By the Bronxville Green Committee

By Ellen Edwards 

June 12, 2024: Last fall, the Village trustees passed a Climate Action Plan for Municipal Operations.  This document, available on the Village website, identifies specific steps the Village can take toward implementing energy efficiencies and reducing greenhouse gas emissions.  

The goal is to align the Village’s goals with New York State’s climate goals by reducing emissions 40% by 2030.  Bronxville is using data from its Greenhouse Gas Inventory for the year 2018 as a baseline for tracking these reductions.

Already the Village has made significant progress in meeting our goal!*

-Last fall, the Village completed an Energy Audit of Municipal Buildings, which identifies specific ways to improve energy efficiency in Village Hall, the Public Library, and the DPW Building. Each recommendation includes a cost analysis and estimated energy savings

-With the help of the Green Committee, the Village is in the process of claiming $77,500 in grants from the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), which can be used to purchase systems and equipment that capture energy savings.

The Village will focus first on:

*Interior lighting upgrades and automation in Village Hall and the Public Library, which are projected to save over 10 megatons of greenhouse gases annually in reduced electric consumption. 

*The installation of advanced building energy management systems for current heating and cooling equipment in all three municipal buildings, which are projected to save almost sixteen megatons of greenhouse gas emissions annually, from reductions in electricity, heating oil, and natural gas.

(Together, these steps are estimated to reduce municipal energy consumption by 3.5%.

-Energy Benchmarking: At their May meeting, the Trustees passed a resolution requiring the annual Energy Benchmarking of our three municipal buildings.  Annual energy usage in each building will be made available to the public so that the Trustees, staff, and residents can chart our progress in achieving energy efficiencies and reducing emissions.  Once the first sets of data are posted, the Village will move one step closer to becoming eligible for additional grant money to pay for further recommended improvements.

-Additional Achievements: Even before the Climate Action Plan was passed by the Trustees last fall, the Village had already made significant strides in reducing energy consumption. The largest reduction was realized when the Trustees authorized replacing our incandescent streetlights with all LED lights.  That step is saving 134 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions each year and reduced municipal energy consumption by 17%.

The current DPW building, which was built since our baseline year 2018, is much more energy efficient than the building that it replaced. That improvement will also bring us closer to achieving our goal.

-Next Steps: Recommendations that the Village will be considering in the future include installing solar panels on the roof of the DPW building and replacing municipal vehicles with hybrid models as they reach the end of their useful life.  Eventually we anticipate transitioning to an all-electric fleet, which could include an electric garbage truck.

We hope you will support these efforts! The Green Committee thanks the Trustees and Village staff for their hard work to meet the goals of Bronxville’s municipal Climate Action Plan.

The Bronxville Green Committee is a volunteer organization that is part of the Village of Bronxville. We work to propose and implement environmentally sustainable programs in our community. Visit our website and follow us on Instagram @bxvgreencommittee to learn more.

*NY State is using data from 1990 as its baseline for tracking reductions.