Field said that the final hurdle the bill needs to overcome is getting Gov. Hochul to sign it. "Once the bill is signed into law by the governor, she noted, “it will also save all the other carshares in the state.”

Insurance Barriers to Nonprofit Carsharing

According to Field, other carsharing services in the state have expressed interest in becoming nonprofits but haven’t been able to because they wouldn’t be able to receive insurance as a nonprofit under current state regulations. The bill would allow Risk Retention Groups (RRG’s) that are not domiciled in New York State to provide auto insurance to nonprofit organizations, making it possible for more carsharing services to become nonprofits.

Field observed that the past few weeks have been difficult as Ithaca Carshare has been forced to go on pause, leaving thousands of residents without access to their services.

According to Field, even when the bill does get signed into law, it will not result in the reopening of Ithaca Carshare overnight. Ithaca Carshare would still have to wait six months to re-open so the DMV can update their system to allow out-of-state RRG’s to write insurance for nonprofits.

Field said that the waiting period was initially one year, but Senator Webb was able to negotiate it down to six months. While that represents an improvement, Field said that “being able to stay open for six months without revenue is another hurdle that we’ll have to figure out.”

“We're gonna figure out how to keep people employed, how to keep funding going so that we can focus on other things other than getting this bill passed, such as buying electric vehicles and expanding our fleet and improving our service,” said Field, adding that "We just need to get the governor to sign the bill and then we can move forward with all these other initiatives.”

Over the next three years, Ithaca Carshare is slated to receive $315,000 from New York State Energy Research and Development (NYSERDA) to purchase nine electric vehicles, several of which will be placed in low income neighborhoods.

According to Field, once the bill is signed into law it will solve a problem that Ithaca Carshare has been dealing with for years and “hopefully we will not have any insurance roadblocks in the future.” “When we re-open this winter we will be better than ever,” she said.

Next TCCPI Meeting

Friday, July 28, 2023

9 to 11 am

TCCPI meetings have moved online. Contact Peter Bardaglio, the TCCPI coordinator, for further details at pbardaglio@gmail.com.

Holly Hutchinson is the coordinator of the Finger Lakes Climate Fund. Photo courtesy of Sustainable Finger Lakes.

Some cities have turned to public-private coalitions of environmentally-minded business and property owners working with local officials to create more sustainable communities. The Ithaca 2030 District, a voluntary effort by local government, property owners and tenants to improve the energy and water performance of their buildings as well as to bring about cuts in commuter transportation emissions, is a prominent local example.

Focus on Existing Buildings

“At least for now, the Ithaca Energy Code Supplement focuses on new construction — we work with already existing buildings. If at some point the city establishes performance standards for already existing buildings as in New York City and other cities, we will have established a process and beachhead for that sector,” said Peter Bardaglio, Executive Director for the Ithaca 2030 District.

Since its launch in June 2016, the district has expanded considerably as more building owners have opted in. In 2021, the district comprised 33 buildings and about 417,089 square feet. By the end of 2022, there were 30 building owners with 41 buildings and 532,097 square feet, and at present, it’s 44 buildings with 584,381 square feet, basically another Harold’s Square worth of space. Ithaca was the 13th city to launch a 2030 District, and today there are 24 (and the city of gorges remains the smallest in the group by population, as most are urban juggernauts like New York, Philadelphia, and Toronto).

Members committed to a 20% reduction by 2020 in energy use, water consumption, and transportation-induced emissions. That figure increases to a minimum 35% reduction in all three categories from the baseline “starting point” by 2025, and a 50% decrease by 2030. Members may still use natural gas, but they’re taking steps to reduce their natural gas use, whether that be more efficient heating systems, electrification, or other means.

To ensure accountability, each member building’s energy and water data are collected, analyzed, and aggregated to determine the overall District level results. The results for each individual building are made available to the owners, while the district-wide results are publicly distributed to demonstrate whether or not benchmarks are being met.

As a whole, in 2022 the District’s members had reduced their energy consumption by 27% from their aggregate baseline, and they also achieved a savings of 40% in water use. That means that by the end of last year, they were over three-quarters of the way toward the 2025 energy goal and 80% of the way towards the 2030 water target – in other words, on track and then some. In fact, thirteen buildings have already met their 2030 goals. The collective savings is about $395,000 in energy and water costs, 7.3 million gallons of water, and about 194,000 pounds of CO2.

There is one area of concern that remains, however: commuter emissions. The 2020 goal was 1,200 kilograms of CO2 emitted per year per commuter (kg CO2e/commuter/year). In 2021, it was 1,706, far short of the goal and above the pre-pandemic 2019 value of 1,603 kg CO2e/commuter/year. The silver lining is that there was a sizable 16% reduction in 2022, to 1,421 kg CO2 emitted per commuter per year.

“The issue of commuter emissions is by far the toughest nut to crack. We don’t focus on tracking the emissions for each property — we use the annual survey to see how the district at large is doing. We work with GO ITHACA, the Downtown Ithaca program, to make sure each of the property owners is aware of the various benefits of this program, which can help in reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the transportation sector,” explained Bardaglio.

It’s hard to believe, but this month marks the 15^th anniversary of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative. At the time of TCCPI’s launch in June 2008 I was working on a book with a colleague at Second Nature, a nonprofit think tank in Boston dedicated to promoting the higher education sustainability movement. One of the key themes in the book, Boldly Sustainable: Hope and Opportunity for Higher Education in the Age of Climate Change (2009) was the need for greater collaboration between colleges and universities and the communities in which they operated.

I was drafting a chapter for the book in early 2008 on sustainability, economic development, and community partnerships, exploring several case studies across the U.S., including Ithaca. I had stepped down the previous year from the provost’s office at Ithaca College, where I had helped lead what became a nationally recognized sustainability initiative, to join Second Nature as a senior fellow. Having left the academic world following a quarter century as a faculty member and administrator, I became much more aware of the disconnect between campuses and communities in the emerging sustainability movement. 

The Great Lakes and Finger Lakes from the International Space Station. Photo courtesy of NASA.

Time for Collaboration

Looking over the Ithaca landscape, it seemed to me that the time was right for an effort that would bring together higher education institutions, local governments, nonprofits, and businesses around the need for climate action and the energy transition. I brought the idea to the Park Foundation and submitted a grant proposal for what became TCCPI; the foundation generously funded the proposal and has continued to do so with unstinting support.

In that time, TCCPI has held about 165 monthly meetings, published 76 newsletters, and issued 14 annual reports of member accomplishments regarding climate action, clean energy, and sustainability. In 2016, as part of an effort to strengthen our engagement with the private sector, we established (with the assistance of a grant from NYSERDA) the Ithaca 2030 District, part of what is now a network of 24 urban districts in the U.S. and Canada dedicated to improving the energy and water performance of commercial buildings in downtown areas. 

From an initial base of 15 buildings, the Ithaca 2030 District has grown to 44 buildings with 584,381 square feet of committed space. Besides our quarterly meetings and newsletters, we provide each property member with an interactive, online dashboard that measures the energy and water performance of their individual buildings. These dashboards are regularly updated so that owners, managers, and tenants can monitor their progress. You can find our latest annual district-level report here.

Policy Advocacy

Apart from the founding of the Ithaca 2030 District, perhaps the most significant change in TCCPI since its beginning is the extent to which we have become involved over the last few years in policy advocacy. Our activities in this area are primarily focused on the state level, and we are members of three statewide activist coalitions: NY Renews, Renewable Heat Now, and Climate Can’t Wait. The passage of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act in 2019 and the subsequent establishment of the Climate Action Council, which released its recommendations for a state climate plan this past December, as well as the flurry of bills sparked by these recommendations, have constituted the main catalyst for this evolution in TCCPI’s work. At the local level, we have been a strong and active supporter of the Ithaca Green New Deal.

Underlying this new attention on policy advocacy is a mounting sense of urgency as the climate crisis becomes an undeniable reality of our present, one that has had a disproportionate impact on marginalized groups and which demands that we place equity and justice at the center of our efforts. In the face of this growing awareness and public support for action, however, the fossil fuel industry and its allies have responded with misinformation, fear mongering, and a deep-seated commitment to maintaining the status quo.

In the process, it’s become clear that the most effective way to push back and secure a safe, just, and healthy future is collective action by well-organized citizens fighting for our communities and making sure no one is left behind. Animated by this spirit, TCCPI will keep moving forward in the years to come. As Thomas Berry writes in The Great Work: Our Way into the Future, unless we devote ourselves to preserve and enhance the life, beauty, and diversity of the planet for the generations to come, we will become “impoverished in all that makes us human.”