Thank you. Morning and welcome
to this meeting of this density
Council's committee on the
environment, seeing that we
have a quorum, we'll move right
into the agenda. Our first item
for consideration is item a
consider approval of the
February 1st minutes seeking a
motion. I move approval of the
second. I'll second it. All
those in discussion? None.
Seeing none. All those in
favor, please raise your hand
and say aye. Aye. Aye. Why not?
Okay, moving on to item B.
Receive a report and hold a
discussion on greenhouse gas
emission forecasting and
reduction strategy planning
sample. Good morning, Council
members. James Douglas,
Conservation Programs
Coordinator with the
Sustainability Department. Let
me pull up the presentation.
There we go. And how does that
look for everybody? Awesome.
All right. So as you stated,
we're going to talk today about
the updated greenhouse gas
emissions forecast, and we're
also going to walk through a
sample reduction plan. As
stated at the last meeting, we
did update that sample. And so
we're going to present that
today. And here's a little bit
of what we're going to go over.
So we're going to touch on the
background of the greenhouse
gas management as a whole.
We'll go over the methodology
of the forecast itself and the
business as usual results. So
those are the results without
any intervention. We're going
to go over the mitigation sample
strategy and those
recommendations from our
partnering organization, which
is ICLEI. So we've been a
member with ICLEI since we
started our greenhouse gas
inventory process in 2011. And
we use their ClearPath tool to
do all of the forecasting and
all of the inventorying that
you're going to see here. We'll
go over some challenges to the
forecasting and inventory
process. And we're not going to
touch on specific reduction
target options today, but we are
going to go over some next
steps, the role of the new
citizen committee for
sustainability, and also some
exciting items that are on the
horizon for our greenhouse gas
management. So just a little
bit of background on the
program. As I said, it started
in 2011. The first thing that
was done was a baseline
inventory for the year 2006. And
a greenhouse gas inventory is
basically just an assessment of
the city and the community's
carbon footprint. From there,
we started doing those
inventories annually in 2015. We
really got the data collection
streamlined, and so we're lucky
enough here in Denton to be able
to do that data collection
process annually. From there,
we were able to start
integrating some new tools such
as the contribution analysis,
which we started in 2018, and
essentially that's a comparison
of two years' worth of results.
And so basically checking on
what's the variability between
those two years, what changed,
what's different. We started the
forecasting in the 2018-2019
timeframe as well. And so that
allows us to project our current
emissions and see what those are
going to look like moving
forward. The goal of the
forecasting is to best inform the
target setting process. And so
if you take a look at the cycle
to the right, the goal of this
cycle is really to do this
annually. So right now we're in
the forecasting process for the
first time. We would move into
target setting and mitigation
planning, and really annually we
would take a look and review and
monitor that every year and
build that into the next year's
inventory and just go throughout
the cycle. Here we have the
forecasting methodology. So the
2018 inventory was used as the
baseline input for the forecast.
That inventory is attached in
the backup. The four sectors
there will probably look
familiar from our inventory.
That's energy, transportation,
water and wastewater and solid
waste. As I said, there's really
two main inputs to the forecast.
So you have the base values from
2018, and then you have the
growth, which is from those
factor sets that you see there.
So some of those are probably
what you would expect to see.
Things like population growth,
growth and residential
development, which you can kind
of think of as changes in
population density and also
expansion of residential
development. And then things
like carbon intensity. So these
are things like EPA's standards
for transportation. So they set
goals for vehicle manufacturers
that say, okay, we would like
you to meet this efficiency by
this year. And so we can take
those and incorporate those and
kind of know what to expect from
a carbon intensity standpoint.
Some assumptions that are in
there are things like consistent
behavior patterns. So basically
what this is, you can kind of
think of things like waste
generated per person or vehicle
miles traveled per person. So
those are assumed to be
constant in the forecast, but
those are things that we can
tweak later on in the reduction
strategy. And with that, you can
think of things like education,
outreach, things like that, that
we'll see potentially changes in
behavior patterns. So let's take
a look at this business as usual
forecast. As I said, this is
starting in 2018 and projected
out to the year 2050. With
things like population growth
and residential development
growth built in there, we do see
an exponential increase, which is
to be expected. And then the
other main takeaway here is you
can kind of see the two main
categories that are contributing
to the emissions here are
transportation and residential
energy. You do see a drop off
there from 2018 to about 2021.
That's from the continued
reduction due to DME's 100%
renewable target. That's largely
what that is, as well as some
other items that are currently
in place. And then from there,
once we've reached that 100%
renewable energy, obviously,
we're going to kind of increase
from there without additional
measures in place.
>> Excuse me. I just want to
pause you before you leave this
slide. I'm just doing visual
color matching, and the blue
looks more like the industrial
energy colors that I said.
>> The -- yeah, it is a little
bit -- so that's the darker blue
that you see in the later years
with the residential energy. I
agree it is a little bit of a
mismatch there, but yes, that is
the darker blue color.
>> Just confirming. Thanks.
>> Thank you. As I said, that's
the business as usual. And so
this is our sample reduction
strategy. As I said, we worked
on this with ICLEI as well. And
so basically what we were
looking for were things that
were most sort of within
operational influence of the
city. And so we targeted the
two main sectors that we're
contributing, energy and
transportation. And so I'll
walk through these briefly.
There is a table that goes into
more detail for all of these
items in the backup. So a couple
of things that are built into
this is the concept that we will
maintain 100% renewable energy
moving forward, the addition of
a low-income weatherization
program, the continuation of the
energy efficiency rebate
program, and a retrofit program,
which is the electrification of
existing gas appliances. So
that's existing in 2021 and
replacing those by 2050 as they
break and need replaced with
electric options. On the
transportation side, we have
things such as expanded transit
coverage, the proposed mobility
plan updates. This was back with
the 2020 draft. As we move
forward with that process, we'll
be happy to incorporate any
changes to the mobility plan
that come in. A continued remote
work strategy. So a certain
percentage of the population
that shifted to remote work over
the last year would remain at
remote work. And so we built that
in. We also built in a fast
adoption EV scenario. And so
this is a -- to give you some of
the target points, 30% passenger
gasoline vehicles by 2030 would
be EV. Now that is -- and that is
from a fast adoption scenario.
And then also a 75% target by
2050, which has been -- is
something that's been included in
other cities' plans in the North
Texas region. And so, you know,
we felt a little bit comfortable
including that in our sample as
well. Improved citywide bike
infrastructure. And also bus
rapid transit starting in 2045.
And so that would basically be
when -- when Denton would grow to
the point when something like
that would be a little bit more
feasible. And so we included that
as well. As I said, those are in
more detail in a table in the
backup. And I'm happy to answer
any questions if you do have
detailed questions about those.
This is the incorporation of that
sample reduction strategy. As you
can see, transportation, we
really lower transportation
emissions there, especially
towards the later years. And we
basically see an overall
reduction. The -- I'm going to
move on to the next slide, but
I'm happy to come back to the
table. Actually, I'll stay here
for just a second. So the -- the
two proposed targets here from
ICLEI are a 30% by 2035. And
this is really a maintaining of
that 30%. So we have crossed
that threshold currently with
our 2019 inventory. However,
maintaining that 30% will be a
challenge with the exponential
growth that we are expecting to
see. And ICLEI's other proposed
more long-term target is a net
zero target. So with that, some
of the challenges, of course,
are going to be operational
control and operational influence
of the city. And so there are,
of course, certain levers that
can be pulled. But some things
will be the natural transition,
such as the transition to EVs,
you know, when those -- when the
price point changes, when the
technology becomes available,
things like that, hurdles that
will be cleared, are slightly
outside of the city's operational
influence. As I said, that kind
of ties hand in hand with the
assumption of behavior change.
There are things such as
education and outreach that the
city can do, but some of those
things are going to be a gradual
behavior change. Federal, state,
and regional continuity.
Basically, what we mean by this
is there are items, as we're
looking for reduction strategies,
that will work in certain parts
of the United States that might
not work so well in Texas, or
things that might work really
well in Dallas, but might not
work so well in Denton. And so
basically, just finding that
very Denton-specific reduction
strategy and sample is in and of
itself a challenge. And then, of
course, we want to balance
sustainable growth. Obviously, we
want people to come to Denton,
enjoy everything that Denton has
to offer. We expect to see a
growing population. And so
basically, just balancing that
with sustainable growth and
understanding our greenhouse
gas emissions moving forward is
also a challenge. As I said, the
main takeaway from the ICLEI
recommendations, and there is
also a memo from ICLEI
regarding this forecast in the
backup, the main takeaway is
really a two-part goal, is the
recommendation. So an interim
target for more of the short
term, and then a long-term goal.
This sample, as I said, addresses
the target of 30% by 2035 as an
example. And ICLEI's long-term
goal for all of their cities is
net zero. That's what they do as
an organization, and that's what
they hope to help all cities to
achieve. With that, I do want to
go over some next steps and some
exciting things that are on the
horizon. So as I said, we will be
taking this whole topic and
concept to the citizen advisory
committee. We're hoping to give
them two to three presentations
to really bring them up to speed,
but what we're hoping is to get
some input on the forecasting
model and on the reduction
strategies and see if there's
anything additional that they see
is incredibly feasible right now,
or kind of get an idea from them
of where those inflection points
are on some of the technology and
things like that to make sure
that the model is as good as it
can possibly be. Once we have
their input and recommendations,
we'll bring that back to the
committee on the environment, and
we will further discuss those
reduction targets at that time.
Some things that are coming about
with the greenhouse gas management
program as a whole, like I said,
that we're really excited about.
The first one, the 2020 inventory,
as I said, we do this annually,
and so we can expect those
results probably mid to late
summer for the 2020 inventory,
so we're going to start working on
that, as well as the contribution
analysis. We're really excited
about some new transportation data
that's coming about, and so this is
incredibly important because it's
going to allow us to analyze
transportation every single year,
and so before we were getting
three to five years between new
data sets, and so with this new
data source, having it be every
year, we're going to be able to
analyze that change year to year,
and as we set these goals and have
these mitigation strategies, that's
going to be incredibly important
in terms of keeping us on track.
And the last thing is the regional
greenhouse gas inventory cohort
that's hosted by the COG.
So for the last nine, 10 years,
Denton's really been one of about
three cities in the area that's had
a greenhouse gas inventory, and so
with this program, that's no longer
going to be the case, so the COG
is hoping to get about 20 cities
to, for many of them, do their
first greenhouse gas inventory,
which is going to be excellent, and
they're also going to do a
regional greenhouse gas inventory,
and so the hope is to basically
streamline this process with other
cities, and also when everybody kind
of does this collectively, we're
really looking for some regional
solutions to come about from this,
and so we're really excited to
collaborate with the COG and with
the other cities in the area, and
we're excited to see the results of
that program.
So with that, I will move on to any
questions that you might have, but
we're also really looking for
anything that you can think of, as I
said, as we take this topic to the
citizen advisory committee, if
there's anything that you would like
us to consider or to keep in mind as
we go through that process.
Let me pull down the presentation.
There we go.
Thank you.
Committee members, questions?
Thank you.
I don't have any questions.
That was all very well presented,
and a lot of the, you know, the
actual data and the things that we'll
need to kind of dig into kind of come
later on, but, you know, I thought it
was encouraging to see if we build in
some of those assumptions, you know,
knowing that they're assumptions, that
we have some real opportunities.
The only thing I'm a little concerned
about when we go to the citizen's
advisory group, and they're a real
bright group, I'm really sure that
they're going to understand this
pretty well, but if we can kind of
emphasize operational control, just
because there are so many things the
city can do and there are so many
things the city can't, and you're
well aware of those.
Y'all's department is very well
aware of those.
I think most members of the
committee are very aware of the
city's limitations also, but just
if we kind of have an asterisk by
that, so folks know what we can do
and what we can't do.
Definitely, we'll definitely be
looking to, you know, where we get
the most of our efforts, I think, is
really what we're focused on, so
absolutely.
Councilmember Baker.
Anything to add or ask?
You're muted.
Connie, you got to unmute.
There you go.
I was going to ask on the
environmental, does it have anything
to do with the landfill expansion or
anything?
I mean this.
So we include solid waste as one of
the sectors that is inputted into
the inventory.
When we take a look at the
community, it wasn't one of the ones
that we were focusing on for the
current reduction strategy and also
with the solid waste management
strategy to be released soon.
We'll definitely take that into
consideration, and so we work
closely with them on all of this, and
we do include them in our annual
inventory, and so any changes with
that will be included in that
annual report for us.
Well, I just wondered.
I've had some people, you know, I
asked about the landfill, and I'm
glad they're looking into it or
going to look into it, so thank you
very much.
I have a number of questions.
First of all, can you remind us
whether we tie exactly or similarly
or a little bit differently to the
Paris targets and the international
intergovernmental panel on climate
change?
Yes, so we are looking and we will
present all of those tie-ins as we
present the reduction strategy
options.
We -- I'm anticipating that those
will be a little bit different
depending on how long it is between
when we reconvene, so those may
change in that time frame.
And then there are also -- we'll
also present some options.
We're expecting some other
documentation to come out with
ICLEI as well that sort of tie it
back to both the Paris agreement
and then obviously one more step
back to the IPCC, and so we'll
have a little bit more information
about that as well when we present
those targeting options.
Okay.
I know looking at the slide seven
graph that shows kind of BAU versus
projected with mitigation, can you
give us an idea of which of the
strategies contribute the most to
that delta?
What does it really hinge on?
It's everything, but what does the
most?
Definitely.
And so if you take a look at that
profile, obviously those are
specific to the sector, right?
So we can see if something is
influencing vehicle miles traveled.
We can compare that to something
else that is also influencing
vehicle miles traveled.
It's a little bit more difficult to
say overall on a carbon basis
because it changes every year in
terms of those growth factors and
things like that.
I can say that the shift to EVs,
especially that fast adoption EVs
because transportation is such a
big part of that inventory is
probably going to be one of the more
influential ones and any of those
sort of VMT reduction things
such as the
transit capacity and things like that.
Vehicle miles traveled, right?
Yes, sorry, yes, correct.
Vehicle miles traveled.
So the remote working is a
big contributor that could be?
It is absolutely a contributor.
It was a little bit less
than anticipated in sort
of a smaller reduction.
But that being said, when
we took a look at that, we were taking a look at, okay,
what percentage of people
actually made that shift to
working from home and what
percentage of total vehicle miles
traveled are for commuting.
And when we started
taking out things like that,
obviously it became less and less
of an impact. So I think 30%
of all vehicle
miles traveled are from commuting. And then
I think we had about a 31%
shift to
work from home. And so when you start
taking those into account, it was a little
bit less than we were anticipating, but certainly
still worth including.
So if you had to rank order, obviously we want to do
everything on our list to achieve the goal, but
if you had to rank order,
is it
accelerating the shift toward
electric vehicles number one and what's number
two? In this sample,
I believe EVs was the largest.
And then
some of the other ones
that were up there were
pull up the list here
from the table.
The
expanded transit coverage and the
bicycle infrastructure
and the mobility plan were up there as well.
Just as I said, taking chunks
out of that, the transportation sector.
So I was wondering about
that one. I thought that might be the case
since, you know,
motor vehicles are such a big part
of what we're talking about, but
tell me where
my thinking is wrong on this.
Public transit
only reduces greenhouse gases in two ways,
I think. If you replace
a car on the road or
if that vehicle
itself
goes from, you know, goes
to something non-polluted, goes to electric.
Because, you know,
what I'm thinking about is DCTA
is moving primarily to
on-demand.
So it's somebody else's
vehicle on the road. It's not your own.
I mean, I guess there's a little bit of efficiency.
You might have two or three in the vehicle
but not 10 or 20.
So,
you know, if we shift people to on-demand
with DCTA, I would think that it would only
matter if their on-demand fleet
was electric.
So
you're
spot on with the
two impacts
in terms of vehicle miles traveled reduction
and then carbon intensity.
And so carbon intensity
can kind of be two ways, as you said, if it's
a vehicle miles
traveled can kind of be two ways. If it's a shared
ride, right,
if it's a bus,
as you said, if you're taking vehicle miles traveled off
of the road, is one of them.
And then if the
vehicles in question
are less
carbon intensive, then
the passenger vehicles. And so
we would have to look specifically
at each of those
to incorporate them into the model. But you're correct
that those are the two sort of
metric points that are being influenced there.
And I take your point that
you're looking at
a big expansion of bus sort of down the road
when the population's
bigger and more dense.
Well, bigger, maybe more dense.
But it suggests
that there ought to be
a priority on dialogue
between
you all and DCTA.
I don't know, is the point, I guess maybe the
point of
contact is maybe us
or me, specifically. I'm on both.
I think, I'm going to pretend maybe as well.
But I don't know if that
consideration is
in conversation. I think that that's
the ability.
I think that that's going to be something that's front and center
with the regional conversation as well
with the regional greenhouse gas inventory.
And as we have the regional inventory
and also all of the other participating
cities in the area, I think some solutions
are going to come about. And I
think the COG can be potentially
a good contact point for that as well.
Well, I would just
put that on your
radar that they're talking about
going from fixed route to on demand
for many
valid and interesting reasons, but
a priority on electrifying
that fleet should be
expressed. I was curious
to whatever extent remote work is a contributor.
If it's a third of
the impact on a third of the
traffic, that's
not nothing.
Do you have any thoughts policy wise
on how we can create
conditions that encourage remote work?
Because it does strike me as one of those
things that might fit under
the asterisk.
Councilmember Davis mentioned
what role would the city play?
Do you have any thoughts on what roles
cities have played
or could play? I think that that's
definitely right
in one of the asterisk
areas where
we may have some sphere of
influence in terms of education
and outreach and encouraging that.
Ultimately, it's going to be something that falls under
the behavior change and sort of
a shift in
the thinking for that.
We can definitely, if that
comes out as one of the
priority items, we can definitely take a deeper
dive in that. But yeah, I agree. I think that
that's one that falls right into
that overlap area.
On the other hand, I don't mean to be
defeatist.
There is something that we can do to create
the conditions. Certainly,
the incentive to do remote work
is
making it a
livable and attractive place.
That's a little soft, but
we've talked about that in our economic development
conversations.
One last point.
On the residential energy
side,
one of the things that kept
coming up, or at least
occurring to me when we were talking about
issues the city had during the storm
was
we had same kind of pipes freezing
as people had in the residences.
I don't know that we have
built to
include
high degrees of insulation.
I asked about what our current
standards are, and I believe new construction
does require,
worth checking again,
does require
a good amount of insulation.
But I wonder what we could do to create
incentives
if this is
kind of worth it from a sustainability
point of view.
Incentives to better insulate existing
homes.
Gotcha. If there's anybody on that would
want to jump in on that one, I would be
welcoming of that. If not, I can definitely get
back to you on that one
at a later time, but I will definitely make a note of
that.
I think it could make a big difference.
Absolutely.
Well, I'm
really excited about
the advisory committee
meeting. I think it's a real blue star,
blue ribbon
kind of assembly of folks.
I think they're going to help us a lot. I hope you
posted to allow for
a very rich
exploratory exchange.
Not just presentation and
response, but I think we'll let them talk to each
other. They'll come up with good stuff.
Yeah, I think that we're very excited
for the input that we're going to get there.
And yeah, looking forward to
a collaborative process for sure.
We're excited.
Anything else for staff?
Thank you.
I kind of developed a question on the
residential energy.
Just kind of comparing
the two graphs, it looks like with our
mitigation strategies we've already kind
of factored in.
We drop about a quarter million metric
tons in the residential energy.
And I'm wondering, first,
because two-parter, I'm curious about what
assumptions we're building into. We know there's
population growth, obviously. We know that people
have to live in houses and people are going to
it's going to be economically advantageous
to keep building houses
in Denton, we expect. So we expect
that people are going to keep building houses.
But what other assumptions
are we kind of building in?
Are we, do we
notice a particular trend in whether those are
all electric houses or whether they're
gas and electric?
Are we factoring in, you know, I think
council will probably consider
the 2021 building codes at some
point in the near future. And those are
the updates, I understand
them, have a lot to do with energy efficiency
for new construction.
So how are we, what assumptions
are we building in? And
are there more things that
maybe coming down the pipe later on, for instance,
a big all-electric
subdivision that'll change
the metrics or
the building codes coming in? Will that
kind of change where the graph looks like?
Definitely. And that's a great question.
And so I can speak to the forecast itself.
And so one of the things that we didn't talk about
as much today that can influence that
and it's not so much from
a reduction strategy standpoint.
It's more, as you're saying, from
an altering the forecast
standpoint. So right now we have current
residential
density items
built in. And those are from the Denton 2030
plan. And so as that plan gets updated
with the Denton 2040,
we can take and incorporate those
new residential
development and residential density
metrics. And we'll incorporate those and we'll
update the model there.
What is currently built in there
for electric versus natural gas
is a continuation
of the current ratio
of those. So if that were to change,
then we could update
that in the forecast itself. And
so that would not be so much of a reduction
strategy as much as a change in
what the business as usual
would look like. And I think that that's kind of
what you were getting at with the question.
And so that does have
the capability to be influenced.
Do we know or do we
track kind of trends? You know, are there
I just
haven't paid close attention with some of our
larger subdivisions coming in. If they
tend to be all electric or if they tend
to be a mix,
do we track
that kind of thing? So we have.
We've gone about it in a way of
sort of pairing a couple
different data sets to create that
metric. So we do have that for
the past couple years. And there's also
US Census data
that can give us an idea of
if we were going for a national
average or a Texas average
on those things, we also have those to compare to.
And so that's a metric
that we recently developed. And so we do
we do have that capability.
I would think that'd be interesting to the city
not just from an environmental standpoint, but
also as a electricity
provider. So
if there's a way to kind of report that back
to us
kind of what the current trends are,
whether we need to take
any action on that or not, just what the
trends are so we're aware of them and know what they are.
Definitely.
Another
question occurred to me as we were talking
here. Can you help point out
what components
of the mobility plan
you think most
will weigh on this analysis?
So that
was largely a collaboration
between IGLI and
also some of the
consultants last year from
the mobility plan drafting.
My best understanding is that it's the
same sort of factors
that we take a look at now. So
what is going to be the change in vehicle
miles traveled, but also what's going to be
the
change in
trip length
time on the road, things like
that. And so if you have
better flow, you're
not going to be on the road as long. The vehicle miles
traveled may be the same, of
course, but you're not going to be idling as much.
So those were taken into
those were taken into account.
They're going to be rough estimations
for the purposes of the forecast.
But those conversations were had
between our two consulting
groups. So congestion
is correct. Yes. Thank you.
Of course, there's a long standing
critique of
road expansion to
relief congestion that it's ultimately
futile
because you encourage development and
you're just
kind of always playing catch up there.
Anything
else for staff?
Thank you so much
for this. I really look forward to the new data
set. It's a little weird to be in
2021 to continue to look back
at three-year-old
analysis, but
I feel like we're on the verge of something that
could be very important. And I
will say with that, too, the
we have the 2019 data. Obviously, the 2020
data is coming, but the 2019 data is
tracking well with the
estimate that we currently have. And so we felt comfortable
with that.
Okay, great.
Thank you.
Let's move on to item C, management
reports, one green business
program update.
Who's got that?
I can go ahead and take
the lead on that as well. So we just
wanted to give a brief update
regarding the green business program.
And so
we're getting to the point
now where we can
kind of feel comfortable reaching out to businesses
and things are getting a little bit more
predictable. And so
we're really hoping to
take some things that we learned from the first
year of the program and really
start this
upcoming year with
some new things. So a couple of
the changes that we're going to make based on
the feedback that we got.
The application, we're going to take a more open-ended
approach to that, which we're pretty excited
about. So we realized that the
previous application was a little bit
restrictive in terms of what it
was asking of the businesses. And so it may not
be applicable to everybody. And so with
the new open-ended approach, what we're really hoping
to get is to hear more from the businesses
about what they're doing in each of those categories.
And it goes hand in hand, of course, with the sustainability
framework key focus areas.
And so we're really looking to hear
more from the businesses. And so we've got
that open-ended approach coming. And we're
also looking forward to
taking a look at the possibility of a cohort.
So basically
having 10 to 15
businesses who want to learn something
specific, whether that be
something that we're looking at first,
which is sort of an energy management,
you know, how to read the electric bill,
what is,
you know, what's our,
some of our electricity use
coming from, things like that.
And so really hoping to
have some more added value
for the businesses that join the program.
And so we're looking forward to
taking a look at that cohort option
as well. And so it's kind of where we're
at with that. Like I said, when things
start progressively getting more
predictable for businesses, we'll start
reaching out. And we'll also give those businesses
that took the opportunity to join during our
first year. We'll give them sort
of first chance at that cohort if that's
something that they're interested in learning about. So
that's where we're at. And if there's
any questions with that, I'm happy to answer
those as well.
Questions?
No? Thank you.
Thanks. You know, it's a great
program to talk about. I really want to see it back
up on its feet. For sure. You know,
perfect thing,
perfect things that everyone can align on. It's green and it's
business.
New business action items, Matrix.
Did you want to go through that as well?
Item two.
I don't know who I'm asking.
Who's got that? Is that you,
Catherine?
I'll take that. I think the only thing we have left
on the Matrix right now is the
mosquito update.
And Deborah will be
bringing that back in the next month or so.
Items that
committee members would like to add?
Anything at the moment?
I've got one. Go ahead.
I was just going to say, I'm looking forward to the
committee meeting. And as you said,
I hope that they're posted broadly enough.
That's a really good point. I hope that
posting is broad enough that
some of those things will trickle up
to us, right? That this committee
will end up talking about some
things that they think up.
Absolutely.
Is there a thought
right now about
how their meetings will be structured in terms of
moving through the sustainability
framework?
Are you going to focus on
certain areas?
Or sort of everything all at once?
I think we'll probably start with a broad
overview and then tackle each focus
area. I know there's going to be
a big emphasis right now on the greenhouse
gas cemetery with the regional
greenhouse gas efforts and air quality
efforts.
Probably start with that chapter.
And then also
a lot of the members will be up
to speed, I think, on a lot of things
that are going on around town.
We'll probably do a little bit on the resilience
and some of the things
we experience with the winter storm.
Sounds good.
I have an item to add.
Could we get an update on
the Denton County Green Belt Plan
and
sort of
more broadly
about what steps we might take to
bring more of our riparian areas
into protected status.
And then
back to specifically the green
belt. I'd like to know whether you
think it's a good idea or a bad idea
to leave more
of an unmowed area
between the stream of the creek
and the mowed portion. It looks like we're
getting input from
members of the community that we're mowing right up to the bank's
edge. And it might be wise
not to do that. So I'd be interested in
not at this second but, you know, in your thoughtful
consideration of that.
We'll touch
the face of parks and drainage on that.
I think that covers us for new business.
Actually, you know what?
Well, that could have been under concluding items too.
Take your pick.
So now we're on concluding items.
Any other concluding items?
I have one.
I don't know if you remember Misty Adams.
It's been a while.
She was our residential recycling
outreach coordinator but we have
built that position and
Julissa came on board in January
and I want to introduce her.
I think she's going to jump on screen here.
We'll do a little virtual introduction.
Julissa is our new residential
recycling outreach
coordinator and she has been
great. She's hit the ground running.
She came over to us from pretreatment.
So she already had some good relationships
in the community and she's hit
so many apartment complexes talking to them about
recycling and
getting recycling totes out.
So we're excited to have her on board.
Is that like one of the best jobs in Denton
that you just say? Good for you.
I think so.
So it's nice to meet everyone. My name is
Julissa Amador. Like Catherine said,
I worked over in pretreatment
and I worked under Heather Goins for about
two years. So I've been here since January
and I'm excited to be working here
and working with sustainability.
But yeah, it is a really great
job and I'm very excited. I've reached out
to a lot of apartments, but I do apartment and
multifamily and residential
recycling outreach.
So if there's anything that you guys would like
to see, please let us know.
So that's something that I can get
started on. I'll tell you, I'm
personally, well first of all,
super glad that you're on board.
And I'm very
eager to
discover what you learn
are the best ways
to keep contamination
out of the stream in multifamily with an
eye toward eventually having that be
you know, as universal
as single family
recycling. And
a thought that I would share
with you might go nowhere, but
they seem to have really good results
with the Concierge
program with commercial.
And I wonder if there's
some element of that that, you know, might
help kind of crack the nut
on multifamily.
Just
for your consideration.
Yes. I know that
for trash valet, it is a little different
in comparison to what we have for residential.
But yes, that is something that we can start
getting worked on, worked on.
And I have been meeting with HOAs
and reaching out to them so that they kind
of put a name to a face. And
they can reach out to me for whenever
residents have any questions. Or
if they just need a new
kind of info, any kind
of info that they need updated, any mailers,
things like that.
Great.
Jesse, looks like you have something in your mind that you want to say.
I guess I don't have a very good poker face. Now, what I was thinking
about, I guess this is a good concluding item
too, because Brian's on the line and I can give a shout
out to Solid Waste and
that valet program. I was just
bragging on that program sitting at
Oak Street Drafthouse
and the little trash truck comes by
doing the valet thing
and somebody said, "What's that tiny little baby
trash truck?" And I'll tell you what it is.
It's the wave of the future. It's how you take care of solid
waste in a dense urban
environment with a healthy night life.
And so that's my concluding
item. Shout out to the valet
solid waste service. Fantastic.
Yes. Great.
Any other concluding items?
Then we shall conclude.
I will
adjourn this meeting
- At 944.
- Thank you.
- Okay.