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HomeMy WebLinkAboutClimate Council Meeting Summary - 1-23-2020 Orange County Climate Council Meeting Summary January 23, 2020 3:30pm - 5:00pm Southern Human Services Center, 2501 Homestead Road, Chapel Hill Attendees: Mark Marcoplos (Chair), Brennan Bouma (staff), Pat Clayton, Cathy Cole, Ray DuBose,Tyrone Fisher, Caroline Hansley-Mace, Laura Janway, Kathy Kaufman, Adam Long, Melissa McCullough,Jonas Monast, Sara Pitts, Owen Ryerson, Sammy Slade, Stephanie Trueblood I. Call to Order- Marcoplos called the meeting to order at 3:35pm. Council members introduced themselves for the benefit of new members. II. Approval of Draft Meeting Summary from December 17, 2019 Approval of the December meeting minutes was delayed until the February meeting to allow time for them to be finalized and reviewed. III. Approval of Climate Council Mission and Vision Statements Members reviewed a draft mission statement and a draft vision statement for the Orange County Climate Council. Hansley-Mace walked through the elements of the two statements and reminded the Council of the process the Council followed to collect and incorporate input from the Council on the mission/vision statement.The Vision statement was explained to be intended to illustrate a positive future condition that would come about if the Climate Council were successful in carrying out its mission. Consensus was reached on the Vision statement after a brief discussion. Bouma reminded the Council of the questions that were being discussed when this statement was being revised at the December meeting and Council members picked up those discussions and agreed upon language that resolved the issues satisfactorily. With the idea that these statements could be revisited in the future if the Council felt they could be improved, McCullough motioned that they both be adopted as written.This motion was seconded by Fisher and passed unanimously. IV. Update on Existing Committees—The Council's two established committees confirmed their membership and updated the Council on their initial steps.The Climate Action Reporting Committee reported that they had completed the entry of all data received to date and that they had added a row at the bottom of the database entries for questions from the committee on the data provided/entered.The committee had also added a column for keywords to assist with searches. Bouma offered to send out the link to the Climate Action Reporting Database (CARD) once again to assist members in updating their columns. McCullough pointed out that it would be good to include hyperlinks to any details that exist on members' websites. Monast asked how will this database be used, noting that it would be a shame not to make it broadly available. Bouma replied that the current intention is for the database to be private while it is being updated and then it could be made public once members were confident in its accuracy. Marcoplos mentioned that the CARD would be useful in the Council's communications strategy and might be a way to reach out to the private sector. Bouma said that news media might also be interested if we included member contact info for follow-ups. Hansley-Mace thought it could be put out as a model for other communities and it shows shared goals and commitments. Marcoplos offered that further discussions on the outreach strategy around the CARD could be an agenda item next meeting. The Identity and Standards Committee informed the Council that they have focused on standards initially, as a good way to reinforce a community identity and create buy-in for climate action. McCullough said that research has shown that appeals to identity such as signing a pledge, or illustrating that a large percentage of people in favor of something are good ways to motivate action.The LEED for Cities and Communities certification program would be a way to attach an identity appeal to national standards. USGBC merged with STAR Communities to create this set of standards and they have gone through an initial beta test resulting in around 6 communities being certified. Other benefits to pursuing this standard are the credibility of the USGBC and the vetting process they use for their standards and the terms, actions, and metrics are already defined while preserving some flexibility in their implementation. McCullough and Bouma then described their effort to apply for a technical assistance grant to facilitate Orange County's certification under the LEED for Cities and Communities standards. Much of this overarching set of standards relates directly or indirectly to reducing the impacts of climate change and the technical assistance grant would help all Council members learn from the certification process. This committee also said that they are thinking about a potential name clarification and are considering"Innovation and Standards"or"Unity and Standards,"as these would be a better reflection of the committee's purpose.The committee will decide and report to the Council. Slade said that for buildings the USGBC has calculated the climate change impacts,of adopting their standards. Have they considered this here? McCullough replied that climate and energy is a large section of the points.The Council can look out for point shopping and focus our efforts on climate change and equity.This will also enable education on linkages back to energy and climate from water usage,other seemingly unrelated sections. Marcoplos pointed out that it may also bring attention to land use planning which is often overlooked in Climate Action Plans. Trueblood asked which entity would gets certified?Bouma replied that it would be Orange County. Trueblood followed up with a caution to research the annual requirements for the maintenance of certification, and the be sure that we have identified who has the authority to enact what's being asked.Since most of the development is happening in the towns and the towns have jurisdiction over things like road infrastructure,the towns may have to buy in. Her final note was to watch out for the expectation that LEED certification will add costs,and to be clear that this is a policy initiative. Bouma expressed the committee's appreciation for Trueblood's experience and said that they would reach out on these matters after the word came back on the grant. V. Formation of Additional Committees Council members continued considering the establishment of two or more committees including Climate Justice Outreach and Evaluation and Monitoring. Marcoplos said that the intention behind tying outreach to climate justice was that it would be good for a committee to not only remind the Council to include equity in their decision, but to also go out to the communities to bring back ideas. Slade offered that as for evaluation and monitoring, Carrboro has already identified their goals, actions, and milestones and are currently trying to match a budget to it. He said he is not sure of value of another committee analyzing or rubber stamping their work. Trueblood clarified that as the Council and members are branding ourselves as being climate leaders,then we want to make sure we are performing well and have some data to back it up.There is not much action yet to study now, but we could send out an annual report. Hansley-Mace offered that perhaps this annual reporting could be part of the Council's communications effort. Cole mentioned that since the idea behind the Evaluation and Monitoring Committee was offered by Donna Rubinoff, she was concerned with defining the role of the committee without Donna's input.The Council decided to wait until a future agenda for further discussion when Rubinoff was present. Monast said that it would be good to have a committee whose role it was to identify new opportunities.There are lots of resources that exist to help and this group could make sure Council members are taking advantage of them. Monast also said that there is a lot that local governments can do to influence higher level decision making.This may not be directly tied to emissions reduction. It would be important to think strategically about how we define impact and success.This work might be a separate committee or fit into an existing one. VI. 2020 Meeting Schedule, Staffing, Rules& Procedures Bouma made a quick mention that he was continuing to work with the County Attorney and Clerk's Office to clarify the expectations around the innovative structure of the Climate Council.The Attorney recommended that the Council create and adopt bylaws to clarify its own procedures,term limits, processes for appointing new members, etc. Bouma said that he had received a flexible template for these bylaws that could be used as a starting point and that he would bring a draft to the Council for further discussion in the future. Bouma also said that Marcoplos had referred him to a member of the Occaneechi-Saponi nation who was interested in joining the Council, Crystal Cavalier. Bouma had spoken with Cavalier and summarized her background for the Council.The Council recommended Bouma invite Crystal Cavalier to join as a full voting member. Bouma said that he would begin the process of officially adding a position to the membership list and that it would likely need to be approved by all four local governments as this was the process followed for all other Council positions. VII.Adjournment—Marcoplos asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting and this was provided by Cole and seconded by Fisher.The Council voted unanimously to adjourn the meeting at 5:07pm.