Westchester, Putnam Emit Tons of Greenhouse Gases; New Software Sees It All

By Michael Gold

The average Westchester County household emits 51.2 metric tons of greenhouse gases (GHG) per year. Putnam County’s household numbers are worse, at 56.8 metric tons annually.

The average Chappaqua household emits close to 87 metric tons of GHG per year. Bedford is second in Westchester with about 85 metric tons. The hamlet of Armonk emits 79 tons, Briarcliff Manor 72 tons. The 10570-zip code, which encompasses Pleasantville, emits 63 tons on average, per house.

The average Peekskill household emits about 43 tons, while in White Plains it’s about 36 tons a year.

In Putnam, Garrison’s household total is the highest, at 61 tons. Mahopac is a close second. Putnam Valley homes emit about 59 tons, Carmel about 55 tons of GHG per household per year.

One metric ton of greenhouse gas emissions (1,000 kilograms or 2,205 pounds) would fill a 2,000-square-foot home at atmospheric pressure.

How do I know all this?

CURE100, a Croton-on-Hudson-based nonprofit organization, has developed a software program that can track every community’s carbon emission. It’s called the Carbon Tracker, appropriately enough, and it’s available free to everyone so they can calculate their household’s carbon emissions, at https://cure100.org/carbon-tracker/.

CURE100, which stands for Communities United to Reduce Emissions 100%, has town chapters in Croton, Ossining, Yorktown, Pleasantville, Peekskill, Philipstown, Rye, Austerlitz and Port Washington. The Federated Conservationists of Westchester County is also a member.

Chandu Visweswariah, a vice president at CURE100, said “Most people don’t understand carbon emissions. We’re going to quantify it for you.”

The software can calculate any household’s emissions by entering the number and types of cars you operate, how you heat and cool your home, how you get your electricity, the amount of goods and services you purchase, what public services you use, such as Metro-North, the food you eat and the waste you generate.

“The CURE100 Carbon Tracker answers these key questions: What causes my household’s greenhouse gas emissions? How do my emissions compare with my neighbors? How can I reduce my emissions effectively?”

“Transportation is the biggest carbon emitter,” Visweswariah said, followed by heating and gas for cooking, purchase of goods and services, then food consumption and waste.

What can households do to reduce their emissions?

“The tool (the Carbon Tracker) will teach us how to live a low-carbon lifestyle,” Visweswariah said.

He urged everyone to purchase wind or solar power for electricity. For transportation, he said we need to buy electric vehicles, use public transportation, walk or bike.

Commuting by car from Westchester to Grand Central Station in Manhattan generates almost one ton of carbon, whereas taking the train generates less than one-tenth of that, Visweswariah said.

To heat your home, buy air-source or ground-source heat pumps (air-source is much cheaper). Buy from local food sources and compost your food waste. Recycle paper, plastic, metal and glass packaging.

Taking three short, round trip airline flights per year emits 2.4 tons. To compare, driving an internal combustion Honda Civic, at the national average of 13,000 miles per year, emits about the same annually. If you need to fly, purchase carbon offsets, Visweswariah said.

He said www.Carbonfund.org is a good start for buying carbon offsets.

“Even an ordinary citizen can make a huge contribution,” Visweswariah said.

To people who have told him they can’t afford to buy an electric car, he explains, “I say, avoid food waste. We waste 30 percent of our food nationally. Eat less red meat.”

Visweswariah and his wife run a zero-carbon house. He owns two electric cars, which go 200 miles with a 20-minute charge from a supercharger. They use air-source heat pumps to heat and cool their house. They’ve installed solar panels on their roof and in the yard.

Planting trees, while laudable, is not enough, he explained.

To achieve a reduction of 10 tons of carbon, you would need to plant 458 trees on 2.3 acres of land. Other possible alternatives include getting five households to convert to clean electricity, buying two electric vehicles to replace your fossil fuel sedans or getting 330 new homes to compost.

“People have the false notion that if I adopt solar panels or replace a gasoline car with an electric, that it will cost more, Visweswariah said. “That is completely wrong reasoning. Your costs go down. You save money over the long term.”

He explained what climate change is doing to the region.

“Sea level rise is going to threaten Manhattan and towns on the banks of the Hudson. We have flooding, droughts and wildfires. There’s more extreme heat.  Everybody’s insurance goes up,” Visweswariah said.

Visweswariah, who worked for IBM for 27 years designing computer chips, then designing analytical software tools for clean energy, told me, “Decarbonization is the noblest form of conservation. We have one decade to get our act together.”

Michael Gold has had articles published in the New York Daily News, the Albany Times Union, and other newspapers, and The Hardy Society Journal, a British literary publication.