Change is in the air.  Communities as different as Yonkers and Orangetown have signed the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement.

The Town of Bedford is committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions 20% by the year 2020, and has empowered an Energy Advisory Task Force to take action.  The Town of Woodstock is committed to carbon-neutral government operations in the years to come.  Citizens and businesses in Chatham are working on a plan to help Main Street go solar.  The City of Yonkers and the town of Orangetown are recent signatories to the U.S. Mayors' Climate Protection Agreement.  The Hudson Valley Regional Council has passed a resolution encouraging county and local governments to adopt green building guidelines, and some are responding.

 In the educational world, too, there is movement. The Hudson River Environmental Consortium of Colleges and Universities reports that over a dozen of its member institutions have signed the Presidents Climate Commitment (http://www.presidentsclimatecommitment.org/).   They are Bard College, Colgate University, Columbia University, CUNY, Iona College, Marist College, NYU, RPI, Skidmore College, SUNY Albany, SUNY New Paltz, SUNY Purchase, Vassar College.  Updates and further campus greening links can be found at www.environmentalconsortium.org.

Is your community ready to cut greenhouse gas emissions, even by 2% per year, as many climate scientists think we need to do?

    Are you behind New York's goal of cutting electricity use 15% by 2015?

    Are you personally willing to "lose 5,000 pounds" by greening your lifestyle?  [see www.empowermentinstitute.net  for The Low Carbon Diet to guide you there.]

    Whatever your commitment, register it by sending an email to: postings@sustainhv.org and it will be posted in this space. When you have achieved milestones toward this commitment, send us a message and we'll include it in our e-newsletters. Show off what you're doing, see what others are up to.

Check back here often for new commitments and reports on progress.