Brief History

In the late 1990’s, a group of environmental advocates and educators came together to imagine a new kind of organization, one that would advance a vision of sustainability that could be implemented flexibly by every community with the support of a regional network. Sustainable Hudson Valley became active in 2005 and was incorporated in 2007. Our first agenda-setting regional conference, Cool Communities/ Living Economies was produced in 2005. Our early projects connected local economic vitality and asset building to environmental conservation and renewal, including the creation of a “local first” economic development strategy for ten towns and villages in northern Dutchess County and managing the book tour for Bard professor Michael Shuman when he published The Small Mart Revolution. In 2007, founding Executive Director Melissa Everett was selected as one of 1,000 prominent citizens to participate in former Vice President Al Gore’s first Climate Project speaker training. SHV was incorporated that year with its current mission, with the recognition that solving climate can drive positive change in human relations and open up unprecedented possibilities for economic development.  

SHV’s current vision and direction were born in 2015 with the launch of Solarize Hudson Valley, a three-year, New York State funded campaign of public education and group purchase programming to make it easy for homes and small businesses to go solar. With mini-campaigns throughout the mid-Hudson counties, Solarize was responsible for over 400 solar contracts, opening up the marketplace. We went on to create a similar program for electric vehicles, Drive Electric Hudson Valley. Under contract with the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority, we helped get chargers installed around the region, coordinated test drive events, and even trained the sales teams at ten car dealerships on selling points. We have continued to create tools to speed the uptake of renewable energy, including Marbletown’s 100% Renewable Energy Action Plan (2019) and the annual Clean Power Guide published with Chronogram Media.  

In 2017, our work took a leap with the publication of Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming by Paul Hawken. Drawdown presents a full 100 well documented strategies that can be scaled to reduce climate pollution and draw down the 1.7 trillion tons of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today. SHV brought the book into Hudson Valley communities in conversations at public libraries. The book brought us a new level of courage and clarity by calling for a bold vision to slow and eventually reverse the climate crisis rather than accepting “mitigation” to make the situation less bad. It gave voice to a new psychological approach – not appeals to fear, not easy steps, but confronting the situation with imagination and giving it our all. Drawdown’s linking of social justice and empowerment of marginalized groups to new climate solutions was especially compelling as SHV made its own commitment to address the environmental justice aspects of everything we do. We began asking what a Drawdown for the Hudson Valley would look like.

Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit. In the early days of the shutdown, SHV hosted a series of deep conversations (yes, via Zoom) called “Pause to Redirect.” We were drawn to consider how the disruption of our lives could free us from habit and open up possibilities. We joined forces with Chronogram Magazine to publish The Future Is Now, a 16-page exploration of new possibilities. And in 2019, we began organizing for the work of the Regional Climate Action Road Map and Tool Kit to create a similar platform for collaboration. The Road Map was published with a standing-room-only regional conference in Newburgh, Climate Action: Acceleration Through Coordination. That is the vision we carry forward in our work.