Sustainability Commission

City of Sunnyvale Meeting Minutes - Final Sustainability Commission Monday, March 19, 2018 7:00 PM West Conference Room, City Hall, 456 W. Olive Ave., Sunnyvale, CA 94086 CALL TO ORDER Chair Paton called the meeting to order at 7:02 p.m. in the West Conference Room. SALUTE TO THE FLAG Chair Paton led the salute to the flag. ROLL CALL Present: 6 - Chair Bruce Paton Commissioner Dan Hafeman Commissioner Adriana Imbre Commissioner Stephen Joesten Commissioner Kristel Wickham Commissioner Steven Zornetzer Council Liaison – Glenn Hendricks (absent) PRESENTATION 18-0274 PRESENTATION - City of Sunnyvale’s FoodCycle and Other Waste Diversion Programs Mark Bowers, Solid Waste Division Manager, presented an update on the FoodCycle program, including the results of a recent program evaluation study. Preliminary data (February 2018) from 690 inspected residential garbage-food scraps carts indicate that the program is recovering 4,400 pounds of food scraps monthly (originally estimated to recover 4,000 pounds). The program is diverting 18 percent of the garbage that would otherwise have been landfilled; collected food scraps are converted to animal feed. Mr. Bowers provided clarification responses to the Commission’s questions. 18-0275 PRESENTATION - Commissioner Presentation: Commercial Waste Diversion Programs City of Sunnyvale Page 1 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 19, 2018 Commissioner Imbre presented information on best practices for improving waste diversion programs at commercial waste facilities. Commissioner Joesten provided a deep dive into Infinera’s waste diversion program across its global facilities, and reviewed successes and challenges. He recommended that the City examine the possibility of collecting and composting single-use compostable dishware, which is used in many major commercial offices in Sunnyvale, and also recommended that the City consider moving to single-stream commercial recycling. Mr. Bowers clarified that the City’s food scraps collection program is not designed to capture single-use compostable dishware as only a small proportion of the content of these items biodegrades. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS Linda Davis, a representative of the League of Women Voters Cupertino-Sunnyvale Chapter, presented information on an initiative to significantly reform Proposition 13. The proposed initiative would require that commercial property taxes be re-assessed to market rates every 3 years. The impact of the initiative would result in a net increase in annual property tax revenues of $6.5 to $10.5 billion, which could be allocated to schools and local governments for community uses. CONSENT CALENDAR 18-0273 Approve the Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes of February 20, 2018 Commissioner Wickham moved, and Commissioner Joesten seconded, a motion to approve the consent calendar. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 5 - Chair Paton Commissioner Hafeman Commissioner Imbre Commissioner Joesten Commissioner Wickham No: 0 Abstain: 1 - Commissioner Zornetzer Commissioner Zornetzer abstained as he was not present at the February 20, 2018 meeting. STANDING ITEM: CLIMATE ACTION PLAN (CAP 2.0) UPDATE City of Sunnyvale Page 2 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 19, 2018 Commissioner Wickham shared that the City held a successful workshop for CAP 2.0 on March 3, 2018. She encouraged the Commission to share the link to the CAP 2.0 online challenge platform with their contacts, and to submit their own ideas via the Excel template provided by staff. The CAP 2.0 draft framework will be presented to the Commission in November, and to City Council in December. STANDING ITEM: CONSIDERATION OF POTENTIAL STUDY ISSUES 18-0276 Potential Study Issue: City-wide Strategy for Mobility Chair Paton reviewed the key points from his February meeting presentation. He proposed that the City Council consider creating a citywide mobility strategy, similar to that adopted by the City of Seattle, to improve congestion and reduce transportation emissions. Such a strategy would encourage the City and regional transportation agencies to consider a holistic approach to mobility, rather than focusing on plans that individually address specific modes of transportation separately. Vice Chair Hafeman recommended that a Mobility Commission be set up in Sunnyvale to guide this type of exercise. Melody Tovar, Director (Interim) of Environmental Services urged the Commission to review the transportation-related proposed Study Issues for 2018, with attention to Council’s rationale for approving, deferring, or dropping those. She also recommended that the Commission examine Joint Venture Silicon Valley's Managers Mobility Partnership (which does not include Sunnyvale) to see if this Partnership offered any opportunities for a collaborative mobility plan. Staff will work to bring Chip Taylor, recently appointed Director of Public Works, to a Commission meeting in the future to discuss this topic. 18-0277 Potential Study Issue: Public-private Partnerships for Autonomous Vehicle Pilot Tests Vice Chair Hafeman noted that the potential study issue he proposed was distinct from CDD 18-09, which focused on potential policies that could help Sunnyvale prepare for autonomous vehicles. In contrast, the Study Issue he was proposing would focus on building public-private partnerships to pilot autonomous vehicles as an alternative (cleaner) mode of transportation in Sunnyvale. He noted that he would be working further to gather information on whether private companies that are developing autonomous vehicles may have interest in such a project. Chair Paton observed that it might be good to frame this Study Issue around the first and City of Sunnyvale Page 3 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 19, 2018 last mile problem that characterizes Sunnyvale commutes. Other Commissioner Wickham moved, and Commissioner Imbre seconded, a motion that the Commission consider and add to the next agenda a discussion of a potential Study Issue to examine whether recycling and food scrap bins can be deployed citywide in public places to encourage greater diversion away from landfills. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6 - Chair Paton Commissioner Hafeman Commissioner Imbre Commissioner Joesten Commissioner Wickham Commissioner Zornetzer No: 0 NON-AGENDA ITEMS & COMMENTS -Commissioner Comments Commissioner Wickham noted that the next Sustainability Speaker Series, entitled Hidden in Plain Bite by Katie Cantrell, will focus on food sustainability and will be held on May 16, 2018. Commissioner Joesten shared that ridesharing services are now beginning to offer subscription-based services. He also observed that affordable housing had become a critical issue in the Bay Area; only 21 percent of the workforce is employed by the high-paying technology sector, leaving most of workforce struggling to cope with higher costs of living. Commissioner Hafeman noted that the CAP 2.0 Ideas Workshop was extremely well-organized, energetic, and was the most interactive community meeting he had attended. He noted, however, that the ideas proposed were not ambitious enough to achieve significant emissions reductions. Most ideas proposed by the community still maintained using automobiles as the primary mode of transportation. Chair Paton also observed that the CAP 2.0 Ideas Workshop was very successful. He commended the design-thinking approach in truly helping identify and address the barriers faced in encouraging community members to take sustainable actions. City of Sunnyvale Page 4 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final March 19, 2018 -Staff Comments Nupur Hiremath, Sustainability Coordinator, encouraged the Commissioners to share the CAP 2.0 online challenge platform with their contacts. She shared that the City will host its Living Green Fair on April 22, 2018 at the Library. Ms. Hiremath answered clarifications regarding the Commission’s request for more frequent reports on the status of CAP 1.0 actions, noting that the current biennial reporting cycle was the only time that CAP actions were tracked. She noted that staff is hoping to improve this process of implementation and reporting as a part of CAP 2.0. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 9:40 p.m. City of Sunnyvale Page 5