Environmental Sustainability Council

ENVIRONMENTAL SUSTAINABILITY COUNCIL ENERGY TRANSITION SUBCOMMITTEE Thursday, July 6th, 2017 Dogwood Room, City Hall MINUTES CALL TO ORDER: Members: Tim Stevens (Chair), Thomas Cash, Andy Crawford, Nisha Thirumurthy, Aziz Shaik City Staff Liaison: Kate Walker (Environmental Programs Coordinator), City Council Member/Liaison: Dan Sze Public Comments: No public comments were received. New Business Legislative Priorities 2018: We will write up a memo with our state legislation recommendations to submit to the city for the upcoming 2018 legislative. Tim will circulate a draft to committee members for comment. We will request NVRC, Bob Lazaro to contact the Rubin Group for a stakeholder meeting. RubinGroup2017@gmail.com Ongoing Business Solarize Campaign: The 2017 campaign is now completed. Falls Church signed up more interested parties/population than anyone else participating in the program this year. Lessons learned: What attracts people to get involved with the program is not clear. Documentation and surveys are not fed back through to the ESC. Ideas to improve were targeting the best locations in Falls Church based on mapping. Ideas to improve the program are requested. Schools Campus Development: Due to the uncertainty of the status of our school buildings, solar has not had a clear path forward. Dan, Tim and Kate heard a presentation by Solar City in June. They were familiar with obstacles dealing with VEPGA. Geothermal - Oak Ridge has estimated a $350k increase over traditional HVAC. Perkins Eastman gave an estimate and said it would be $1.7M increase over a traditional HVAC. Perkins Eastman used Davis construction for the estimate and they quoted a hybrid system instead of a straight geothermal system. COG spoke with City Council and the School board on June 19 and stated that the geothermal system would work as a standalone system and would not require a hybrid system as quoted by Davis construction, thereby significantly reducing the cost of a geothermal system. As of this time, our understanding is that plans for a new high school include a geothermal system. Development Projects: City Hall project has been reduced to improvements to improve safety for Law Enforcement and Judiciary, due to cost constraints. This includes a new HVAC system that focuses on upfront cost. Planning for the 10 acres of commercial development on the Campus site is primarily being led by City Council. Cottage Housing: first reading approving the project was passed by city. GHG Emissions Reductions Resolution and Inventory: Nisha and Tim will plan to meet with COG staff (Maia Davis) to discuss data sources and methods for calculating a GHG inventory for the City. This is to focus on the 2015 Inventory study.  Information Item PACE: Arlington has not completed staff work in preparation for proposing a PACE ordinance. We anticipate that their Board will take up this ordinance later this year. Renewable Energy for the City: The idea of Community funded renewable energy program. Need to investigate if the City can administer or if another group needs to be chosen. Next meeting: Thursday, September 7th, 2017.