NYSP2I selects 10 awardees for 2024-2025 Community Grants Program

The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) has announced selections for its 2024-2025 Community Grants Program as part of the organization’s ongoing efforts to continue improving the health and environmental quality of New York state.

NYSP2I, sponsored by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) through the Environmental Protection Fund and led by Rochester Institute of Technology’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability (GIS), has selected 10 projects following the completion of a competitive review process.

Ultimate awarding of funds to selected projects is subject to standard conditions such as contract fulfillment and availability of funding. The Community Grants Program provides nonprofit organizations, academic institutions, and local governments both financial and technical assistance for projects that promote and implement pollution-prevention practices at the community level.

“We are very pleased with this year’s grant awardees, which cover essential areas of pollution prevention through beneficial community projects, outreach, and education,” said Nabil Nasr, RIT associate provost and NYSP2I’s interim director. “I’m especially gratified with the increased emphasis on work affecting environmental justice communities and underserved populations.”

“We congratulate all of this year’s selected awardees,” Nasr added. “We are pleased to partner with these organizations in such a wide variety of work that is vital to our ongoing mission to provide a statewide, comprehensive program of solutions for complex environmental problems.”

The selected proposals include:

• Earth Matter NY
  Project Title: Food Serviceware Reuse System Feasibility Study
  The project will continue the final phase of a feasibility study for a food serviceware reuse system on Governors Island. The project aims to educate the Island community and public about the environmental, social, and economic benefits of materials reuse as a zero waste and sustainable economic development approach. Project work will involve compiling and analyzing data, conducting surveys and focus groups, and will serve as an example of reuse economy applicable elsewhere in New York City, New York state, and beyond.         
• FABSCRAP
  Project Title: Sample Overhaul and Audit Project: Publication, Advocacy & Coalition Building
  The project will expand on work previously funded through the NYSP2I Community Grants Program. The project aims to complete and publish a white paper containing research findings including the environmental impact and costs of production, dissemination, and physical waste of industrial fabric samples and their headers, along with data-based best recommendations for maximizing sustainability. The project will distribute the whitepaper to fashion and interior design brands, textile mills, industry trade shows and conferences, and the public. The project aims to achieve market saturation and incentivize partner brands to be among the first to successfully implement the project’s recommendations as a new standard for textile mill vendors
• First Hand Learning
  Project Title: From Waste to Wonder: Empowering Environmental Stewards in Western NY
  The project will develop a comprehensive, blended e-learning course featuring lesson plans and activities around soil health, pollution prevention, and organic waste management. A cohort-based learning program will include hands-on, in-person sessions and live, virtual training over an initial six-week course. Participants from Erie County and the City of Buffalo will be trained to become “Soil Stewards” and trainings will include topics such as food waste prevention strategies, landfill diversion practices, climate change impacts, and environmental racism. The program will be offered free of charge to ensure accessibility and inclusivity for all interested learners.
• Gowanus Canal Conservancy
  Project Title: Constructed Mussel Habitat in the Gowanus Canal: Education & Capacity Building
  The project will engage high school students from Brooklyn Collaborative Studies (BCS) in the continuation of building and testing constructed ribbed mussel habitat in the Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn, N.Y. Community science field trips that incorporate hands-on constructed mussel habitat observations will be offered to additional local schools, enabling habitat observation and water quality testing, and helping students understand connections between waterway health and pollution prevention with restoration solutions for the community and urban ecosystem. An additional goal of the project is to increase stakeholder engagement and awareness of large-scale habitat restoration, including students, community members, and private property owners with waterfront property.
• North Fork Environmental Council
  Project Title: Food Scrap Recycle Long Island 2 - Municipal Drop Off
  The project will establish a food scraps recycling system within the town of Southold on the North Fork of Long Island. The project will educate and train household member participants to upcycle their food waste at a municipal drop off. In doing so, the project will raise awareness of pollution caused by food in the waste stream and normalize composting as a means of waste management. The project will educate member participants of the benefits of compost as soil amendment and for soil regeneration, and the impact of soil health on the environment and the community.
• Syracuse University-Center for Sustainable Community Solutions
  Project Title: We Can Fix This! Establishing a Tool Library for Northeastern New York Communities
  The project will expand on work previously funded through the NYSP2I Community Grants Program. The project will address local and regional waste challenges by providing access to tools and resources for repair, reuse, and revitalization activities. In doing so, the project will establish a tool library through increased support for reuse and repair activities, prolonging the life of materials, reduce resource consumption, and enhance the health, environmental quality, and economic vitality of communities in northeastern New York.
• The Art Effect of the Hudson Valley, Inc.
  Project Title: Artful Advocates: Poughkeepsie Pollution Prevention
  The project will expand on work previously funded through the NYSP2I Community Grants Program. The project will increase awareness of and implement conservation efforts in an area adjacent to the Fall Kill Creek located in downtown Poughkeepsie and the Middle-Main neighborhood. Youth from the Youth Arts Empowerment Zone (YAEZ) will engage in a series of community clean-ups and curate an environmental protection-themed art exhibition titled “The Future of Pollution Prevention.” The exhibition will feature creative technologies aimed at preventing pollution, ambitious artistic installations showcasing innovative technologies, and artworks blending art and science and advance education on pollution prevention and climate change.
• The Tool Library
  Project Title: Dare to Repair Expansion Project
  The project will raise awareness and understanding of waste reduction through repair and reuse of household items, and adoption of circular economy concepts. Community-wide Dare to Repair Café pop-up events will enable individuals to bring broken items and have volunteer fixers assist with repairing the items free of charge. Participating residents in the Buffalo and Niagara Falls area will learn valuable hands-on repair skills, how circular economy concepts such as repair and reuse can reduce waste and pollution, and simple actions they can take to repair broken items as opposed to disposing of them.
• Town of Poughkeepsie
  Project Title: Town of Poughkeepsie Residential In-Home Food Scraps Recycling Program
  The project will address local food waste and its association with greenhouse gas emissions by adopting circular economy principles and kickstarting a food waste recycling program. Through the “Residential In-home Food Scraps Recycling Program,” the town of Poughkeepsie will educate participating residents on proper food scrap management, the use of composting to divert organic waste from landfills, and the benefits of a circular economy.
• Utica Creative Reuse
  Project Title: Creative Reuse Workshop Series
  The project will expand on a series of free workshops and tutorials that increase community awareness of pollution prevention and reuse practices. The workshops will cover topics such as mending clothing and fabric, repairing household items and upcycling, overdyeing stained clothing for continued wear, creating natural dyes from plant materials and food waste, and diverting materials and found objects from the waste stream through the creation of artwork.

NYSP2I’s Community Grants Program has supported 169 projects throughout New York state with grants totaling $2.8 million to date. Past projects include green chemistry workshops for high school students and teachers, homeowner education encouraging environmentally conscious practices, and food waste diversion and education projects. Many of these projects benefited underserved populations in environmental justice communities.

The next Community Grants Program request application will be announced in late spring of 2025. Go to the Community Grants Program website for information.

About the New York State Pollution Prevention Institute

The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute (NYSP2I) is a partnership between the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation, Rochester Institute of Technology, and the university’s Golisano Institute for Sustainability, Binghamton University, Clarkson University, Cornell University, and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, with a statewide reach. NYSP2I also works with the state’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership to help disseminate data and strategy.

NYSP2I’s goal is to make the state more sustainable for workers, the public, the environment, and the economy through pollution prevention. Pollution prevention is reducing or eliminating waste at the source by modifying production processes, promoting the use of non-toxic or less-toxic substances, implementing conservation techniques, and reusing materials rather than putting them into the waste stream.