Our Waste Reduction Campaign
Our Commitment
The Town of Austerlitz has launched a comprehensive Waste Reduction Campaign to address our community’s waste streams, which represent 12.4% of our greenhouse gas emissions according to our GHG Inventory. This initiative builds upon our existing Climate Smart Community programs while introducing new targeted actions.
“Let’s Do Our Part”
Waste reduction is an easy way to support our planet. Recycling and limiting waste don’t take a lot of time or effort. Our campaign provides resources and education to help residents make simple changes with significant impact.
Track Your Carbon Footprint: CURE100 App
Our Spring-Summer 2025 waste reduction and climate outreach includes increasing engagement through the CURE100 application – a free carbon emissions tracker for Austerlitz residents.
How CURE100 Works:
- Free Download: Available at no cost exclusively for Austerlitz residents
- Personal Assessment: Track your household and personal emissions
- Visualization: See how you compare to the average Austerlitz household
- Reduction Strategies: Discover ways to reduce your carbon footprint
- Community Impact: Join your neighbors in making the CURE100 Pledge
Click HERE to download Austerlitz’ custom CURE100 app and learn more about tracking your household carbon assessment.
Campaign Focus Areas
- Repair and Reuse
- Repair Cafe: Launched March 29th, our Repair Cafe demonstrates practical skills for furniture, appliance, electronics, and textile repair
- Free Stores: Community-based free stores throughout Columbia County where you can shop for or donate gently loved items
- New Lebanon Community Center: https://townofnewlebanon.com
- Chatham Town Hall: https://www.chathamnewyork.us/free_store
- Philmont: https://philmont.org/free-store/
- Buy Nothing Groups: Join or start a local group to donate, lend, and share items
- Find your local group: https://buynothingproject.org
- Right to Repair: Learn about the movement at https://www.repair.org
- Waste Management Resources
- E-Waste Collection: Summer of 2025 electronic waste and battery collection event at Town Hall
- Battery Recycling: Keep heavy metals and toxic chemicals out of landfills while allowing materials to be reused
- Plastic Bag Recycling: Drop off clean bags at many local stores including Price Chopper, Walgreens, Hannaford, and CVS
- Terracycle for hard-to-recycle items
- Organic Waste Diversion
- Home Composting: Easy and productive for gardens and landscaping
- Local Options: Information about transfer station options and local pickup services
- Resources: Grow Amsterdam initiatives and Cornell Cooperative Extension guides
Additional Local Resources
- Zero Waste Columbia’s BYO: A great effort to remind people to bring their own containers https://www.zerowastecolumbia.org/news
- Greenagers: Engaging teens in environmental conservation https://greenagers.org
- The O Zone: Local bulk-selling shop with recycling program https://theozonehv.com
- Online Communities:
- Local Generosity Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1482686458972034
- Nextdoor: https://nextdoor.com
Free Energy Reduction Workshop!
The Town of Austerlitz Climate Smart Committee is offering a free workshop to help residents save money on their energy bills and switch to clean energy alternatives.
Come join with neighbors and community members at 10 AM on Saturday, June 22nd, at the Austerlitz Town Hall, where solar expert Cara Humphrey and Clean Energy Hub representative Christina Bohnsack will present the cost-saving benefits of switching to clean energy for your home or business.
Experts will simplify the process and answer your questions about technology options, cost savings, and current incentives and rebates. Retrofitting your utilities doesn’t have to be overwhelming!
Participants will also learn about simple upgrades that can enhance your comfort and save money:
- Weatherproofing first steps include sealing air leaks, adding insulation, and replacing older windows.
- Upgrading lighting, appliances, and water heating equipment can also significantly reduce your utility bills—these areas alone can account for nearly half of your home’s energy use.
- Outdated or inefficient heating and air conditioning systems can be updated and replaced with ENERGY STAR qualified products to deliver substantial savings.
If you live in the Town of Austerlitz, please consider joining in a town-wide energy reduction campaign by pledging with your neighbors and community members. At the workshop, the committee will unveil a special carbon-tracker app to help participants stay on track!
Austerlitz Hosts Spring Repair Cafe
Climate Change Panel @ Spencertown Academy
On Sunday, October 15th, 2023 at 2pm at the Spencertown Academy, come and hear from a panel of both experts and neighbors working on climate change and building resilience here in our community!
teach-IN ON THE NY HEAT ACT
On Tuesday, October 17 ~ 6:00 to 7:30 at the Hudson Area Library (51 N 5th Street, Hudson), join with Third Act, For the Many, and Rivers and Mountains GreenFaith for an empowering, family-friendly event that combines education, advocacy, and delicious food!
Cantastoria style teach-in on the NY HEAT Act
Music performed by Sarah Stockwell-Arthen
Induction cooking demonstration
Call to action: sign postcards and post on social media to call on Governor Hochul to lead the transition to clean energy and put the NY HEAT Act into the 2024 Executive Budget. This act is important to us because it caps utility bills for low- and middle-income New Yorkers, and will also eliminate ratepayer subsidies to the gas industry.
The NY HEAT Act was passed by the NYS Senate last year but did not get a vote in the NYS Assembly. Senators from the Hudson Valley sponsoring the bill are: Michelle Hinchey, Neal Breslin, and Pete Harckham.
The NY HEAT Act is a transformative piece of climate legislation that MUST PASS in 2024 to kickstart New York’s home energy transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy while protecting low and middle-income households from rising utility costs.
But the fossil fuel companies are working overtime to defeat this bill… so it’s time for us to TURN UP THE HEAT!
HELP AUSTERLITZ BECOME MORE RESILIENT TO CLIMATE CHANGE
Columbia County is creating a Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Plan and we need YOUR input. Fill out the short survey we’ve linked here and tell us about what community assets and environmental impacts are important to you, what hazards you have experienced, and what is at risk in your community. Help build a brighter and better Columbia County today!
https://ccecolumbiagreene.org/Columbia-survey
SCREENING OF “2040” @ CRANDELL THEATRE
Celebrate Earth Day weekend 2023 by joining together with the Austerlitz, Ghent, and Chatham Climate Smart Communities for a FREE community screening of the film “2040,” a hopeful take on the future our children could inherit if we implement the climate actions that we have readily available to us today. 1pm on Sunday, April 23rd at the historic Crandell Theatre in Chatham. This is a hopeful, family-friendly film; children of all ages are welcome and concessions and activities for kids will be available in the lobby for any little attention spans who may need to take a break from sitting still in the theatre. Come celebrate our common home with us.
AUSTERLITZ TO HOST REPAIR CAFE!
It’s that time again, so gather your beloved-broken-belongings! The Town of Austerlitz & Columbia NE Repair Cafe is hosting a Repair Cafe Saturday, March 4th (10 am-2 pm) at the Austerlitz Town Hall on Route 203. Inquiries; please email Cara at carasoup07@gmail.com and Maureen at molfrcan09@gmail.com!
Columbia County HEAT Pump WEBINAR
The Columbia County Climate Smart Community Task Force and Heat Smart Capital Region are offering a free Zoom webinar on heat pumps on February 28th at 6:30pm.
Participating vendors such as Aztech Geothermal, Choice Heating & Cooling, Rycor, Ridgeline and The Radiant Store will present and answer questions for residents seeking to save on energy costs and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Participants are asked to register in advance by visiting the link below: https://zoom.us/…/tJUlcOqqpj4oGdB3iPlS8gYPzi3lHZu-4oXC
THE GREAT VEGETARIAN POTLUCK CHALLENGE!
VISIT AUSTERLITZ AT THE Columbia County CLIMATE CARNIVAL!
AUSTERLITZ is now a bRONZE CERTIFIED CLIMATE SMART COMMUNITY!
IMPLEMENTING NYS CLIMATE LEADERSHIP AND COMMUNITY PROTECTION ACT, A CONVERSATION WITH Jen Metzger, FEB 12th 5-6pm
The NYS Climate Action Council has released, for public comment, a much-awaited draft plan to implement New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), the most ambitious climate law in the country. Join us for a Zoom presentation and Q&A with Jen Metzger, who will give us an overview of the plan and issues and recommendations that are important for communities to know about and weigh in on. She will also highlight actions that state and local governments need to begin taking now if New York is to reach its emissions targets.
Jen served in the State Senate in 2019-2020, where she was a leading voice for action to tackle climate change and move away from reliance on fossil fuels. She was an active member of the Senate’s workgroup on the CLCPA, passed in 2019, and she led efforts in the State Legislature to create a permanent ban on fracking, passed as part of the budget in 2020.
Prior to her election to the State Senate, Jen served for over a decade in local government in the Town of Rosendale, and co-founded and directed Citizens for Local Power, an organization dedicated to helping communities shift to an equitable, locally-based clean energy economy. She is currently Senior Policy Advisor to New Yorkers for Clean Power, and also serves on the NYS Cannabis Control Board, which is charged with creating a framework for cannabis policy grounded in public health, equity, restorative justice, and sustainability. She has a PhD in political science, with a specialization in environmental politics and policy.
This event is brought to you through the combined efforts of the New York State Climate Reality Project Coalition, Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Riverkeeper, Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, New Yorkers for Clean Power, and Scenic Hudson.
FOR ANYONE WHO MISSED THERE IS A RECORDING HERE: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/implementing-new-yorks-climate-leadership-and-community-protection-act-tickets-249719587007
AUSTERLITZ CEC NAMED #2 IN REGION!
SOUTHAMPTON ARTS CENTER – DRAWDOWN FESTIVAL
SOLARIZE AUSTERLITZ!
FREE COMPOST BUCKETS!
The Austerlitz Climate Smart Task Force & Davistudio in Spencertown
Pick one up at the Town Hall in the entrance vestibule
Monday-Friday 8:00-12:00 p.m.
Just help yourself! Learn more!
WATER WITH US!
Call for Volunteers!
Volunteers Needed to Water Seedlings in Austerlitz
Town Park
REPAIR IT OR FIX-iT!
REPAIR CAFÉ COMES TO OUR CORNER OF COLUMBIA COUNTY
Saturday, Oct.23, 2021, 10-4 pm
New Lebanon Fire House, 523 US 20, New Lebanon, NY
Covid protocols for gatherings will be observed.
STUDENTS OF THE WEATHER: the 19th century NY NETWORK THAT GAVE BIRTH TO THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
Sunday, October 3, 2021 at 2 pm
In the Morey-Devereaux Barn at Old Austerlitz
11550 State Route 22, Austerlitz, NY 12017
Given by Conrad Vispo from the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program, in partnership with the Austerlitz Historical Society
EMBRANCING A LIFE WITH BEES
Sunday, July 18, 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm
Presented in collaboration with the Austerlitz Climate Smart Task Force
Listen to WAMC interview of Sheri Bauer here
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