Easy Living Hats

Signs of Sustainability

Easy Living Hats employs creative women to manufacture hats by hand in Ithaca, NY. The hats are designed for all ages and activities, variously made from hemp, locally-sourced wood, or cotton recycled from textile production waste, and sold online and at the Ithaca Farmers’ Market. Their recent collection of naturally dyed Sun Hats sold out within 4 DAYS! 😱 The next batch is due to release very soon, so subscribe to the email list for that update! In the meantime, shop HEMP Sun Hats – locally made, with certified organic hemp twine: an easy-packing, versatile, durable and “scrunchable” summer hat that fits all sizes!

Finger Lakes Toy Library

Signs of Sustainability

Imagine: Toys for everyone to borrow…A community resource devoted to play… Well, imagine no more; there’s Finger Lakes Toy Library – a lending library that increases access to toys, supports play, and encourages a culture of reuse and sharing. A great resource for families, child care providers, therapists, family workers, grandparents, babysitters and more.🌟 Due to COVID-19, you can now reserve toys online💻 , pick up curbside 🚗, and keep toys longer 🕙. Toys are also quarantined for 72 hours between borrowers. 🌟

Beaver Lake Nature Center

Signs of Sustainability

15 minutes northwest of Syracuse – Beaver Lake Nature Center offers 9 miles of trails 🏃🏃‍♀️ featuring 200 species of birds 🦆🦉🦇🦅 and over 800 varieties of plants 🌻🌳🌷🌺🍁. Kayak or canoe too if thats your thing! COVID accommodations include closing the visitors center and capping the parking lot at 1/3 capacity to encourage social distancing. Visit their Facebook page to learn about species like this one.

Bottomless Brewing

Signs of Sustainability

The Finger Lakes Most Awarded Craft Brewery! This old dairy barn in Geneva has been equipped with two tap rooms for tastings and pints. They’ve reopened Thursday – Sunday with an abbreviated food menu on Saturday and Sunday. They’ve also got tons of bands coming this month; Check out their event page to peruse the…

We Did It! NY Finalizes Statewide Strong Water Standards

News

“The New York State Department of Health has taken the final step to establish drinking water standards for three toxic chemicals  that have polluted water in communities across the state. In doing so, New York leads the nation with some of the most stringent drinking water protections for PFOA and PFOS (part of a broader class of PFAS chemicals), and the only drinking water standard for 1,4-dioxane”…

Ithaca Farmers Market Returns to Full Vendor Capacity

News

While most booths are now full with vendors and some other COVID-19 related restrictions have been loosened, Ithaca Farmers Market is still enforcing their own rules to minimize risk and help visitors to feel more safe. The market is following a slow-reopen plan, so you can check in on this page of their website (which is updated regularly) if you are planning a visit to see how restrictions have changed. is Read the Ithaca Voice article here.

Immaculate Conception Food Pantry has Re-opened!

News

After a six month hiatus, the pantry, located at 113 Geneva Street is now open to the public every Tuesday from 1 to 2 p.m. Fresh produce from Stick & Stone Farm is available every week in addition to other pantry items. New COVID-19 precautions have been put in place to protect both recipients and their older volunteers. Read the Ithaca Voice article here to learn more about their reopening, and visit their website to learn more about the pantry itself.

Sign Petition to Help CUNY Divest!

Uncategorized

Help CUNY University Student Senate in their campaign to get CUNY to divest from fossil fuels and pursue other sustainability initiatives on campus instead! A meeting of the CUNY board of trustees is just around the corner and USS is asking for supporting groups/NGOs to come out and strengthen their call for action. 350.org is signing on as a supporting organization! Come be a part of a great cause. The more groups, the better! If your group can support this effort, please send an email to Smitha Varghese (legislativedirector@usscuny.org), the legislative director for CUNY Student Senate. Read the letter to CUNY Board of Trustees for more information.

Sign Petition to Divest NY Teachers from Fossil Fuels

Calls to Action

New York’s recently passed Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act requires New York to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% in just ten years. Continued investments by teacher pension funds into fossil fuels are sending the wrong message and are contradictory to the goals of students for a sustainable future. In addition, New York state pension funds have lost billions of dollars holding onto fossil fuel stocks, a loss which local governments and school systems must make up for with citizens’ tax dollars. Please sign this petition asking the New York State United Teachers to support divestment from fossil fuels and work with the NYS Teachers Retirement System to get fossil fuels out of pension funds.

Tell Cuomo We Need the New York Health Act!

Calls to Action

In the past few weeks, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has stated that we have to “Reimagine New York.” He explains that we have to learn from the lessons of COVID-19 to make a better New York by changing the systems that so obviously have failed us, namely the healthcare system. As the Health Committee Chairs of the state say, “The need for the New York Health Act has never been clearer. Stop wasting tens of billions of dollars on insurance company profits, administrative overhead, and marketing, making doctors and hospitals spend billions on administrative costs to fight with insurance companies, and paying excessive prices to drug companies. Invest those dollars into guaranteeing care for every New Yorker and supporting health care providers.” Click here to send a message to Governor Cuomo that we need the New York Health Act. Read more of what Health Committee Chairs Gustavo Rivera and Richard N. Godfreid have to say here.

Workers Center of the Southern Tier of New York

Signs of Sustainability

This grassroots organization empowers low-wage workers throughout the community to combat workplace abuses and improve wages and working conditions. How do these local powerhouses do so? By providing training related to workers’ rights and occupational health and safety, orchestrating campaigns to combat wage theft, promoting employer compliance with the law, and organizing to push for…

HOLT Architects

Signs of Sustainability

The designers of the Peggy Ryan Williams Center, Food Bank of the Southern Tier, their own NET-ZERO ENERGY OFFICE RENOVATION (read more about that here) and much, much more. HOLT Architects keep social, economic, and environmental sustainability at the forefront of all their designs and pride themselves on understanding their clients’ goals, so they can make them realities! Over on their Facebook page, they have a weekly series called ‘What Are We Thinking Wednesdays’, comprised of segments where the architects ponder how thoughtful design can benefit us as we navigate our changing world. To learn more about these folks, visit their website.