CEAP Minutes

June 11, 2009

Present:

Liaisons: Wendy Hediger, Mark Sabin, Sharon Keating-Beauregard, Lucy Wicks, Lisa Altieri.

Other interested parties: Carroll Harrington, Bret Andersen, Jeb Eddy, Catherine Martineau

Guests: Nico Procos, Senior resource manager, PA utilities; Josh Wallace, Key Account Rep, PA Utilities.

A. Public Comment and Announcements.

Carroll announced that the “Red Meets green” event at Stevenson House was a big success.

B. Presentations on Water in California and How To Conserve It.

Nico and Josh presented a PowerPoint on (1) the use of water in California; and (2) the importance of conserving.  You can view their presentation on the CEAP wiki, pa_ceap.org.  Look for Initiatives by Topic and click on “Water.”  Some highlights:

• The Hetch-Hetchy system serves 2.5 million people, and that number is increasing.  The system is old and vulnerable to a severe earthquake, which could halt water supply for 30 days or more.  Repair will cost $4.4 billion, but earthquake damage to the current system could cost $17-30 billion. The repairs will increase the cost of water 2-3 times.

• The distribution and treatment of water in CA constitutes 19% of our total electricity use and 30% of gas, as well as 88 billion gallons of diesel/year.

• The effects of climate change will include 25% less snowpack, with resulting floods in winter and drought in summer, salt intrusion in the Delta, and negative impacts on fish through warming water.

• For all the above reasons, it is important to save water, and the presentation gave examples of what to do, including eating less meat; e.g., it takes 1,232 gallons of water to produce one steak.

Catherine Martineau, Executive Director of Canopy, reminded people that the emphasis on conserving water should not preclude watering trees, which will die if not watered in a drought.  She also noted that trees ameliorate climate change through things like absorbing CO2 and reducing the need for air conditioning, so they should be considered a “utility.”

C. Intra=Segment Communication.

Walt noted that for CEAP to work, it is vital that Liaisons communicate the information they receive at CEAP meetings to their segment.  The presentation on water is a good example.  LIAISONS:  Please forward these minutes to your segment, and send me an email confirming the list(s) you sent it to.

D. Quantification of Progress.

At the last meeting, Walt asked Liaisons to come to this meeting with a suggested method to quantify their progress, particularly on climate change.  In response, the following reports were given:

Business: Mark reported that through wave One, 12 businesses have been green certified since 1/1//09, 10 are in the pipeline, and the plan is to recruit hundreds more.  (Approximately 60 had been certified in the several years before then.)

Neighborhoods/Homes: Lisa reported that the Barron Park Association has engaged one group in Acterra’s “Low Carbon Diet” program, in which group members meet for several months and commit to various actions to reduce energy use.  Their plan is to offer the course to other neighborhood groups.  (after the meeting, Walt verified that Acterra has conducted 100 Green@Home audits in Palo Alto and is going strong.

Nonprofits: Sharon had to leave early, but submitted the following report by email:

Nonprofit Segment Update – June 11, 2009

 

The nonprofit segment has developed a work plan that calls for researching resources and funding and having those in place prior to doing outreach to the nonprofits (NPOs) in Palo Alto. Most NPOs have been hit hard by the recession and are very focused on maintaining core services for their clients. Not having resources in place to help them would present a challenge to engaging NPOs.

 

Lauren Swezey and Susan Wright have met twice with Wave One to explore collaboration including applying to foundations for joint funding. In addition, Lauren and Susan will be exploring funding opportunities and writing grant proposals to various foundations with the goal of getting funding to implement the Connect the Dots model for NPOs in Palo Alto.

 

Sharon Keating-Beauregard will be meeting with Palo Alto City representatives including Wendy Hediger, the Zero Waste Coordinator, and Josh Wallace to explore resources available to NPOs from the City of Palo Alto. She will also develop at simple flyer of ‘green tips’ based on CEAP Neighborhood Segment’s You’ve Changed Your light Bulbs So What’s the Next Step? flyer.

 

Proposed metrics: Since NP segment is basically in its formative phase, metrics will look at things such as number of NPOs having had green audits and number of NPOs linked to green resources.

• Schools: Walt reported that the Sustainable Schools Committee, with help from Wendy of City Public Works, is working to organize a green team at every school in the city, public and private.  The teams will focus on waste reduction, energy conservation, and other sustainability measures.  Plans are also being made to collect and distribute information comparing schools’ consumption of electricity, gas and water, to encourage conservation, and also to implement district-wide energy-saving improvements.  Hopefully he can present numbers by the next meeting.

Stanford: Lucy highlighted some of the university’s initiatives.  The following section of sustainable stanford.org gives a broad picture:

ACCOUNTING FOR OUR EMISSIONS

In December 2006, Stanford joined the nonprofit California Climate Action Registry. Members voluntarily commit to measuring, monitoring and publicly reporting their greenhouse gas emissions with third-party verification.

Stanford’s initial inventory of our 2006 core greenhouse gas emissions (carbon dioxide) from the main campus totaled 165,000 metric tons. (Download the report.) We are working on an expanded inventory for 2007 that will include the remaining five major greenhouse gases (methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulphur hexafluoride), plus emissions from commuter traffic, business travel and providing steam and chilled water to the Stanford Hospital and Clinics from our central energy facility (the Cardinal Cogen plant, which cogenerates electricity and steam from natural gas).

TAKING ACTION

In 2007, staff and faculty came together to develop optimal strategies for reducing the campus emissions footprint. This initial evaluation yielded more than 20 options; key strategies include reducing energy use in existing buildings, designing new buildings to require less energy, promoting travel alternatives and switching to more efficient, less carbon-intensive energy sources for campus operations. Initiatives in many of these areas are in progress.

Faith Groups:  Bill Cutler couldn’t make the meeting, but said he would report in July.

Medical: Kris Hansen also couldn’t make it.

City: Wendy gave a summary at the May meeting.

E. The Challenge.

On April 27, Karl van Orsdal of the City’s Sustainability Team gave the Council an update on the City’s Climate Protection Plan.  It included the following statistics relevant to CEAP, as of 2005:

Estimated total community CO2 emissions: 777,890 metric tons

(Emissions attributed by City government are 27,890 metric tons, so 95% of the total are from the broader community, which it is our task to reduce.)

Breakdown by type:

Transportation: 333,400

Energy use: 295,000

Solid waste: 100,304

Breakdown of energy (gas and electric) usage by segment:

Residential (single and multiple family): 101,000

Commercial (probably including schools, congregations and medical): 91,000

Industrial: 82,000

City: 9,000

Public facilities: 12,000

F. Next Meeting.

Thursday, July 16, 4-6, Lucie Stern, Community Room.

The Zero Waste Program will be reporting on Palo Alto's new hauler, Green Waste, and the new and expanded services they offer.

Respectfully submitted,

Walt Hays