Greenwich Sustainability Committee
COMMUNITY NEWS
Advancing sustainability and climate resiliency
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O N E • P L A N E T • O N E • C H A N C E
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Idle at Home Not in Your Car
Sitting in your car idling is a sure fire way to add to the toxic pollution in the planet and the air we breathe.
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What percentage of Town of Greenwich energy consumption is used by our public schools?
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Scroll all the way down to find the correct answer! |
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INDOOR AIR QUALITY & YOUR BRAIN |
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Last month we learned that Fairfield County has the worst air pollution in the NYC Metro area, resulting in poor health outcomes.
But did you know that our indoor air quality can be dangerous to your cognition?
Recent experimental studies of indoor air quality and cognitive psychology and neuroscience, have revealed significant direct effects of indoor CO2 levels on cognitive function. We are constantly exposed to air pollutant emissions from sources such as cooking, household products, building materials, outdoor air pollution brought indoors by ventilation, our activities, and the CO2 that we generate indoors when we breathe.
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LEGISLATION & ADVOCACY SPOTLIGHT
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LEARN how to support a bill in the CT State Assembly, how to submit testimony and how to reach your legislators.
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The Environment Committee of the CT General Assembly held a public hearing on February 15, which included an important bill to help CT meet its emissions reduction goals. CT is currently not on track to meet its 2030 greenhouse gas reduction goals.
HB6397 is a bill to create a system of accountability to ensure that CT stays on track to meet its emissions targets.
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HIGHLIGHTS FROM OTHER SECTORS |
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Quiet Yards Greenwich
If you could make one small change that would improve your health, improve your yard’s health, and reduce climate emissions, would you?
Here’s how: think twice before reaching for that gas leaf blower. Learn More.
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C A R B O N F O O T P R I N T |
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What is The Race to Net Zero?
The race to net zero is a global effort to reduce carbon emissions and reach net zero emissions by 2050. This goal is supported by governments, businesses, and individuals worldwide and is a critical step in tackling climate change. To reach net zero, businesses and individuals must reduce their emissions as much as possible and offset any remaining emissions with activities that remove carbon from the atmosphere, such as planting trees or investing in renewable energy.
Reducing emissions requires business leaders and individuals to measure their carbon footprint to identify areas of opportunity and benchmark with peers to reach the lowest emissions levels. Read More
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The industrialized food system accounts for approximately one-third of GHG emissions. The UN declares that we will not meet Sustainable Development Goals unless we transform this dominant system, so let’s do it!
Together WE can catalyze change! Leading solutions: limit land and forest conversion, eliminate fertilizer generated from fossil fuels and regionalize supply chains so that food travels shorter distances. Simple Speak: the problems are global and complicated, but the solutions are local and fairly uncomplicated.
YOU can protect and cultivate our foodshed: grow your own food and/or purchase from CT farmers!
Looking for CT Grown?
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What's a significant way to limit end-of-century warming to 2°C? You may be surprised to learn that reducing food waste is at the top the list, accounting for at least 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to Project Drawdown. When food goes uneaten,
all the resources — energy, water, materials, money — that are required from seed to sitting down to eat are wasted too.
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Click on image to view all data. |
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Globally, wealth correlates to higher greenhouse gas emissions with the top 10% of emitters responsible for almost half of global energy-related CO2 emissions in 2021, compared with a mere 0.2% for the bottom 10%. The top 10% averaged about 25 tons of CO2 per capita in 2021, over 200 times more than the average for the bottom 10%.
Substantial and rapid action by the richest 10% is essential to decarbonize fast enough to keep 1.5°C warming in sight, according to a new study.
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Learn how you can reduce your vehicle emissions.
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Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from transportation account for about 27 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, making it the largest contributor of U.S. GHG emissions. One in two vehicles sold in the U.S. is a SUV, but because SUVs are bigger, heavier and less aerodynamic, they emit more GHG gases. In fact, SUVs are second only to power generation in the production of carbon dioxide, emitting more CO2 worldwide than the UK and the Netherlands combined, an analysis from 2010 to 2018 has found.
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More information and forms can be found here.
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Saturday, April 1, 2023
11:00 AM 3:00 PM
Christ Church Parish Hall
Join Waste Free Greenwich for an engaging, family friendly event to explore ways to rethink waste through the 6 R’s: Refuse, Reduce, Reuse, Recycle, Repair and Rot.
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Seeking Nominations For Sustainability Award |
The Greenwich Sustainability Committee is pleased to request nominations for its newly established Sustainability Award to be presented in conjunction with the Town’s Earth Day Proclamation. The Sustainability Award has been created to celebrate Greenwich residents who embody the principles of the committee. Please send nominations to [email protected] no later than March 17.
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Your feedback is valuable to sustainability! |
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Quiz Answer: Greenwich Public Schools consumes 52% of Town energy or $3.2 million in fiscal year 2022. Town Greenhouse Gas Emissions are roughly equivalent to 4,000 cars on the road for a year. Pursuing Net Zero Energy standards for new school buildings and the addition of solar panels on other GPS schools would cut energy needs in half.
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