On Wednesday, Erie County and community partners gathered at Tifft Nature Preserve to celebrate two years of the Community Climate Action Plan, or CCAP.
The CCAP outlines how Erie County as a community can tackle climate change and helps the county obtain funding for projects.
Some accomplishments Erie County officials report include enrolling over 2,300 low-income households in community solar electricity, updating the Board of Elections building with heat pumps, establishing a compost site at Alden Correctional to save money on waste pickups and creating a salvage nursery through the Parks Department with over 500 trees.
Many of these projects are innovative solutions to reduce greenhouse gas and other harmful emissions. Heat pumps help save money and reduce emissions by circulating heat. The compost site allows the correctional facility and other three other county locations, as well as some municipalities, to send food waste there rather than the garbage dump. A salvage nursery saves trees from construction sites and relocates them to a new forest. The county said incarcerated people also are now able to receive training in tree care through the nursery.
The county said last year alone, it was awarded $9 million in government grants, a large portion of which will go to shoreline stabilization, battery education and recycling programs.
