It was a sunny fresh June day in the Fall Creek neighborhood of Ithaca – the kind of day when memories of winter storms or summer heat waves fade away – but the crew from local energy contractor, Snug Planet, was utterly focused on preparing Deborah Thompson’s historic home on Marshall Street in the Fall Creek neighborhood for exactly that kind of weather.
Thompson is the latest recipient of a grant from Sustainable Tompkins' Finger Lakes Climate Fund <http://fingerlakesclimatefund.org/> — our first in the city and our first for a senior citizen. The program offers travelers and building owners a way to take responsibility for their fossil carbon emissions by making donations to the Fund. They can use the Fund’s carbon calculator to determine the amount of greenhouse gases emitted from their air and car travel or building electricity and heating, and then make a donation that will pay to offset an equal amount of carbon by improving energy efficiency in the homes of modest-income residents. In the case of the Thompson home, Snug Planet estimated that the improvements they made would eliminate about 54 tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and resulted in a grant from the Finger Lakes Climate Fund for $1,076 toward the total cost of the project. The blower door test had revealed that this lovely old home was exceptionally leaky for its size. Insulation in the attic and side walls was scant and uneven, and the basement had all sorts of moisture problems. Over the course of several days, their team did extensive work in insulating and sealing leaks in the attic, and addressed moisture problems, air leaks, and lack of insulation in the basement. Deb Thompson is a well-known and beloved local community organizer and activist. Her life has been lived by the values that guide the donors to the Climate Fund, and thus everyone involved in this project has been extra pleased to see Deb get a “little help from her friends” after so many years of being there to help others. When we visited with Deb in her living room surrounded by the rich gleam of old chestnut woodwork, we imagined her safe and warm during next winter’s storms — thanks to the good people willing to take responsibility for protecting the climate. When we surveyed the donors to our Climate Fund, they told us that they liked both how easy it was to do and that they were helping local people who needed a little help. Now that the summer travel season is upon us, this is a good time for others to join in and help in the process of reducing our county’s carbon emissions. Sustainable Tompkins has announced the availability of a fifth round of grant awards due at the end of June. So far the program has helped a very diverse mix of household types in Dryden, Enfield, Lansing, and the City of Ithaca. Details of the projects can be found at www.fingerlakesclimatefund.org. ---------------------------------------------------- Gay Nicholson, Ph.D. President Sustainable Tompkins 109 S. Albany St. Ithaca, NY 14850 www.sustainabletompkins.org 607-533-7312 (home office) 607-220-8991 (cell) 607-216-1552 (ST office) 607-216-1553 (ST fax) [email protected] For more information about sustainability in the Tompkins County area, please visit: http://www.sustainabletompkins.org/ If you have questions about this list please contact the list manager, Tom Shelley, at [email protected].
