Growing Climate Resilience
from the Ground Up
This past week’s heat wave here in Schenectady was a sobering reminder of the climate chaos many communities are already living through. Thankfully, cooler breezes arrived this weekend. But we know relief like this can’t be taken for granted in a world where the climate is changing faster than our systems are adapting and transforming.
That’s why we’re investing our energy and resources to build the Electric City Community Grocery—to be part of the solution to the climate crisis and the social and economic inequities it magnifies. As a food co-op rooted in downtown Schenectady, we’re working to disrupt the longstanding patterns of food apartheid that have shaped our county for too long. But we’re also working to build an alternative: a regenerative, community-rooted food system that reduces emissions, rebuilds soil health, and strengthens our collective capacity to adapt and thrive—starting right here in the Mohawk River Valley.
Our co-op isn’t just about groceries. It’s about shifting away from extractive systems and toward ones built on cooperation, reciprocity, and shared prosperity. That’s the real work of climate justice. Clean energy matters, yes—but we can’t stop there. We need to change the way we relate to land, to each other, and to the economy itself.
When we talk about a "just transition," we’re talking about more than solar panels. We’re talking about neighborhoods where nutritious food is accessible without long car rides. We're talking about jobs that restore, not deplete, our soil and our souls. We're talking about investing in people and places that have been excluded for too long.
By bringing a food co-op to a walkable, transit-rich part of Schenectady, we’re doing more than just shortening the distance food travels—we’re also strengthening the relationships and social ties that help communities bounce back from crisis. We’re reducing medical costs by expanding access to nutrient-rich, nourishing foods. We’re lowering transportation expenses. We’re making it easier to live a healthy, dignified life.
We’re also rethinking what “smart” really means. It’s tempting to look to high-tech fixes—Smart Cities with sensors and automation—as the way to “solve” the climate crisis. But real resilience starts with healing: our ecosystems, our foodways, and our relationships with each other and the land. We don’t just need Smart Cities. We need wise communities—ones that advance Smart Growth principles: creating vibrant, walkable neighborhoods, investing in local economies, protecting farmland, reducing sprawl, and encouraging community and stakeholder collaboration in development decisions. These and other Smart Growth principles were adopted in Schenectady’s 2008 Comprehensive Plan and reflected in that plan’s recommendation to pursue options for an inner-city grocery store. It’s a good time for us to lean back into these principles in our planning discussions—and build on them.
Another example of this kind of smart, regenerative growth? In 2023, community leaders including Member-Owners Rebekka Henrikson and Khila Pecoraro launched The Schenectady Community Compost Project, beginning by using food scraps from Zoller Elementary School's cafeteria to create compost for school gardens. In the first year, the program diverted 25,000 pounds of food scraps from the landfill, while building healthier soil to nourish communities. This popular community program continues to grow, bringing nutrients to Schenectady’s Urban Farms, reducing landfill emissions. It has the potential to grow into a county-wide service that sustains these benefits while expanding meaningful green jobs. This is what climate solutions can look like—multi-solving that improves health, environment, and the local economy all at once.
This month, we’re also continuing our celebration of the United Nation's International Year of Cooperatives, with July 5 marking the International Day of Cooperatives. Cooperatives around the world—like ours—are tackling big challenges by putting people and planet first. Together, we’re showing that it is possible to build businesses that value equity over extraction.
We invite you to reflect on this work and the values that inspire it by visiting the “Americans Who Tell the Truth” exhibit at the Albany Institute of History and Art—on view through today (Sunday) at 5pm. The exhibit features climate justice leaders like:
Leah Penniman, who teaches us how growing food can be a form of resistance and healing.
Robin Wall Kimmerer, who reminds us that citizenship can mean loyalty to the laws of nature—reciprocity, regeneration, mutual flourishing.
Van Jones, who reminds us that “We don’t have any ‘throw away’ species, nations, or children” while calling us to “birth a global green economy strong enough to lift people out of poverty.”
Rev. Lennox Yearwood, Kelsey Juliana, Grace Lee Boggs, Oren Lyons, and others—all working to protect the future through principled action and care for people and planet.
As Oren Lyons is quoted, in reference to the Great Law of Peace and the Law of Regeneration at the heart of democracy as practiced by the Haudenosaunee Confederacy:
“The law says if you poison the water, you’ll die. The law says that if you poison the air, you’ll suffer. The law says if you degrade where you live, you’ll suffer. … If you don’t learn that, you can only suffer. There’s no discussion with this law.”
As we plan for our future, let’s speak up and work together to bring the laws and codes that govern development in our city and county into closer alignment with these laws of nature.
To that end, we encourage every member of our community to fill out these three important surveys:
Electric City Recharged Community Survey – Help shape the City of Schenectady’s 20-year vision and comprehensive plan.
Schenectady County EATS Survey – Let your voice guide future food policy and programs.
Schenectady County Climate Mitigation Survey – Contribute to a concept plan to address environmental justice and climate change.
As a co-op community, we practice democracy both within our cooperative business, as well as more broadly in our communities. We’re thrilled that at our Annual Meeting, all Member-Owners who voted expressed unanimous approval of changes to our By-Laws to allow us to create a new opportunity for Member-Owners in NY to build community-rooted wealth and health through a Preferred Shares option.
As we move forward in developing our grocery store, we remember that our co-op is a long-term investment in community resilience and shared wellbeing. Yes, we believe it will generate a financial return. But more importantly, it’s an investment in a future where we and our neighbors can eat, work, and live well together.
Let’s keep building that future—in cooperation.
