About Color Fairport Green
Who we are
Color Fairport Green is a network of local volunteer environmental activists working toward a sustainable future in the Village of Fairport, the Town of Perinton, and the surrounding community. We are part of the "Color Your Community Green" initiative and we regularly collaborate with other groups to take meaningful action in our local, regional, national, and global communities.
Our mission
Our mission is to create and train a network of citizens at the municipal or neighborhood level who are empowered to incorporate individual efforts into systems-level environmental solutions with a focus on climate. We work to foster discussion and collaboration among community members and seek out ways to leverage proven climate solutions in our local community.
Our work
Our very first initiatives involved striving for less waste in our schools, but the group has since evolved and become part of the Climate Solutions Accelerator network. Our work now addresses a wide range of climate issues and ways to take action, including reducing local greenhouse gas emissions, encouraging sustainability best practices in local government, striving for environmental responsibility in our schools, aiming to restore and protect the biodiversity of our local ecosystems for pollinators, amplifying the voices of those seeking climate justice, and more.
Why we do what we do: Climate Change
Need a primer on regional climate change causes and impacts in Greater Rochester area and beyond?
Learn all the latest science about local emissions sources and current/future climate impacts (from the Climate Solutions Accelerator of the Genesee-Finger Lakes Region) here:
Source: Climate Solutions Accelerator website - climategfl.org/learn
How our collective began - CFG in the early days
To paraphrase Edward Everett Hale:
"We cannot do everything, but still we can do something; and because we cannot do everything, we will not refuse to do the something that we can do.”
We are a collective of people in and near Perinton, NY, who work for a more sustainable environment because we must. We started out as a small group, managed by Amber Brown, Natasha Besch-Turner, Jenna Welch, and Laurel Rice. Color Fairport Green (CFG) came into being in the fall of 2019 with the creation of a Facebook group.
Since then, CFG has held meetings in our homes (pre-Covid) to connect with others, generated a wish list for our community, and then we got to work. We met with almost all of the school administrators to ask both how we might be of service, and that the district specifically add a focus on the environment in the classroom and in their administration. We organized volunteers to collect bottles and cans at the Minerva Deland School weekly. We collaborated with a local church to host an information session for the community on proper recycling, and we assisted the Fairport Business Partnership in planning a zero-waste Oktoberfest. Most importantly, we started building community and fostering connections in our group. We started learning about each other’s passion projects and what we each brought to the table.
We continue to grow and learn from each other and from our experiences.
We can build a strong future of climate action in Fairport and Perinton.
We look forward to a time when environmental stewardship is a natural part of how we live, work, play, and govern, and when groups like CFG are no longer needed.
We look forward to helping the Fairport / Perinton community get to this future.
- The CFG Leadership Team:
Amber, Natasha, Jenna, Laurel, Carrie, Leah
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Carrie Amber Laurel Natasha Jenna Leah
Color Fairport Green is a member of the 'Color Your Community Green' initiative,
which is comprised of climate-concerned citizens who volunteer their time to the cause in and around Rochester, NY.
