2011-03-23 Climate Advisory Committee Minutes

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March 23, 2011 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program Committee Notes for March 23, 2011. 7PM (Next Meeting — April 13 at Town Hall) Present were Ray Porter, Joan Boegel, Tony Capobianco and Stephanie Anderberg. Meeting opening —Chair Ray Porter opened the meeting. Minutes — The minutes of the February 9 and March 9 meetings were approved with edits from Gina. Other Business to add to agenda — discussed later in the agenda. Energy Roundtable — went well! There was a reasonable attendance from a mix of downtown businesses. The small conference room (lunch room) was filled. Some action items came out of the event. A past president of the Chamber asked for a tips webpage for small businesses (not just links to other pages). Irene from the Chamber offered to add a "green" page to their website. The opening statement from the bank was impactful and mentioned that customers are looking for green businesses, so it's an opportunity for the bank to differentiate itself from competitors. The Economic Development Committee has a Welcome to Reading kit, and it was suggested that we add a short tip sheet to that. The committee gained from the experience in terms of suggestions on how we can work with the business community. Businesses that lease instead of owning property can't make the large changes such as heating and ventilation but we and they need to think about how to convince the property owners to make such improvements. Still some resistance from renters to take that on but Jared has done some of the initial work on this so we may be able to work with the information he has started to compile. The idea of a "green business" sticker or award didn't raise a lot of interest. There is still some demand for more parking. Ron did a lot of work on this event and the bank was a very good host. Jared did a nice presentation tailored to the audience and National Grid also gave a presentation and noted their website (which is considered to be very good). Earth Day Events — (note: Earth Day is also Good Friday). Nature Walk: Ron has done a lot of work on the Nature Walk events, including arranging for a tree donation, inviting special guests and talking with the Wood End principal and town forrester. Tony, Joan and Stephanie can join Ron at the event. Bike Recycling_ Betsy has made a lot of progress in ironing out event details. Ray and Joan can be at the event to help out. Other Events: Brief discussion of the idea from the previous meeting, to have sustainability workshops about gardening, a food business (restaurant, etc) focus for the next green round table, and so on. It's hard to find the time as the Committee is somewhat overbooked at the moment. But CSAs might be another topic of interest. Maybe if we work cooperatively with climate or green groups in neighboring towns, we could get help and a larger audience. This discussion should continue at a later meeting. Climate outreach programs — Some topics covered in previous items, such as joint workshops with other towns, sustainable food green roundtable. Library: new talk on sustainable living Lorrainne from the library attended the business roundtable and listed resources that the library provides. Sustainability topics are becoming a feature of our library. Mattera Cabin: Joan talked to Fran Fink regarding supplies from NEGEF funds and learned that the. Pepsi volunteering is not happening as the paperwork didn't get filed in time. There may be other volunteers available in the fall. The expected cabin grand opening date is April 30. Estimated time needed at the cabin is about a half day with a team of volunteers — mostly caulking. Actions items progress update — Green Sense: We have a supply of topics for a little while. Other Business — Clean Energy Forum: March 29. RMLD Designee: no progress. Kudos: to the Committee. We should pause every so often to recognize that our efforts have had some impact.