Bedford2020-Cross River

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Summary

Bedford2020-Bedford, NY

Description

Every good idea begins with a conversation and this has been the theme and focus of our effort in Bedford. Our initiative started in 2007 with a community conversation: actually a series of 'conversations-for-action'. These led to the appointment by the Town Board of the Bedford Energy Advisory Panel (BEAP) that did an inventory of our carbon footprint, set targets - 20% by 2020 - and created a Climate Action Plan that was integrated into the Town's Comprehensive Plan. A first Summit was designed in collaboraiton with Bedford Garden Club to engage the community and attracted 1000 participants. Bedford2020 was then created as a non-profit organization with eleven Task Forces to implement the Climate Action Plan. A second summit held recently as a 'call to action' drew a comparable number of participants. There the theme was 'taking the conversation to the next level by deepening it - (re)defining and cultivating our relationship with the world that we share with everyone and everything (we are collaborating with a local university to develop this dimension)- and widening it to include all the stakeholders in order to address the more complex aspects of sustainability. For example we are convening a community conversation on nuclear energy with a specific focus on the nearby nuclear power plant on the Hudson River. Finally, we have begun work with the Bedford2020 leaderhsip to build alignment and develop capacities for engaging the wider community and collaborating with others as described above. Now we need partners who will pursue this aspect with us.

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