BY PAUL MITCHELLNorth Country This Week

CANTON – Canton Sustainability Committee is alive and well.

Both sides of the sustainability spectrum were conveyed at a joint meeting of the town and village boards on Wednesday night, June 26.

Both boards unanimously approved a joint resolution in recognition and continuance of the Sustainability Committee, now in its 10th year of existence.

“For the past 10 years, the committee has made significant progress towards advancing its mission in these focus areas and for which both the Town and Village sincerely appreciate; and the Town and Village of Canton continues to support the efforts of the Sustainability Committee to enhance Canton’s human, natural and financial resources,” the resolution read.

The resolution pointed out that in September 2014, the Canton Village Mayor and Village Board passed a resolution establishing the Sustainability Committee to support and assist in the community action plan’s goal of strengthening Canton’s future through sustainable development. 

Sustainability Committee Chair Catherine Shrady, in a letter, encouraged both boards to continue to support the committee’s efforts while highlighting some achievements.

“Since its beginning, the committee has consisted of citizens who bring specific expertise and interest in issues relating to sustainability to the table in order to advise, educate and generally offer assistance to Canton,” she said.

Shrady cited some examples:

• The CSC initiated the highly successful "Solarize Canton" campaign which resulted in

30 residential solar installations.

• CSC provided information and direction to support the Village in entering into a 20

year power purchase agreement with Tesla for solar electricity. The associated credits

are applied to the Village's bills from National Grid for municipal electricity.

• CSC helped Canton install 3 EV chargers and continues to work toward upgrade and

replacement.

• CSC assisted the Village in completion and submission of a Clean Energy Community

grant of $100,000 to assist with the purchase and installation of an electric gas blower

for its water sanitation facility. This has yielded substantial reduction of greenhouse gas

emissions and approximately $20,000 in energy savings annually.

• CSC was responsible for bringing the National Science Foundation-funded EcoAdapt

Workshop to Canton and Potsdam which provides on-going resources, tools and

connections for communities to tackle the issue of climate change adaptation.

• CSC has just completed the documentation necessary for certification as a Climate

Smart Community and Clean Energy Community which not only benefit the

community through cost savings and greenhouse gas reduction but also makes Canton

eligible for thousands of dollars in grant funding.

• CSC solved the problems with the municipal food waste collection site and continues to

work for funding support and expansion of composting opportunities for Canton.

• CSC provided expert public and written comments raising concerns to ORES regarding

the Rich Rd. Solar project and continues to work to support efforts to obtain as much

benefit to the community of Canton as possible from this project.

“This is just a sampling, not an exhaustive list of CSC's contributions to the Canton Community. We look forward to continuing our efforts to benefiting the Village and Town of Canton and hope that you will support this resolution,” Shrady wrote.