EPA Climate Showcase Community
TCCPI Coalition Members Collaborate on EPA Climate Showcase Community Grant Proposal
The Tompkins County Planning Department and EcoVillage at Ithaca (EVI) joined hands in July to submit a proposal to the EPA Climate Showcase Community Grant Program, which seeks to highlight community efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Drawing on the experience and expertise of EVI, a member of the Tompkins County Climate Protection Initiative (TCCPI), the grant proposal seeks to 
disseminate the important lessons learned about reducing a community's carbon footprint and outlines how the County will incorporate the key principles into its planning for future development.
"I'm thrilled that we've been asked to collaborate with the County Planning Department on writing an EPA grant to spread the lessons we've learned at our ecovillage to the rest of the county," said Liz Walker, Executive Director of EVI's Center for Sustainability Education (EVI-CSE).
"We've had almost two decades of experience in developing environmentally-oriented, densely clustered neighborhoods which provide a very high quality of life. Now we're embarking on a new neighborhood which is also incorporating goals of affordability, designed for aging in place, and using the latest green building technologies from Europe. It feels great to think that some of our hard-earned lessons can be translated to more mainstream residential development."
Walker noted that if it were not for TCCPI, this collaboration may not have happened. She also appreciated that TCCPI staff volunteered to help coordinate expert TCCPI members in providing workshops to building and planning professionals - one key way of disseminating the ideas and the practice of creating sustainable communities. "Whether or not the funding from EPA comes through, this strengthens our ties to the County Planning Department, and opens up all kinds of opportunities," Walker concluded.
