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2018-01-08 Committee on the Environment Minutes City of Denton City Hall MINUTES 215 E. McKinney Street COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT Denton, Texas www.cityofdenton.com _____________________________________________________________________________________ Monday, January 8, 2018 12:00pm City Council Work Session Room After determining that a quorum of the Committee on the Environment of the Denton City Council was present, the Committee on the Environment thereafter convened into an Open Meeting on Monday, January 8, 2018 at 12:02 p.m. in the Council Work Session Room at City Hall, 215 E. McKinney Street, Denton, Texas Council Members: Chair Council Member Keely Briggs, Council Member Dalton Gregory, Council Member John Ryan Also Attending: Mario Canizares ACM; Kenneth Banks, General Manager Water Utilities; Katherine Barnett, Sustainability and Customer Initiatives Manager; Sarah Luxton, Sustainability Coordinator; Jonathan Gregory, Conservation Program Coordinator; Ethan Cox, Director Solid Waste; Stuart Birdseye, Marketing & Outreach Coord; Erin Clark, SW Administration Manager; new girl; xxx; Kim Mankin, Administrative Supervisor REGULAR MEETING A. COE18-001 Consider approval of the Committee on the Environment of the Denton City Council Meeting minutes of November 6, 2017. Approved as circulated. B. COE18-003 Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding proposed Green Business Program. This item was presented by Jonathan Gregory. Gregory researched several platforms that other cities are using for this type of outreach initiatives. the recommended actions of external sustainability reporting platforms (STAR Communities, Carbon Disclosure Project, etc.). Actions to implement include: Developing a logo and webpage to communicate/promote program, partner with Denton Chamber of Commerce to identify businesses including education and outreach. Program Overview was laid out starting with the Green Pledge which is for businesses just getting started with sustainability efforts or want to keep participation in the program simple. Sustainability Benchmarking is for businesses that are seeking a better understanding of sustainability principles, want to make progress, and care to share their accomplishments with the Denton community. Lastly the Resource Conservation Pledge is for businesses that have well established sustainability programs of their own and are looking to take it to the next level with formalized resource conservation plans. The Green Pledge was explained more completely including information about recycling, auditing and education. Recognition was discussed and how those businesses can be acknowledged. Sustainability Benchmarking has six activity levels that will be looked at. Those categories are: water, transportation, community, energy, health, and resources. Activity levels are awareness, incentive, policy, action and bonus. Briggs asked if the website is how businesses will take the pledges and do the applications. J. Gregory answered they are working toward this being a digital application process. Resource Conservation Pledge includes electricity, fuel, waste and water, the goal is to reduce by 30 percent by 2030. One benefit to this pledge is the city tracks electricity, waste and water they only would have to track fuel and plug in those numbers. D Gregory talked about applying this to businesses in the community. The chances of reducing some businesses that have been built lately, that are already efficient, may be very small. J Gregory agreed, that is something he has thought of as well. There was discussion regarding businesses and what we can do. This is really about awareness, the goal. D Gregory stated there are certain businesses that will not have the means to reduce such as the business SCRAP and the thrift stores in town. Those types of businesses actually divert items from the landfill. Hopefully there will be a way to give businesses like that credit for what they already do for sustainability. He asked if staff has met with businesses to see their reaction or to get any buy-in. J Gregory has met with many of the businesses and some already track this and area very excited about this program and also want to be a part of this community. The local businesses have been supportive and will be able to get points for their diversions. Ryan asked if waste is based on capacity. J Gregory stated there are different ways to track the services. He spoke with solid waste staff and understands there are different trucks that may have scales and could do audits for tracking purposes. Ethan Cox added some trucks have scales but do not have a highly developed process for tracking a large amount of data. There are possibilities to track those loads. Ryan then asked about Fuel, are we covering natural gas in the same category or is that a different. J Gregory stated both types of fuel can both be looked at. At this point it has not been broken out. Barnett added that is a part of the Energy Star Portfolio Manager. Next steps include developing a logo and webpage to communicate/promote program, partner with Denton Chamber of Commerce to identify businesses, education and outreach. Briggs asked if J. Gregory has thought of giving a presentation to a meeting that the Chamber of Commerce Board has. Gregory answered he spoke with staff members this summer and they are excited about the program and want to engage with us to get the word out through their network. C. COE18-004 Receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding Multifamily and Commercial Recycling. Ethan Cox gave this presentation starting with the background. Cox stated he also wants to get this to full Council as well. In September there was a policy overview and in November strategies for staff was discussed as far as improving outreach and ramping up volunteer participation. The key terms and key players was discussed during that meeting. The ultimate goal is to divert waste from the landfill with that there are two key steps: accessibility and participation. This also relates to the outcomes and impacts. There are both environmental impacts as well as sustainability factors. At the end of fiscal year 2017 there was 41 percent participation. Current efforts include: Collection and analysis internal and external haulers Briggs asked how many outside haulers are working in Denton, Cox was unsure he has a list but not sure of the extent or tonnages. Briggs asked if we have access to that information. Cox answered other communities have a process designed and we can require those haulers to report certain pieces of information. Currently we are not aggregating and analyzing the data. Gregory asked if outside trash haulers pay a franchise fee. Cox unsure they do pay a permitting fee but will look into the franchise fee. Cox stated they are introducing a new effort that will be a Target Marketing approach. There are some easy opportunities for adoption to increase accessibility and partner with outreach for education. There is a comprehensive list of all of the businesses as well as multifamily establishments. This will be used to identify prospects based on size, location, waste profile, etc. Staff will cold call to determine needs, interest, provide site assessment and customize solutions in terms of setting containers, there are nuances with layout, size and space restrictions as well as type of customers. Lastly a final proposal and close the sale. Staff wants to make sure these establishments have the tools they need to be successful. The overall goal is to increase accessibility and maintain high quality participation. There have been some staff vacancies that have slowed the progress, this should be off the ground in the next two to three months. Cox will report back to this committee in the next few months. Future steps include financial incentives for recycling. This has not happened previously because there needs to be a cost of service rate analysis for all the solid waste services. This will provide a clear picture of what needs to be fine-tuned on the rate structure. There is an opportunity to incentivize our pricing for recycling if that is the direction. From an incentivizing standpoint that is predicated on enough revenue coming in on waste disposal to subsidize the recycling effort. Some communities have the issues where that is no longer sustainable because a point as been reached where there is as much or more recycling as waste. Briggs asked if the savings of air space would be factored in, Cox answered it would be. Gregory added in terms of incentives, be very careful for charging more for trash and less for recycling because it may motivate some to put trash in the recycling container. Cox agreed. Gregory then stated he has read that PRATT has discontinued with some businesses because of the waste in the recycling stream. Cox stated they have talked to PRATT recently about ramping up the recycling efforts and asked if they have the capacity to take care of it. Their response was absolutely have capacity and state waste stream is one of the cleanest that they deal with. One thing that staff would like direction on is mandatory recycling and what that may look like moving forward and being successful. Should we consider a consultant that has spoken with other communities to find out the issues they experienced. Ryan stated that mandatory recycling in certain areas especially multifamily is going to create the unintended consequence of the waste stream being contaminated. He would like to look at a short term program that allows businesses to see what it will do for them financially. If data could go out to the complexes as well that would be helpful. Also the money that is paid by multifamily companies for the recycling drop-offs would be alleviated because they will be able to recycle at their home. Briggs stated that the recycling drop-offs are going to be closed. Cox said he is a fan of the drop off sites but much like setting containers at apartment complexes it has to be implemented with care. Cox showed pictures of a standard Monday morning at a drop off site, there was debris all around the containers as well as in the containers. It takes many hours to clean up. He believes the site at the Cupboard will still be available. Staff is tr everyone. Gregory would be in favor of new multifamily complexes to have mandatory recycling containers, but reluctant for older facilities. Briggs added she through that was being written into the Denton Development Code (DDC). Cox added the gap is that all recycling is not picked up by the City of Denton. It would require an ordinance to say not only build the rebuttments but require of containers as well. Then there is the item of enforcement. Briggs asked if the city collects UNT/TWU and DISD recycling. Cox agreed. Cox reiterated that this committee is not interested in mandatory on a broad scale but interested in moving this thought the DDC and make sure it is there. Then at a later date come back to this committee and report. Briggs asked how many years this committee has been talking about multifamily recycling. Gregory answered seven or eight years. Cox stated that a big problem is the enforcement mechanism. There are several things in play that include the DDC, site criteria manual, and an ordinance. The piece that is missing is an ordinance stating that a rebuttment has to be built with a recycling container within it. That gives staff the enforcement authority for compliance. There was some further discussion. This Committee is in agreement and would like to get the cost of service analysis. The committee is not in agreement regarding bringing in a consultant. D. COE18-002 ACM Update: 1. Simply Sustainable Plan 2. Greenhouse Gas Update 3. Matrix - Mario Canizares will connect with Engineering regarding Channelized Drainage CONCLUDING ITEMS Under Section 551.042 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, respond to inquiries from the Public Utilities Board or the public with specific factual information or recitation of policy, or accept a proposal to place the matter on the agenda for an upcoming meeting AND Under Section 551.0415 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, provide reports about items of community interest regarding which no action will be taken, to include: expressions of thanks, congratulations, or condolence; information regarding holiday schedules; an honorary or salutary recognition of a public official, public employee, or other citizen; a reminder about an upcoming event organized or sponsored by the governing body; information regarding a social, ceremonial, or community event organized or sponsored by an entity other than the governing body that was attended or is scheduled to be attended by a member of the governing body or an official or employee of the municipality; or an announcement involving an imminent threat to the public health and safety of people in the municipality that has arisen after the posting of the agenda New Items: Briggs - Lead certification policy to be reviewed by this committee - Presentation on composting what we do, could do and what other cities do. Update citizens on how to do their own composting. - Clear Creek what is happening and projects Adjournment: 1:20pm Approved February 5, 2018.