Long Beach designated a Climate-Smart Community

The City of Long Beach recently became the first community in Nassau County, and just the third on Long Island, to become certified as a “Climate Smart Community” by New York State.

A CSC is a New York State program that helps local governments take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and adapt to a changing climate. Municipalities become certified after completing a suite of actions aimed at mitigating and adapting to climate change locally. Communities can choose from over 100 action items, each providing a specific amount of points, and must score at least 120 points to become certified as a Climate Smart Community. Action items are split into categories such as energy-efficiency upgrades, renewable energy adoption, land-use policy, resiliency enhancements, and more.

The city completed 22 action items for a total of 124 points.

“The city is extremely proud of this designation as it is a testament to our commitment to environmental protection and sustainability,” Long Beach City Council President Anissa Moore said in a news release. “Long Beach has successfully led the way in collaborative initiatives with our residents and dedicated city staff to enhance our health and safety standards, the quality of life for all, and educating the public with respect to the benefits of renewable energy.​“

The city accomplished an array of projects to achieve the designation, such as building a greenhouse gas inventory, upgrading streetlights to more efficient LED technology, adopting rooftop solar on government buildings, conducting a climate vulnerability assessment, participating in the National Flood Insurance Program’s Community Rating System, hosting climate-related public events, and much more.

As a CSC, Long Beach can receive higher scores on grant applications for state funding. The city also gets access streamlined to resources, training, tools, and expert guidance. However, the program provides a robust framework for organizing local climate action and identifying opportunities to mitigate and adapt to climate change.

“We are on the frontline of climate change, as rising sea levels and stronger storms pose a direct threat to the health and vitality of our community,” Ryan McTiernan, acting community development and sustainability director, said in a news release. “Receiving this designation gives recognition to the actions our community has taken, especially since Superstorm Sandy, to address those concerns.”

The designation comes approximately two years after the city was designated a “Clean Energy Community” by the New York State Energy Research and Development Association —a separate but related program that highlights the towns that have implemented clean energy actions in their communities. Under the Clean Energy Communities program — the city benchmarked its energy usage, upgraded its street lights to LED, adopted a unified solar permit, and trained compliance officers in energy code best practices. As a result of this designation, the City became eligible to apply for a $100,000 grant to be used toward a sustainability project.

The city intends to use those funds, with additional state grant money, to reach a goal of 100 percent LED streetlights throughout the community. Currently, about 60 percent of city-owned streetlights are LED – the rest are an older technology known as induction lighting. Once complete, retrofitting the remaining 740 streetlights to LED is estimated to save Long Beach taxpayers approximately $50,000 per year.

The city said it hopes that initiatives like these can help it reach the next tier of certification under the Climate Smart Communities program, making it even more competitive for state grants and solidifying Long Beach as a model of sustainability.