Sustainability Commission

SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC) Meeting Minutes: August 6, 2020 Attending: Tina Lieberman (Chair), Peter Sheehan (Vice-Chair), Daniel Kirk-Davidoff (Secretary), Jason West (Energy Manager), Joe Coffey (Water Department), Lauren Alpert (Planning), Randy Milano (Engineering), Ewa Sobczynska (Outreach), Laurie Wheelock (Water), Sandy Misiewicz (Transportation), Andre Lake, Bill Trudeau (Traffic Engineer), Sarah Valis (Corporation Council), Scott Kellogg (Urban Ag), Hyde Clark (First meeting, new member, Mayor’s Appointee), Frank Zeoli (DGS), Gabriella Cebada Mora (Water) Absent: Chris Spencer (Planning), Randy Milano (City Engineer), Amy Lavine (Corporation Council) 1. Regular Business ● Tina Lieberman called the meeting to order at 6:06 pm. ● Tina reminded City Department Heads who are ex officio members of the SAC that if they cannot attend, they should send a designee per City Code. ● June 4, 2020 Minutes Approval: Minutes approved unanimously. ● Public comment period (meeting was open to the public via the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability Facebook page or the Sustainable Albany page and via emails to sac@albanyny.gov or Sustainability@albanyny.gov): No comments from the public were submitted. 2. New business ● Approval of the August 2018-May 2020 Annual Report. Annual report is due June 1 of every year. We are late, but the report has been prepared. Minor edits need to be done, and Sandy needs to add a few goals to the Transportation Committee section, but a motion was made to accept the report subject to these changes. The motion to approve of the Annual Report was passed unanimously. Tina invites us to participate in a future meeting to present the results to the Common Council Planning Committee (date TBD). ● Climate Action Commitments. Tina reviewed the Albany GHG Benchmarking Worksheet, which will be available in the SAC Dropbox. Lively conversation about particular goals, including availability of electric vehicles to meet specialized needs of DGS for example (however, these are in development: see e.g. https://www.greencarreports.com/news/1128049_all-electric-garbage-truck-being- tested-in-the-netherlands ). Scott wants to include local agricultural impacts on greenhouse gas emissions. Tina and Jason will explore how to widen the scope of the GHG inventory. ● MOU with SUNY Albany. Setting up a 4-year framework for collaboration between the City and University on sustainability issues. The document aims to capture many of the arrangements that have already been made with City departments, but also to focus on student opportunities, grant-making and grant applications that would support joint activities. 1  ● Proposed amendments to SAC by-laws. These are underway, and we will review them in more detail at the next meeting. Tina highlighted a few major suggested amendments: the ability for the Committee to invite non-voting members, meeting monthly instead of every other month, changing the name to Sustainable Albany. ● Environmental Equity Subcommittee: proposal by Andre Lake. Promoting ownership (in many senses), promoting solutions to redlining, environmental injustice, mental health consequences thereof. Wants to engage community leaders in the committee’s work, engaging religious communities, targeting youth for involvement. Andre has spoken to a few folks, and working towards getting this up and going. A more detailed description from Andre is attached. ● Community Choice Aggregation update: CCA is on hold for this year due to Covid disruptions of the energy market. Heat Smart Capital Region is a program to support free home energy audits and to replace heating systems with heat pumps (either air source or ground source). Generous rebates are being offered. https://heatsmartcapitalregion.com/ . There are job training opportunities there as well. ● Electrify NY: big efforts coming to expand EV charge stations in the Capital Region. Jason is working on getting two new charging stations in downtown Albany, each with two chargers. 3. Commissioner updates ● Joe Coffey (Water): Received second check for carbon offsets from forest preservations. The Beaver Creek Clean River Project will be built in 4 phases and the first two phases will be going out to bid this fall. Screenings from Beaver Creek will be directed to the Albany County South Wastewater Plant for processing. Looking to work with Bard college students to work on lead abatement in residences. Signed a letter of interest with an energy consultant who wants to generate hydrogen from water flow at our treatment plant, which would be used for hydrogen-powered vehicles. Water subcommittee had a good meeting, ● Bill Trudeau (Traffic). Traffic light replacements on CDTA river line. Started design effort with federal aid for pedestrian safety on Henry Johnson and Clinton Aves to improve walkability. Pedestrian safety plan for ~$ 4 million of construction is moving into action. ● Frank Zeoli (DGS). Getting back into swing on food waste composting. Debuting a new tree planting program: 2025 Tree Planting Initiative, stay tuned. Resetting on recycling initiatives that were planned for 2020 but will now start in 2021 due to Covid-related delays. 2 4. Committee updates ● Ewa Sobczynska (Outreach): focus on MOU with SUNY Albany, nothing else to report. Wondering if Neighborhood Associations are meeting virtually? ● Sandy Misiewicz (Transportation): City’s bicycle and pedestrian master plan outreach has been ongoing. Some demonstration projects are being identified. Sandy will get help from Jason on setting up zoom meetings. ● Pete Sheehan (Energy): Have invited a NYSERDA rep to talk to our committee about including sustainability measures in real estate ratings. Continuing work on educating the city on PACE financing for major retrofits. Meeting with folks from Troy and Schenectady on NYSERDA Stretch Code adoption, so Albany won’t be alone. ● Tina Lieberman (Zero Waste Education): Covered earlier as part of the GHG Benchmarking Worksheet. With the help of the 3 year DEC grant, Albany is planning to increase food waste diversion. NYS Food Donation and Food Scraps Recycling Law goes into effect Jan. 2022. This means all commercial producers of food waste of 2 tons or more per week, must compost if there is a viable facility within 25 miles. ● Laurie Wheelock and Gaby (Water): Covered by Joe. ● Scott Kellog (Agriculture): finished climate resilience program with AmeriCorp; Radix and Normanskill Farm have grown a ton of food with 35 volunteers. 5. Adjournment: meeting adjourned at 7:33 pm. Next meeting is Thursday, October 8, probably by Zoom. Minutes prepared by Daniel Kirk-Davidoff, August 6, 2020, Amended October 8, 2020 3  Legacy Building subcommittee Goal 1. To build awareness of sustainable living to underserved communities. ● Ownership ● Renewable energy vs non-renewable resources ● Recycling ● Composting ● Farming foods 2. Identify and target issues that face these communities in this day and age. ● Wealth Gap ● Redlining ● Mental Health ● Accessibility ● Environmental Justice ● Social Justice 3. Encourage participation to help achieve a sustainable lifestyle for today as well as future generations. Target 1. Local schools and other after school programs. Getting children involved. ● Kids or Teens can produce videos focused on issues and solutions ● Teen summit 2. Churches: Getting the buy-in of the churches that are visible in the area. ● Aggregate Solar Presentations and how one can participate ● Presentations on other energy efficient means. The difference an energy efficient home makes. 3. Community organizations. Partner with different organizations visible in the community and develop a relationship with those in line with our goals. Membership Recruiting Target 1. Identify community leaders 2. SAC members 3. Professionals in the field of Science, Government, Business, Medical. 4