Environmental Sustainability Council

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL ENERGY TRANSITION SUBCOMMITTEE Thursday, November 3rd, 2016 Laurel Room, City Hall MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Members Tim Stevens (Chair), Nisha Thirumurthy, Peter Adriance, Tom Cash, Aziz Shaik; City Staff: Kate Walker (Staff Liaison and Environmental Programs Coordinator), Loren Bruce (Planning Department) Public Comments: No public comments were received. Approval of Minutes (October 6, 2016): Minutes were approved with permission for edits New Business – Energy Planning Process: Tim shared that many jurisdictions in the metro area, and throughout the country, adopt community-wide goals relating to energy use, particularly greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Having goals is important both for focusing activity, and as a basis for requesting funding. Since the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments CEEPC committee (Climate, Energy and Environment Policy Committee) has already adopted recommendations to local jurisdictions for medium and long-term goals (20% reduction of GHG by 2020, and 80% reduction by 2050), the suggestion was to prepare a resolution for consideration by City Council that would officially adopt the MWCOG goals for our City. Tim and Kate will work on a draft resolution for consideration by the ETS at a future meeting. Ongoing Business - Lending Library Energy Toolkit: Tim shared results of discussion of this issue at a recent VPIS board meeting. Aziz did such a great job describing the use and benefits of the thermal imaging camera under consideration, that VPIS gave a preliminary opinion that they would like to fully fund the toolkit. A VPIS grant application will be completed by Tim, Kate and Mary McMahon, and submitted to them. Peter Adriance volunteered to help with outreach when all details regarding the toolkits are resolved. - Planning for next Solarize campaign: LEAP has agreed to support a 2017 campaign, to take place from April 18 through June 30 (Earth Day is April 22). This will give the ETS time to plan for a successful campaign. - GHG inventory: Nisha is obtaining data from Dominion for our government for electricity used by City government. Tim shared that we now have the MWCOG inventories for Vienna and Fairfax County, and that we could  substitute their factors for ours for categories where MWCOG results for us were not deemed to be credible. Work on this issue will continue. Information Items - City Hall Renovation – Kate provided a status report, highlighting efforts to select a “Construction Manager at Risk.” ETS will continue to monitor results. Tim mentioned the possibility of using low-interest QECB (“Virginia Saves”) bonds. - Meeting Day Change – No other day of the week proved suitable for all members to meet, so the consensus of the group was to keep the first Thursday of the month as our usual meeting date. - Campus geothermal study – additional data has been provided to Oak Ridge National Laboratory staff, so that work on the study can continue. - Awards: Kate shared that VML has given Falls Church City the Platinum level award, for the VML “Go Green” challenge. - PACE: Arlington now expects to adopt an ordinance in January.