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HomeMy WebLinkAboutDecember Packet 2017Falcon Heights Environment Commission December 11th, 2017 6:30 p.m. Agenda ROLL CALL: Chair Mark Miazga____ Patricia Holmes ____ Kathryn Hartman ____ Peggy Hall ____ Nick Olson ____ James Wassenberg ____ Martin McCleery ____ Farook Meah ____ Council Liaison Lindstrom ____ Staff Liaison Moretto ____ 1) Approval of Minutes – November 2017 2) News and Announcements 3) LED Bulbs – Wassenberg 4) Earth Day - Holmes Next Meeting: January 8th, 2018 If you have a disability and need accommodation in order to attend this meeting, please notify City Hall 48 hours in advance between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. at 651-792-7600. We will be happy to help. Falcon Heights Environment Commission November 13th, 2017 6:30 p.m. Meeting Minutes Present: Chair Miazga, Vice Chair Hall, Mayor Lindstrom, and Commissioners: McCleery, Wassenberg, Holmes, and Meah. 1) Approval of Minutes - July and September Approved 2) News and announcements: Recycling Coordinators Meeting Thursday (Paul) Meeting - EQB Mayor presents Wednesday. How can states help cities (EQB statewide environment board) Utility Bill Clinic question - did anyone go? More information? 3) LED Bulbs - Wassenberg has a plan and ideas (Handout). How we would distribute them. Connects to community education. Assess outcomes and success. Feedback through Paul. Will LED last the 25 years? Better to use them in high use areas. This is an opportunity for education. Placement strategies. Commission should choose per resident or per household? Limits on number. Let them get more bulbs? Apartments might be a target for high use. Residential might have a bigger educational ripple effect. Holmes: how many commissioners have LED? Many do. RETAP - how to be more energy efficient in business... McCleery has a contact Miazga: Would door to door work. Events. Equity mode. Holmes: does CERTs go to apartments and do presentations. The Commission would present? Mayor - Give bulbs to managers then they find the best use? Who will oversee its use. Wassenberg talk to apartments, how do people buy their electric. Mayor: from a behavior change to apartments, how do we know they are installed. Timeline - a few months Mark Miazga proposed the following action: “A resolution to accept a donation of 1,000 LED bulbs from James Wassenberg and Deena Wassenberg to be distributed to Falcon Heights residents through a process created by the Falcon Heights Environmental Commission.” Mark motion Farook second, all approve. Some marketing announcing the program. How to assess the program’s effectiveness. Outreach methods. Meeting - Thursday 6:30pm Mark, Nick, James, Farook, Marty of the subcommittee. 4) GreenStep - New signs will be going on the population signs. We will be working toward Step5 over the next year. Will need to collect yearly data. 5) State Climate Goals - comp plan we are starting the process. Resiliency is a part of this process. Adopting green house emission goal. Many are adopting the State’s goals. 30% by 2025 80% by 2050. State is doing ok. Have made some strides but some are lacking. 2005-2014 4-5% reduction. Mayor would like to adopt the state’s goals. We are a part of the regional indicators initiative and know what our greenhouse gas emissions. It’s a coalition of organizations. This is the entire city. James W.: How are we doing? Good. Regionalindicatorsmn.com - LHB, ULI, MNState 6) Hendrickson - what kind of trees? Acceptable trees? Ideas from commission about environmental items in the development. EV station? 7) SCORE - We have submitted to Ramsey County. Meeting Thursday. 8) SolSmart - February meeting. Next month - Holmes Earth day event. 15- 20 minutes. Multiple items. 2017-10-27 Draft Plan for Saving Watts and Drops program. Goals: In order to improve energy efficiency in the City of Falcon Heights, MN, it has been proposed that the use of high efficiency LED light bulbs be encouraged in residences within the city. Further, it was proposed that use of LEDs could be promoted by giving away a number of LEDs to city residents. What follows is a plan to execute such a give away program. Background: During the September meeting of the Falcon Heights Environmental Commission, Alexis Troschintetz from CERT spoke to the commission about a CERT program called Saving Watts and Drops, which is a way to help cities and organizations to carry out distribution of conservation equipment such as LED bulbs or water saving showerheads. Support was expressed by the council and councilperson Wassenberg volunteered to chair a subcommittee to investigate and possibly execute and LED giveaway program. Other committee members, McCleery, Miazga, Olson and Meah volunteered for the subcommittee. Benefits: A program to replace incandescent bulbs with LED bulbs has many advantages. 1. Labor savings. LED bulbs rated at 25,000 hour lifetime will last approximately 25 times longer than an incandescent rated at 1000 hours. This means less time and labor replacing light bulbs for city residents. 2. Energy savings. A single 9 watt LED bulb can replace a 60 watt incandescent bulb. If the bulb is used for 3 hours per day, the LED will save 55.8 kWh in one year or 1329 kWh over its projected 23.8 year lifetime 3. Money savings. Given electrical prices in Falcon Heights of $0.13/kWh, the bulb above will save the resident $7.25 per year or $172.77 over the lifetime of the bulb. 4. Return on investment. Because such LEDs are available for $1.00, the time to recoup the cost of the LED bulb is 50 days. Such LEDs yield over 100X the return on investment of residential solar projects. 5. Education. The process of providing residents with one or two free LEDs provides an opportunity to educate residents about the benefits of LEDs. This may lead to the resident replacing additional incandescents in their residence at their own expense, thereby multiplying the energy efficiency effects of the initial giveaway program. 6. Environmental credit. Such a program might qualify Falcon Heights for additional credits towards environmental, sustainability or other accreditation programs. Funding: Funds for purchase of up to 1000 LED bulbs at $1 each was volunteered by commissoner Wassenberg. Materials: ● Bulbs will be A19 standard base 60 watt LED bulbs with either 15K or 25K hour lifetimes (GreenLite and Sunbeam respectively) ● Bulbs are available at Dollar Tree and at slightly higher cost in other retail outlets. ● Bulbs will be in single unit packaging so that loose bulbs don’t need to be handled. ● Water faucet aerators which are left over from a previous City initiative will also be made available along with the bulbs. ● Materials will be stored at City Hall along with informational materials and a check in - check out log to control inventory. ● A notice sign will be in place at the storage location for the materials, stating the purpose, and the check in -check out procedure. Distribution options: One of the main challenges to such a program is how to get the LEDs in the hands of residents. Several methods might be used. 1. Door to door. Have volunteers map the city and visit each residence individually to offer the bulbs and educate residents. This method has the broadest reach and allows opportunity for direct education, but requires significant time investment for volunteers to go door to door. This method is the most laborious and will be implemented last. 2. City Hall availability. Provide a window of time (two business weeks) during which residents can come to city hall during normal business hours to receive up to two LEDs from the front desk. This requires some time from city staff to distribute the bulbs as well as advertising in the city newsletter, Facebook page and email list serve. It also requires time on the part of the resident to come to City Hall but does give opportunity for any Falcon Heights adult to receive the bulbs. 3. Distribution through apartment managers. Provide the bulbs to managers/owners of apartment buildings in Falcon Heights, either for installation, or for provision to the apartment residents. This is a rather easy way to reach a large number of residences, but requires interface with apartment managers/owners. a. Initial contacts have been made as of 10/27 and a company which manages 182 units in Falcon Heights has expressed interest (Kleinman Realty Corporation) Also Fairfield apts and Sherman apartments have expressed interest. b. A memorandum of understanding has been drafted to provide to the apartment managers/owners to define the desired terms of the giveaway. This document is non-binding and does not need to be signed. It also will help track where the bulbs went. c. Informational sessions at apartment units held by commission members are also an option for distributing to apartment units. These sessions could be held in building meeting rooms or common areas. 4. Event distribution. A volunteer would distribute free LEDs from a table at an event organized for a different purpose, such as the yearly ice cream social, Human rights day, Winter fest, or an event at Falcon Heights Elementary such as family fun night. This approach has a narrower reach but would be very time efficient and would provide opportunity for resident education. Arrangements would have to be made with the school and/or school district or event sponsoring body. Faucet Aerators: The City is in possession of many water saving faucet aerators which will be codistributed with the LEDs by several of the means above. Education: Several elements of resident education should be considered to accompany the LED bulb giveaway activities. ● Small Flyer. Each bulb should be accompanied by a small flyer (4X5) outlining the benefits of LED usage. This flyer would need to be produced and printed, though costs would be small and could be covered by the donator of the LEDs. ● Large flier. A larger flier (8.5X11) will be available at volunteer staffed community distribution events. ● Display. Tables staffed by volunteers or at the city desk would require a banner to advertise the give away. ● Pledge. In exchange for the free LED the volunteer will ask for the recipient to fill out a pledge form that will set a timeline for installation (by the coming weekend) and a pledge to replace other home incandescents if they like the LEDs. This pledge will be saved as a way to track to whom the bulbs went and also displayed in a transparent container to encourage participation. Pledge sheet will contain a line asking for comments on the program. ● Script and FAQs. For volunteers manning booths, a list of talking points and FAQs will be prepared and made available. ● Websites. Websites where more information can be obtained will be listed on small and large fliers Assessment and Extension: ● Should the program be instituted and be successful, it will be important to document the success qualitatively (through resident anecdotes) and quantitatively (number of bulbs distributed, by what means, to whom and when, with calculations of benefits). This would allow a summary to be provided for external communications and as credit for environmental certifications. ● Pledge sheets, Bulb and aerator check in-check out logs and Apartment Memoranda of understanding will be sources of data for where the bulbs went and resident comments on the program. ● If the program it would be desirable to contact other nearby municipalities to encourage them to enact a similar program. This document and supporting documents could act as guidance to make implementation easier for these municipalities. Limitations: Only two bulbs per household will provided in any single transaction. However, no system will be put in place to limit residents from obtaining bulbs on more than one occasion. (Ex: a community event and pickup at City Hall.) The important point is that the bulbs be put in use. Future Actions: 1. Seek disscussion, improvement and acceptance of the plan at the November Environmental Commission Meeting. Done 2. Communicate with the CERT representative, Alexis Troschinetz, for additional guidance. Commissioner Wassenberg is continuing this communication. Done. 3. Continue communications with Apartment Managers/Owners to gauge interest and make plans to move forward pending Commission acceptance of this plan element. Wassenberg can continue this communication. In progress 4. Purchase Bulbs and transfer them to the City. Wassenberg can purchase the bulbs, then transfer them via Liaison Moretto. Current stock is 579 bulbs. Jim Wassenberg will transfer bulbs via Paul Moretto. 5. Assign a subcommittee member to track bulb inventory and assessment metrics at the November Environmental Commission meeting. Done. Jim Wassenberg. CITY OF FALCON HEIGHTS, MINNESOTA RESOLUTION NUMBER _________________________ WHEREAS, The City of Falcon Heights Environment Commission, in cooperation with Clean Energy Resource Teams (CERT), is creating a program to promote conservation and energy savings by providing donated energy saving LED light bulbs and water saving faucet aerators to Falcon Heights city residents free of charge. WHEREAS, the Environment Commission has created an equitable plan for distributing the LED light bulbs and water saving faucet aerators using online, mail and face-to-face advertising and distribution. WHEREAS, the Environment Commission’s equitable plan targets apartments and houses within the city of Falcon Heights as a part of the equitable plan for distribution. WHEREAS, the Environment Commission’s plan is intended to satisfy the requirements of Minnesota Statute 465.03 on Gifts To Municipalities. WHEREAS, the City Council finds it is in the public interest and consistent with adopted City policy for the City to demonstrate its commitment to promote conservation and energy savings. NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED by the City Council of the City of Falcon Heights: 1. The City shall accept the donated LED light bulbs and water saving faucet aerators. 2. The City shall accept the distribution plan as presented to them by the Environment Commission. ADOPTED BY THE CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF FALCON HEIGHTS this ___________ day of _______________________, 20__. ______________________________________ Peter Lindstrom, Mayor ATTEST: