Plans for a Greener Binghamton in the Works

The City of Binghamton is working on a new climate action plan to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

The Mayor’s office says this fall, the City will issue a request for proposals (RFQ) from firms to work with the City to develop the new environmental plan.

Mayor Jared Kraham says the new plan will put Binghamton in a good position over the next decade to lead in sustainability, securing state and federal resources to address flooding and climate change.  The Republican also notes the plan could assist in attracting “green” jobs,

Binghamton’s first climate action plan was put into place in 2011 under the administration of Democrat, Mayor Matthew T. Ryan. That is the year a catastrophic flood, the remanent of Tropical Storm Lee devastated the entire region, causing millions of dollars in damage and from which residents are still working to recover.

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The estimated cost of the new climate action plan is put at $75,000.  Funding approval is to be submitted to Binghamton City Council for review at its October 3 work session.

The work on Binghamton’s new climate action plan comes as New York Governor Kathy Hochul September 20 signed an Executive Order to accelerate efforts to make the state more sustainable.

The order calls for 100 percent of the electricity in the State operations to come from renewable energy by 2030, 100 percent of light0duty, non-emergency vehicle fleets to be Zero Emission Vehicles by 2023 and all of the medium and heavy-duty vehicle fleets ZEV’s by 2040, a reduction in waste disposal by 10 percent every five years through diverting materials from landfills, recycling and composting and reuse and eliminating single-use plastics in State operations, among other initiatives.