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Pelham sustainability board sets workstreams to pursue Climate Smart Communities Silver, town tree-planting and circular-economy campaign
Summary
The Village of Pelham Sustainability Advisory Board adopted a three-pillar strategy and named leads for an environmental workstream pushing toward NY State Climate Smart Communities Silver, a Pelham-wide Liberty Tree planting this October, and a Circular Village waste-reduction campaign with near-term cleanups and outreach.
The Village of Pelham Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) on April 9 reviewed its advisory role to the Board of Trustees and set a three-pillar agenda—Environmental Stewardship, Social Well-Being and Economic Vitality—assigning members to two workstreams and specific project leads.
Chair Allison Anderson opened the meeting with the framework the SAB will use to align technical recommendations and community-facing initiatives with the Board’s priorities. The board agreed to meet monthly and to organize work around an Environment workstream (Divya Bendre, Adam Levenson, Carole Upshur) and a Public Spaces workstream (Brian Papa, Liza Schaeffer), with the chair coordinating partnerships and Board alignment.
The Environment workstream will perform a Climate Smart Communities (CSC) gap analysis led by Carole Upshur to compare the Village’s existing Bronze-level actions to Silver requirements, identify high-impact achievable actions and present recommendations to the Board by September 2026. The workstream also will coordinate a Pelham-wide Liberty Tree planting initiative led by Adam Levenson; the planting will be timed to the village’s 250th anniversary with a communications launch in July and plantings planned for October and will coordinate with the Town of Pelham, Pelham UFSD, EcoPel, PPGS and the Pelham Tree Conservancy.
The SAB also approved a Circular Village campaign led by Divya Bendre to reduce municipal disposal costs and methane emissions through measures such as leaf mulching and retention, expanded food-scrap and backyard composting, tech and textile recycling pathways, and outreach to promote electric landscaping among local contractors. Near-term outreach and engagement tied to that campaign include a community clean-up north of the train station on April 25 and a SAB presence at the Town Community Service Day on May 16.
Public Spaces leads Brian Papa and Liza Schaeffer outlined preliminary ideas for more connected and inclusive public spaces, including a village-wide park mapping effort (digital and physical signage), a potential ‘‘Pelham Loop’’ safe-running and walking route, accessibility-focused improvements to Woodland Park (to be executed in coordination with the Junior League of Pelham under a VOP DASNY grant), and targeted Highbrook corridor safety and access enhancements timed with upcoming stormwater work to minimize additional infrastructure impacts.
The board emphasized that all projects will include public-facing components—clear communications of benefits, resident participation opportunities, and partnerships with local organizations. Scheduled engagement opportunities include the April 25 Earth Month clean-up, a SAB table at the Town Community Services Day (May 16), a Farmers Market presence May–October, the Liberty Tree initiative July–October, and Pumpkin Smash in November.
Members committed to refining priority activities, identifying information and stakeholders needed, and pursuing early visible wins before the next monthly meeting. The SAB’s near-term deliverable is the CSC gap-analysis report and concrete recommended actions for Board consideration by September 2026.
