Sustainability Commission

SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC) Meeting Minutes: April 7, 2022 Attending: Jason West (Director of Sustainability, non-voting), Gabriella Cebada Mora (Secretary, Water), Laura Gulfo (Office of Council), Andre Lake (Environmental Equity), Scott Kellogg (Urban Agriculture), , Joe Coffey (Water Department), Tina Lieberman (Vice Chair, Zero Waste), Daniel Kirk-Davidoff (Chair, Outreach), Violetta De Rosa, Jackie Gonzales (Environmental Equity, Outreach), Frank Zeoli (DGS), Poulomi Sen (Planning Department), Bill Trudeau (Police Dept Traffic Engineering), Randy Milano (City Engineer), David Hochfelder, Non-members: Paul Mendel (Energy Subcommittee member), Michelle Rogat (City of Albany Climate Justice Fellow), Susan Dubois (Energy Subcommittee member), Mark Schaeffer (Energy Subcommittee member), Luis Aguirre -Torres Absent: Harriet Lewis (Transportation) 1. Regular Business – 10 minutes ● Call to Order and roll call – Commissioners, please send designee if unable to attend o Tina Liebermann called the meeting to order at 6:11pm following technical issues /inability to live stream to FB. Since public access to the meeting was not available approval of minutes/voting did not take place ● Review/Approval of March 3, 2022 minutes o Held for next meeting ● Public Comment Period (Approx. 3 minutes per comment) o Public comment period (via emails to sac@albanyny.gov or Sustainability@albanyny.gov): No comments. 2. New Business –85 minutes ● (40 min) Invited Speaker o Luis Aguirre-Torres, Sustainability Manager of Ithaca, NY on the Ithaca Green New Deal - PhD in engineering in mathematical modeling, entrepreneur, lived/worked several countries, worked with then California Governor Schwarzenegger administration on climate legislation and worked for the Obama administration on climate legislation, worked in Latin America on climate legislation, moved to Ithaca and became Sustainability Manager - Ithaca Green New Deal proposal GND proposed carbon neutrality by 2030 but was vague, lacked specifics 1 To achieve goals, needed significant investment – hired as the Sustainability Manager to calculate cost of GND and find a path forward Translated into basic objectives – proposed 80% by 2030 i. Reduce energy intensity by 50 % ii. Carbon by 90% Used a mathematical model to calculate carbon emissions from different sources (400k CO2e) i. Brokedown where emissions coming from throughout city Summarized initiative into 4 strategies: Energy efficiency (can reduce by 30%)/ decarbonization (can reduce by 20%)/ electrification (can reduce by 30%), carbon capture / sequestration (20%) i. Buildings can reduce emissions by 50% ii. Carbon neutral biofuels and carbon capture and sequestration iii. Energy efficiency (30%) – thermal envelope, waste and circular economy and EPR (reduce food waste, change containers) , use more public transportation – working on business model to make it free (operates at a loss so if try not to make profit will save) iv. Electrification (30%) - power generation, distribution, appliances (space and water heaters, clothes dryers and replace with ground source and air source heat pumps – ground source preferred), induction cook tops, starting program to begin full electrifications at restaurants 1. Economies of scale v. Decarbonization (20%) - co-benefits, solar panels, electrify transit buses and garbage trucks (charging of buses take a lot of energy looking to carbon for solution) vi. Carbon cap/ sequestration 1. Take sludge from wastewater to use to create biochar waste and hydrogen to use to fuel Climate Justice – Disadvantaged Communities (DAC) need to benefit from GND, 2  i. Looked at federal govt Justice 40 initiative was looking and at NYS Climate Justice Working Group (CJWG) for how to defines DAC. Both had short comings ii. Created own DAC definition that combined elements of both Justice 40 and CJWG 1. Give 50% back to DACs New climate action plan – 1000 conversation about the future i. Talk to friends and families and upload conversations to website: 1000 conversations Partner with Elmira, Binghamton, Ithaca, Rochester, Syracuse for Green Jobs – underemployed – shared cost of childcare, transportation, language access, to get trained and work in Ithaca Working with NYSEG – new rate case - $56M assigned to Ithaca to upgrade 2 substations and transformers to enable electrification Building city with energy resources that need to be managed and micro grid, interconnected Ithaca City Council wants to let market guide funding (hit 25%), 50% with some govt participation, 75% with active commitment, 100% commitment will be $2 billion (Green New Deal) i. For $2B need to find the financial resources Ithaca Green New Deal ongoing programs i. Climate Action Plan, Climate Justice, Democratic Engagement, Workforce Development, International Cooperation, IGND Scorecard, Community Choice Aggregations (local power and new model not implemented in US – need time stamp kwh to be generated – partner with Google, Microsoft and UN/ energy storage will be critical piece), Efficiency & Electrification (retrofit and electrify all buildings using flexible capital, reduce risk and pay people to participate), EV & Charging (working w NYSERDA to provide used EVs for $500-$800 and lease battery, if have low FICO score will provide lower rate), Distributed Energy Resource, Resource Management (circular economy), Low-carbon fuels (hydrogen) - Q- 24/7 carbon free electricity Canceled Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets - believe can do better, go for full decarbonization, buy 3 energy that is 100% carbon free, with a REC can’t guarantee where carbon goes i. Buying timestamped RECs – buy more than what can use, put in storage and have storage compensate at night, need to time stamp each KWh used to guarantee they are carbon free – very complicated- looking to pass resolution for 24/7 framework for Community Choice Aggregate (CCA) – timestamp REC more expensive than conventional REC – CCA 3.0 would generate extra revenue to compensate Q - Avoided fuel costs, efficiency is crucial can you speak to retrofitting, cam you speak to piping retrofit needs i. $2B is invested in infrastructure, best is to underground essential infrastructure – study done in Texas by Texas A&M – part of reason not affordable is due to natural gas, not allowed to dig near pipelines /within certain number of feet. This plus microgirds, plus increase efficiency equals $2 billion price tag ii. Yes to piping – all depends on distribution and modeling, in Feb the model showed that heat pumps not efficient but only for a few hours Q – Use of block chain and why significant i. Moving towards model of digital energy – RECs, certificate of origin – can do that with block chain and turn into digital energy units, if time stamp can have 24/7 CFE framework – want to make sure info is not tampered with. Tell owners will have 30% reduction and 15% savings and give 5% to donate to low income to help with energy bill but need block chain to do that transfer – it’s a clearinghouse and no $ exchanges hand. Q – what legislation can we do for new buildings i. Shared a slide showing legislation in Ithaca to address this - model is same as NYC passed ii. Certificate of Occupancy - when building owner requests this they have 6 months to comply for energy standards iii. Benchmark Law – buildings 10ksqft and larger (social cost of carbon, benchmark disclosure upon sale, electrification upon refinancing) iv. Demonstrate actual ways to make progress, everything doing, especially at scale counts as climate risk 4  disclosure and effects positivity rating of city – Treasury Guidelines federal reserve 1. Also look at new roll of govt – everything is off balance sheet of city but improves the rating for city, data driven Q. Data management/analysis – specific software or platform? i. No, use Cornell and info gathered in City and County, partnered with Google for building orientation and models 1. Enter into model from Cornell ES Lab (a lot of GIS) a. Can rank by type of system, age etc Q. how start conversation with utilities i. Connect with DPS, need to put into rate case – go to Public Service Commission meetings critical Q outreach on equity engagement, how going i. Have a large number of volunteers, went to leaders of communities and engaged in continuous conversations Collect follow up questions to send to Luis ● (5 min) Reports on meetings with Common Council Planning Committee o Discussed what SAC was working on, strengthen communication with Common Council ● (5 min) SAC Annual Report due June 30th (Gaby) o Who wants to help? ● (10 min) Election of Treasurer o Voting postponed – technical difficulties prevented public from accessing meeting ● (15 min) Director of Sustainability, Commissioners and Subcommittee Chairs: Updates o Jason – - Climate Justice Intern (Michelle) working at City Hall, meeting with grasstops to learn issues and priorities of community – shift focus to utility shut off and working with PULP and neighborhood associations, and found possible funding - Working with Hyde for legislation to benchmark buildings over 1000sqft, Commented [GM1]: Not sure i got this # right 5  - Applied for small grant from NOAA for urban heat island mapping, didn’t get grant but will work with Radix and volunteers - GHG inventory for local govt operations - Pesticide management board reconstituted to oversee pesticide use and exemptions in city - NYPA utility bill integration – monitors and provides monthly reports, pilot ending o Poulomi - Brownfield opportunities - LWRP for waterfront o Joe - Focus on Earth Day activities – Dept oriented activities o Bill - Nothing new, helping other depts w their projects o Randy - Gearing up for busy construction season, supply chain issues and rising cost, applying for grants for numerous projects, CDTC program, infrastructure bill $ ($4B) consumed by state, start programming that on April 20th o Scott - South End Earth Day –Sat 23rd o Violetta - Met in Feb, identified need for additional data o Tina - Zero Waste (NYS Organics Summit) - Albany Compost Program presented, have tent for tulip fest - a lot of slots could use a second, need more workshops/presenters to present on Saturday, borrow DEC Office of Climate Change posters, collect food scraps at Tulipfest, Food Waste webinar approved by DGS –looking for venues to deliver webinar o Gaby - no updates, need assistance with year-end report o Andre - event participation (AVillage) o Upcoming events, call for Volunteers - 5 minutes 6  - Drive Electric Earth Day/ SAC tent event at Westminster Presbyterian on April 23, 2022 11 - 3 pm. - South End Earth Day, April 23, 2022 9 am to 2 pm (SAC tent: 11:30 to 2 pm.) - Tulip Festival, Sat. May 7 and Sun. May 8, 11 am-6 pm 3. Next meeting –Thurs. May. 5, 2022 at 6 pm. 4. Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 7:28pm. Minutes prepared by Gabriella Cebada Mora April 7, 2022 7