Advisory Taskforce on Energy & Environment

The Mayor’s Energy & Environment Task Force Room 101, City Hall Monday, 7:00 p.m., June 30, 2014 Mr. Kydes called the meeting to order at 7:10 p.m. I. ROLL CALL John Kydes Eric Gribin Steve Klocke Diane Lauricella Kerry O’Neill Dianne Selditch Bill Wrenn II. OLD BUSINESS A. School Recycling Mr. Kydes has met with DPW, City Carting, facilities staff at schools (visited 12 schools). At Mayor’s recommendation, it was suggested to form a sub-committee of this task force to focus on this issue. It would have 9 members and would report back to the task force and the Board of Ed. 5 members have already been recruited and the members don’t have to be members of the task force. The goal would be to have the sub-committee up and running in the fall. They would focus on initiatives to engage schools/students on recycling. There would be a monthly unscheduled visit to schools (one a month) to assess how recycling is being done in those schools. The Board of Ed would give the sub-committee the authority to make suggestions to each school to improve. Anyone interested in serving on this sub-committee should contact John Kydes. Ms. Lauricella asked that the Board of Ed policy on recycling be re-examined, since it puts the burden on principals for implementation. It was discussed what schools needed – things like signage, bins, a roadmap for how to implement, assembly to kick it off/educate. Mr. Gribin asked what the challenges are in implementing recycling. Mr. Kydes recommended that the initial focus should be on cafeterias and libraries. It was discussed that it would be ideal if it were mandated that recycling be implemented in cafeterias and libraries. Mr. Gribin suggested looking into Recycle Mania for competitions between schools. Mr. Gribin also mentioned CT Green Schools as a resource. Ms. Selditch talked about recruiting students to be recycling “cops”. Mr. Gribin also suggested recognizing people who were doing the right thing, as opposed to calling people out who weren’t doing the right thing. Ms. Lauricella mentioned C.J. May who used to run Yale’s recycling program, a magician who is fun and engaging around recycling.  Ms. Lauricella also mentioned integrating this initiative into STEM efforts at the schools. B. School & City Facility Benchmarking Mr. Gribin reported that final reports are due at the end of July. Went from 4 buildings to 8 and twenty-two school buildings. Final reports will have charts and graphs and benchmarking. Mr. Gribin is hoping the grant will be renewed in the fall. Mr. Gribin mentioned that they have been in touch with the Third Taxing District to get some funding to look at buildings in their district. Mr. Kydes would like to sit down with the Mayor and George to review the final reports and help the City to prioritize. Mr. Gribin mentioned that they met with Assistant Chief Reilly regarding getting energy data for firehouses, which will be needed if future funding is secured. Letters of support were discussed for future funding. Mr. Gribin discussed that this report is focused on energy efficiency priorities, not renewables, and that the energy efficiency opportunities should be pursued first. Ms. O’Neill and Mr. Gribin discussed leveraging this report to examine the opportunity to utility performance contracting (part of the Lead by Example initiative). Matt Cohen of DEEP and Andy Brydges of CEFIA can educate the task force about Lead By Example financing options. Ms. Lauricella asked if this report would identify why the NHS co-gen facility is no longer operational, and Mr. Kydes asked Mr. Klocke to check with Steven Winter regarding co-gen expert assistance. C. Energy Challenge Mr. Kydes reported that Corporation Counsel is still looking into whether the task force can earn revenue. This question needs to be answered to figure out how to move forward. Corporation Counsel is also looking into whether the task force has to go out to RFQ to select vendors. Ms. Lauricella reminded the task force that we can still be planning events. III. NEW BUSINESS A. C-PACE Grant The new grant will be managed by the new City marketing director. Ms. Lauricella recommended that the task force meet with Jessica Bailey at CEFIA to get educated on C-PACE and Ms. O’Neill recommended that we ask for lessons learned from other municipalities. The group discussed several ideas for getting this going. B. Event / Sports Authority Ms. Dixon brought Mr. Kydes an opportunity to be with LiveGreen at Sports Authority – an opportunity to promote the task force and/or the Energy  Challenge. The event is Saturday, July 12th from 7:30 to 2:30 p.m. We could have a table. The group discussed that it is difficult to take advantage of this without the Energy Challenge launched yet. Ms. Lauricella recommended that the task force develop a flyer describing itself – as an educational and recruiting piece. C. Event / Energy Independence Ms. Lauricella brought forward the idea of tabling at Calf Pasture Beach for the 4th of July Celebration, on July 3rd from 5:30 onwards, with the theme of Energy Independence. CL&P has given the task force flyers that could be handed out – and these can be co-branded with enough lead time (1 month is needed). It was discussed that this opportunity was brought up too late to take advantage of. Ms. Lauricella mentioned that there are also opportunities to table at upcoming Summer Concerts at Calf Pasture and other locations. D. Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership Program This is a grant opportunity brought to us by the Mayor that is targeted at low income, veterans, et al populations. It has federal matching funds up to $500K, however the City likely doesn’t have funding for this. Mr. Kydes mentioned Boot Camp Farms that focuses on veterans and low-income populations for jobs. There might be a match between this and the grant opportunity. The city grant writer can work on this. If anyone has any ideas for this grant, please contact Mr. Kydes. IV. DISCUSSION ITEMS 1. Short and long term goals for the task force Mr. Wrenn is interested in having more environmental issues addressed and having an environment sub-committee that focuses on that and reports back to the task force. Several members expressed support for sub-committees focused on narrower issues. Ms. Lauricella would like to create a public outreach plan that is in place and can be utilized whenever an event comes up – the toolkit, a media list, all the things needed to be at an event, as well as building a list that can be used to promote (citizens and groups). Mr. Gribin would like to see that this task force ensures that climate resilience, the environment and energy are a priority for the City of Norwalk and its citizens. Several members agreed.  Mr. Wrenn would like to see light pollution be addressed. Mr. Klocke suggested that we look at this like a business with limited resources and maybe keep the vision open, but narrow the focus of what the task force focuses on initially. Ms. O’Neill expressed support for this approach. Ms. Lauricella would like to see the task force create sub-committees focused on energy and environment, and each picks a few key initiatives to work on. Ms. Lauricella expressed the desire to not be too quick to narrow our focus and to leverage the strong expertise and networks of the committee members. Ms. Lauricella brought up the Industrial Site Remediation Review project as a priority. This could be an initiative of the environment sub-committee. Ms. Lauricella would like to see us develop a speakers bureau that can be tapped into by clubs around the city. And also to have speakers come into the task force (like Steven Winter, for codes discussion, etc.). Projects that have been discussed at meetings to date: Benchmarking of city buildings (grant), C-PACE (grant), Residential Energy Outreach (Energy Challenge), Natural Gas expansion, School Recycling, Industrial Site Remediation Review, Manresa Mr. Klocke offered to reach out to each member for follow-ups on this discussion to collect next steps and who is interested in what. Mr. Kydes adjourned the meeting at 8:50 p.m.