Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAbout2007-10-03 Cities for Climate Protection MinutesOctober 3, 2007 Reading Advisory Committee on Cities for Climate Protection Program Committee Notes for October 3, 2007 (Next Meeting - October 10"' at Town Hall) Committee Meeting 7:00 PM, present were Michele Benson, Tracy Sopchak, Gina Snyder, Ron D'Addario Joan Boegel and Stephanie Anderberg. Welcome - Chair Gina Snyder opened the meeting, welcoming all present. 1Vlinutes - A motion was made to approve the meeting notes of September 12. The motion was seconded and passed. Green Sense Articles - A motion was made to use Green Sense Articles to discuss the facts of climate change but not to endorse or criticize political candidates. In the ensuing discussion, the motion was amended to say that if the article has any political elements, it would need to be approved by a vote of the committee at a meeting. The motion passed as amended. Conversation on Climate event planning - Before beginning this discussion, Gina shared information on the Nexus Center, which has green building displays, and hosts programs like Green Building 101. Also, Michele mentioned that she will be attending the Environmentally Preferable Purchasing fair. The committee then worked on details for the October 4 Conversation on Climate event in Reading. Speakers had generally said they could attend, but hadn't formally replied and on the other hand hadn't indicated that they had any questions or concerns, so it looks like everyone plans to be there. Gina & Tracy had each worked on possible handouts for the event, which were passed around to committee members. The committee agreed to use the handouts, with minor edits, and appreciates the work of Gina & Tracy to put them together. Michele also shared a sample flyer that would be used to promote RMLD's current Change- a-Light campaign, with a copy of the recent, related Green Sense article printed on the back. The committee discussed room layout and supplies for refreshments, and generally concluded that we were prepared for the event. Updates on Green Team/idle/SR2S programs - Gina's meeting with Pat Schettini was postponed to next week. Joan met with John Doherty & Mary Delai a few weeks ago to talk about the Green Team program. At the moment, they are not prepared to promote it to the teachers. The issue is curriculum/MCAS priorities as well as the current focus on the energy committee's work; they don't want to divert resources for a new program. It is unclear whether a teacher could volunteer on his/her own. It's just that they don't want to push it on teachers at the same time as the other efforts. Joan asked about the status of recycling at the schools, and Mary felt that paper is recycled at all schools, but not necessarily containers. But Mary expects to have a more detailed report on recycling later this month. John said that he is concerned about the state standards having very little focus on the environment, in addition to other issues of concern that are not addressed. A team of science teachers is working on designing an environmental program to be added to our curriculum. It sounds as if there might be an opportunity for us to meet with this team to offer input. Mary had mentioned that the energy committee is being "shifted" as it is very large. (Michele clarified here that the format is more subcommittee meetings and contact between the subcommittees, but whole- committee meetings are now less frequent - only quarterly.) There is some question as to whether all schools have been audited. Michele clarified that the reason is that the new schools don't require an audit, but simply a walk through, as there are less needs at the newer schools. Audits are focused on buildings that have more needs which are more likely to be addressed. RMLD provided the occupancy detectors which are now found in town buildings. Some other "low hanging fruit" efforts have been implemented in town buildings. Mary said that they had had a meeting with Quincy Vale on the possibility of using alternative energy sources. For next steps, Joan said that our committee would like to have some involvement in the environmental curriculum process, and they seemed open to the idea, so the committee just needs to plan to follow up on this. We'll put this question on the agenda for next week so we can talk about how best to proceed. Also, by then, Gina will have met with Pat Schettini. Action Plan items - We could look to vote at the next meeting on which items should be prioritized, but for now, the committee reviewed the results of the ranking exercise. There was a question on the protocol for prioritizing and whether we need Selectmen approval of our item ranking. We will explore the answer to this. Our ranking tool showed 9 items that show as top priorities for implementation: • Municipal no-idling campaign • Municipal energy-efficient buildings program • Non-motorized transport to school program • Residential water conservation program • Schoolwide no-idling policy • Community shade tree program • School climate change education • Residential energy-efficiency program • Looped bus service (could drop in priority if grant doesn't come through) Some of these items are closer to being in more of a "maintenance" mode for the committee, but other items will require much more effort to implement. Some "medium" priorities need to be considered for promotion to higher priorities: • Community no-idling program, because we would already be working on employee & school programs, so it makes sense to fold this into the effort. There was some question about how to reach the community, but an idea would be to reach them at sites where we commonly see idling, such as at the commuter rail station. • Walkable Reading - it's already happening so we can support it, and it is not far from being in "maintenance" mode for the committee. • Municipal green purchasing policy - again, an item which is nearly in maintenance mode as far as for committee effort. • Municipal renewable energy program - this is already in the works at RMLD. As far as committee effort, this will just be maintenance as well. • Reading Recycles - we have a subcommittee working on this and we only need to assist them as we can. • Police units on bikes - our effort is maintenance. • LED lights program - if we receive a grant. • Municipal shade tree program - we would already be working on the community shade tree effort, and Walkable Reading is interested & might get a grant. Some "back burner" items might warrant getting promoted to medium priorities: • Library energy resource bank - this requires very little expense to implement. • Green Yard campaign - efforts are already underway, such as this past spring's seminar and related Green Sense articles. • Green Building code - there is some movement on this already. Tracy will send an email to committee members, with a summary of groupings for us to preview before final ranking decision and voting at the next meeting. NE & CCP meetings coming up - Joan attended last year's New England regional meeting, and while it was very interesting, it might not have as much use to us this year, given that we are further along in the process. Michele suggests we plan to use the November 28th meeting to meet with RMLD and discuss propose Action Plan items which would involve them. They could get a packet of info to read ahead of time and then use the meeting time for them to ask questions.