HomeMitigation OpportunitiesOther Landowners

Other Landowners

  • Landowners (not forest or farms)
  • Homeowners
  • Municipalities
  • Other: golf courses, cemeteries, universities, transportation rights of way.

As NYS moves toward electrification (where homes and cars use renewable electricity), any effort to reduce energy use, has a direct impact on our land (as renewable energy will require land to host solar panels, wind turbines, or grow biomass for bioenergy). And folks with idle or underutilized land could consider either producing some renewable energy and/or building out forest or other habitat to sequester carbon.

 

Landowners

We and others estimate that there are 2-4 million acres of ‘idle’, ‘underutilized, or ‘former agricultural land’ (which was former forest) in New York State. This is a large area with few advocates.

Landowners with Idle, or Underutilized Lands

  • Consider solar arrays or wind turbines
  • Consider afforestation (planting trees on former agricultural land)
  • Consider silvopasture or other animal specific habitat development
  • Consider bioenergy production (though NYS is not allowing for combusted renewables)
  • Consider improving wildlife habitat or other ecosystem well-being

 

Homeowners

Homeowner Infrastructure – buildings

  • Energy Conservation
    • weatherization and retrofiting buildings to be more air tight and energy efficiency
    • Energy Star appliances
    • Albedo, and the merits of painting or installing a white or reflective roof
  • Energy Generation and Storage
    • rooftop solar or solar trackers
    • batteries
  • Heating and Cooling strategies
    • heat pump 101
    • Wood pellet/Wood boilers
    • passive solar
    • geothermal
    • solar hotwater

Homeowner Infrastructure – vehicles

  • Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS)- what does it mean in NYS?
  • Combustion and NYS
  • Electric vehicles (EV) vs Internal Combustion Engines
  • NYS EV incentives

Homeowner – landscaping and gardening

  • reduced nitrogen fertilizer
  • mulching grass for improved water infiltration
  • trees as natural air conditioning
  • naturalized landscape
  • electric landscaping equipment
  • rainwater collection for reduce irrigation costs

Homeowner – food waste

  • Reduced Food Waste
  • Composting
  • NYC 0x30 (zero waste by 2030 initiative)

NYS Policies Impacting Homeowners

  • Electrification 101
  • Passive House, Net Zero Energy Buildings, Low Carbon Buildings
  • NYC Local Law 97 – reducing the greenhouse gas footrprint of NYC buildings

 

 

Municipalities

NYSERDA has many programs to help Municipalities address climate locally. Check out their Clean Energy Community (CEC) programming.