Town touts energy, sustainability progress

Graphic depiction of metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions, by source and by town building, divided according to whether source is electricity-based or directly from fuels.

By JEFF MORRIS

The Town Board heard a review of Bedford’s sustainability initiatives at its Dec. 2 meeting. Mark Thielking, the town’s director of energy and sustainability, gave the annual review of initiatives taken over the past 12 months.

First on Thielking’s list was the town’s Green Purchasing Program, which follows a state-led process to guide purchases of products and services that meet lower environmental impact, higher recycled content and reduced toxicity standards. This covers a wide range of products, from office supplies and electronics to building materials, vehicles, and food service items.

Supervisor Ellen Calves credited Comptroller Brian Kenneally for taking the reins of the program and rolling it out among the staff. Thielking said his peers found it to be very helpful.

Thielking also cited the town’s recent adoption of the revised Unified Solar Permit, allowing solar installations up to 25 kW to be streamlined and permits issued much more quickly.

“Very timely, given that the federal tax credits are running out at the end of the month,” he said.

The town and its Battery Energy Storage Systems Committee are working on drafting a local ordinance to safely permit certain battery energy storage systems, Thielking said.

He said the law is critical to safeguard the community while assisting in the clean energy transition that promises lower costs. Thielking said batteries are essential to providing 24-hour grid enhancing services. Calves added that the working group is continuing to learn more, with the building and fire codes inspectors going on tours, and more tours coming up in the new year.

With Police Chief Melvin Padilla leading the way, Thielking said, there are four new electric vehicles in the town’s fleet: two fully electric Ford F150s, one Mustang, and one Hummer, powered by on-site EV chargers that are complimented by a solar canopy, in addition to six hybrid electric vehicles and one Leaf. 

He gave the example of the department’s Ford F-150 Lightning being used to block traffic at the Christmas Tree lighting in Katonah. 

“It wasn’t idling, no pollution, and it was ready to go in an emergency,” Thielking noted. He said this was leading by example, as is the Recreation and Parks Department, which is “slowly but surely” converting to electric equipment. It currently has 10 electric backpack blowers, two electric hand-held blowers, four electric mowers, three weed trimmers, three chainsaws, a snow blower and hedge trimmer that are all electric. There are also electric leaf blowers that are being utilized by Public Works.

“Near and dear to my heart,” said Thielking, is benchmarking town buildings, adopting a policy to categorize energy use of all buildings to compare performance across building classes. He showed a chart with the recently renovated Bedford Hills Community House near the top in terms of energy efficiency, while the Crusher Road DPW Garage is dead last. 

“Two of the garages are relatively low, and then you have Crusher Road, which we know is an obsolete building,” he said. “It’s costing the town a ton of money to operate that building; we’re all well aware that’s a building that needs to be replaced.”

Another comparison tool Thielking displayed was a graph showing relative use of electricity versus direct fuels in each of the buildings. “If we decided to move towards renewable electricity sources, you’d lose a lot of pollution,” he advised.

One building that is the focus of a major upgrade is the Town House, which is facing replacement of heating and cooling equipment.

“This is an exciting project that will take up a lot of 2026,” he said.

A “huge win-win” cited by Thielking is the Landlord Registry and Rental Building Health and Performance Law, an expansion of a preexisting rental building inspection law, under which Bedford’s rental buildings will be inspected not only for health and safety, but for air quality and benchmarked for energy costs. “We just launched phase one,” he said, with free inspections starting in December.

Thielking also called attention to the six fast car chargers installed in Katonah at no cost to the town. He said there have been 8,000 charging sessions since January, and with each session lasting an average of 31 minutes, it was bringing new shoppers into the hamlet.

Other initiatives cited by Thielking included the Community Solar partnership between Bedford 2030 and Sustainable Westchester, which increased program enrollment by 78 homes, allowing renters and non-solar ready homes to participate and save 5% on their electric bills; and the town’s residential solarize program that simplifies obtaining quotes from third-party providers. He said residents can sign up for both on the Sustainable Westchester website.

There has also been expansion of the town’s composting program, with 67.8 tons of compost diverted from waste streams over the past year; a number of initiatives grouped under Eco-Friendly Landscapes; and the town being rated one of the Top 3 Clean Energy Communities in the state, out of 548. Thielking said the town has earned nearly $600,000 in grants over the last five years because of the points it has earned as a CEC. He and Calves credited Bedford 2030 with doing the complicated work involved in applying for the grants.

In 2026, said Thielking, the town will be adapting to the state’s new Energy Conservation Code and determining what changes are needed to town code; continuing to work on a Battery Energy Storage Permitting Law; and ramping up resources to allow the community to source clean electricity.

“That was the beauty of the CCA,” he said, referring to the demise of Westchester Power. “It used to be automatic; now we actually have to choose, and those choices are extremely complex.” 

He said the CCA did a full request for proposal, streamlined the entire process and chose one provider that was the cheapest; “now, this is on us as community members to do it individually. Between Bedford 2030 and myself, and other folks in the community, we’re going to try to figure out a way to streamline this process, so we can recover from this big loss of the CCA.”