Sustainability Commission

SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC) Event Minutes: November 4, 2021 Attending: Daniel Kirk-Davidoff (Secretary, Outreach), Jason West (Energy Manager, non- voting), Gabriella Cebada Mora (Vice Chair, Water), Laura Gulfo (Office of Council), Andre Lake (Environmental Equity), Pete Sheehan (Energy), Bill Trudeau (Police Dept Traffic Engineering), Lauren Alpert (Planning Department), Hyde Clark (Outreach), Scott Kellogg (Urban Agriculture), Harriet Lewis (Transportation), Joe Coffey (Water Department), Tina Lieberman (Chair, Zero Waste), Jackie Gonzales (Environmental Equity, Outreach). Non-members: Barbara Buck, Outreach Intern, Tara Donadio, Capital District Regional Planning Commission Absent: Randy Milano (Engineering), Frank Zeoli (DGS) 1. Regular Business ● Tina Lieberman called the event to order at 6:01 pm. ● Motion to accept the October 7, 2021 minutes is approved. ● Public comment period (meeting was open to the public via the Mayor’s Office of Energy & Sustainability Facebook page and the Sustainable Albany Facebook page and via emails to sac@albanyny.gov or Sustainability@albanyny.gov): No comments. Brief discussion of EV charge station availability in downtown neighborhoods. 2. New business ● Implementing the Clean Energy Community Campaigns – 3 campaigns (Energy Efficiency/Heat Pumps, Community Solar and Electric Vehicles) approved by NYSERDA on 10-18-21. (Tara Donadio, Capital District Regional Planning Commission and Hyde Clark). Albany County is playing a coordinating role for all communities that want to participate. Participating communities include Guilderland, New Scotland, Bethlehem, Menands, Colonie, Berne, and the City of Albany. For Community Solar the group is working with Solarize Albany, which in turn is working with Nelnet and PowerMarket IO, both of which are providing $200 to participants who sign up. For electric vehicles, the group is working with CDTC, dealers are confused about the logistics, we need some enthusiastic dealers to join in and help figure it out. Clean Heating & Cooling (working with HeatSmart Capital Region). Heat pump water heaters count – Tara just bought one. Energy Efficiency – we need more vendors. Tina is talking with the Affordable Housing Partnership and True Building Performance to figure out a way to work together. We’ll need volunteers to follow-up with people who contact our webpage or fill out our online questionnaire. We can steer income-eligible folks to AHP (80% of area median income or less). Others can be steered to an authorized NYSERDA energy auditor. If they just want information on heat pumps, we could send them to HeatSmart Capital Region’s website. Homeowners have to hire authorized NYSERDA specialists to do energy efficiency upgrades to count towards our goals. Tara will check about whether clients of the Weatherization Volunteer Corps can qualify. County made a nice flyer for all three programs. Tara’s slides will be attached to the 1  minutes. Tina’s working on customizing this flier for Albany’s campaign and possibly a series of testimonial fliers with pictures of residents.  Weatherization Volunteer Corps (Dan Kirk-Davidoff). We’ve got 25 people trained and are doing one more training at our first houses this Saturday. Hyde mentions that STEAM garden at the Central BID as a place where we could do training.  Climate Smart Community recertification (Jason West). Jason could use help with coming up with new projects to identify as goals for the next application, and with thinking about realism and the big picture.  NYSERDA Regional Green Energy Hub PON (RFP 4630) (Tina) It turns out that this is a replacement for a prior RFP that put the energy advisory (Kathleen Langton at the Affordable Housing Partnership) in place for the eight-county region. NYSERDA is looking for a lead and a co-lead organization that would help with outreach for NYSERDA programs to the counties, with a particular focus on environmental justice communities. The deadline will be in early January. Groups are forming to respond to these requests – the budget will be in the neighborhood of $7 million. Cornell Cooperative Extension, the South End Investment Corporation and other South End groups are looking into responding.  New Chair needed for the SAC. Tina wants to step down, and happy to train and advise. The election will be January 7, 2022.  Commissioner Reports o Planning (Lauren Alpert): Continuing with outreach activities. A grant was obtained from America Walks to do demonstration projects, e.g. of traffic cut- outs at North Manning Blvd, with murals. These will be coming down as the weather gets colder, but there will be new projects in the spring. o Traffic Engineering (Bill Trudeau): Helping with the demonstration projects mentioned above. New business: pedestrian safety action plan bids are out, with federal funding, for work to be completed by December 2022. Clinton Ave and Henry Johnson Blvd and a few other intersections are candidates. Supply side shortages of pavement marking paint are an issue. o Joe Coffey (Water): Lead water service program is accelerating. Adjustments in the grant amount are possible. The Beaver Creek project is moving along, nice graphics available on the Department Facebook page and webpage. Looking at putting in tide gauges on the Beaver Creek trunk discharge to keep water from backing up. Constructed Wetland along Hackett Blvd is being looked at. Joe’s been attending a water affordability conference with a bunch of other NY communities. Joe wants to map out affordability by ward, thinking of adjusting the rate schedule to get rid of the minimum bill. About 13% of bills get rolled over to property taxes (sometimes this may just be for convenience, but in other cases it may contribute to housing insecurity). Maybe a round-up option on the water bill for an assistance fund for low- income folks. In response to a question from Tina, Joe points out that dripping faucets and running toilets are a much bigger source of water waste than the saving that could be achieved with aerators.  Subcommittee reports 2  o Outreach (Dan): Weatherization Volunteer Corps has been the main activity. Barbara, our SUNY Albany intern, continues her great work publicizing our work on social media. o Transportation (Harriet): Met virtually this month. Discussed focus on transportation improvements for quality of life in Albany. o Energy (Pete): Meeting canceled this month. o Water (Gaby): Meeting canceled this month. o Equity (Andre): Video project is still shooting – but done with B-rolls, working on interviews and editing. Working with Arlene Way (Arbor Hill Development) on Environmental Justice issues. Cat, a senior at Greentech High, is helping out with video work. o Urban Agriculture (Scott): November 13 will be the first South End Biocultural Tree Planting Event. Volunteers are lined up, but he needs more, could use some tools from the City. Radix got a grant to build a solar- powered pontoon boat to service the floating islands. Scott has a new book: Urban Ecosystem Justice: Strategies for Sustainable Equity and Ecological Literacy. o Zero-Waste (Tina): wrapping farmers’ markets. Joining the Radix Educator at the Lark Hall Winter Market Sunday, November 14, 11 am to 4 pm , promoting Composting and Clean Energy Community campaigns, and continuing on one Sunday per month through March. Talking with the organizers of Tulip Fest to have a big Sustainability Tent, also working on having a tent at other big events. Looking forward to having four (two additional) community composting sites next year. Proposed that the City allocate $2 million for protected bike lanes. Joe would like to have the water department join in with the Sustainability Tents, happy to help with some funding for materials. 3. Adjournment: Event adjourned at 7:30 pm. Next meeting is Thursday, December 2, 2021, by Zoom. Minutes prepared by Daniel Kirk-Davidoff, October 7, 2021 3