Sustainability Commission

SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC) Meeting Minutes: November 5, 2020 Attending: Tina Lieberman (Chair), Daniel Kirk-Davidoff (Secretary), Jason West (Energy Manager, also representing Chris Spencer, Planning), Joe Coffey (Water Department), Lauren Alpert (Planning), Randy Milano (Engineering), Ewa Sobczynska (Outreach), Laurie Wheelock (Water), Sandy Misiewicz (Transportation), Andre Lake (Environmental Equity), Scott Kellogg (Urban Ag), Hyde Clark (second meeting, new member, Mayor’s Appointee), Gabriella Cebada Mora (Water), Randy Milano (City Engineer), Sarah Valis (Law Dept), Pete Sheehan (Energy) Absent: Zach Powell (Planning), Bill Trudeau (Traffic Engineer), Frank Zeoli (DGS) 1. Regular Business ● Tina Lieberman called the meeting to order at 6:06 pm. ● October 8, 2020 Minutes Approval: Minutes approved unanimously. Lauren will send them to the Common Council and the Mayor’s office. ● Public comment period (meeting was open to the public via the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability Facebook page and the Sustainable Albany Facebook page and via emails to sac@albanyny.gov or Sustainability@albanyny.gov): 2. New business ● Tara Donadio’s (Capital District Regional Planning Commission) presentation on Heat Smart Capital Region. She manages two NYSERDA grants: Clean Energy Communities Program (City of Albany is a grantee, new grants to be announced in the next few weeks), and the Heat Smart program. This program is directed to residents and businesses. In the Capital Region we’re focusing on energy efficiency, heat pumps and heat pump water heaters. Aiming to increase community deployment, by increasing awareness. Since people replace this equipment only once in 20 years or so, they need to be aware of the new fossil fuel-free technology when they make their purchase of a new heating system. Working with 6 heat pump installers and 2 efficiency contractors (needed many contractors since the grant covers a wide area). Shows a great map of households not attached to utility gas, which include many* in Albany, despite the availability of Natural Gas. For more information see: https://heatsmartcapitalregion.com/. Tina asks about block heating (multiple residences) and Dan asks about air-to-water for houses with radiator systems, and notes availability of heat pumps with DC inputs for direct solar pv connection. NYSERDA pilot program for low-income residents to pay for heat pump systems 100%. EmPower NY will pay 100% of energy efficiency upgrades like air sealing and insulation to $8000, for households that are at 60% or less of state median income. Will pay 50%, up to $4000, for households at 120% or less of state median income. Clean Heating and Cooling Campaigns through Clean Energy Communities Program will support installation. As a participating municipality, we would be aiming for 10 installations in Albany. CDRPC received funding to educate and develop a workforce for heat pump technology. Great person (Joanne Coons) at HVCC working on presentations to BOCES students. Goal: 33/heat pumps per year, 1  similar number for efficiency upgrades. Dan committed to reach out to Neighborhood Associations with information & a pdf flyer + follow-up calls. ● Proposed amendments to SAC charter: o Allowing guests to attend o SAC is name, Sustainable Albany is the program name. Discussion about consolidating Facebook pages. Jason and Ewa to discuss. o Meeting frequency: would meeting once a month take too much time away from subcommittee members? Comments tend towards the view that having the SAC meet monthly is helpful for momentum. Tina proposes meeting monthly for now on an ad-hoc basis (having “special meetings” every other month) and seeing how it goes for a while. ● Greenhouse gas emissions inventory. Jason shares his progress on putting this together. *One interesting note: residential oil appears to be trivial in Jason’s data, while Tara’s figures indicated a fairly high concentration of oil heaters in the City. Tara thinks her figures may be less accurate. ● Reif Larsen’s Future of Small Cities initiative. Public component with a variety of speakers (GE, EJ folks, Mayor of Gothenburg Sweden, youth & student organizers), concurrent work sessions to target biggest chunks of greenhouse emissions in the Capital Region. Reif asks: Who are the key stakeholders? What are stumbling blocks that could be overcome if the right people were in the room? Tina suggests having that discussion at another occasion since time is short - Pete suggests that Reif come to the Energy Subcommittee meeting for further discussion on Nov. 17th. 2 3. Commissioner Updates (none tonight) 4. Subcommittee Updates ● Agriculture Subcommittee (Scott Kellog): Tons of food produced and distributed to Albany neighborhoods over the summer. ● Water Subcommittee (Laurie Wheelock & Gaby Cebada Mora) o Workshop with the Water Department to brainstorm a climate action and sustainability plan for the Department. SAC will be notified of meeting date ● Zero Waste Education Subcommittee (Tina Lieberman): o Rewrote City’s composting brochure and submitted a draft. New focus on backyard composting, community drop-offs and pay for pick-up o Created a webinar on food waste reduction. Looking to co-sponsor that with the Albany Libraries. Suggest that Tara do that as well: easy way to get access to a big list for HeatSmart program. ● Outreach Subcommittee (Dan Kirk-Davidoff): o Discussion with Arlene Way and Andre re: some kind of video or audio show around sustainability issues aimed at EJ communities in Albany o Discussion with Mike Evans of Zilkha Center at Williams College on Winter Blitz weatherization program, follow-up with Outreach committee members. o MOA with U. Albany, developing an Action Plan, which we’ll bring back to the SAC at the next meeting. ● Legacy/Environmental Equity Subcommittee (Andre Lake): o Gathering members, getting into gear. ● Energy Subcommittee (P. Sheehan): Work resuming at our next meeting on the 17th. 5. Adjournment: meeting adjourned at 7:37 pm. Next meeting is Thursday, December 3, probably by Zoom. Minutes prepared by Daniel Kirk-Davidoff, November 5, 2020 3