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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 03/05/2015 South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington Thursday, March 5, 2015 South Burlington Municipal Offices, 575 Dorset Street DRAFT MINUTES Present: Keith Epstein (Chair), Marcy Murray, Don Cummings , Linda McGinnis, Sam Swanson, Karen McKenny, Paul Wagenhofer, Patty Tashiro, Fred Kosnitsky Staff Present: Ilona Blanchard Public Present: Roseanne Greco, Grant Taylor, Janet Bellavance, Monica Ostby, Ben Civiletti(VECAN) Convene Meeting · Keith convened the meeting at 6:35, Don Cummings as scribe. Keith as timekeeper · We reviewed and approved meeting agenda · Linda moved and Patty seconded that we accept the minutes from Feb 5 meeting. Approved unanimously Announcements: Keith Epstein announced that the South Burlington Land Trust has named the South Burlington Energy Committee as the winner of their Annual Award Honoring a Person or Group Whose Work Complements the Mission of the SBLT. The award will be presented at the SBLT Annual Meeting that includes a pot luck dinner on Sunday March 29 at 5:30 at a place TBD. We are all invited. Please RSVP to Sarah.Dopp@uvmhealth.org. Our thanks to the SBLT for this honor. Discussion about taking a Position on Legislation · Fred asked if the committee should/could take positions on legislation under consideration. As a committee we are not allowed to take any formal position that hasn’t first been taken by the City Council. We are allowed to take positions on city issues with other committees, commissions, boards and the city council. · If members feel strongly about certain issues they can ask for time on an Energy Committee Agenda for the whole committee to address them which may lead us toward asking the city council to take a position. VECAN tracks energy related legislation and Ben Civiletti offered to send us their latest updates · It is ok for us as individuals to take positions – we can mention that we are members of the SB Energy Committee but we need to make it clear that we are speaking for ourselves. City/Staff · Commons Energy (PPESCO) in the process of contracting for an engineering audit to identify all efficiency opportunities. Linda to enquire if this is to include building envelope. · Solar Landfill Project: 3rd round of contract revisions complete and will soon go to the schools for their review. Permitting, design and interconnect study underway. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington GUEP Update and Discussion Use of SBEP Logo · After considerable discussion about concerns that the city could become responsible for claims made by Installers in promotion pieces, Keith made a motion that the Energy Committee authorize Don to revise proposed guidelines that will then be reviewed and approved by Jim Barlow, the city attorney and that Steve Roy and Don will use those guidelines to evaluate Installer Promotion Pieces with the SBEP Logo. Patty seconded and the motion was approved unanimously. · It was also suggested that we ask that installers promote Efficiency and Conservation as part of their solar promotion pieces. · A motion was made by Linda to allow the use of the SBEP logo on a Gift Basket to be donated for the Orchard School Skate night. Keith seconded and the motion was approved unanimously. Marketing/Outreach · Don gave a brief review of our Marketing Plan that is intended to take our community through 3 steps: Awareness, Engagement and Action by utilizing emotional and intellectual triggers as well as subtle reminders about how important this work is for our future. The committee looked at recent ads and they were pleased with work to date. · Keith presented plans to create pin (and explanatory card) that can be worn by supporters of the SBEP. Design and production has been donated by Pinsource. A motion was made by Karen to approve the use of the SBEP Logo, Sam seconded and the motion was approved unanimously. Replicating our Efforts for Municipal and School Solar · A motion was made by Karen to approve publication of a paper, based on our experiences, that will be used to help other VT Energy Committees implement Solar Arrays for municipalities and Schools. Sam seconded and the motion was approved unanimously. Treasurer’s Report · Marcy reported that we have $20,248.58 on hand in the Marketing/Outreach fund considering actual bills paid and future commitments (including $1704 remaining of $2500 authorized to be spent for future ad design and placement) · We have received the following donations to this fund of: $10,000 from VGS, $5,000 from EVT, $7,500 from GMP, $1,250 from VSECU, with additional commitments for $5,000 from EVT in 2015 and $1,250 from VSECU in 2016 and $1000 yet to be received from N.E Grassroots Foundation for Kickoff expenses. Group Outreach · We discussed continuing to work with Rotary on the 150 year celebration (and other projects) and how these might help us reach our goals for conservation, efficiency and renewable energy. · Marcy volunteered to reach out to PACT as part of our efforts to engage other city groups. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington Events · Karen & Patty tabled at the Town Meeting and Karen gave a 5 minute presentation. It wasn’t a big crowd but it was one more opportunity to reach people with what we are trying to achieve. An informal survey at the meeting showed that most of the attendees had heard of the prize – Good work done by all committee members to get the word out!! · Our first Energy Prize House party was held March 1 at Janet Bellavance’s home. Good turn out and excellent response from attendees. Everyone got a door prize and had a marvelous time. Many thanks to Janet for paving the way on these! · The committee felt we should do many more house parties to encourage action within neighborhoods and perhaps competition between them. There was some discussion about finding a partner to help us fund the door prizes and perhaps some energy efficiency gifts for the hosts and attendees. Karen made a motion to have Don work with Karen and Patty on ways to get more “direct efficiency installs” per party and funding for that while being careful not to turn the party into a workshop. Keith seconded and committee approved unanimously. Perhaps Rotary could partner with us for funding and individual Rotary members would be willing to host parties. Volunteers · There is some feeling that we have had limited success in getting new volunteers but a quick look around the room at the large number of people involved at this point confirmed that we are making steady progress. · We discussed that not only can the Rotary help us with projects but members themselves might be good candidates to work with us as volunteers · We all should continue to reach out to neighbors, friends and family for potential volunteers Residential Solar · Monica and Linda presented a plan to develop signs to identify all of the homes that are participating in the residential solar program (including CSAs where it is not obvious) as a way to motivate other residents to participate. This will help make people realize that it is becoming a social norm to have solar. · The program is also a great way to engage schools kids (and indirectly their families) through a contest among school kids to design the sign. · The program was well received and a motion was made by Keith and seconded by Patty to go forward with a plan for 200 four color signs dependent on funding received from members of the solar consortium. The motion was approved with one abstention by Marcy. Steve Roy agreed to reach out to the members of the solar consortium for funding. · Many thanks to Monica for helping us with this great idea. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington UVM Interns (FBC) · Rosanne reported that the interns working on integrating energy efficiency and renewable energy into Form Based Codes are trying to schedule a pre-review and community presentation of their report. GUEP Data Reporting · Keith reported that baseline and quarterly data gathering efforts are on schedule Residential Natural Gas · VGS developed a Social Norming (Opower-type) report and a letter about SBEP (with our help) which went out in mid February. They are starting to see some feedback but it is too early to tell. The plan is to send additional reports with variations on messaging to drive efficiency and conservation. Schools · We ran out of time but Linda agreed to share her updates via email. 9:30 PM Meeting Adjourned - Thanks to all for your patience!