Posts Tagged ‘Saratoga Springs’

This post is a growing resource for how and where to more sustainably repurpose stuff in your life that no longer serves you and can serve someone else in your community.

Common items that are no longer useful to you include:
Clothes
Sporting equipment
Kitchen appliances

Please comment below on ideas and resources you have found to be helpful.

Thank you.

Tobin was part of our October 2011 panel discussion on Sustainability minded transportation options for Saratoga Springs residents. You can follow the work of Shared Access, Saratoga on their Facebook page.

Doug was part of our October 2011 panel discussion on Sustainability minded transportation options in Saratoga Springs.

Healthy Transportation Ideas for Saratoga Springs – Doug Haller from David Levesque on Vimeo.

Zero Energy  Power-House

Creating Your Path to Energy Independence
and a Resilient Lifestyle

An informative presentation by Tina Clarke

Wednesday, November 16, 7:00 p.m.

in the library of the Greenwich High School

$5 donation suggested to help defray costs

Are you concerned about rising fuel costs and the cost of everything that depends on fossil fuel? How will this impact your quality of life and the lives of your community?  Come hear Tina Clarke, Transition Towns Trainer  www.transitionus.org and educator for resilient, sustainable communities. She has trained citizens in over two dozen communities, mostly in the north-east United States. Her presentation will give you practical solutions that you can help to implement here in your community.

The Biggest Losers Win
A Sustainable Saratoga Campaign to Promote Energy Efficiency and Conservation.

(Saratoga Springs, NY)  — The local Biggest Loser Energy Challenge sponsored by Sustainable Saratoga came to a close last week as a group of Saratoga Springs neighbors representing ten households sallied forth in sub-zero weather to focus an infrared camera on their houses in the last educational activity of the contest. As participants each looked at their houses on the camera screen, tell-tale glowing lights signified heat escaping into the cold night air. The infrared camera visually demonstrated where heat losses were the greatest, and gave opposing team members ammunition for teasing owners about missed opportunities to make their homes more energy efficient.

 After the chilly outing, participants compared the final tally of their energy consumption over a six-month period to see which group had managed to cut energy use and waste by the largest percentage over the same period last year. Although both teams were happy “losers”, one group did reduce more than the other.

The participants encountered some surprises.  First, it was interesting to see energy use trends over time as there were unexpected spikes and dips in therms (gas) and kilowatts (electricity). Several people who halved their electricity usage speculated in hindsight how they did it. One had unplugged her clothes dryer and used line drying in her basement instead. Another had purchased a new refrigerator that replaced a 30 year old one, exchanged an old cable box for a new one and put the flat screen TV on a plug that could be turned off in order to prevent the significant stand-by energy these modern TVs burn, as well as the hole in our pockets.

Team member and host of the final meeting for the group, Diane Denny was very pleased with the results. “It was extremely informative to see how we all use electricity and discuss how to save energy.  In fact, as a teacher, I want to share the final results to my seventh graders and discuss how we all can do a better job of saving energy”.

The contest was intended to educate the neighbors and the general public about energy conservation and efficiency measures available through state and federal incentives.  The group kicked-off their effort with a press conference that showed typical air leaks in a home by using a blower door test. The Biggest Loser members and the press were stunned at the number of large and small air leaks the home had, many of which are easily remedied through simple weatherization measures like weather stripping, foam around outdoor faucets, and caulking air leaks.

The Public Service Commission, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, and National Grid are working to help consumers to conserve energy through incentive programs and grants.  Tina Carton, the Capital Saratoga Energy $mart Coordinator an independent contractor for NYSERDA, played a key role educating the group about energy conservation throughout the six months.  She provided members with Kill A Watt® meters so we could see how much energy in real time different household devices use—hair dryers are energy hogs, for example. She gave us compact fluorescent light bulbs and power points on the many, many, many (yes many) ways we can avoid losing money on energy that we pay for, but waste. Most importantly, she gave us all information on how we can use the current incentives offered by NYSERDA and National Grid to get free or reduced price energy audits of our homes and tax breaks on insulation.

In addition to providing an excuse for neighbors to have jolly gatherings, the contest left a deep impression on the participants in terms of how much more we can all do. From large things like insulating the attic- one of the most important energy measures in a house, to smaller things like caulking and air sealing, saving energy is good for our pocketbooks, our environment and it can be a fun challenge. For energy tips and more about the contest go to http://www.sustainablesaratoga.com/initiatives/biggest-looser-energy-challenge/

Sustainable Saratoga is committed to facilitating the creation of a new path for our future. We envision a future Saratoga Springs where gardens are planted in every yard, regional farms thrive, people feel encouraged to leave their car behind, pedestrians and cyclists feel safe on the roads, where business choose to locate and our building codes and urban planning paradigms promote long term sustainability. www.sustainablesaratoga.com

Sustainable Saratoga is losing it!  Local ‘Biggest Loser’ energy conservation challenge is subject of Tuesday evening, September 28 meeting at Empire State College

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

For program information, contact:

Sustainable Saratoga Energy Efficiency and Resources Committee Chair Jeff DeWeese at

(518) 669-6301 deweesej@nycap.rr.com

For general Sustainable Saratoga information, contact:

David Levesque at (518) 320-2613 david@wordofomobile.com

View PDF of this Press Release Click Here.

September 13, 2010

Sustainable Saratoga’s monthly community-wide public meetings are back. The focus of the Tuesday, September 28^th, evening event will be Energy Efficiency in our Community.  In 2008, the per person average energy consumption for New York State residents was 207 million BTUs. Additionally, each resident was responsible for 11.1 tons of CO2-equivalent greenhouse gases. This equates to spending $72 billion annually on energy, 51% of which leaves New York State. Representatives from the residential, commercial, and local government sectors will share information on how we can improve these numbers through energy efficiency in buildings.

Presenters include Tina Carton, Capital/Saratoga Energy$mart Coordinator for Courtney Strong Inc., a Kingston, N.Y.-based consulting firm, who will share tips on energy saving measures that will help save money and discuss incentive programs available through the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA).  Carton will also highlight the initial results from Sustainable Saratoga’s “Biggest Loser Challenge” – a competition to see which side of a local neighborhood can lose the most energy.  A local college representative will highlight the energy efficiency measures and savings achieved through existing commercial programs.  Christopher Kalwara, Building Efficiency Account Executive from Johnson Controls, will highlight energy saving measures recently implemented in public buildings in Saratoga Springs, which save our city about $200,000 per year.

The third monthly ‘weigh in’ of the Biggest Loser competition and energy saving demonstrations will take place Tuesday morning at one of the “Biggest Loser” participant’s homes.

After the evening’s Energy Efficiency presentations, attendees will have the opportunity to meet with Sustainable Saratoga’s committees and hear about their plans for the upcoming year. Our committees include:

  Energy Efficiency and Resources

  Farming, Open Space, and Natural Resources

  Housing and Urban Planning

  Local Economy

  Media and Communications

  Transportation and Mobility

  Waste, Composting, and Recycling

The event is free of charge and open to the public. Please join us Tuesday, Sept. 28 at 7 p.m. at Empire State College, 113 West Ave, Rm 143 Saratoga Springs (near the corner of West Ave & Washington – parking is behind and to the side of the building; please enter around the back of the building). Get a head start on energy savings for the upcoming heating season, and help make Saratoga Sustainable!

Below are some highlights and action items from our June 22, 2010 Resilient Local Economy Dialogue in Saratoga Springs.

Local Resilient Economy Discussion at Sustainable Saratoga from David Levesque on Vimeo.

What can we do as a Local Economy Subcommittee?

What are things that are local but perhaps overlooked?

1. Support Regional Goods – Is there something manufactured in Albany that we could support
2. Local Bookstore (Tim has mentioned there is a great one in Schuylerville, again, could support #4, awareness)
3. The Chamber supports chains and big box stores, not just local business, but all business. Awareness campaign? How do other Chambers deal with the support for local businesses in light of non-local business presences?

Description:

Some of the questions asked by our Saratoga Springs community during the event include.

• What is a local economy?
• Where are they successful and why?
• How do we nurture one in Saratoga County?
• What is local?
• What is an economy?
• What is sustainable?
• How can the rights of property owners, which are implied in the Constitution, be balanced with the “common good”?
• Are debt-based economies unsustainable by definition?  What is the debt/income ratio of the Population of Saratoga County and how does that compare to other municipalities in NY?
• How would you go about quantifying the well-being of our community? our region? our nation?  our planet?  (alternatives to throughput metrics like GDP)
• Michael Shuman, in his book “Going Local” posits that Import Replacement is a key part of a local economy.  What are we currently importing that we can grow, extract, generate, or build right here?
• What projects can our committee focus on to get results?
• Can you comment on the value of local currencies?
• What happens to Saratoga’s economy if there is no racing industry? What happens if tourism drops off when the Happy Motoring fiesta is over?
• Should we be measuring something else besides money to determine our well being?
• Where do the arts fit into the local economy, and how do we quantify their value to our well-being?
• Modern economics seems fixated on quantification of the amount of money flowing through global markets.  That’s like studying only the human circulatory system and claiming to understand human biology.  Can economists change their perception to include other systems currently categorized as externalities (human intellegence, ecosystem services, natural splendor)?
• Can we estimate the percentage of transactions that occur on a local basis as opposed to those which occur across our local area? (both our spending out of area and out of area people spending here)?
• Do you think that microlending (a la Grameen Bank of founded by Mohammad Yunus) or community-owned banks could help members of the community get a leg up on starting a business or retrofitting their home for energy efficiency?
• What can we each do as individuals and as Sustainable Saratoga?  (move money from transnational banking/investment casinos to locally-owned/operated banks?)
• What is the profit of our region? Overall income minus expenses.

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Have a great day!