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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes - Energy Committee - 11/06/2014 South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington Thursday, November 6, 2014 7:00 pm South Burlington Municipal Offices, 575 Dorset Street DRAFT MINUTES Present: Don Cummings (Chair), Marcy Murray, Keith Epstein, Linda McGinnis, Sam Swanson, Karen McKenny, Paul Wagonhofer (new) Staff Present: Ilona Blanchard (in adjacent room) Public Present: Roseanne Greco, Grant Taylor, Joel Baird (Burlington Free Press) Absent: Fred Kosnitsky 7:00 PM Convene Meeting • Linda McGinnis volunteered as scribe. Don as timekeeper • Review and approve meeting agenda • Karen moved and Keith seconded that we accept the minutes from Oct 2 meeting. Approved unanimously. Marcy M. moved to accept the May 15 minutes. Karen K. seconds. Approved unanimously. Invite Public to Speak • Grant Taylor introduced self, student in sustainable building technology willing to volunteer time for the GUEP and SBEC work. Currently working with Keith on “home energy audit lite” project. • Roseanne Greco gave update on discussion in Sustainable Agriculture Committee meeting regarding a demonstration project proposal from Will Rapp and civil engineer to combine efforts on affordable housing, efficient sewer/wastewater use and treatment, and energy efficiency. Three local developers are potentially interested: Jeff Nick, Larry Michaels and Joe Larkin. SBEC agreed that there is significant room for collaboration with GUEP/SBEC in this effort. • Roseanne and other SBEC members will attend future Sustainable agriculture committee meetings (1st Tue every month at Healthy Living) to ensure future collaboration. Karen McKenny agreed to do a presentation on GUEP/SBEC to the Dec 2 Sus Ag committee meeting. GUEP Update and Discussion • The SBEC program plan for GUEP semifinal consideration is in its final draft stages. The submission is due Monday, Nov 10, 2014. Marcy has done final edits for consistency, South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington formatting and cross-referencing. Don and Keith are waiting for final data input from Vt Gas and GMP to incorporate into the final draft. In addition, Keith has contacted Champlain Water District to include water supply energy/conservation goals as well as electric and gas information related to achieving those goals. Keith and Don will incorporate all additional inputs into the final draft this weekend. City/Staff • City has entered into MOU with Commons Energy (PPESCO), and they are currently analyzing existing audits and data to assess whether additional audits are necessary. Commons Energy will respond to the city in 2 weeks with a proposal that will likely include additional audit activities to validate and update existing data. • Solar Landfill Project: the city (Kevin Dorn and Ilona Blanchard) and school (John Stewart) will be meeting with Encore Redevelopment on November 11 to assess the Net Metering Agreement for South Burlington Landfill Solar project, which is anticipated to be in line with the original letter of intent. The goal is to obtain feedback and field any questions the city and school might have. Marketing • Don shared that there are four marketing firms currently interested in working with us. None, however, is willing to do an initial brainstorming exercise in order for SBEP to determine their qualifications. Don will also approach JDK design for potential pro-bono work on this. Events/Volunteers • Karen has already staffed several events and has targeted an additional 2 events per month. Those dates are available on the new SBEC website: http://energyprize.org. • Recent events included the Halloween spectacular (Don and Lindsey), and the Coalition for Community Service at the High School to generate volunteer interest. Karen will send the electronic list of potential activities to the PIWA and Green Team teachers, as well as the CDC group for follow up. • The next event will be the Tuttle Middle School bonfire Nov 7 at which Karen will include her energy efficiency pledge cards • Linda suggested advertising for a volunteer to take up the organization of monthly energy/efficiency workshops that have been developed for Montpelier by VEIC/EVT. Karen shared that the new Director of the SB Library is very interested in helping host workshops. • SBEC agreed that volunteer position descriptions should be added to the SBEC website. Karen will follow up. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington • Karen shared that the ButtonUp.org awards are in their final voting stage, and encouraged all to vote and get more FB likes! Outreach • Sam Swanson shared that the next big event will be the Community Energy Mini-Fair on Tuesday Nov 18, 6-8:30pm at Ascension Lutheran Church (95 Allen Road). It is sponsored by the Interfaith Power and Light together with Boys Club and VEIC/EVT. Other important sponsors are Vt Gas and Building Energy (offering a free audit as a prize). One of the target beneficiaries of this effort will be JUMP, the Joint Urban Ministry Project. Karen will have a table at that event, and all are encouraged to attend. • City Committees that have received a presentation on GUEP are: Leisure Arts, Planning Commission, Recreation Committee, and Bike Committee • Upcoming presentations are: Land Trust (Nov 24th) and Rotary. It was agreed that another group to target would be the new SB Business Association. • Don suggested that Sam meet with Patty Tashiro (SBEC Fundraising coordinator) prior to the Rotary meeting to craft sponsorship asks, and to bring Patty to the meeting • Sam suggested that the outreach effort needs to be more than a one-off for each of the committees. Residential Natural Gas • Don shared that Vt Gas Executive contact,Tom Murray, has been an active partner and is working on a similar program to Opower among gas users, targeting high users with mailings and savings suggestions. Other proposed actions are improved efficiency sales techniques and targeted follow up on audit recommendations that were never implemented. Residential Electric • Keith shared that GMP and VEIC/EVT (Jake Jurmain and Ethan Goldman) are working with SBEC to undertake energy mapping by neighborhood (e.g. Front Porch Forum neighborhoods) to feed into information on high and low energy use areas. The access portal to these maps is expected to be ready by early\y 2015. • Keith described the activity of a SBEP subgroup working on ‘Lite Residential Energy Audits’ with volunteers Monica Ostby and Grant Taylor. The idea is to make available to residents an inexpensive one-hour check sheet audit to identify savings and capture low hanging fruit. This could be done in collaboration with local hardware stores to have a van with a range of efficiency products that could be installed immediately (e.g. LED lights, weather-stripping, Kill-a-watt, etc.). Deeper audit information would also be made available, if interested. They are looking for a good name for this service. South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington • Marcy suggested talking to the library to have several Kill-a-watts available for checkout Fundraising • Don gave a quick update on Patty Tashiro’s efforts on fundraising, sponsorship and small prize generation. She has made enormous progress. • Don discussed a different type of sponsorship he has proposed with ACE hardware (Rick Bibens) to set up an Energy Efficiency Center in the store where customers could have easy access to all the basic efficiency products that accompany our tips (e.g. LED lights, Kill-a- Watts, weather-stripping, low flow shower heads, automatic thermostats, etc.). This could potentially be accompanied by mock ups and demos to illustrate how simple it can be to implement many of these efficiency measures. The Energy Efficiency Center would have the SBEC logo, description and tips Schools • Linda M shared that the School District would be meeting with Encore Redevelopment and the City on Nov 11 to assess the Net Metering Agreement for South Burlington Landfill Solar project, which is anticipated to be in line with the original letter of intent. • Linda shared that John Stewart (Director of Finance) also met with Commons Energy to explore using their services to invest in major additional energy efficiency measures, similar to the city’s agreement. He sent a draft MOU to the District, and they are following up with energy audit and other information. • Linda gave a quick update on the curriculum/teacher/administration efforts at the elementary schools, led by Orchard that has submitted a full plan of activities, the Middle School (led by Assistant Principal, Paul Yoon), and the High School, which is one of 12 schools selected this year to participate in the Whole School Energy Challenge. They are all moving ahead with their activities. Municipal Planning • No one is currently in charge of this. It would require providing inputs in the reshaping of land use regulations to include efficiency, transportation, renewables, natural gas, etc. and to work with the Planning Commission to ensure that it can be included in the Comprehensive Plan and help shape new LDRs. Roseanne G agreed to follow up on this. Residential Solar • Linda shared that a new group on GUEP/SBEC residential solar strategy has been set up with three new volunteers: Steve Roy (architect), Monica Ostby (marketing specialist), and Carson Casey (solar). The overall goal is to reach 400 new residential homes in South Burlington out of a total of 8000. There are around 3000 single family homes, and the idea South Burlington Energy Committee 575 Dorset Street South Burlington, VT 05403 (802) 846-4106 www.sburl.com facebook.com/SouthBurlington is to develop a strategy for getting an additional 200 rooftop solar installations, and 200 community solar customers. Other Business • Marcy moved to ask Alan Bullis to develop a Button-Up workshop for December. Linda seconded. Approved unanimously. 9:00 PM Meeting Adjourned