Sustainable Maryland Committee (Green Team)

Sustainable Maryland Committee Meeting Minutes October 2, 2023 Attendance Chiara Atoyebi Daryl Braithwaite Dorothy Estrada Irma Nalvarte Janet Owens Orissa Samaroo Jeremy Schwartz Emanuel Wagner Sophia Yarrow Discussion The meeting was called to order at 7:06. The SMC adopted the minutes of September11, 2023. (1) Dorothy Estrada, Takoma Park Sustainability Manager, opened the meeting with an overview of the Sustainability Manager role which includes oversight of the TP Sustainable Maryland Committee. In her overview she highlighted the overall purpose of the Committee and its specific duties and responsibilities: (i) Identify projects of interest to the City and relevant to Sustainable Maryland goals; and (ii) Assist in documenting information required for certification by Sustainable Maryland. Dorothy Estrada noted that the fy23 sustainability budget had been reduced to $540,137 of which 65% has been committed to fy23 electrification rebates. (2) The overview discussion was followed by questions directed to the Mayor about how the Committee could meet its responsibilities of recommending relevant actions to the City Council for its Sustainable Maryland certification. The Mayor indicated that recommendations will have more impact if they are made reflecting the budget calendar, and that a joint meeting would be most timely between November and January. The Committee agreed to add a mid-month meeting, October 16, 2023, to discuss specific actions that could be proposed to the City Council. The actions proposed should be feasible for the fy24 budget cycle and state impact on target audience, cost and existing resources.  (3) The draft Maryland Climate Pathways report was discussed in overview. Recommendations of the report will be discussed in further detail to identify how they align with existing Takoma Park climate actions and whether they present feasible opportunities for new actions within the fy24 budget cycle at the October 16, 2023 meeting. (4) The impact of food waste on greenhouse gas emissions was briefly discussed. In light of Takoma Park’s pioneer efforts in Montgomery County to collect and compost food waste from interested residents it was suggested that the city could both scale up this action to make compost collection mandatory for all households and to launch an education campaign to reduce food waste. An overview of the issue with more details will be circulated to the committee for review. The next meeting was scheduled October 16, 2023 at 7pm. The Committee agreed to hold the meeting in person only at the TP Public Works Dept. because of the difficulty in managing the microphone audibility across the hybrid format during this meeting. The meeting adjourned at 8:35 pm.