Completed Stages
Registered Climate Smart Community: The Village passed the Climate Smart Communities Pledge in order to become a registered community in May 2018.
Bronze Certified Climate Smart Community: Over the next two years, the Village has taken many actions to advance environmental sustainability in order to reach this milestone in September 2020. Keep reading to see all the actions we have completed so far! Also, make sure to check out the Resources page in order to read about the DEC press event where our certification was announced.
Completed Actions
This page has a list of actions that the task force has already completed. The title of each of these actions is hyperlinked to the corresponding page on the official Climate Smart Communities program website for more information, a short description of each action is included, and other documentation may be included for you to download. The actions are listed in order of completion, from least to most recent.
Climate Smart Resolution
This resolution was based on a template provided by the Climate Smart Communities program. As a result of the resolution, the Village of Homer became a registered Climate Smart Community as of May 2018.
Form a Climate Smart Communities Task Force
The Village Board voted to create a CSC Task Force that will coordinate the certification process and ensure the environmental sustainability of the village as a whole.
Appoint a Climate Smart Communities Coordinator
The Village Board voted to appoint Shenequa Perry as the CSC Coordinator and Andrew Fagerheim as the CSC Assistant Coordinator, giving them leadership roles over the CSC task force and submission process.
Government Operations Greenhouse Gas Inventory
The Government Operations Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory was conducted by students from SUNY ESF and identifies emissions in all the facilities, vehicles, etc operated by the village.
Community Greenhouse Gas Inventory
The Climate Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory was also conducted by SUNY ESF and identifies emissions across all buildings, transportation, waste, etc within the village.
Compost Bins for Residents
The village sold at-home composters to community members at cost to encourage responsible personal waste management strategies.
Residential Organic Waste Program
Village residents can drop off yard waste at the Department of Public Works (31 North Main St). For more details and information, please visit this link!
Energy Code Enforcement Training
The Village completed this action as a part of it’s NYSERDA Clean Energy Communities Program certification process and is also entitled to credit in the Climate Smart Communities program as well. This action involves educating code officers about energy code best practices.
Unified Solar Permit
The Village of Homer is joining municipalities across New York state in adopting a unified solar permit which will make the approval process of solar systems more efficient.
Alternative-Fuel Infrastructure
The Village has installed an electric vehicle charging station with two chargers behind the Rec Office that is open for public use.
Social Media
The Task Force has two social media pages (Instagram and Facebook) in order to post updates about our progress toward certification and other important environmental news and tips. Click the widgets below to check us out!
National / Regional Climate Program
This action encourages municipalities to participate in other climate programs, one of which is NYSERDA’s Clean Energy Community (CEC), in which the village is certified. CEC is a state-wide program that promotes environmental stewardship through clean and renewable energy. One example of a project for both the CSC and CEC programs is installing LED street lights in the village.
Partnership with Other Entities
We have partnered with SUNY ESF for multiple actions throughout the certification process including the Government Operations and Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventories.
Annual Progress Report
Shenequa Perry, CSC Coordinator, put together a 2019-2020 annual report that describes what the task force has accomplished so far and what our plans are for the future. Check it out below!
Municipal Action Plan
The action plan uses the data from the Government Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory to set goals and outline pathways to reduce emissions. It was written by the CSC task force, open for public feedback for months, and approved by the village board.
Government Buildings Energy Benchmarking
This action involves recording the energy usage of buildings operated by the village in order to track of GHG emission reductions and was begun as a part of the Clean Energy Communities program.
Innovation Action
This action offers points for new actions that do not already exist within the CSC framework. The Village suggests that our partnership with young people creates a community building, lasting framework for climate action that is multi-generational and far-reaching. For more information, please review the document below!
Fleet Inventory
The Village has created a spreadsheet containing all their vehicles, miles driven, cost of fuel, etc. This will assist in determining GHG emissions moving forward.