Sustainability Commission

City of Sunnyvale Meeting Minutes - Final Sustainability Commission Monday, May 21, 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 7:00 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 Stephen Joesten Commissioner Kristel Wickham Commissioner Steven Zornetzer Commissioner Douglas Kunz Council Liaison – Glenn Hendricks (absent) Commissioner Doug Kunz arrived at 7:09 p.m. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. CONSENT CALENDAR 1 18-0507 Approve the Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes of April 16, 2018 Commissioner Joesten pulled the draft April 16, 2018 meeting minutes from the consent calendar and requested that they be amended to reflect that Silicon Valley Leadership Group (SVLG) would be holding a Sustainability Summit, rather than a meeting, on May 24, 2018. Commissioner Wickham moved, and Commissioner Zornetzer seconded, a motion City of Sunnyvale Page 1 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final May 21, 2018 to approve the consent calendar as amended. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6 - Chair Paton Commissioner Hafeman Commissioner Joesten Commissioner Wickham Commissioner Zornetzer Commissioner Kunz No: 0 PUBLIC HEARINGS/GENERAL BUSINESS 2 18-0508 Annual Review of the City Manager’s Recommended Budget Full budget available online at: <https://sunnyvale.ca.gov/civica/filebank/blobdload.asp? BlobID=25605> The Commission discussed the City Manager’s Recommended Budget for FY 2018/2019 (hereafter Recommended Budget) and asked clarification questions of staff. Vice Chair Hafeman asked for clarification on why many of the major programs within the Environmental Services Department (ESD) were unfunded, including Climate Action Plan implementation. Melody Tovar, Interim Director of Environmental Services, explained that most departments had a list of projects that were similarly unfunded, and the City’s Budget process funds programs in 2-year increments as a part of its Projects Budget cycle. She also clarified that the Recommended Budget for the first time discretely identifies Environmental Sustainability Programs as a separate program (Program 368) within the ESD budget, to help track and monitor sustainability program dollars more closely. Ms. Tovar noted that the City’s sustainability initiatives are supported by additional sources of funding as well, such as grants; and that some other sustainability initiatives, such as Green Building Program updates, are funded as a part of ongoing programs within departmental budgets. The Commission discussed several issues including: the need for greater visibility of sustainability staff in the organization to ensure effective coordination of CAP implementation across the City’s operations; the value of and need for long-term planning for funding future climate action efforts as a part of the City’s operating budget; and greater transparency, accountability, and benchmarking of City’s City of Sunnyvale Page 2 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final May 21, 2018 sustainability spending, which could inform future budget development. Nupur Hiremath, Sustainability Coordinator, explained that the minutes of this meeting would be transmitted to City Council for their consideration at the Budget Adoption meeting in June. Commissioner Zornetzer moved, and Commissioner Joesten seconded, a motion to provide the following recommendations on the Recommended Budget to City Council: (1) Identify a sustainability baseline budget, including (a) clearly identifying funds allocated to sustainability initiatives across department budgets, (b) identifying the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction budget as a subset of the sustainability budget, and (c) benchmarking Sunnyvale’s sustainability budget to other cities’ sustainability budgets; (2) Incorporate CAP 2.0 implementation in the City’s 20-year budgeting cycle; (3) Consider and plan for funding requirements in all city departments that will be necessary to implement the more ambitious strategies from CAP 2.0 and for meeting the state’s GHG reduction target; and (4) Create higher visibility and accountability within the Budget process for expansion and long-term implementation of CAP and sustainability initiatives, by (a) considering and budgeting for the long-term addition of a Chief Sustainability Officer or Sustainability Office within the Office of the City Manager, and (b) including environmental sustainability performance indicators in the City Manager’s performance plan. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6 - Chair Paton Commissioner Hafeman Commissioner Joesten Commissioner Wickham Commissioner Zornetzer Commissioner Kunz No: 0 STANDING ITEM: CLIMATE ACTION PLAN (CAP 2.0) UPDATE City of Sunnyvale Page 3 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final May 21, 2018 Commissioner Wickham announced that the next meeting of the CAP 2.0 Advisory Committee (CAC) would be held on Thursday, May 24, 2018 at 6:30 p.m. at the Community Center. Nupur Hiremath invited Sustainability Commissioners to attend the meeting if interested, as the CAP 2.0 consultant team would be presenting draft scenarios for 2030 and 2050, which is the crux of the technical analysis for CAP 2.0. Commissioner Joesten asked about the level of electric vehicle infrastructure being planned for the new Civic Center and requested that information be provided. Commissioner Joesten moved, and Chair Paton seconded, a motion to add to the June meeting agenda an item to review and discuss the amount of EV infrastructure being planned for the Civic Center, if such an item was needed based on the information provided by staff. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6 - Chair Paton Commissioner Hafeman Commissioner Joesten Commissioner Wickham Commissioner Zornetzer Commissioner Kunz No: 0 STANDING ITEM: CONSIDERATION OF POTENTIAL STUDY ISSUES Vice Chair Hafeman moved, and Commissioner Joesten seconded, a motion to add to the June meeting agenda an item to consider proposing a Study Issue on examining the feasibility of a dockless electric bicycle program in Sunnyvale. The motion carried by the following vote: Yes: 6 - Chair Paton Commissioner Hafeman Commissioner Joesten Commissioner Wickham Commissioner Zornetzer Commissioner Kunz No: 0 NON-AGENDA ITEMS & COMMENTS -Commissioner Comments Commissioner Wickham shared that the second event of the 2018 Sustainability Speaker Series, Hidden in Plain Bite by Katie Cantrell, was very successful and City of Sunnyvale Page 4 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final May 21, 2018 acknowledge staff efforts in coordinating and holding the event. Commissioner Zornetzer requested that staff share the feedback received from the attendees of the first two Speaker Series events with the Commission. Commissioner Kunz shared the top recommendations made by the Customer Program Advisory Group (CPAG), on which he serves, to the Silicon Valley Clean Energy (SVCE) Board of Directors. These recommendations included: beneficial electrification readiness assessments; bill explorer feature to educate customers on elements that drive cost of their utility bills; residential battery storage; electric vehicle charging; beneficial electrification support for customers. He noted that SVCE’s priorities were aligned with making a positive climate impact. Commissioner Joesten shared that he will be attending the Sustainability Summit of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group on May 24, 2018. Chair Paton shared that he had helped to update the Environment Day curriculum of the Leadership Sunnyvale program and held a mini ideation workshop, modeled along the lines of the CAP 2.0 Ideas Workshop on March 3, 2018. He also shared that while conducting research into a purchase of an electrical vehicle (EV) for himself, he identified several supply chain issues with EV batteries, including environmental and social issues related to child labor. Commissioner Hafeman noted that he had found emails from OhmConnect, a demand-response management app, useful to help him reduce his home’s peak load. Commissioner Hafeman also recommended Commissioners review the last issue of the National Geographic, which focused on plastic pollution. He also shared that he attended the National River Cleanup Day event on May 19, 2018, at which fellow volunteers observed that they were finding significantly fewer plastic bags as litter but significantly more single-use disposable dishware, particularly styrofoam, than in previous years. -Staff Comments Nupur Hiremath, Sustainability Coordinator, made several announcements including: (1) Ramana Chinnakotla had been appointed as the new Environmental Services Department Director and would start his term on May 31, 2018; (2) the Green@Home program, an online energy audit program, would be available City of Sunnyvale Page 5 Sustainability Commission Meeting Minutes - Final May 21, 2018 to residents through June 30, 2018; (3) the next two Speaker Series events would be held on September 26, 2018 and November 8, 2018; (4) the Water Pollution Control Plant (WPCP) tours is re-starting community tours, with the next tour scheduled for June 23, 2018; (5) SVCE submitted a grant application focused on a residential heat pump water heater retrofit program for $500,000 (with a 1:1 match) to the Bay Area Air Quality District's 2018 Climate Protection Grant; (6) the Mayor or other Councilmember would be present at the June Commission meeting to provide certificates of recognition to Commissioners who had termed out or had resigned during the past year. She also previewed the June Commission meeting agenda items, which would include a presentation of the CAP 1.0 Biennial Progress Report findings, noting that the staff presentation on local and regional adaptation efforts would be deferred to a date later in the year. ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 9:35 p.m. City of Sunnyvale Page 6