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2020-02-03 Committee on the Environment MinutesCity of Denton MINUTES COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT _____________________________________________________________________________________ Monday, February 3, 2020 1:30 p.m. 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, February 3, 2020 at 1:47 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 Paul Meltzer and Council Member Jesse Davis REGULAR MEETING A. COE20-004 - Consider approval of the minutes of January 9, 2020. Approved as circulated. B. COE20-005 – Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the establishment of a greenhouse gas reduction target, with updates provided on Greenhouse Gas (GHG) reduction strategies and forecasting. James Douglas gave the presentation starting with the background information. Staff is taking a step back to look at the bigger picture and what it looks like. A re-cap from the October 2019 COE meeting is included. Request for information regarding the GHG reduction strategies. Forecasting updates as well as the additional strategies and the potential and emission reduction target options. Douglas then talked about community resilience planning. Different cities have been looked at any many use the same play book. The three main categories that cities use are mitigation, resilience and adaptation. Dallas is releasing their climate action plan in April, they went through the same steps. Mitigation includes: Greenhouse Gas Inventory Contribution Analysis GHG Forecasting GHG Reduction Target – Unmet criteria – Estimated Completion February 2020 Reduction Strategy Development GHG Mitigation Plan – Unmet criteria – Estimated Completion June 2020 Resilience: CRAFT Analysis – Estimated Completion May 2020 Public Meetings Risk and Vulnerability Assessment – Unmet criteria – Estimated Completion August 2020 Adaptation: Climate Action Plan (TBD) – Unmet criteria City Hall 215 E. McKinney Street Denton, Texas www.cityofdenton.com DocuSign Envelope ID: 472F8D7E-B4E9-47DE-A0BC-F14E19AF927F October COE Re-cap included introduction to Carbon Forecasting Tool (Clear Path). There was a review of the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Target Options for Community inventory. Request for additional information regarding possible greenhouse gas mitigation strategies. More detail regarding the reduction strategies and forecasting tool. CO2e Projections are based on the 2006 values projected forward to 2050. Utilizes compound growth calculations based on historical and projected data. Categories include: Residential Energy, Commercial Energy, Industrial Energy, Transportation, Solid Waste and Water/Wastewater. Strategies for Reduction -Improved Bike Infrastructure -Energy Efficiency Rebate Program -Electric Vehicle Promotion -Increased Transit Frequency -LED Streetlight Retrofits -“Other” Transportation Related Improvements -Low Income Weatherization -Electric Vehicle Adoption -Residential Building Electrification Next Douglas explained some of the reduction strategy examples. Energy Rebate Program and LED Retrofits - These examples represent energy efficiency programs. Due to Denton’s 100% renewable goal there is no further GHG reduction after 2020, this does not however negate the value of efficiency programs. Electric Vehicle Adoption - Estimates from North Central Texas Council of Governments, North Texas Estimates 45% adoption of current passenger vehicle fleet by 2050 and Accounts for population growth in the area. Residential Building Electrification - 2020 start, includes all electric new builds and a replacement rate of old houses at a rate of 100 homes a year based on estimates and 185 years to fully eliminate residential emissions from natural gas. The committee members had a few questions and clarifications. Next the graph of the projected CO2e values with reductions applied was shown and explained. Douglas then talked about the role of the community. This includes and quantifies community programs, combination of contribution analysis and projections and contribution analysis provides ownership without double counting. Douglas asked the Committee Members is they any items to add to this area. Briggs added low income weatherization would be a beneficial one to add. Douglas talked about portfolios that can be added through ICLEI with a target we can add. Last slide was the Community Emission Reduction Targets that have been updated. Option 1 – No Reduction Target Option 2 – 30% Reduction by 2030/2050 Option 3 – 50% Reduction by 2030/2050 Option 4 – 80% Reduction by 2050 (Paris Climate Agreement & C40 cities) Option 5 – 100% Reduction by 2050 (IPCC Recommended 2018) DocuSign Envelope ID: 472F8D7E-B4E9-47DE-A0BC-F14E19AF927F Meltzer stated that he believes an Economical Green Buildings Techniques Expo at the Civic Center would be helpful and educational. Staff knows the people to invite that would include developers. This would include presentations, round table discussions, and booths. What is new in the DDC (Denton Development Code). Briggs stated she believes from a previous presentation Options 1-3 have been met or months away from reaching the 80% reduction. Douglas answered we are currently at 50%. There were more questions and explanations regarding the graph that was included. Briggs then stated that they would let the public speak then give the option. 1. Jon Hohman – 3212 Hollycreek Street – Would like to look to see what other cities don’t do instead of what they do. Are we doing what we can to effect climate change. Reduce what we are putting in the air, but better yet to take it out. 2. Ed Soph – 1620 Victoria Drive – Wanted to compliment staff of how this has grown in the last 10 years. Went to some new homes on Windsor/Hinkle the homes were electric/gas. People need choices and if they want an all-electric house they should be able to get that. Positive information is that school districts are beginning to get solar installations. Soph would like solar on some of the city facilities. Meltzer asked about option 4 on the Paris Climate Agreement, Douglas explained. The Paris Climate Agreement as it was signed on to by the United States was 80% by 2050 the IPCC since revised their recommendation which had influenced what the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement had been. In 2018 they stated to reach the 1.5 Celsius global temperature requirement would be 100% by 2050. Meltzer asked what the world has agreed too. There was a meeting and it will be decided by 2021. Briggs inquired of Brian Boerner about the Solid Waste Strategy and asked if it will include composting. She then asked if there would be anything in that document to show how emissions could be reduced at the landfill. Boerner agreed that strategy will come back to this committee. He likes to think of the emissions as integrated not only the landfill but there are trucks and equipment as well. Reducing emissions starts at the home and if Solid Waste can help where it starts, less trash and recycling means less emissions when it gets to the landfill. Boerner explained further ways for Solid Waste to help. Meltzer asked about having the conversation of what policy options might alter the curve of electric vehicles. Douglas stated there will be a presentation coming from DME about electric vehicles and the strategies. Douglas then talked about plant and tree canopy function and new technology that measures CO2 flux for the different vegetation. Research isn’t quite there just yet. When the technology is available wide spread, we will be able to back trace those canopies and see where we are year to year. Not sure when the technology will be available. Briggs as things some on-line, we may be able to reach our goal quicker, Douglas agreed. Meltzer would like to stay at pace of international goals. Briggs stated we have an opportunity and feels like we are at option 3. If we agree to option 4 and it is decided that option 5 is the correct option, will this committee come back and re-visit the options. The concern with option 4 is that with saying the Paris Climate Agreement that has negative attachments to it; but the goal was good. Douglas added that the C40 cities are mega cities in the United States as well. DocuSign Envelope ID: 472F8D7E-B4E9-47DE-A0BC-F14E19AF927F Davis added that the graph has some different take-aways for him. The difference between 2006 and 2020, there is great effort by the city to effectuate compression in the graph. The huge difference in CO2 is a change in our source of electricity. Davis explained in detail further adding that to him we are just about to meet the 50 percent reduction goal. He is comfortable with staying at option 3, 50 percent reduction by 2050. By going with option 4 we are betting on technology to get us there. Briggs asked if we are at the 50 percent reduction yet. Douglas answered staff projected it but the numbers for 2019 have not been received at this point. Briggs believes there are many opportunities and believes we need to strive for a goal that we are further from meeting. There was a lot of discussion on this item. Meltzer asked staff if they believe the City can get to the 80 percent by 2050. Douglas answered with the GHG mitigation plan it is important to add profiles to get to the goal and ICLEI will help with that. Meltzer asked if staff takes this item to full council would they be supporting the 80 percent goal by 2050. Canizares answered it is difficult bringing items to this Council with broad strokes. Douglas then added that staff could tell ICLEI that the City wants to meet the 80 percent by 2050 goal and ask them to put together three portfolios to assist with this goal. It was agreed to bring this item back to this Committee again before it goes to full Council. C. COE20-007 – Assistant City Manager Update: 1. Upcoming Sustainability, Recycling and Learn 2 Conserve Events 2. Earth Day 2020 3. RISE Coalition 4. Community Committee Purpose 5. Requests for and Exchange of Information 6. New Business Items CONCLUDING ITEMS Under Section 551.042 of the Texas Open Meetings Act, respond to inquiries from the Committee on the Environment 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 Davis – Trends on what is being built by developers and in what parts of town gas/electric is available Briggs – Learned about ‘Stars’ and asked if they can be used for City events. Briggs - There are no standards regarding now much Micro-Plastics there are in the water, is that something we can look into. DocuSign Envelope ID: 472F8D7E-B4E9-47DE-A0BC-F14E19AF927F With no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 3:11 pm ____________________________________ ____________________________________ KEELY BRIGGS KIM MANKIN CHAIR UTILITIES ADMIN MANAGER CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS CITY OF DENTON, TEXAS Minutes approved on: June 25, 2020 DocuSign Envelope ID: 472F8D7E-B4E9-47DE-A0BC-F14E19AF927F