Our programs are designed to help people, especially those with limited income, take high-impact steps that can save money, save energy, reduce carbon emissions, and support local jobs. 

Over the years, Get Your GreenBack Tompkins has, in collaboration with partners, developed programming to help people and organizations overcome barriers to taking action. While our programming spans the four areas of food, waste, transportation, and building energy, we have especially focused on residential energy, where people can directly decrease their fossil fuel consumption and move quickly towards renewable energy. 

Our core Programming

Our core programming is free energy education and advising to households and businesses in the Tompkins County area, helping people learn about programs and incentives available to them, and connecting them to local contractors that can help them get the work done. 

Other programs support this core function. The PowerHouse is a Tiny Home on wheels that provides hands-on education on energy efficiency, heating and renewable energy. The PowerHouse is available for community outreach as well as education within schools. Energy Navigators are volunteer peer educators who help reach, educate, and advise diverse populations throughout the region on energy-related issues. To serve communities outside of Tompkins County with free energy advising, Get Your GreenBack created Smart Energy Choices, a collaboration with other Cooperative Extension associations which serves eight counties in the Southern Tier region.

In addition, Get Your GreenBack Tompkins coordinates the Tompkins County Reuse Trail, an innovative shared marketing campaign that involves over 40 reuse stores in the area. The Get Your GreenBack coordinator currently serves on various advisory and steering committees: for the Ithaca Green New Deal; the Building Bridges Initiative, a project of the Dorothy Cotton Institute; and Bike Walk Tompkins.

community contributions

Get Your GreenBack Tompkins has also contributed significantly to the following: helping found Bike Walk Tompkins, and its flagship program Streets Alive!; supporting the creation of the Tompkins County Food Policy Council; helping organize the Tompkins County CSA Fair, and spearheading the establishment of CSA drop off spots in a number of prominent locations in the County; hosting Tompkins County Earth Day 2020; among many other shorter- and longer-term initiatives.

Beginning in 2020, Get Your GreenBack Tompkins became involved in efforts to develop Green Jobs training programs in the area. Such programs meet a number of needs:

  • Existing demand from local clean energy contractors for trained workers to install heat pumps, insulation, conduct audits, etc

  • Meet future demand as New York State strives to reach its goals for carbon neutrality by 2050, which would imply increasing the rate of clean energy retrofits by a factor of 10

  • Address increased unemployment from COVID-related business closings

  • Meet needs of people with barriers to employment, such as those reentering the community after a period of incarceration

Get Your GreenBack is working collaboratively with other community organizations to craft a program that would meet these needs.