Environmental Sustainability Council

Falls Church Environmental Sustainability Council Thursday July 21, 2016 7:30 - 9:30 pm Dogwood Room, G Corridor Minutes – Prepared by Thomas Cash 1. Call to Order Present: Ray Arnaudo (Chair), Peter Adriance (Vice Chair), Phil Skotte (Member), Cory Weiss (Member); Thomas Cash (Member); Tim Stevens (Energy Transition Subcommittee Chair); Dan Sze (City Council Liaison); Tika Wallace (GMHS Student representative); Loren Bruce (Staff); Chris McGough (Acting Staff Liaison); Dan Jackson (Visitor - Alice Ferguson Foundation Board President) 2. Approval of Minutes Minutes of the June meeting will be ready for review and approval at our next meeting. Minutes of this meeting were prepared by Thomas Cash on behalf of Andy Crawford. 3. Resignation of Chair Chairman Arnaudo is stepping down due to relocation of family. The election of his replacement will be at our September meeting. 4. ESC Vision It was agreed to remove “residential” from solid waste recycling to include all areas. The final draft is planned to be ready for vote on September. 5. Streetscapes Phil Skotte will fill in for Cory at the August 9th meeting of the Streetscapes Task Force. The Task Force will do a walk-through of the City on July 30th of Broad and Washington – Cory will circulate information. Ideas and topics were discussed for the ESC member to present at the next meeting of the Task Force. 6. City Council Member Update The MWCOG Chesapeake Bay and Water Resources Policy Committee (CBPC) and the Climate, Energy and Environmental Committee (CEEPC) will hold a joint meeting in the COG Board Room in downtown DC, on July 27th, from 10am-noon. The meeting will feature a panel discussion on water and energy resilience. VML will be holding a meeting in Richmond covering topics including environmental emergencies, solid waste management, hazardous waste, parks/open space, noise pollution, energy use and climate change. 7. GMHS Food Waste Composting Tika Wallace is working with FCCPS food service director to provide food waste bins to separate compostable waste from trash. Food waste could then be picked up from the school by a commercial company such as Compost Crew for offsite composting.  8. Energy Transition Subcommittee The subcommittee is working on mapping solar in the city to help promote solar. The concept is to map streets with solar to encourage neighbors to join in the next Solarize campaign. 9. Staff updates A food waste drop-off facility has been located behind the community center. It is open 24/7 but can be locked if vandalism or abuse occurs. The company “Veterans Compost” has the collection contract. Pay-as-you-throw is under consideration as a way to minimize the cost of the City’s Solid Waste Management program. Possible approaches include selling stickers to pay for removal of large items and facilitating separation of compostable material to reduce household trash. The goal is an overall cost reduction for those who generate less waste. 10. Member updates Phil Skotte is working on inspection and verification of invasive vines around the City. 11. Next meeting The ESC will not meet in August. Our next meeting will be on September 15th, 2016. Minutes will be prepared by Phil Skotte.