Sustainability Commission

SUSTAINABILITY ADVISORY COMMITTEE (SAC) Meeting Minutes: May 5, 2022 Attending: Gabriella Cebada Mora (Secretary, Water), Laura Gulfo (Office of Council), Scott Kellogg (Urban Agriculture), Joe Coffey (Water Department), Tina Lieberman (Vice Chair, Zero Waste), Daniel Kirk-Davidoff (Chair, Outreach), Violetta De Rosa, , Frank Zeoli (DGS), Poulomi Sen (Planning Department), Non-members: Michelle Rogat (City of Albany Climate Justice Fellow) Absent: Jason West (Director of Sustainability, non-voting), Andre Lake (Environmental Equity), Jackie Gonzales (Environmental Equity, Outreach), Bill Trudeau (Police Dept Traffic Engineering), Randy Milano (City Engineer), David Hochfelder, Harriet Lewis (Transportation) 1. Regular Business – 10 minutes o Call to Order and roll call – Commissioners, please send designee if unable to attend Meeting began without quorum at 6:05pm. Quorum reached at 6:41pm, official meeting called to order o Review/Approval of March 3, 2022 and April 7, 2022 minutes Motion to Approve March 3rd minutes, Motion Passed Motion to Approve April 7th minutes, Motion Passed o Public Comment Period (Approx. 3 minutes per comment) No public comments received 2. New Business –65 minutes o (10 min) SUNY Interns – updates (Tina, Jackie, Dan) Interns drafted report on weatherization volunteer corp Internships ended this week Two interns will be helping at Tulip Festival o (10 min) Update on Clean Energy Community Campaigns – 3 campaigns (Energy Efficiency/Heat Pumps, Community Solar and Electric Vehicles) approved by NYSERDA on 10-18-2. (Tina, Jason, Jackie) Dan – CANA presentation Jason providing presentation tomorrow Reached 10 signups for energy efficiency and heat pumps Enough electric vehicle (EV) purchases in city zip codes to apply for another grant 1. Dan will look into updated list Water bill flyer on energy efficiency o (5 min) Review of Earth Day activities (DEED and SEED) Great event at Westminster Presbyterian on EVs, inform public on EV purchase etc. Event was 3 hours. Drive Electric Earth Day – CDTA will have e-bikes and e-scooters available, rent electric car at various locations  South End Earth Day – tabled on sustainability, signed up for energy audits. Clear need for how to help renters with energy efficiency. 1. Need to find out more from renter perspective – providing options for what they can do for energy efficiency/ composting Dan will give talk on weatherization on May 21 – training needs: train individuals to do work and get work out into the community Tina confirmed with Kathleen Langhton (AHP) tenants, landlords are able to apply for EMPOWER subsidy- up to $10,000 for energy efficiency work and also for heat pumps 1. Provide this information to City Neighborhood Stabilization Coordinator (falls under City Building and Codes) - can 2. Also connect with City Codes Dept or in Dept of Housing and Development (Housing Services Advocate) Good Neighbor School – TRIP (Troy Rehabilitation Improvement Program) Daniel 3. Albany Community Development Agency (ACDA) has a lot of grants available for homeowners – changing name to Albany Housing and Community Development a. Receiving comments on draft environmental o (5 min) Review of Tree Planting on Sunday, May 1 (Scott) o (10 min) Review of needs for Annual Report (Gaby) Working with Violetta o (5 min) CaD proposal for waterfront (Dan) Climate adaptive Design program through Cornell/HREP 1. https://wri.cals.cornell.edu/hudson-river-estuary/climate-change-hudson- river-estuary/climate-adaptive-design/ Letter signed and sent out, need to identify next steps Scott Townsend and others very motivated on this o (5 min) Election of Treasurer Motion to appoint appoint David in abstentia as Treasurer of SAC o (15 min) Director of Sustainability, Commissioners and Subcommittee Chairs: Updates Joe Coffey – 1. Tivoli Preserve some of the trees and fence were removed and will be replaced a. SWCD soliciting grants for stream and tributary restoration work/ culvert enhancements b. Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) grants open – have projects will submit c. GIGP projects through EFC - d. 2022 projects – i. DGS street paving combine with lead service replacement ii. Ramping up lead service program 1. Pothole at curb stop to look at pipes 2. New 2024 regs require all water systems to ID where all cooper and lead lines are (mapped) Frank 1. Paving programs, fixing potholes 2. Arbor Day event with DEC, College of St Rose, School District a. Planted about 100 trees in Lincoln Park w TOAST b. DEC wants to do events with City vs separate state event 3. Asked by DEC for City to be kick-off of compost awareness week – did on Monday – DEC announced new grant a. City used previous grant to create backyard composting program 4. Earth Day activities for several weeks including clean-ups “Great Albany Clean-up" removed over 15 tons of trash, 18 neighborhood and civic groups 5. Announcing changes to compost program in coming months and waste reduction programs Poulomi 1. Next few months focused on public outreach, Patroon Creek Greenway, Brownfields, LWRP (Local Waterfront Revitalization Program) 2. https://www.patroongreenway.com/ 3. https://www.albanynywaves.com/ Tina 1. Getting ready for Tulipfest – 24 volunteers helping for food scrap collection, about 10 stations to separate food scraps/ recycling/ waste 2. Sustainability tent at Tulip Fest – DGS table w info on recycling, composting, tree planting (SAC table, water dept table, planning dept table), DEC providing posters on climate change, several groups (over a dozen vendors and tables) 3. Alive at Five events with food scraps collection, also looking for volunteers to be at SAC tables during events. Looking for public volunteers a. If you can sign up to help out at Live at Five and Sat Sept 10th - Jazz Fest - sign up here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1cYozAFb9U2K2nT4sx wYnza-LDQVPitxcaXge2K2yGpQ/edit?usp=sharing Scott 1. 2 street tree plantings , April 16 and May 1 a. Planted about 50 tree May 1 reaching almost 100 trees planted b. Each tree needs 20 gallons per week water, looking for citizen corps to help water trees i. Hoping people are local and bringing water to trees ii. Have Americorp and EcoJustice associates to go around w waterbarrel to water trees c. Can Fire Dept help? Will have people come fill up bottles at Radix, all trees within 5 blocks of Radix. Can’t us hydrants. Will use water bags (tubes) to wrap around base of trees to help provide water. i. Water Dept might be able to help fill those bags on a weekly basis ii. Frank (DGS) and Scott will follow up on tree watering  Violetta 1. Bring attention to anti-idling ordinance in Albany / educate residence on dangers of idling / customized a document to educate public and will distribute at Tulip Fest 2. Looking for more info on city fleet conversion plan – looking for a city rep to join meeting to answer some of the questions that come up...maybe Bill Truduea? a. Two electric vehicles have been ordered to be shared by City Office b. Water Dept looking to ramp up transition to EVs – but procurement issues, take 6 months to year to acquire, also lithium shortage for batteries...supply chain issues and lag times making it difficult to hit targets c. DGS looking to purchase fleet vehicles as electric but also purchasing hybrids, still researching on larger electric equipment due to power need. Michelle 1. NY CAC CJWG have draft DAC criteria, minimum of 35% going to DACs once designated (every household considered low-income is included in DAC benefit) a. Albany has 13 tracts ID’s as DACs b. Converted tracks to wards and how much of each neighborhood is designated i. 19,600 households (about 44% of Albany population) designated as DAC ii. Overlaid with historic redlined neighborhoods and initial look appeared to align c. Created report and will be sharing with wards d. State accepting comments until July 7 e. Should SAC submit comments? Next month agenda - add item for comments on CJWG and CAC 3. Upcoming events, calls for Volunteers o Violetta - Helderberg Neighborhood Assoc interested in composting at home, want to conduct demonstration Can DGS provide some literature? May 14th 9:30-10:30am– Violetta will connect w Frank next week If use this as a model have DGS person attend at some of the meet and greets Next meeting –Thurs. June 2, 2022 at 6 pm. Held by zoom.  If local municipality chooses could do hybrid but would need a quorum physically present with others joining remotely Adjournment: Meeting adjourned at 7:03pm