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Signs of Sustainability
We have a long way to go, but we're making progress. Here are some signs that we are moving towards sustainability.
April 30, 2024
The Greenest Home in Ithaca
Tompkins Weekly 4-24-24
By Eric Banford
I recently received an invitation to a party at “The Greenest Home in Ithaca” celebrating some friends disconnecting their NYSEG gas line from their home. This self-proclaimed title of “greenest home” intrigued me, so I checked in with co-owner Todd Saddler about this bold statement.
“Back when we built the house, some friends of ours wrote an article about our home in Fresh Dirt Ithaca Magazine titled ‘The Greenest House in Ithaca.’ Instead of asking analytically if it was true, we just embraced it,” he shared with a laugh. “If it caught your attention then it’s serving its function, which is to get people to think about what we can do.”
Over the past few years, as climate change has become more problematic, Saddler and his partner Laurie Konwinski came up with a five year plan to “get off gas,” which was still being used for backup heat, water and cooking. Last September they were able to achieve “net zero,” which is when a home makes all of its own energy. “We installed a 400 amp electric panel, a demand electric water heater (for backup), heat pumps, a charger for our electric car, and an induction range,” said Saddler. “As of September we haven’t used any natural gas, and this week NYSEG disconnected our hookup.”
April 13, 2024
Earth Day is Only a Place to Start
Tompkins Weekly 4-10-24
By Aaron Fernando
While traveling years ago, I made friends with perhaps the only person I know who has a negative carbon footprint.
He plants trees for a small stipend. He doesn’t own a vehicle, and when he needs to get around, he borrows a small motorcycle. Mostly, he walks. He has never taken a flight. His family lives in a dwelling made of cloth, scrap metal, and plastic. His home has no electricity, and when he charges his phone, he uses solar power from nearby buildings because the electrical grid has been non-functional for years. He has little education and no meaningful economic opportunities. His name is Krichna, and he is a 26 year-old Haitian.
If we focus on a simple, individualistic metric—the carbon footprint—Krichna is doing amazing. But if we understand the world in all its fullness and empathize with real people, we know that all is not right with this oversimplified understanding of sustainability. If you feel Krichna is not thrilled with his life, you would be correct. He wants to move to the United States, where our carbon footprints are massive. He wants this because the quality of life he experiences with a negative carbon footprint—in the inequitable and unjust world we have arrived at today—is completely untenable.
March 27, 2024
Reclaim Earth Day
Tompkins Weekly 3-27-24
By Dan Antonioli and bethany ojalehto mays
On April 22, 1970, one of the world’s most significant environmental movements, Earth Day, was launched. Earth Day set in motion an ecological focus to highlight the vulnerability of Planet Earth in the face of Anthropocene ecocide.
In 1970, social protests were raging. The “ecology movement” was born out of the radicalism of the anti-war movement and a host of other social movements that were inextricably linked to the organizing of the 60s. Earth Day thus had punch, drama, and made bold statements.
At the time, there was no Environmental Protection Agency, no penalties for corporate polluters, and little impetus to address environmental problems.