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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022/12/04 - ADMIN - Minutes - Environment & Sustainability Commission - Regular Official minutes – annual retreat Environment & sustainability commission St. Louis Park, Minnesota 12/4/2022 1. Call to order 1a. Roll call Members present: Chair Andrew Willette, Vice Chair Shaina Ashare, Ryan Griffin, Sasha Shahidi, Abigail Oppegaard, Mayer Bayer, Lillian Hertel, Eric Zweber, Tatiana Giraldo, Dave Wilsey, Paul Zeigle Members absent: Hailey Sexton, Ramil Goonetilleke Staff present: Ms. Ziring, Sustainability Manager; Ellie Rabine, Sustainability Specialist; Annie Pottorff, Sustainability Specialist 2. Unfinished business a. Tree policy work group memo – one minor spelling error was fixed. Chair Willette moved to approve, Commissioner Wilsey seconded, the motion passed. b. Approve meeting minutes from Nov. 2, 2022: Commissioner Shahidi moved to approve, Commissioner Bayer seconded, Commissioners Wilsey and Giraldo abstained. The motion passed. 3. 2022 work plan review Chair Willette reviewed 2022 workplan, including successful events the commission tabled at, the lawncare survey, tree memo, and collaboration with University of Minnesota students. Commissioner Bayer said that as chair she kept the 2022 workplan very similar to 2021, but this year would encourage mixing it up a bit more. Commissioner Shahidi requested a reminder email multiple times a year on the workplan. Chair Willette proposed structuring the monthly agenda around the workplan. Ms. Ziring asked if the workplan should be very broad and flexible? Or are there very specific goals the commission wants to target for the year? Commissioner Bayer asked if the group could look at other commission’s workplans for guidance. Commissioner Griffin stated the biggest accomplishment of the ESC has been to help advocate for the staff that is needed to do this work. Focus used to be on everything and anything, and there were many workgroups that weren’t able to accomplish much. Commissioners should now prioritize how to work together and support full time staff. Commissioner Griffin also shared that historically, the Climate Action Plan showed that it can’t just be volunteers leading this effort. This was quite a big undertaking and there was a lot of Environmental & Sustainability Commission Dec. 4, 2022 energy from the commission and city leaders. The Environmentally Preferred Purchasing Policy was also work that came out of this commission. Commissioner Shahidi said she likes that people can be more actively involved in workgroups, where before that was an expectation. But now it’s more flexible depending on what your capacity is. Ms. Ziring said she may have to pull the group back if the group’s interest veers outside the Climate Action Plan, but otherwise workgroups are encouraged. Group also needs to recognize what is under the purview of the commission. Transportation is an example of this and is managed by engineering, so in cases like that staff needs to be on board. Commissioner Griffin said the group could use a Venn diagram to show the overlap with engineering and other divisions that sustainability touches to identify where projects would land. 4. Climate action plan update a. Overview of 2023 projects and programs - Ms. Ziring reviewed the history of the Climate Action Plan. Commissioner Griffin commented that mid-term goal impact should be used to guide commission’s work. For example, it doesn’t make sense to focus on solid waste since that has a 1.1% impact. Commissioner Giraldo mentioned that school engineers might be good candidates for the Building Operations Champion program. Commissioner Griffin asked if the city has the funding to accomplish these goals. Ms. Ziring responded that it’s more of a behavior change question. We need more participation. Commissioner Zeigle brought up that his house wasn’t a good solar candidate, and the group discussed what the options are, including focusing instead on electrification. Group discussed using natural/fossil gas or methane gas to describe natural gas. b. Climate field evolution discussion Ms. Ziring posed the question: if you were writing the CAP today, how would it look different? Vice Chair Ashare asked how could the ESC support electrification efforts? Ms. Ziring shared there will be additional outreach to contractors in the coming months to encourage electrification. Commissioner Bayer asked if the ESC could write a letter to the representatives at the state legislature to support building code advocacy? Environmental & Sustainability Commission Dec. 4, 2022 Ms. Ziring said she would talk to the city clerk. Commissioner Griffin added if that is not possible, the commission could petition council to write a letter of support. Chair Willette asked if elected officials are already on board, how could the commission help influence other communities? Ms. Ziring recommended communicating through the commissions Listserv. 5. Big Questions Commissioners broke into three small groups to discuss a series of “big questions” (questions that explore philosophical topics within sustainability) that they drew at random. After 15 minutes of small group discussion, group re-formed to discuss questions in large group setting. 6. 2023 ESC Work Plan: “Amplify the Impact” action planning a. Group brainstorm Vice Chair Ashare began the activity by asking the group in what ways can we amplify the impact this year? If last year was the year of the climate emergency, can this be the year of amplifying the impact? She instructed the group to spend 10 minutes writing down any or every idea where there are challenges to getting people to engage. Ex: One of our issues is that we are not getting enough participation in programs. What are action items to overcome that? Vice Chair Ashare instructed the group to split into three small groups and take topic buckets to look over ideas and incorporate them into our workgroup. How do we want to develop our work plan for next year with these ideas in mind? Group 1: Policy Group 2: Marketing and engagement Group 3: Solar/transportation, waste, business, partnerships, and misc. b. Report out on 2023 work plan ideas Commissioner Shahidi explained that Group 1 broke out policy buckets into smaller buckets. Incentives, incentives for lower income households, taxes/fees, regulations, external relations, etc. Commissioner Bayer said that this relates back to item c on the existing workplan. We need more specificity. Commissioner Shahidi added that for taxes and fees, we talked about fees on high- energy consumers and methods that go beyond incentives. Regulations has to do with zoning, land-use and permits. How do we better utilize our permit data? Environmental & Sustainability Commission Dec. 4, 2022 Commissioner Griffin said Group 2 had marketing and outreach. He stated that education tends to target people who want to hear it and misses those who don’t want to hear it, don’t have time, etc. Preaching to the choir. He added they also had a focus on schools. Commissioner Zeigle said that ‘make it easy’ was also a theme of the group. How do we make it easy to navigate state, federal, local, IRA, etc. How can anyone make sense of this if even professionals struggle. Commissioner Griffin added that we tend to follow the path of least resistance. He spoke of the issue of emergency replacement of heating equipment. Can city staff jump in on HES visits? Commissioner Oppegaard added that the group also talked about some kind of survey to point people towards what would be helpful for them – most people don’t have time to research or educate themselves. Commissioner Shahidi said that people need follow-up and guidance and hand-holding, but there are only three city staff. What about ambassadors – can we focus on educating the leaders so that they’re doing more of the hand-holding? Ms. Ziring shared that there’s data privacy issues – we don’t know who has had an HES visit without them sharing with us. Commissioner Shahidi asked what about neighborhood ambassadors? Vice Chair Ashare said that their group talked about having a case manager per building. We have all these programs, we want participation, should we hyper-target a building or two, put energy in, make it a case study, build it out, etc. Commissioner Shahidi added that there’s a problem of people not even knowing how to reach out to city or that they should. Firefighters come into classrooms and kids talk about it for weeks. How do we make sustainability that exciting? Commissioner Oppegaard suggested doing experiments or exhibits or presentations at schools. She added that she has fond memories of the excitement when science staff visited her elementary school to do in-class experiments. It was a very impactful experience. Commissioner Giraldo suggested getting more people to come into Westwood and do exhibits and learn about the building. Ms. Ziring shared the ways in which staff currently engages with and promotes the Westwood Hills Nature Center and the building as a teaching tool. Vice Chair Ashare stated that Group 3 landed on hyper-targeting and focusing resources to have a couple of wins. She added that for transportation, until we make driving a big pain it’s hard to create policies to change. Ms. Ziring asked how can we incentive carpooling more? Environmental & Sustainability Commission Dec. 4, 2022 The group discussed the current school bus situation. Commissioner Giraldo shared that you have to opt-in to bussing for schools currently, but Commissioner Oppegaard added that there is still decently high ridership from her perspective at the high school. Vice Chair Ashare said that there’s messaging we could do with sports and activities related to bussing. Commissioner Griffin asked what part of the infrastructure should we be considering? Should we poll people? Vice Chair Ashare listed three strategies (identifying focal points or targets, identifying specific strategies, showcasing or pilot projects) and the link with schools and organizations. Commissioner Oppegaard asked if there is a way to get text notifications? She said not many people her age are going to read email. Texting is a good way to get younger adults involved. Ms. Ziring stated she is not familiar with the city’s limitations on being able to text people but would look into it. Ms. Pottorff replied that the city does it with snow emergency – it’s an opt in. Chair Willette said that they will digest all of these things and come up with a workplan for the following year. 7. Adjournment – 1:01 p.m. ______________________________________ ______________________________________ Emily Ziring, staff liaison Andrew Willette, chair member