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Would you like to join us?
We meet on the 4th Wednesday every month from 7-8:30pm by zoom to discuss project updates and what's going on in the town and the region.
If interested, email colorpenfieldgreen@gmail.com. Hope to hear from you soon!
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CPG and HYMC Will Offer FREE Classes Through Penfield Recreation
All classes will be at the Penfield Community Center, 1985 Baird Rd.
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 From Healthy Yards Monroe County, taught by Master Gardener and Color Penfield Green co-lead, Megan Meyer. Register through the Penfield Library
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Designing a Native Pollinator Garden
Thurs 2/16 & Thurs 2/23, 6-7:30pm, Ages 18+
This class is currently full and the waitlist is at capacity. All content and resources will be shared on the new "Our Classes" page of the CPG website.
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Native plants are essential for a healthy ecosystem. Learn about site considerations and preparation of the garden prior to planting, how to select appropriate native perennials, and techniques to design your garden on paper from a Master Gardener. If you are a 1st time gardener or planning to integrate more natives into existing gardens, this class will give you the know how to be successful!
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Rethinking the American Lawn
Thurs 3/23 7pm
Penfield Library, 1985 Baird Rd, Penfield
Registration opens 3/9
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Americans love their lawns with a passion rarely seen in other countries; fifty-eight million Americans enthusiastically plant, weed, water, spray, and mow an estimated twenty million acres of lawn. But is our dedication to these lawns contributing to the serious environmental problems facing the planet?
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Planting and Caring for a New Native Pollinator Garden
2 Sessions: Sat, 4/22 & 4/29 OR Sat 5/6 & 5/13, 9:30-11am, Ages 18+
Penfield Library, 1985 Baird Rd, Penfield
The registration will open in mid-March
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This class will teach you how to start, plant, and care for a new native pollinator garden in the first year. Learn how to prepare the site - testing and amending soil, removing grass in a healthy way. You'll learn how to plant your natives and care for them in the early stages of establishment. You will be invited to continue meeting periodically after the class for support and community.
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From Color Penfield Green, and taught by Lou Anne DaRin and Erin Campbell, MD, MPH. Register through Pen Rec
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Plant-Based Eating and Home Composting
Tues 4/25 (134816-B)
7-8:30pm, Ages 18+, (12+ w/ parent guardian)
Penfield Community Center, 1985 Baird Rd, Penfield
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Have you been thinking of trying a plant-based diet but don't know where to start? This class includes tips on preparing and eating more plant-based foods, a cooking demo, and crowd-pleasing recipes. Also, information will be shared on composting those food scraps.
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Check out pages 28 & 32 of Penfield Recreation's winter/spring catalogue!
Penfield and non-Penfield residents welcome!
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PHS Club Asks the Town to Pursue Climate Smart Community Program
By Anna Yatteau
In an eloquent appeal to the Penfield Town Board, Bea Reichman, Marietta Psarros, and Walter Esse, leaders of the PHS Environmental Club, asked the town to pursue Climate Smart Communities, a NYSERDA program that supports and rewards sustainability efforts at the local level. The benefits of participating include leadership recognition, free technical assistance, and access to grants. Locally, only Brighton and Pittsford have been awarded bronze level Climate Smart Communities so far.
The Board Members' response was entirely positive and said that the newly created Energy and Environmental Conservation Committee would take up the issue. Board member, Candace Lee cited the students' advocacy over the years and added her support: "We agree that we should be making ongoing sustainable efforts through the town and be making decisions that are environmentally sound."
You can watch their presentation and the Board's response here (10min-17min).
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Color Penfield Green is Grateful to Supervisor Marie Cinti for her Time in Office
Penfield Town Supervisor Marie Cinti announced her resignation on February 6, to focus on caring for an ill family member.
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Though we completely understand her reasons for stepping down, we are saddened to hear of this loss for our community.
In her time as Supervisor, she made sustainability for Penfield a priority. She hired our first Sustainability Engineer, continued support for the Clean Energy Community program, kicked off the celebration of Shadow Pines, and led our town in planting Red Maples and Eastern White Pines at the 2022 Earth Day/Arbor Day event. She was always willing to meet with us and hear our concerns and proposals with an open mind.
We are grateful for everything she has given to Penfield as our town's leader. We wish her and her loved ones well.
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Penfield's Rochester Christian Reformed Church Powers Up With the Sun
by Jim Leunk
This is a summary of a more detailed article here.
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The Rochester Christian Reformed Church installed rooftop solar panels in 2021 to power its building entirely with clean electricity, seeking to encourage environmental stewardship and follow the biblical mandate to care for God’s creation. Ours is the first solar-powered house of worship in the Rochester area.
A 90-panel array sends surplus power onto the grid during the summer and draws electricity from the grid during the shorter, cloudier days of winter. Already it has produced more than 56,600 kWh since June of 2021.
There remains a lot of room for more solar panels on the church roof. Our building currently uses gas for heating and hot water, but when our furnaces and water heaters eventually require replacement, we will likely install heat pumps. At that point, putting more solar panels on the roof will become an attractive option.
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Time in the Desert
This is a summary of an article by Ruth Marchetti. Click here for the full article
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Ruth Marchetti has written an article sharing how the experience of Lent may be reimagined to incorporate care for the Earth into traditional practices. Ruth is a Color Penfield Green co-lead, RAICA co-founder, and the chair of RocACTS' Environmental Justice Committee. Click here to read the article.
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Finding New Roots: Switching a Lawn to a Food Forest and Pollinator Garden
This is a summary of an article by Jonathan Cloud. Click here for the full article
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Local environmentalists, Jonathan Cloud and Victoria Zelin, founders of Possible Rochester share the steps they took to transform their yard from a lawn to a rich ecosystem that sustains them and the wildlife that visits their food forest and pollinator garden. Click here to read the article.
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2023 Monroe County Tree and Shrub Sale is Open
Order by March 3rd
Pick up April 20-21 9am-5pm at EcoPark
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The 2023 Monroe County Soil & Water Conservation District’s annual Conservation Tree and Shrub Sale is open. This program lets you order native/naturalized trees, shrubs, plants, and more to increase property aesthetic, support wildlife, create windbreaks and screens, control streambank erosion, increase water quality, and be climate resilient!
Pre-ordering is available until March 3rd or until species sell out. The District recommends getting your orders in sooner than later. To browse the catalog and order your species click here.
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Support Local Farmers
Grow Healthy Children!
Two key programs, the NY Farm to School Grants and the NY State Farm to School Purchasing Incentive, work hand in hand to bring more locally grown and raised food to students in K-12 schools.
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This year's state budget is under negotiation right now, and Governor Hochul and the state Legislature are considering adjustments to these critical programs.
 Click here to let your state representatives know you support strong funding for Farm to School to help schools put more healthy, local food on our children's plates while supporting New York's farmers!
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Earth Day Every Day
Green Tips
Curated by Susan and John Steepy
Members of Color Penfield Green
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Happy Sustainable Valentine's Day!
Valentines' Day is this week - do you have a plan for your valentine's surprise? Here are some earth friendly, delicious looking treats that will tempt you to make enough for you too with leftovers for later. There are vegan recipes too!
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Most people like to use apps on their smart phone, most people like to save money and most people like to do something to help improve our environment. What if YOU were one of these people and could do all three? Click here to find out how you can go Green and save some Green.
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You probably already know that carbon dioxide, a recognized greenhouse gas, is damaging to our environment. But do you know that methane is a greenhouse gas with a warming potential more than 28x that of carbon dioxide over a century and 84x greater in the first 20 years? Do you know how much methane cattle emit into the atmosphere every year? The answer to that second question may surprise you.
Find the answer and more here and learn how a plant-based diet can be healthier for the environment by reducing greenhouse emissions. And, by-the-way, eating a plant-based diet also is healthier for you.
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"Those people are really 'cooking with gas' now," a term used in the late 1800s as meaning "making very good progress or doing something very well." Not so fast! Literally "cooking with gas" in the 2020s is not necessarily good, for the environment or for your health. If you are thinking about purchasing a new stove and weighing gas versus induction stove top, here's three resources to check out:
And remember,
REDUCE – REUSE – REPURPOSE - RECYCLE
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Igor Orlovich and Ravi Mehta follow the news about Electric Vehicles and have curated items for fans and those thinking about going electric for their next car, SUV, or truck.
News from the Automakers
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Tesla announced that it will open a portion of its Supercharger and Destination Charger Networks to other EVs, making at least 7,500 chargers available to all EVs by the end of 2024. Tesla will more than double its US network of Superchargers by the end of 2024.
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Nissan wants to showcase the capabilities of the Ariya in an unusual stunt: driving from the North to the South pole. In order to charge in remote locations, the Ariya will be towing a “portable, renewable energy unit” that uses a wind turbine and solar panels to generate electricity.
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Ford will build a $3.5 B electric vehicle battery plant in Michigan, working with a China-based tech company. There are concerns that some of the materials or parts have been sourced through forced labor in China.
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At the Senate's request, Ford is mapping its supply chain to ensure no human rights have been violated.
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John Deere’s nearly silent Z370R Electricle mower is available for preorder now with a list price of $6,399. The electric mower features a 3.2 kWh (3.56 kWh maximum) sealed lithium-ion battery capable of mowing up to two acres per charge.
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Although they produce fewer emissions than passenger cars, they can be especially dangerous to our health. A four-stroke lawnmower operating for one hour can be equivalent to a vehicle traveling 500 miles.
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Rental car company Hertz is shifting into high gear on the road to EVs. Already, it has seen a 12% increase in yearly profits as the company accelerates its transition to EVs and lower costs.
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Hertz reported $2.5B in third-quarter earnings and confirmed a deal with GM for 175,000 EVs. The revenue figure is in part explained by corporate demand for rentals rising to 70% of pre-pandemic levels. But another key contributor was Hertz’ discovery that EVs are between 50-60% cheaper to maintain than gasoline-powered cars.
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SparkCharge in MA, was founded to help make EVs more accessible. The mobile EV charging system contains lithium ion batteries, operating independently from the grid. Fleet owners don’t have to install fixed charging infrastructure!
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2022 Set Records for Temperatures and Floods - and Profits for the Fossil Fuel Industry
The big oil companies - from the UK-based BP and Shell to international giants such as ExxonMobil and Norway’s Equinor - have been announcing astonishing profit figures. They are all benefitting from the surging price of oil and gas following the invasion of Ukraine. While they rake in the profits, people around the world are struggling to pay their energy bills and fill up their cars.
Just how much profit did Shell and BP make last year? Last week, BP reported record annual profits of $27.7 Billion for 2022. In February, Shell reported its highest profits in 115 years. Profits hit $39.9 Billion in 2022.
In related news, the Senate will again take up their investigation into Big Oil's efforts to mislead the public about the causes and consequences of global warming.
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The Green Energy Transition
This is a new section of our newsletter dedicated to sharing developments in sustainability and adaptation from around the world.
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In addition to the climate crisis, we also have a housing crisis. Here in Rochester, planners are working to tackle both. Buy The Block is a new housing program in the city that supports home ownership in formerly redlined neighborhoods. All of these new buildings will have heat pumps for their heating and cooling needs!
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The Federal Reserve is requiring the largest American banks to assess how intensifying extreme weather events will impact their performance portfolios as part of a broader regulatory exercise to measure the financial threats of climate change. The reports are due in July.
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WindEurope expected around 25,000 tons of wind turbine blades to reach the end of their operational life annually by 2025. This was going to be a landfill nightmare until a new chemical process was discovered that renders all existing wind turbine blades recyclable.
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Technology and the resulting demand for energy - and in particular, burning things to get that energy - has led to the climate crisis. But technology might just save us in the end. This article explores cutting edge tech in carbon capture, renewable energy, battery storage, smart homes/grids, and remote sensing of GHGs.
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Mark Your Calendars for These
Upcoming Events
Hope to see you there!
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20th Annual
Native American Winter Games
Seneca Art and Culture Center, 7000 Co Rd 41, Victor
Sat 2/18, 10am-4pm
Event will take place with or without snow
Suggested donation $10/family
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Join the 20th Annual Ganondagan's Native American Winter Games as a way to celebrate and discover the Seneca ways of winter through traditional Native American activities! Snowsnake, storytelling, Maple Syrup demonstration, traditional Haudenosaunee games, and sled dogs! Check out the full schedule of events here.
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Repair Cafe
at South Wedge Mission
1st and 3rd Sat every month 1-4pm
123 Caroline St., Rochester, NY 14620
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Join the international movement to reclaim, restore, and reuse electronics, bicycles, clothing, toys, appliances, furniture, and more! Free! Mark your calendars for 2/18 and 3/4. Contact via swmrepaircafe@gmail.com or text (585) 478-1817 for information.
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Days for Girls: Help Keep Girls in Schools in Developing Countries
Wed 3/1, 12:30-3pm
Community Room, Eastside YMCA
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Across the developing world, not having access to feminine hygiene products means that girls miss school, fall behind, and are increased danger of dropping out. Days for Girls is an international organization that hand sews bags with reusable, washable, cloth pads so that girls can go to school while they have their periods. Click here to learn why keeping girls in school is the 3rd most impactful global climate solution.
Join the local contingent who meet every month to create these bags. No special skills or RSVP necessary - Just show up! (Although if you have a sewing machine and know how to use it, bring it with you). *NOTE: You must be a Y member to participate. No guests allowed yet.
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Climate Champions Happy Hour
Thur 3/2, 4:30-6pm
Three Heads Brewing
186 Atlantic Ave, Rochester
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There will be beer (cash bar), light refreshments (vegan and our treat!), and members of our team on-hand to chat and answer questions about local climate action, solutions, and the Accelerator’s current work to advance these. RSVP here
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Doughnut Economics Book Discussion
Hosted by the Climate Solutions Accelerator
Wednesdays, March 8, 15, and 22, 11am-noon
online, free
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Together, we'll deepen our understanding of the problems associated with our current economy and how to create an economy that meets human needs without damaging the natural systems on which our lives depend. On March 8th, we'll dig into chapters one and two, and by the time we finish the book on March 22, we'll be ready to meaningfully engage (at this year's Climate Solutions Summit and elsewhere) in advancing a just transition to a regenerative economy. Learn more and register here.
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Town of Penfield Trails Committee:
Winter Woods Night Hike
Harris Whalen Park
Fri 3/10, 6:30-7:30pm
2126 Penfield Rd
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Full Moon Hike, as part of Penfield Recreation's Family Snow Night Out event at Harris Whalen Park. Bring your snowshoes if there is snow, as well as a headlamp or flashlight. Look for the hike signs. Registration is required.
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Town of Penfield Trails Committee:
Shadow Pines
Sat 3/11, 10am-12pm
600 Whalen Rd
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Meet at the parking lot. Look for the hike signs. Registration is required.
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Walking With a Purpose
Wed 3/15, 10am-12pm
Rothfuss Park, dinosaur playground lot
Five Mile Line Rd, Penfield
A group of Color Penfield Green members have been getting together once a month to talk and walk and pick up trash while they’re walking.
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In March they will be meeting on the 15th at 10:00 in the dinosaur playground parking lot in Rothfuss Park. Join us for some good conversation and a purposeful walk, too. Remember there is no bad weather in Rochester, only wrong clothing. Dress for the weather and stay warm!
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Divest From Fossil Fuels
Thurs 3/16, 6:30-8pm
In-person or online
free
Michael Richardson of Rivers & Mountains GreenFaith will lead an interactive conversation on how to move your personal finances from funding fossil fuel extraction, production and distribution…
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...and instead direct your bank deposits, insurance premiums, and investment portfolios to fund local businesses and farms, affordable housing, and development of renewable clean energy.
For the zoom link, call the library at 585-784-5300 or email bmlcurbsidepickup@gmail.com.
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Sustainability Deep Dives on Connections with Evan Dawson
Connections with Evan Dawson on WXXI often does a deep dive on issues around climate change. These shows have been on in the last few weeks and may be of interest:
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Color Your Community Green
Network News
Did you know that Color Penfield Green is part of a regional network of volunteers called Color Your Community Green (CYCG), all supported by the Climate Solutions Accelerator?
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We have sister teams in Brighton, Chili, Greece, Fairport, Henrietta, Irondequoit, Pittsford, Richmond, Rochester, Rush, South Wedge, Spencerport, and Webster. We collaborate with each other, learn together, and cheer each other on. You can read about all the great projects going on in these other communities in the February newsletter. Subscribe here.
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Take the Climate Action Pledge
 It is critical that we have a 40% reduction in emissions by 2030 here in NY. The Climate Solutions Accelerator has developed a strategic climate action plan - a roadmap - for our 9 county region to meet that goal. |
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The Accelerator is asking all of us to sign their pledge, committing to being a part of the solution: reducing our personal carbon footprint, educating ourselves on the issue, and pushing for policies at the community and state level that will result in an inclusive green energy transition.
- Take the pledge here
- Read the Strategic Plan here
- Watch the Strategic Plan here
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Go All Electric!
Sounds Great!
How do I get started?
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With an estimated 40% of the United States carbon emissions coming from our homes and the vehicles we drive, switching to all electric will reduce emissions. Rewiring America, an electrification non-profit, recently released a guide to going all electric and making the most of the government grants and tax incentives. The average American homeowner can get $10,000+ for energy saving upgrades. The US is paying you to fight climate change!
For questions about home electrification, contact Heat Smart Finger Lakes and request a 15 or 30 minute conversation with an unbiased expert in the field who can answer your questions about available incentives (state and federal) and various technologies. Schedule anytime at this link.
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Penfield's Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) Program
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Color Penfield Green Encourages You to Opt-Up to Penfield 100
Most of Penfield went with the default 50% renewable which is much better than the ~7% renewable default RG&E mix! However, Color Penfield Green urges you to consider opting into the Penfield 100 program for 100% green electricity. The 30 day average look back at the default mix RG&E electricity supply is $0.06994 and Penfield 100 is $0.06443! The Town of Penfield made a great deal for us and if you opted out, it's not to late to opt back in and then opt-up to 100% green electricity for your home!
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- Browse Good Energy's PenfieldCCA.com Website - HERE
- Enroll in Penfield's CCA electricity program for the 1st time - HERE
- Or... Opt-Up to Penfield 100 - Our 100% Renewable Electricity Program - HERE
- Or... Opt-Out of our CCA electricity program altogether (at any time) - HERE
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ColorPenfieldGreen is an organization of residents of the Town of Penfield, NY who are concerned about the environment. Our goals are to:
- inform fellow residents about all the incredible ways that our community is “Going Green” with a focus on climate
- educate people as to how they can reduce their carbon footprints - at individual, family, neighborhood, municipal, state, and federal levels
- organize local volunteers to participate in high impact campaigns, and
- support and empower Penfield residents to become community leaders in addressing climate change.
We are respectful, inclusive, nonpartisan, solutions-focused, collaborative, scientifically-informed, and committed to social, racial, environmental, and intergenerational justice.
We are proud of all that Penfield has accomplished and are excited to help lead the way in protecting our environment in the future. Please check out our new and still evolving website ColorPenfieldGreen.org and join us in our current and future campaigns! If interested, send an email to ColorPenfieldGreen@gmail.com.
We'd love to grow our Penfield audience! Share this link with your friends and neighbors so they can sign up to receive this newsletter too:
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