Irvington has joined an increasing number of local governments committed to addressing climate change at the local level through reducing emissions in their own government operations and by supporting programs such as Climate Smart Communities, Clean Energy Communities, EnergySmart Homes, and Grid Rewards. In 2007, Irvington created a Climate Protection Task Force to study the problem and make recommendations, resulting in a 2008 report that formed the basis for a number of subsequent Village actions. In 2012, the Board of Trustees adopted the Climate Smart Pledge and in 2014 adopted an Environmental Action Plan, prepared by the Green Policy Task Force, consisting of action items based on the principles embodied in the Pledge. The Village’s 2018 update of its 2003 Comprehensive Plan–an update based on the work of a group of subcommittees broadly representative of the community–incorporated this Environmental Action Plan as one of its references, and included a number of recommendations related to climate change and sustainability. 

Irvington is worked with CAPI, the Climate Action Planning Institute, an initiative of ICLEI, the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives, the Hudson Valley Regional Council and  the County, and 8 other Westchester municipalities to create a Climate Action Plan (CAP). The first meeting was held Feb 2, 2023 and the process took 16 months.  A summary and comparison of municipal results can be found here. Irvington had he highest municipal emissions per population. 

As the first step in creating a Climate Action Plan, Irvington has collected and analyzed the data for the Irvington Government Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report. A simplified slidedeck was presented to the Village Board of Trustees on Aug 16, 2023 (which can be watched here from :47). After meeting with Department Heads, a preliminary overview of mitigation strategies was assembled in a presentation deck for the Board of Trustees, on 12/18/2023 (which you can watch here, from 1:15).  Irvington Green hosted a Climate Plan Workshop with the public on March 6th 2024, (photos and slidedeck can be found by scrolling down the Events page here). Following this, the Government Operations Climate Action Plan, or GOCAP, was presented to the Village Board on April 10th 2024. The presentation can be found here (and the meeting can be seen here from 44:17). The final Government Operations Climate Action Plan was adopted June 17th 2024. 

With similar guidance from CAPI, the Village created a Community Greenhouse Gas Emissions Inventory which identifies and quantifies the sources of GHG emissions from community activities and establishes a baseline from which future emissions reductions and progress can be measured. See more detail below. A Community Climate Action Plan is forthcoming. 

Finally, the Village is currently working with CAPI on a Climate Adaptation and Resilience chapter of the Climate Action Plan (CAP).