Westchester, Explained 19: Inside Westchester's Blueprint for Sustainability

As an extension of our weekly "This Week in Westchester - The Podcast" we welcome you to Westchester, Explained. In this special long-form series we take you deeper into the headlines, decisions and policies shaping Westchester County and their impact on your family, your neighborhood and your future. Here we slow it down, dig in and bring in the people doing the work, and we explain not just what the County is doing, but why it matters.

Because government should be clear. This is your County. 

And this is Westchester, Explained. 

In this episode, we sit down with Westchester County Director of Energy Conservation and Sustainability Pete McCartt to explore how the County is leading the way in environmental stewardship and building a more sustainable future. We discuss everything from electric vehicles and renewable energy to recycling, composting and energy conservation, while introducing the County's new Green Initiatives Repository -- a first-of-its-kind resource that helps municipalities share successful sustainability programs and best practices. 

We also highlight simple steps residents can take to reduce waste, save energy and make a positive impact in their own communities. Join us as we take a closer look at the innovative work helping keep Westchester cleaner, greener and more resilient -- and why it matters to Westchester residents.

---

Do you have feedback or a suggestion for a future podcast topic? Please let us know by emailing communications@westchestercountyny.gov and include Podcast in the subject line.

For the latest news & updates visit the Westchester County Newsroom or follow us on social:  Instagram  |  Facebook  |  X (Twitter)  |  LinkedIn  |  YouTube

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hi, Westchester. I'm Westchester County Government Communications Director, Katherine Chaffee. And as an extension of This Week in Westchester, the podcast, we welcome you to Westchester Explained. In this episode, we sit down with Westchester County Director of Energy Conservation and Sustainability, Pete McCart, to explore how the county is leading the way in environmental stewardship and building a more sustainable future. We discuss everything from electric vehicles and renewable energy to recycling, composting, and energy conservation while introducing the county's new Green Initiatives repository, a first-of-its-kind resource that helps municipalities share successful sustainability programs and best practices. We also highlight simple steps residents can take to reduce waste, save energy, and make a positive impact in their own community. Join us as we take a closer look at this innovative work helping keep Westchester cleaner, greener, and more resilient, and why it matters to all Westchester residents, because this is Westchester explained. So let's begin. So we've got Pete McCart in the podcast studio today, which is very exciting. You have so much to share with us, and we have a lot to cover. Um, but we're gonna start from a very we're gonna start from the ground up, right? So first, share with us your very long, very important title here at Westchester County Government.

SPEAKER_00 1:29

There is no conservation in my uh title. I am the director of energy conservation and sustainability. But uh that encompasses a lot of different things, encompasses uh, you know, uh the building management, uh, all sorts of energy sources, but it also covers the natural world, such as you know, our water and our air and all those kind of things. So it's a it's a full circle.

SPEAKER_01 1:54

Um You are the earth.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

You are the entire earth.

SPEAKER_00 1:58

In my mind.

SPEAKER_01 1:59

In your mind. Um so explain to us what exact you know, what does that mean? What do you do every day?

SPEAKER_00 2:05

What do I do every day? So I work with all the departments. I mean, I eat, you know, it's really, you know, the what's a uh take care of things at home and other things will be taken care of. You know, it's that sort of thing. And it and the and the county is huge, obviously, and it's very complicated. We have wastewater treatment plants, we have seven of those. We have uh a fleet of vehicles, we have uh a total of 1200 vehicles in our fleet.

SPEAKER_01 2:34

Yeah, that's tremendous.

SPEAKER_00 2:35

Yeah, tremendous. So uh there's a lot of that. There's a lot of uh new programs, there's programs that are being run by either Department of Environmental Facilities, there's new capital projects. Uh uh, so I work with the DPW a lot, obviously. Um there's just a lot that's going on, and and it's trying to be uh better stewards of um, you know, our own operations and our own buildings, our own procedures, and do that better and and hopefully show to the municipalities and the residents that live here in Westchester, we can do it, you can do it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

So is it fair to say that your day-to-day is advocating for the environment and what's best for the environment?

SPEAKER_00 3:19

Yeah, mostly. Mostly. There's also fires to put out from time to time. Yes, of course. I'm also the liaison from the county executive's office to the Department of Environmental Facilities. Uh DEF, as we will call it from now on, um, maintains the wastewater treatment plants, they maintain our potable water, they maintain uh all of our solid waste.

SPEAKER_01 3:40

Um But again, you're always advocating for what's best for the environment.

SPEAKER_00 3:44

100%. And looking into policies, looking into finding grant money, all sorts of different things that uh uh uh, you know, apply to that.

SPEAKER_01 3:51

So one of the things that I think is so special about our county is that the the majority, vast majority of people here in Westchester are so committed to the environment and to recycling. Truly. And they want to plug their cars in and they want their solar panels. It's an amazing thing here. We're very lucky.

SPEAKER_00 4:09

We're very lucky, and we are leaders, and we we um the entire state looks to Westchester because we are leading in so many different categories. We have more electric vehicles outside of New York City. We have the most electric vehicles in our fleet. So we have the most uh EV chargers and and we have the best recycling rates.

SPEAKER_01 4:30

The great recycling rates, yes.

SPEAKER_00 4:32

We have the best. It's really up on top uh uh the entire country, especially for the size. We have over a million people here. Exactly. And our and and it's wide and varied, you know. It's got we've got stream rural up in the northern end, and we have you know very, very urban down at the bottom end of uh of the county. So there's a lot going on.

SPEAKER_01 4:50

And I want to stress that you know, we at Westchester County, we are always striving to do more. We are always striving to do better. So we don't want to make it seem like we've arrived because you've never arrived, right? We've never arrived. Never. We always want to do better, we always want to improve. But in the grand scheme of things, when we compare ourselves to other municipalities, other counties, and state, the country, we're doing very well. We have a lot to be proud of.

SPEAKER_00 5:15

Very, very well. And it and it and it speaks to what you were talking about there, with all the uh concerned and interested, uh interested uh residents that we have. They they want this, they need it. Yeah. I mean, we have the most CACs, uh, these are conservation advisory councils. They have uh they could be, I work with them a lot, obviously. Um, and those can be sustainability committees, those could be green committees, they all have different names, but we call them CACs because that's uh just a general term for them. Um almost every municipality has one. I think they all do, some they kind of teeter away a little bit and they come back. And uh so I work with those a lot too, you know, and um making sure that uh uh the municipalities are doing what they can. We have a lot of programs that are directed towards the municipalities more than the residents themselves.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Terrific. So you have a a ton of programs. You're always working on a million different things. Yeah. But one thing that I wanted to talk about with you here today is the Westchester County Green Initiatives for Repository. Yeah. Can you explain what is that?

SPEAKER_00 6:20

Sure. I mean, it's more like a directory, if you will. It's a it's a web, it's on the our web page.

SPEAKER_01 6:27

And what is our web page? Let's start with that.

SPEAKER_00 6:29

Yeah, Westchester County ny.gov.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Okay, so you're just going to the homepage.

SPEAKER_00 6:35

You can go that, or um, you could Google search um energy conservation and sustainability, Westchester County. You'll find it that way. Okay, correct. And it'll it'll it'll come up there and it's on that page. Um we have so what it is is all the municipalities and um listed and the people that are working with uh sustainability measures. Um we have 11 different categories. Under those categories, there's a total of 70 different initiatives or programs or things they're working on. And this is gonna be an opportunity for um municipalities to look at what their neighbors are doing. They could either search by a program or by just a general section of, say, clean transportation. Um, and you can go there and see what other people are doing. You can uh contact them. Um it's something that we've been wanting to do for a long time, and it and it's very detailed, it's very involved. Um the group that worked with me was the Climate Reality Project. They wanted to get involved with something, and I said, this is something that we've needed for a long time. People have been calling uh for us to do this, and some organizations have tried to do it, but it's very, very difficult because it's a constantly evolving living breathing, right? Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 7:56

And so why was why is it important? Why do we need this?

SPEAKER_00 7:59

Well, it it'll help it'll help um municipalities that are trying to do better, and um, they can go and find a um uh maybe a you know some municipality that has done this program or initiative or whatever they want to look at. Um or um Yeah, I think that that's what it is.

SPEAKER_01 8:19

So it's if if I'm sitting in Best Practices. Yeah, I'm sitting in Newcastle and I want to start a give me a program that I want to start. So the uh I want to start solar program. A solar program to encourage residents to get solar panels. I can go on this directory and search and see what other municipalities have done this. Say the town of uh uh Irvington has already done this. I can say that, contact them, get the info. So we're not reinventing the wheel all the time.

SPEAKER_00 8:46

100%. That's exactly it. That's exactly it. That's exactly it. And so what um Like I said, 11 different general uh uh categories, and then uh uh a total about 75 different programs or initiatives that you can take on.

SPEAKER_01 9:02

And what are those 11 categories? Do you know them?

SPEAKER_00 9:04

I have them right here.

SPEAKER_01 9:06

How convenient?

SPEAKER_00 9:07

Can you read them on the right? I think it actually is very helpful to read these. Yes, no, it is right. Yeah, so uh electric transportation, solar, energy efficiency, clean energy, waste reduction, nature-based solutions, uh resilience and adaptation, uh building and zoning codes, residential and commercial, workforce development, clean, healthy, and equitable environmental campaigns, um, non-residential sector and other municipal managed efforts. That's kind of like uh the catch all catch-all. Yeah, catch-all at the end.

SPEAKER_01 9:47

So who is who is the person here at the county who's getting this information? If I'm a municipality and I'm listening to this and I want to share what we are doing, who do I contact?

SPEAKER_00 9:57

Well, I would go to the website and see if we've already covered, you know, if it's uh that's one thing.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

If it's not there, what do they do?

SPEAKER_00 10:03

Then they well, there's a um there's a form, you fill out the form, or can they just call me? Okay, call people. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

And for residents, how can residents use this?

SPEAKER_00 10:14

Well, they could see if uh their municipalities what they're doing. You could you could go by municipality, you know, not just by the uh program or initiative. You can go to your municipality and see what they've done. And you say, well, they haven't done anything in this category. You know, so got it. That that's and and maybe they want to get involved. Right. You know, like, oh, we are doing something like that. Let me let me find out more about that. And you could have the contact person is there for each one of those.

SPEAKER_01 10:42

Or we're not doing that. Let me call town hall right because I want to see them do it.

SPEAKER_00 10:46

100%.

SPEAKER_01 10:46

So there's a lot of accountability here.

SPEAKER_00 10:49

100%. Yeah. Very good. Can you um you've done this before a few times.

SPEAKER_01 10:55

Um so can you share with me what are some of the programs on there, some of the successful initiatives that you've seen be shared or programs that are doing really well that you think people should look up and read about? What are your some of your favorites?

SPEAKER_00 11:08

Well, you know, like one of the programs is a climate smart community becoming that. And that involves a lot of different steps that add up to points, and you become certified. The county is certified. We actually just got recertified this past year. Uh, we're a bronze. It's very difficult for uh counties to do this because we don't have the residents. You know, we don't we don't have residents that we can report to those are within the municipality, but we have other things we can do, and we're, you know, we're leaders in that. And I think uh our clean air that we have now here in Westchester County is I think it's directly attributable, attributable, uh, to uh uh all the uh electric vehicles we have. Our buses now are running much cleaner than they ever did. They're um electric hybrid, and then everybody's got a lot of electric vehicles. And we have charging stations for all these. We have they're everywhere. Every municipality has put them in. We started a uh uh a program here, it's a municipal uh grad program, um, and we've got 600 uh that are in process of chargers going in, has to be um uh on municipal property, but public facing. Right. And we're paying for 50 percent of the chargers, and then the other 50 percent can come from um, you know, NICERTA or ConAD utilities that have grants.

SPEAKER_01 12:29

It's really amazing when you drive around the county to see all the charging stations popping up. I remember when you and I did our first press conference about charging stations many years ago, we've sort of felt like the only ones, and now they're everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 12:41

They're everywhere. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

And as a driver of an electric vehicle, well, both of us are drivers of electric vehicles.

SPEAKER_00 12:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:48

Um, but but you tell me, I mean, how does that you're driving around and you see those? It must warm, must warm your heart. It does.

SPEAKER_00 12:54

You know, and and in fact, I think it's more important when I'm driving like on the merit or something like that. And as I'm driving, I thought, do they have chargers in there? Yeah, yeah, they do. Uh that is with level three, those are the DC fast chargers, DC FC. Uh those can charge your car in 20 minutes from 20 to 80 percent. Uh, and they're all over now. I have no problem going up and down the eastern seaboard.

SPEAKER_01 13:19

You drive everywhere.

SPEAKER_00 13:20

You drive anywhere, you pull in, you know, the time you go to the go to the bathroom and get a cup of coffee, your cars charged, or at least, you know, 80%.

SPEAKER_01 13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Amazing.

SPEAKER_00 13:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 13:31

You know, aside from this program, the repository, what would you say are some other big initiatives that you're working on? Or your your favorite initiatives. Let me say that.

SPEAKER_00 13:42

Well, you know, the fleet electrification. I think uh that's just my favorite. I just love it. And, you know, it's cars and new cars that are coming out. Um, there is a a dearth of um uh larger heavy vehicles, so the trucks and that, what whatnot.

SPEAKER_01 13:58

We need you need them sometimes.

SPEAKER_00 13:59

We we need them, and they have to be. Yeah, yeah. So that that's down the road. It's coming. There's a lot of things that are coming.

SPEAKER_01 14:04

Like electric plows, or is that what you yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:07

So trucks, heavy duty trucks, you know. Yeah. Wow. Yeah. I mean the buses, yeah, that was huge. That was huge, yeah. And um, yeah. So we uh this is no secret, but our electric bill is two million dollars a month. Two million dollars a month. So for Westchester County. For Westchester County alone. Most of that is for our wastewater treatment plants, like our Yonkers plant that uh they just use a lot, a lot, a lot of electricity. So um that's why we enter into demand response programs. That's another one of my favorite things. Um uh residents can do this. There's something called greater rewards.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Yes, let's talk about demand. Let's break that down. So demand response for people who don't know what demand response is. Um, you could explain it better than I can. I just send the email when we get it.

SPEAKER_00 14:56

Well, well, you know, it's the way to think about it is right now. Like last week, we had that, you know, near 100 degree heat or whatever it was, 99 or whatever it was. It's at those times that air conditioning is just going, everybody's using tons and tons of changes.

SPEAKER_01 15:11

It never turns off. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 15:13

Never turns off. So we don't want to uh have an issue where we have blackouts and brownouts, the really bad ones. They might be one triggered here or there because of a transformer, but you know, widespread. So because we use so much electricity, uh, the grid, the New York independent service operators as well as utilities, uh have these programs, and we're part of this program. We get paid to do this. Not only do we save energy, but we uh actually they pay us fairly well. We're about we've since we started the program, we've been paid about $2 million.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

It's amazing. Yeah. And be and it's so simple because what we do is um for those of you who aren't familiar, what we do is Pete uh tells the communications department, okay, we're we're going into demand response. We got an event. We got an event happening, and we send out an email to the workforce and we say, hey, between two o'clock and four o'clock or two o'clock and five o'clock, whatever it is, yeah, if you could lower your power, we would appreciate it. So what that means is turn off your lights, turn off whatever electrical equipment you're not using in your office, um, and just use only what you absolutely need to. And that's all you have to do.

SPEAKER_00 16:23

That's all they do. And it seems kind of counterintuitive, but what we do is super cool the building. So before, let's say at the the event starts at four o'clock, they super cool a building from like three to four. That's like they just jam on it, and uh, you know, it gets chilly, and then they they eat this. They turn it off. They turn it down, turn it down.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Sometimes it feels like they turn it off, but it's fine.

SPEAKER_00 16:46

It's the other thing we do is we're never uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

I want to be yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:50

So we try to minimize our print jobs, print jobs, the the printing machine.

SPEAKER_01 16:53

That's a tremendous amount of power as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

100%, as well as uh turn off your computer if you're leaving early for the day or you're leaving for a while, turn off your computer. Um, and then we also shut down, and people don't even know that we do this. We shut down two of the elevators. Did you know that?

SPEAKER_01 17:08

Yeah, I I actually did know that, but I will say that you don't even notice. You don't do that. You don't even notice. You don't notice because we have others.

SPEAKER_00 17:14

So it's we have others, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 17:16

Yeah. And honestly, I always, I mean, in in communications, it's actually funny. And I know I tease about this. Um, we're always on uh the demand response because we don't turn all of our lights on. Yeah, yeah. We have beautiful large windows here, and we're all staring at computers all day. So we just don't put the lights on because you don't need them. You don't need them. I mean, you need them when it gets dark in the winter at two o'clock, you know, it feels like two o'clock.

SPEAKER_00 17:40

But um we usually don't have demand response. Yeah, we don't have it in there in the winter.

SPEAKER_01 17:44

But but during the summer, again, we get we're in an old building, it has tremendous windows, a beautiful light. You don't need them. You don't need the light.

SPEAKER_00 17:50

Yeah, it's pretty cool.

SPEAKER_01 17:51

So Murray was looking out for you, Pete.

SPEAKER_00 17:54

Thank you.

SPEAKER_01 17:55

And as you were saying, residents can sign up for this too.

SPEAKER_00 17:58

Yeah, so um I recommend putting solar on your roof. Yep. Big time. I've had solar on my roof now for seven years. I haven't paid one nickel in electricity, not a nickel.

SPEAKER_01 18:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:09

And we have everything is going electric. We have two electric cars at home, our lawnmower. We even electrified our uh dryer and washing, you know, like you know, all that kind of stuff. So um I recommend doing solar, but you can do a grid rewards program. Um, they will automatically turn your um, you know, you you join a program and they pay you to do this. They sometimes will give you the nest thermostat that goes up on the wall to give that to you free. Um, but they will shut down your electricity at a certain time. Let's shut it down, but really pull it down, pull down your electricity. And let's say you've got a family uh gathering and then, but no, all you gotta do is push a button and it'll go right back. It'll go back. And there's no penalties, just as we at the county, we don't have a penal penalty if we don't fulfill what we've been asked to do.

SPEAKER_01 18:58

You just have to draw down the reward if you do it.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

100%. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:01

So it's it's an easy thing to do, and it's so socially aware. And and you know, we we also have solar panels on our on our home, but during the last um major heat wave that we had, we were getting alerts from our town. Turn your power off. Just like power down your house as much as you can. And so even though we had solar panels, we're like, you know what, let's just not run, we don't need to run our dishwasher. Like, it's fine. We're we're good. Yeah. Um, probably didn't make a difference because again, we have solar panels, but we still felt like let's just be part of the cause here.

SPEAKER_00 19:33

And you know, it's we converted all our lights to LEDs. And um, so that's uh that's always we're turning off our lights. It really don't that allowed it to teach.

SPEAKER_01 19:43

But it's okay. It's okay.

SPEAKER_00 19:44

We're still we're but it's indicative of what you should do. All the little things add up, you know, turn off certain electric things you don't need and and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_01 19:52

Right. So um, so we're looking at our power. We're we're looking at this uh Westchester County Grain Initiatives repository. Um we're gonna get solar panels, we're gonna get electric cars, we're gonna compost.

SPEAKER_00 20:06

Yeah, I was gonna bring up solid waste. That's another big component. Let's talk about it. Another big component of what I do. Um, so composting is key. Keeping that wet foodstuffs out of our waste stream is is key. Um and it's easy to compost at home. Um uh or you can most municipalities now are part of our uh residential food scrap transportation disposal program, also known as Rifstad.

SPEAKER_01 20:32

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 20:33

And nobody is doing something like that anywhere. So that that was a real leading uh you know the guys in DEF and our solid waste programs are just phenomenal. They are constantly coming up with new new ideas, new ideas, new things, mattresses, you know. We collect the boat wrap.

SPEAKER_01 20:51

Yes. I mean, but that's a big thing. It's a lot of plastic.

SPEAKER_00 20:54

It's a lot, a lot of plastic. So and they recycle it. It's uh, you know, people buy it. It's good, clean plastic, quite frankly.

SPEAKER_01 21:01

You know, the food scrap, um, when I read about how destructive it is to the environment to have food waste decompose. For me, I mean, yes, composting is tremendous. And you if you have a lot of property or even to have a little property, you can do it. Yeah, but for me, what I like to focus on is just buying a whole lot less. Yeah. You know what your family's gonna consume, you know how much food you need in a week. Just buy less. You don't need it.

SPEAKER_00 21:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

You don't need it. And if you do, go to the store and pick it up. You don't you need to buy huge bulks of food.

SPEAKER_00 21:35

You have to budget, plan your meals a little bit better, and and cut down, you know, it's all solid ways, but something we've been pushing for, and I know the DEF has been pushing for it as well as the county executive, is uh more uh at the at the point of manufacturing. You know, the manufacturers of all this stuff need to do a better job. They need to think about the end of life of whatever the product or whatever it is that they're making. What are we gonna do with it at the end? Cut back on packaging. You know. So there are um there are laws that have been bouncing around in in Albany. Um Pete Harkum has been promoting this uh um, you know, uh it's called a um reduction act. Yeah. So it's very important.

SPEAKER_01 22:20

It is important. It is important. We we're getting there. We are getting there. And and again, I think here in Westchester, we're really fortunate because people are so aware of recycling, of the environment, and they want to help and they want to do more. And so we're all pushing, we're all rowing in the same direction. Yeah. It's just, you know, there's always more to do.

SPEAKER_00 22:38

Yeah. So uh speaking to that, I say this all the time whenever we start talking about solid waste, uh, it starts in the house, it starts at home, it starts with you and me. And but we source separate. Think of it, and you know, um composting is part of that. We separate out these different things, and that makes all the difference because our our materials that we recycle are marketable. They have they have value, they're not contaminated.

SPEAKER_01 23:00

Yes, we're gonna talk about this. We have we, you know, there's but it's the work that we do.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

It's the work that you and our we, you, our neighbors, all of us.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

Yeah um, and and it's worth mentioning again. I know we've mentioned it before on the podcast. There are some municipalities that cannot sell their recycling. They are they're basically recycling for no reason. Westchester does not fall into that category. We do not. Our recyclables are sold, we make money off of them, they're clean, we we are source separating in the in the best way possible. And we are succeeding with this. Again, like I said earlier, we could always do better, we could always do more, we're always striving, but we are doing really well in this category.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

We are doing really, really well in that category.

SPEAKER_01 23:42

So just keep keep using your recycling.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

So we have uh what we call the the district, the resident, um resident disposal district. That's RDD. And um uh that takes up the majority of the population. It's 92% of the population in Westchester, but there's uh a small portion that's not. So any but any municipality that's in that is part of our our appropriate.

SPEAKER_01 24:07

Well, we're doing good. We got a lot more to do. We have a lot more programs coming, I'm sure.

SPEAKER_00 24:12

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

So that's gonna be that fun.

SPEAKER_00 24:15

Yeah, I'd love to. But uh, yeah, repository, check it out. It's um it's on my page is uh uh the Office of Energy Conservation and Sustainability.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

Get a long title, we have a long web page, we have a little words there. Yeah, but it's it's excellent, and it's sharing best practices and it's really celebrating the work that municipalities are doing that they can then share with other municipalities, and we're all rowing in the same direction.

SPEAKER_00 24:40

Thank you so much for giving me an opportunity to promote this. Um it's been it's been a work a little bit for a while, and here we are. Here we are. Here we are.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Well, thank you so much for being with us.

SPEAKER_00 24:52

Um my pleasure.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Keep recycling.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

Okay.