Sustainability Commission

SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC) Meeting Minutes: April 2, 2020 Attending: Tina Lieberman (Acting Chair), Daniel Kirk-Davidoff (Secretary), Jason West (Planning, Energy Manager), Scott Kellogg, Joe Coffey (Water Department), Lauren Alpert (Mayor’s Office), Andre Lake, Sarah Valis (Corporation Council), Amy Lavine (Corporation Council), Frank Zeoli (DGS), Ewa Sobczynska, Peter Sheehan, Laurie Wheelock, Sandy Misiewicz, Gabriella Cebada Mora Absent: Chris Spencer, Randy Milano (City Engineer), Bill Trudeau (Traffic Engineer) 1. Regular Business ● Meeting held by Zoom teleconference, delayed by hacker attack, reconvened at 6:33 ● Tina Lieberman called the meeting to order. ● Jason West introduced himself; he’s excited to be part of our effort. ● February 6, 2020 Minutes Approval: Minutes approved unanimously, as amended. ● Public comment period (meeting was open to the public via the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability facebook page)- no public comments 2. New business ● Community Choice Aggregation. The enabling law passed the Common Council, and the Mayor’s public hearing was held on March 16. Knox did not pass the enabling law, but 13 communities have joined, with over 90,000 residents. Plan is to choose a default plan that has a larger renewable contribution than National Grid currently offers. There will be a standard mix choice, or a 100% renewable choice. Tina is hoping that MEGA will negotiate to get a third choice that would be about 70% renewable, but still cheaper than National Grid historically, that municipalities could choose as the default choice. ● Climate Emergency Resolution. This passed the Common Council. We’ve been asked if we would like to include any concrete action steps as amendments. Tina and Ewa will solicit concrete action steps from our members and circulate proposed steps among the Common Council members and relevant City departments. Our goal is to have a set of steps ready for approval at our next meeting, although several members noted that due the present Covid-19 emergency, availability of City staff and Common Council Members may be limited. ● Proposed Amendments to SAC By-Laws. o Add the Build-Smart New York Five Cities Energy Program Albany Energy Plan to the list of documents in the Preamble. o Remove Section 1 of Article VIII o Change Section 2 of Article VIII to correct addresses. o Discussion is tabled- a subgroup will get together with Jason to look over all of the by-laws and recommend all needed changes ● Election of Officers 1  o Chair: Ewa nominates Tina, Dan seconded the nomination. Tina is unanimously elected. o Vice-Chair: Frank Zeoli Nominates Pete Sheehan, Tina seconds, Pete is unanimously elected. o Secretary: Pete nominates Dan, Ewa seconds, Dan is unanimously elected. ● Summary reports from subcommittees are due by June 1, 2020 for a bi-annual report covering the period August 1, 2018 through May 31, 2020. We should be doing these on an annual basis. Tina will send out a form that subcommittee heads can use to fill out their report, get Jason’s input into the table we’ve used in the past for summary of subcommittee activities, and Tina and Ewa will compile the report with assistance from Jason and Dan. ● Dylan and Tina are going to work on 3x/yearly summary reports based on the minutes, that will be reviewed by the committee before being sent to the Common Council and the City Departments. ● Alternative Earth Day Plans (Earth Day Eco-Challenge , https://earthday.ecochallenge.org/users/login, , Cooperative Gardens Commission ( https://www.experimentalfarmnetwork.org/project/28 ), aiming to revive the Victory Garden idea for the Covid-19 crisis, Zero-Waste Subcommittee will be doing a webinar on Zero-Waste). ● Covid-19 Response of SAC. What can we do? Tina suggests that we support the Buy-local, Grow-local campaign per the attached flyer. The committee agrees unaminously that Tina should send this to the Mayor’s office with the approval and support of the SAC. Ewa adds that we can post this on the Mayor’s office of Sustainability and the Sustainable Albany Facebook pages. 3. Commissioner updates ● Joe Coffey (Water): Focusing on day-to-day operations, and on resiliency, to support and enhance services to vulnerable facilities such as the dialysis center on Clara Barton Blvd. ● Frank Zeoli (Operations): Working on food waste composting program. Focusing on getting through the present crisis, will have more to report next time. The RFP for a full-time food-waste reduction and composting is complete and will soon be public. 4. Committee updates ● Scott Kellogg (Agriculture): Subcommittee is urgently trying to scale up food production on all levels throughout the city, trying to get seeds started and get people access to starts. The subcommittee is working to anticipate food shortages due to labor shortages due to closed borders. Working on figuring out social distancing rules in gardens. They are in great need of soil, and request help from DGS. Frank says they can pick up soil tomorrow. Scott will call tomorrow. ● Sandy Misiewicz (Transportation): Canceled last meeting, hoping to reschedule. CDTA ridership is down 70%, overall traffic is down 60%, air traffic at Albany Airport is down 95%. 2  ● Pete Sheehan (Energy): The subcommittee is working on the Stretch Code, PACE financing, getting the IDA to add energy efficiency as a condition of financing, and working on grading houses on energy efficiency at the point of sale. ● Ewa Sobczynska (Outreach): Meeting with Lark BID was canceled; outreach continues via the Sustainable Albany facebook page and person-to-person efforts. ● Tina Lieberman (Zero Waste Education): Held meeting online. They are working on offering mentoring for composting, holding a zero-waste 101 webinar. Working on getting the DEC grant for food-waste reduction up and running. Working on supplying the Office of Cultural Affairs with information they can post on recycling and composting for a Virtual Tulip Fest. ● Laurie Wheelock (Water): Absent 5. Action Items/ Discussion of next meeting on June 4, 2020 ● Lauren’s trip to Germany, training on sustainability. 6. Adjournment: meeting adjourned at 7:50 pm. Next meeting is Thursday, June 4, probably by Zoom. Minutes prepared by Daniel Kirk-Davidoff, April 2, 2020 3  Greetings, The Covid-19 pandemic has been a shock for all of us. Amidst pressing public health concerns, it has brought local businesses to their knees and made us all painfully aware of the fragility of our food supply chain. We believe that an appropriate response to this crisis, both now, in honor of the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, and after the pandemic subsides, would be to ask communities and individuals to be part of a "Buy Local, Grow Local" campaign. We think this is a practical, sustainable approach to caring for ourselves and others in our community, and will bring many advantages in the short and long term. In brief, here's what the campaign looks like: Who: County and municipal officials along with local businesses and BIDs, food pantries, garden and agricultural organizations, and environmental groups Where: Capital Region communities What: Buy Local, Grow Local: a public awareness campaign When: Before a return to business as usual after the Covid-19 crisis Why: 1) Support local business owners and workers, and increase local business revenue 2) Enhance each community's resilience to crises through local food production 3) Lower greenhouse gas emissions caused by shipping products/food long distances 4) Reduce organic waste in landfill, lower methane emissions, and revitalize depleted urban soil by encouraging backyard composting of food scraps There are already many community organizations that support the idea of buying and growing locally and would provide concrete listings of merchants and craftspeople, plus information and how-tos on gardening and composting. Therefore, we would like to create a digital presence to publicize the Buy Local, Grow Local campaign and partner with local organizations to provide helpful resources to community residents which could include: • A “Buy Local, Grow Local” network, with listings of local businesses organized by product and services • A listing and/or links to agricultural resources, as well as practical gardening and composting tips We hope your organization will agree to endorse this campaign by adding its name to the sign-on letter attached. We are not asking for money; endorsement just means showing your support. Together we can use this opportunity to plant the seeds for a more sustainable and resilient future. Please sign-on! With gratitude and blessings, Tina Lieberman-Cohen, Sustainability Advisory Committee of Albany Sandy Steubing, PAUSE - People of Albany United for Safe Energy Diana Wright, Zero Waste and FoodScraps 360 Francis Magai, ______________ 4