Kingston Climate Action Plan Community Gathering Cool City Café

 

As Kingston’s Climate Action Plan moves sharply into its implementation phase this summer, community partners are stepping forward to produce a special public engagement event, the Cool City Café.

Set for the evening of July 16 at the Kirkland Hotel, which is located at the corner of Main Street and Clinton Avenue in Kingston, this high-energy strategy session is designed to hatch new tactics, partnerships, and energy. The program is open to anyone interested in addressing climate change in Kingston.

Small business owners, elected officials, city residents, policy makers, artists, musicians, community activists, environmentalists and urban agriculturalists, among others are encouraged to attend the Café. Participants will incubate ideas – and relationships – aimed at creating a community of committed and involved people to address climate change.

Climate Smart Kingston and Kingston’s Climate Action Plan

Kingston’s Climate Action Plan – a product of two years of staff and consultant work – was approved in principle two years ago. Climate Smart Kingston, the task force convened by the Conservation Advisory Council to implement the plan, has set a series of 2014 goals:

• Conserve energy
• Scale up the use of renewable energy with a citywide strategy
• Reduce solid waste and increase recycling
• Improve the energy performance of municipal buildings.

In some of these categories, such as recycling and energy efficiency, programs exist but need greater public buy-in. In other areas, such as scaling up renewables and improving the City’s own buildings’ performance, strategies are being developed now. Getting the community involved is critical to progress in all these areas. According to Melissa Everett, Sustainable Hudson Valley’s Executive Director, “None of these goals can be achieved by social engineering, or pleas, or convenience, or simple marketing. People have to remember all the reasons to care, and develop relationships of mutual accountability, to drive real change in our lifestyles and the ways we all use resources.”

The World Cafe is a one-of-a-kind interactive event that helps large groups address difficult issues creatively. After an initial briefing, participants address a series of questions at newsprint-covered tables, each with a “host” who captures ideas on the newsprint. Now and then, participants have a chance to mingle and table-hop, deepening the conversation as ideas are digested and the groups continuously re-form.

“As we work to implement the City of Kingston’s Climate Action Plan, this Café session is  an essential first step in creating an engaged and inclusive cadre of          participants to this process,” said Arthur Zaczkiewicz, a commissioner of    the City’s Conservation Advisory Council. “The Climate Action Plan gives us  the tools to create a sustainable community that reduces carbon  emissions, transitions us to alternative energy sources and cuts waste – among other initiatives – that collectively improve our quality of life.”

For more information contact:

Melissa Everett, 845-514-8567

Arthur Zaczkiewicz, aaz25@cornell.edu

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