points

PE1 Action: National/Regional Climate Program 3 Points

PE3 Action: Government Building Energy Audits 8 Points

PE3 Action: Interior Lighting Upgrades 5 Points

PE3 Action: Advanced Vehicles 2 Points

PE3 Action: LED Street Lights 10 Points (81.5% of all Village-owned street lights have been converted to LED).

PE3 Action: Outdoor Lighting Upgrades 3 Points 

PE5 Action: Recycling Program for Public Places & Events 3 Points

PE5 Action: Residential Organic Waste Program - 8 Points

PE6 Action: Comprehensive Plan with Sustainability Elements - 21 Points

PE6 Action: Infrastructure for Biking and Walking - 2 Points

PE6 Action: Alternative-fuel Infrastructure - 8 Points

PE7 Action: Watershed-based Flood Mitigation Plan - 5 Points

PE8 Action: Farmers’ Markets - 3 Points

PE8 Action: Community Choice Aggregation - 18 Points