by Christopher Boyle
LONG ISLAND, NY – New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli recently visited the Sustainability Institute of Molloy College, located on the grounds of Farmingdale, NY’s Republic Airport, for a keynote speech highlighting the growing concern of environmental conservation and how – if properly used – it can go hand in hand with economic growth.
Neal Lewis, Executive Director of the Sustainability Institute, noted that their mission is to encourage energy efficiency and renewable energy; to that end, he said, the Sustainability Institute has several programs in-place to help people “go green” with their energy consumption.
“We have programs to help homeowners get energy audits of their houses, completely free and paid for by the state,” he said. “You can then use that document to analyze what would be the best things to do to make their home more energy efficient…upgrading heating systems, air conditioners, things like that.”
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli speaking at the Molloy College’s Sustainability Institute in Farmingdale, NY. Photo Credit: Chris Boyle.
Lewis noted that, by having State Comptroller DiNapoli speak at Molloy College’s Sustainability Institute that day, it should serve to drive home the point that there are many valuable governmental resources out there for both residents and local governments to take advantage of in terms of makings their homes and buildings more efficient; this will also not only help everyone to save the environment in the long run, but their wallets as well.
“The Comptroller is going to be speaking at the meeting of our Clean Energy Leadership Taskforce, which has been meeting for the past 12 years,” he said. “We have a project that deals with policy…what we’re doing is working with local governments to encourage them to be leaders on energy efficiency and renewables. We want local government to renovate their buildings to make them more energy efficient, to put solar panels on their roofs, things like that, so when you go to a town hall or village hall, and you see that they have the most efficient lighting, you get the message that everyone should do this.”
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli noted that he was pleased to be on one of his rare trips to Long Island, and said that creating a clean energy industry within New York State – and subsequently a slew of new jobs to go along with it – is very high on the NY administration’s list of priorities.
“The energy consumption of our society is probably the one thing that has the greatest impact upon our environment. People want to be able to flip on the light switch and travel from place to place, but how to mitigate the negative environmental impact of that is the great challenge of our time,” he said. “Our plan is to marry together smart energy and environmental policy with the opportunity to create new jobs and careers…that opportunity is most certainly there to positively affect our economy and our environment.”
New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli speaking at the Molloy College’s Sustainability Institute in Farmingdale, NY. Photo Credit: Chris Boyle.
DiNapoli spoke about the results of environmental audits of the energy performance contracts of five Long Island school districts recently – including Half Hallow Hills, Island Trees, and Manhasset – and all were positively affected by implementing the changes the Comptroller’s office suggested.
“We found that all the school districts had realized significant energy savings, reducing environmental impact and operating costs while decreasing the burden on taxpayers,” he said. “All of these school districts invested in clean energy…they did multi-million dollar renovations, and for all five of the projects, they are all saving significant dollars. It was a very positive investment for the taxpayers.”
DiNapoli’s speech also touched upon was the state’s corporate engagement, which encourages businesses to adopt energy efficient means wherever and whenever possible; and where efficiency goes, state investment dollars are sure to follow, DiNapoli said, adding that he hopes that New York State becomes a shining example to the rest of the country when it comes to the powerful combination of economy and ecology.
“It’s very important to us to have low-carbon strategies…the opportunities are there, and I hope others will follow us,” he said. “We are putting a lot of money out there into green technologies…we’ve committed five billion dollars to this initiative, because when you provide opportunities, you get a greater economic return besides the environmental benefit. The challenge is not an easy one, but we have a lot of smart people on Long Island and throughout the state who are focused on sustainable investment strategies…we’re looking forward to working together to create a better tomorrow.”
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