Environmental Sustainability Council

Environmental Sustainability Council Meeting March 16, 2017, 7:30-9:30 PM, Dogwood Room, City Hall Minutes 1. Call to Order Members: Cory Weiss (Chair), Chris McCloud, Andy Crawford, Peter Oppenheimer, Tom Cash, John Ward, Sarah Bayldon City Staff & Council: Kate Walker (Staff Liaison & Environmental Programs Coordinator), Dan Sze (City Council Liaison) Public: Tim Stevens (ETS Chair), Chris Norloff, Kristi Thompson Hatfield, Andy Young 2. Approval of Minutes (Feb 16th) Minutes of the previous meeting were agreed to without objection. 3. Work Session/Ongoing Business LEED in Mixed-Use Development: The ESC continued discussions related to providing green building guidance to the City. Our top priority is that all special exception buildings should meet LEED Silver or better. There was discussion of whether the ESC should recommend LEED Silver or better, or LEED Gold or better. In addition, the ESC discussed whether the ultimate product of these discussions should be an aspirational statement from the ESC or recommendations on a green buildings policy that we would advise the City to adopt. The ESC agreed for the time being to develop recommendations for a green buildings policy that encourages LEED Silver or better, modeled on Arlington’s Green Building Policy. The existing draft list of suggested voluntary concessions (VCs) for special exceptions developments in the City was reviewed. It may be possible to achieve a streamlined approach by identifying specific priority credits within the LEED framework for interested developers to pursue, rather than having a separate list of VCs. Environmental issues addressed by existing regulations, City Code or otherwise required by law do not need to be separately addressed. Moving forward, the ESC will consider specific credits of interest within the LEED certification framework and come up with a list of priority credits that will support achieving our goals. We will also determine whether there are issues (such as energy efficiency goals) that are either not in the LEED framework or not addressed in such a way as to support our goals, for which proposed VC language might be needed. Research may be needed to determine appropriate metrics and cost-benefit analysis for priority setting. LEED in public buildings: The ESC supports a minimum of LEED Silver certification for the new high school, and hopes the schools will aspire to more. 4. Information items  EDA (Peter Oppenheimer) – No update  Student representatives – The ESC continues to welcome the participation of student representatives. We will endeavor to ensure they have specific project activities to work on.  ETS and Planning Commission (Tim Stevens) – The Planning Commission will hold a public meeting on 3/25 at Mary Ellen Henderson Middle School, from 8:30-11:30 AM, to kick off the Small Area Plan for the schools campus site.  Staff Updates (Kate)  All lighting at Aurora House is being upgraded to LED, providing a good opportunity for comparison data.  The City GreenSpace Team has been clearing invasive plants and removing construction debris from Isaac Crossman Park, and the Habitat restoration team will be continuing their efforts and planting with natives over the next month - the next event is March 25 from 10-12.  Five companies responded to Chris McGough’s RFP for major and curbside pickups of compostable waste.  Youth Representative Tika is pursuing the possibility of acquiring a composting machine for George Mason High School.  Calendar review - Congressman Beyer will visit City Council on March 27th; the Solarize kickoff event is 4/23. 5. Next meeting Thursday, April 20th, 2017 in the Dogwood Room at City Hall.