Welcome to the meeting of the Sustainability Framework Advisory Committee on December 13, 2024.
Our first item for consideration is approval of October 25, 2024 minutes.
Is there any discussion regarding the minutes?
Motion?
I'll second.
Move to approve.
Seconded by Mr. Briegel.
I can remember you. I'm drawing a blank.
My name?
Yeah.
Richter?
Yes.
Seconded by Dr. Briegel and initially initiated by Mr. Richter.
Shall we vote?
All in favor?
Aye.
Minutes are adopted.
Our second item today is receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction regarding recommending the Sustainability Framework Fund Fiscal Year 2024-2025 work plan to the City Council.
We have a presentation.
You're not flipping me.
Katherine Barnett, Sustainability Manager.
Just wrapping up the previous discussions we've had about the Sustainability Framework Fund and the priorities for this year.
So I have one change to discuss with you today from what we've discussed previously, and that would be adding funding for water conservation initiatives or incentives.
Just a reminder on the budget, we had the $500,000 adopted the first year, the $4 million for '22-'23, the second year of the fund, $750,000 for last fiscal year, and $800,000 for this fiscal year, and then the actual revenue there on the right-hand column is what we discussed previously.
Just shows that shortfall from budgeting to actual revenue.
So water conservation strategies, like I said, that's a new one to discuss today.
It was a priority for the committee whenever we worked through the topics for this year, the priorities for this year.
We did go ahead and include the ecosystem protection and enhancement and the transportation incentives to moving those EV and EVITE to the framework fund.
Water conservation, we were working with Denton Water Utilities to work out an incentive program, and it looks like they're going to focus on some larger scale projects, so we're coming back to recommend including an irrigation tune-up rebate and a smart irrigation controller rebate.
They would run similar to the Green Seps program, where it would be you submit a receipt for your purchase, and then you're eligible for a rebate.
That way we could get the Wi-Fi capable, the rain or the moisture sensor on the smart irrigation controller, and then folks would be able to choose who they wanted to use to do an irrigation tune-up, and then we wouldn't have to have any contact with the actual irrigation companies or contract with them.
You would be free to choose whoever you wanted to do, and then just submit that for a rebate like you do for an HVAC tune-up currently.
So it's very similar to the Green Seps.
With that addition, we were proposing, previously we proposed 550 of expenditures for this year, adding another 50, and for the water conservation, we're bringing this up to 600, which is still 200,000 short from what the estimated revenue for this year would be.
You have the document in the backup, and that just gives us our go-by for this year.
Still just implementing that first big $4 million plan and all of the ideas that went into that, just kind of narrowing it down to what we can accomplish this year moving.
Any questions?
Two questions, just one question of clarification on the specific. When you say irrigation tune-up, that means like beginning of the growing season, somebody comes out and makes sure there's no leaks or anything.
And then the more broader question back on your budget slide, if you could just remind us what it means to spend funds as they accrue.
So, you know, if you look at last year, we had an adopted budget that didn't match the actual.
So if there is a shortfall like that, our policy is basically, we just spend whatever we actually get.
And in this case, let's say we actually do get to the full 800.
Now, if we approve this, if it's approved, we've allocated 600, right? Correct. If another 200 comes in, would we meet again to see how to distribute those funds?
We can absolutely bring that back. If we see revenue coming in that's higher than expected or we're trending where it looks like we're going to exceed that 800, then we would come back and talk to the committee about the next step of what to implement.
Or to scale up if we're working on something that we're having a shortage on funding for.
All right, thanks.
I have two questions. First, kind of a comment. I, again, super love that we're moving the transportation stuff over to this fund.
For the rain barrel workshop under the Water Conservation Program, I know typically that class costs like an initial $50 for materials to receive that rain barrel afterwards.
I guess that still has that structure and is it possible we could use some of this money to just cover that for people who register to attend?
That is the way we're approaching it. For Denton residents, Denton Water Utility customers, it would be free.
Not necessarily only Water Utility customers, because we do have some who are residents who do contribute to the fund, possibly.
So we'll work on those costs, but for folks who live outside of Denton, we would probably make it available for the fee for materials.
Okay, cool.
We're working on what that mechanism looks like.
Right. The second question was for the ecosystem protection and enhancement portion of this.
We were still talking mostly about that being directed to the Bowling Green.
Primarily Bowling Green. Parks have some other areas identified where they want to do some of this work where we might be able to, if we have the funding, stretch and do some more restoration.
Okay. It's not necessarily concrete where that will be directed at the moment?
The only one that has already started is Spencer across from DME. So eventually there, it used different control strategies and I think it had a little bit more regrowth. So just some timing.
For what we actually put in to, I'm going to say support those projects, are we actually fully funding the work that goes on and whatever contracting for, say they bring in a Bobcat or something to do or the Go person at one point.
Are we paying for all of that or does Parks or Watershed Protection or somebody else cost share some of that?
I need to go back and look at what Parks has committed for those.
I know that we paid for some of the initial work, but then they haven't been back to ask for funding for both of those projects yet.
So I can get the cost on that and share that a little bit. I do know that they have some skin in the game.
Awesome. Thank you. Those are my questions.
I have a couple. On the EV rebate, does that include automobiles that are leased?
We did discuss adding leases this year.
So that is a possibility or indefinite?
No, we can include those this year. That was the direction from the committee.
The other question is, I don't know if this is feasible, if it makes any sense at all, but when we look at the budget, is there any way to figure out how those dollars translate in the individual categories into actual carbon reductions towards our 2025, 2050 goal?
I will have to get back with you. We are working on the deemed savings on the burning sector program right now, and there is some information that I believe will translate to these programs, but I will have to do a little deeper dive on that.
Okay. I was just curious if we could develop some sort of system where we could make a prediction as to how much carbon would be reduced with each category. Is it appropriate?
Yes, we can certainly dig into that.
Okay. Thanks. Any other discussion? No? And you are not asking for any direction?
Just feedback? Thumbs up, I think. Thumbs up from everybody. This is a good direction.
Yeah, yeah, everybody agrees.
We've got that captured now.
Thank you.
Okey dokey. The next item is to receive a report and hold a discussion about the University of North Texas textiles initiative and collaboration with the City of Denver.
I'm Julissa Omdor. I want to present this one.
Good afternoon, committee members. My name is Julissa Omdor. I am the senior program coordinator over in the sustainability division.
I'm going to give you guys a presentation over the University of North Texas textile initiative collaboration. So it's a big mouth.
So this is going to be our focus. I'll talk a little bit about the background for the UNT Zero Waste Textile Initiative, our collaboration as a city, and then some next steps.
So a little bit of background about the UNT Zero Waste Textile Initiative. They are led by a doctorate professor there through the College of Merchandising, Hospitality, and Tourism.
They applied for a grant through the State of Texas Alliance for Recycling, through STAR, for eight pink collection bins, and those are located at the University of North Texas.
So they collect textiles throughout the year, and so we kind of saw them as a great opportunity to collaborate with.
They had previously done a tour at the landfill and also at the recycling facility, and so through that, that kind of got the conversation going for maybe a collaboration on a future project.
So what do they do? They, through the clothing that they collect on campus, they have clothing swaps at the University, so they host clothing swaps right on campus.
For students, students can bring an item and take an item, or if they don't have an item, they can still go and grab an item. That's still perfectly fine.
They also organize the clothing by the quality of it, so they organize it by that, by the seasonality. So they have a fall line, a spring line, which is really cool.
They also set aside clothing for a professional closet that is on campus at the Diamond Eagle Resource Center.
So if students are needing clothing for an interview, they can use that clothing that is in that professional closet.
They also set aside clothing like rags, fabric, and they're wanting to implement sewing classes so they can teach repair right on campus to the students.
So that's for clothing that's not meeting those standards of going into the clothing swap or the Diamond Eagle Resource Center.
From our contact there in the program, I don't believe they've had enough material to take it to the Chickasaw Nation Reuse Center in Oklahoma.
I believe they have to have a specific quantity before they take that material over there because it is a good drive.
But I know that clothing they were going to also set aside to take there as well.
So our collaboration with them. So this took the collaboration of the Department of Environmental Services and Sustainability, and then also Solid Waste and Recycling.
So we collaborated with them at the UNT Spring Move Out. And what we did was, ESS, so Environmental Services, sponsored three dumpsters.
Those three dumpsters were placed at these three dormitories. And then our division created the signage.
So the dumpsters had signage on them saying donate clothing here. We wanted to see how much material we could get, textiles.
And we also, the poster that's on the right, that's the UNT Move Out Guide, which we created and placed in all of the dorms.
So there was signage in all 15 dorms on campus, just reminding students how to properly dispose of their trash so that they're bagging the material,
but also that they have opportunities to donate clothing right near their dorms. And then donating small appliances.
So those are some, there's stores and charities that are in Denton that they can take their material to, just providing them that reuse option so they don't have to dispose of it in the trash.
So what does that look like? So with the help of Solid Waste and Recycling, we were able to get three of those dumpsters.
They set those aside for us, and we were able to sticker them on all sides of the container. So ideally you're going up to a container.
You're also seeing that it has a chute lid and a locking bar and a lock, so ideally you're not throwing any trash in there because you can see that there are signs on there saying it's just for clothing.
This one doesn't take any trash. We want to make sure that it also had those preventative measures, just making sure that nobody's mistaking it for a dumpster.
And the chute lid and locking bar has proven to be very effective in the recycling side, and so we were able to also use it for this project as well.
So through that collaboration, once the dumpsters were in place, they were in place for one week.
We promoted that they were in place, and so did the UNT Zero Waste Textile Initiative, as well as the We Mean Green Fund at UNT, just reminding students where they could take their material.
The students that are part of that initiative checked on the containers every single day, and they checked on them twice a day.
So if they could see any trash or debris from the openings of the dumpsters, they would remove that material, just making sure that once we tipped that material at our building that there wasn't an overflow of trash or no one was mistaking it for that.
So this is what that looked like at our facility. So this was at the sustainability office. We grabbed out some parts, solid waste, and our department organized tipping that material there, and then our staff did kind of a pre-sort of the material.
So the students, after the move out, were on summer break, and so we had to house that material at our building, which thankfully we have kind of a warehouse space in the back, which we're able to utilize.
So that pre-sort was us removing any trash if we saw any. There was minimal trash, which was really great, just being able to see that students were reading the signage, were making sure that they weren't placing any material in there.
So we did a pre-sort, dividing some of that clothing out, and making sure that it was able to be used.
So through that, solid waste was able to help us by weighing the material. Through that we were able to find that we collected 1,273 pounds of textiles.
We stored that material during the summer in these little metal cages that Home Chemical Collection let us use, and then we hosted a sort-a-thon during September when all of the students came back.
That's what that looks like. So this is the sort-a-thon that we hosted in the sustainability office.
I had someone from Parks and Rec, Alicia McDaniel, come out. She's one of the rec coordinators that does some of the classes, and so she did a stretch with them at the beginning of the sort-a-thon, which was really fun.
So that's the picture that's over here on the far left. And then those are going to be the other pictures of the students sorting the material.
Again, they're sorting it by the quality of the material, the seasonality of it, and they're organizing all of that into different sections.
We had over 60 volunteers that came to our building for it, and we originally planned the sort-a-thon for three days, and these volunteers were able to finish it in two.
So next steps are we're going to continue to identify opportunities. We, of course, want to work with the universities and colleges within the city of Denton, just making sure that they know that we want to partner with them and that we want to be able to divert more material from the landfill whenever we have any move-out events.
So we want to work with UNT for move-out 2025, and then also continue to work with the universities and colleges. Questions?
Thank you. Any questions or comments?
Mr. Rick?
I guess a little background first. The other hat that I wear is on the Women Green Funds. I chaired it for the last two years, and this is my outgoing semester, but we were able to fund this initiative at about $11,500 for the requested budget, which included, I hope we can all appreciate, the amount of labor that goes into this type of program.
A student worker position for an entire year, and additional pink bins and a number of outreach and education materials, and really looking forward to getting them fully off the ground after this first kind of pilot phase.
I guess to communicate a little more formally as well, this is still very much an initiative from the school's perspective as well, and trying to figure out how we can partner with the city in this and what it looks like on the ground at UNT.
And there are still a couple needs that, you know, they're being ironed out. One of them, they are still really trying to figure out their long-term storage location for where all their materials are housed. We can also appreciate the volume that they go through, which it does meet a really critical need for our students on campus.
I think it truly is close for people that sometimes just don't get new clothes. As some of the events I saw that they handed clothes out, it was really, really interesting and powerful.
Laundry was a need that we could not address for them through what we had to offer that they had requested, and so that's still an ongoing issue that they essentially pay out of pocket to clean all these clothes before they go out.
But we were able to meet their labor costs, and one additional thing is just trying to get them more fully incorporated into the UNT apparatus, call it like institutionalization, but then also what that relationship looks like with the city going forward, and exactly how we can enhance this partnership to offer more diversion from the waste perspective, but then also this, call it a community service or, you know, student life enhancements on campus.
And so I really want to thank Julissa, because I know your hand was fully in there helping them out and getting this really off the ground. We're really looking forward to what these students do next. It's an entirely undergrad-run program with the help of two staff members on campus, but truly it's three people that are the muscle behind this, including Julissa, who's been a huge help, so thank you a ton on that.
I just have only one question in terms of this committee. How, within your position, and how this is phrased under a diversion program for solid waste and recycling, for the longevity of the city's involvement in this program, where exactly do you see it fitting within your work plan under your role?
What services or support that you're able to offer this type of initiative, and where you kind of see either growth or just sustaining the current level?
Yeah, I won't lie, this project was a big undertaking. So definitely we want to continue to be able to work with the universities at the move-out time, and hopefully they're able to kind of how we establish, I don't know, maybe a foundation with the UNT Zero Waste Textile Initiative.
Hopefully we're able to provide that support and meet them, but kind of guide them and help them with the foundation that they already have. And then hopefully we're able to expand that to other universities as well, and that's a big part where we'll have to make sure that we have the manpower to be able to take on some of the projects that are coming on board.
But we definitely want to be a support for wherever we can for the universities and for the opportunity to deliver more material.
Do you partner with TWU?
We didn't have a partner for TWU for this program, but we are always and definitely open to partnering with TWU. We've definitely worked with them in the past for the housing that they have on campus.
Yeah, because we have the dumpster, I see it at the end of the semester there.
And we worked with, I believe it was somebody in the TWU Housing and/or Marketing Office to update signage within the dorms to make sure that people were recycling correctly at TWU. But yeah, we definitely want to get more of the ball rolling in the TWU's campus.
And I know that Dr. Eva from this initiative is interested in expanding to TWU as well. So we can definitely provide that contact and then get the ball rolling with future initiatives at TWU.
Is there a mechanism for people to donate to that program, like on social media or something like that?
We do have a social media channel, so they're on social media. I know that the bins are on campus, so you can bring that material to those bins.
I was thinking about donating funds to cover the cost of running it in addition to the grant, you know, because I was thinking about the cost of laundering and all that.
Yeah, no, we can definitely get you in touch with them because I know that they're always looking for funding sources.
I had a question. I ran across an article the other day that said that 10% of all plastic waste globally is made up of synthetic fibers.
And I was just curious as to what, if there's any approach to taking out the synthetic fibers, clothing that's made of synthetic fibers or plastics, how does that enter into this equation?
That's a good question. I know that some of the professor who works with us on this project, she does research into materials and fabrics, and so she may be a better contact to be able to answer your question.
I wouldn't be able to give you an answer off the top of my head.
Could we look into that? Because it's a big part of the plastic waste that's affecting the environment, and they predict that synthetic fiber is projected to more than double by 2060.
So it's something we might want to look at as something that we might want to deal with down the road.
This may be too early to tell, I guess, but do you have a sense of the demand for the clothing that's collected? How much is it being taken up versus collecting stuff that seems like nobody wants, or is it really flying off the shelf?
No, it really is. We were tabling at the UNT Sustainability Fair, and they had a campus clothing swap there. They had to go back and get more clothing.
They had a certain amount of clothing that they had brought for the clothing swap. The students had to go back to the building to grab more clothing because they had run out.
So there is definitely a demand for it. Good. If I can jump in. Most of what they were requesting for funding from UNT was for storage, because there is, we call it handling time, a long lag in handling time from when they receive a donation, when it's laundered and sorted and stored until there's a time or a space open for that to then get taken up.
And so that was their primary request so far, as the need was, but they were in no way needing additional sources of material. That was pretty well covered, mostly from the donation pins on campus and then these kind of one-off things that they're able to do for different collections.
But it's what they receive, they're not holding longer than what it takes to find an event or a space open to get it out the door. Okay, so just to underscore your point, you're saying there's storage need just to get it ready to then turn it around.
It's not like it's piling up and we need more and more storage. No, it's the demand that they're really needing, that they were clearly able to identify and then find a program to help meet that need was kids need clothes, right? And also the ability to shop in a more sustainable way to where you're not.
You are diverting that waste and it's not just going in your trash or something you're no longer going to wear yourself. And so it's kind of a two-pronged approach so far as the student service as well as the quality of life and sustainability initiative.
And this raises another question, how do you see this program fitting in with the kind of ecosystem of similar programs like when I have extra textiles, I take them to Goodwill or there's you know thrift stores around. I mean this is basically just complimenting that sort of already existing infrastructure.
Yeah, it can be another additional opportunity for someone wanting to, because yeah, if you want to take your clothing to Goodwill, you can. If you want to support this initiative, you can. There's multiple avenues, but we do want to make sure that residents are aware and we're able to educate them that there are opportunities for them to use. And there's really amazing things happening right at the universities.
That's a great program. Thank you.
Any other discussion?
Just in closing this, I'm looking at the notes here about how this will advance the sustainability goals up to 75% waste diversion by 2075. So I hope that that indicates that this program is going to fulfill the longevity that's projected here, because it's a great program. Thank you very much.
Thank you.
All right. Our next item is to receive a report, hold a discussion regarding the relaunch of the green business.
Awesome. So, it's me again.
I'll be doing a presentation over the green business update or the relaunch of the program.
So, a little bit of background about the green business program. There was a pilot program that was launched in 2019 where nine businesses participated in the program. The pilot lasted for 12 months and ended in 2020. Due to the pandemic and staff changes, the program did have to be put on hold during that time.
We are wanting to launch it for January 1. So, right on the corner, a little overview of the program. The green business program is intended to encourage the sustainability that is already happening at the businesses, but also offer that opportunity to educate businesses on some of the opportunities that they may not be aware of.
And so, just reminding them of different green practices that they can do at their business. Some businesses have corporate sustainability goals or policies already implemented. So, it may just be kind of reminding or educating them about what those are.
So, the focus areas are going to mirror the focus areas in the sustainability framework, which is water, energy, transportation, materials management, wildlife, and community resilience.
The green business program will also be an opportunity, hopefully, for the businesses to be able to talk amongst themselves, share practices, and then be able to share that information in the network.
So, some program specifics. So, how can a business participate in the program? So, the only requirement to be able to join is completing the questionnaire, which provides us kind of a baseline of what the business is doing.
There is another opportunity. So, you can see the sustainability curve on the right-hand side, which after you complete the questionnaire, a business would join at the bronze level.
And so, to go up in the levels of participation, they could either join a cohort, have community engagement, or have ongoing participation.
So, cohorts are going to be classes that are focused around the focus areas. So, water, materials management, wildlife, those are going to be what the cohorts are based around.
And it's going to provide education for the businesses. They'll meet on a monthly basis from a three- to four-month time frame.
And that will be another opportunity for those businesses to be able to learn, you know, get more knowledgeable about something that they are wanting to learn a little bit more about.
The community engagement is another step. So, a business, what that may look like for a business can be social media, you know, just promoting on their social media what sustainability practices are already doing.
It can also look like having signage around the office for the public, and that signage can state some of the sustainability practices that they're doing so that the community can know, you know, some of the things they're doing behind the scenes.
Community engagement can also look like hosting a cohort class, hosting a volunteer event, working with us on an upcoming event as well. So, it can look different for every different business.
And then, for ongoing participation, we are going to be checking in with the businesses at the six-month mark, whenever they join, and we'll be doing some annual reporting with them as well.
So, we'll be touching base with them, and so that way, if they need help during the program or if they have feedback, they can provide that to us in the time we need.
So, what does that questionnaire look like? So, the questionnaire is going to look like this. So, this is an example taken from the water section.
So, it's going to include some basic metrics, a checklist. These are some options of sustainability that maybe they're already doing at their business, and/or it is something that they could do as well.
So, it's kind of a start-off point so that they can get the ball rolling, get some ideas going on what that may look like for their business.
And then, that bottom part is a short answer. So, it gives businesses the opportunity to tell us what they're doing if these two previous sections don't cover it.
Tell us your story. Tell us what you're already doing. Tell us what you want to do, and that is a little section for that as well.
So, recognition and awards. So, we will be having awards based on the following categories and by the employer size.
So, it's going to be for resource conservation, which will include water, energy, and materials management, transportation, and wildlife and community resilience.
So, businesses that are participating in the program can submit information regarding one of those if they would like to qualify.
And it will be based on the employer size. So, we were doing that by small, medium, and large. So, small being 1 to 75 employees, medium 76 to 300, and then large being 300 plus.
We'll also be able to recognize a project of the year. So, a business can fill out a project of the year basically being a sustainability initiative that they took on during that calendar year and that they're most proud of.
And they can provide that information for us and for the awards. We'll also be providing window claims.
And so, the window claims will just be letting people know about what level they're at for the green business participation, but also for the awards.
So, if they win the award for transportation, then they would get the 2026 transportation award.
Excuse me, can I ask a question real quick? What did you say window what?
Window claim. So, it's kind of like a little decal that goes on the front of a business.
Some of our multi-families have it. And then I think some of the older, I'm sorry, oh no, the dense sustainable schools also has them as well. Just kind of identifying them so when you walk into the business, you can recognize them.
And we're also going to be working with the economic development department and also other community organizations so we can get more involvement and more awareness about the program that is going on.
So, next steps, we're going to be launching January 1. We obviously want to spread the word about it and we'll be launching cohort classes based on what the businesses are interested in.
And then we'll report ongoing participation. Any questions?
Thank you. Any questions? First of all, another great program. It's amazing how much cool stuff you all are doing. I'm glad to see this being relaunched.
As soon as you put this up, I thought about awards and of course you're already doing them of course. But I did think about the Chamber of Commerce. Are you partnering with them?
Yes. So, whenever I put in community organizations, that would be put in there as well.
That's included in it?
Yes.
Okay. And one more specific idea, maybe it wouldn't work out, is they have small business of the year awards in different categories.
It would be really cool to see one like sustainable small business of the year that could be a partnership with this program. So, we'll look into it.
We'll chat with our friends over there.
Yeah, just one question. I know it's been a while since we touched base on this program. I was wondering if you could really briefly share kind of if there was any lessons learned because I know it was a different staff member at the time that was running the program.
And remember like four years later since it's been active during the pilot phase, are there pieces of that pilot that you learned from the participants that like this is really working or maybe we shifted this I guess because we're not necessarily looking at like a red line.
Like we changed this, we modified that for how the program is getting relaunched. Like how do you see that four year ago touch point translating to where it's going to be today?
So, a lot of the pilot provided feedback on the questionnaire. So, some of the businesses originally thought that the questionnaire that was originally provided may have been too restrictive.
And so, we wanted to give them this questionnaire to kind of give them ideas about what they could be doing, what they may already be doing. So, we did get some feedback about the questionnaire.
I think we also got a little bit of feedback about maybe just advertising the businesses as well. So, taking that into consideration also.
This is Karen Berner our sustainability. Yeah, so I worked with that previous staff member who was on. Yeah, I worked with the previous staff member on our initial thoughts of relaunching and taking in feedback from that old businesses that turned into what this is now.
And then yeah, helped Julissa out through creating this new one. And the biggest one was this questionnaire. The second one was the awards and recognition.
They were like we're in this program, we like being sustainable, but like do we get anything out of it? So, that was another big one.
And then we have a resource guide now that gives just kind of general tips that we're going to give to all the businesses who sign up before it was called the roadmap. And they had certain feedbacks about what was in there and then some of the resources they would like to see in the new one.
So, that is updated. We don't have any pictures of it or anything on this presentation, but we've gone through a full changeover from that roadmap to this new resource guide.
There's a couple other little things, but that's a big one. This might be a concluding item. Is it possible to receive the full questionnaire as it's been modified as well as that new resource program that you've developed for this as a follow up report?
If that's a concluding item I can ask right there. Well, it'll be on the website. We can let you know whenever it goes live on the website and then we can access it as you'd like. Thank you.
I had a couple of questions. Have you seen any models from other cities that have programs like this?
There are a lot of, you know, there's Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston. A lot of the big cities have programs already in place, yes.
Okay, thank you. Do we know how many businesses are in debt? Who could?
Who could participate in this? Well, we definitely don't want to limit it to a number. We want to make sure that, yeah, if they're able to participate, we want them to participate.
Yeah, I just was wondering how, what the potential is. And does, is a business also, can a business also in this category be an industry? So, safety clean could get on this program too.
Great. So, every, every, good. Now, I'm not meaning safety clean just as an example of an industry. Yes, yeah. It could be Peterbilt, yeah. Okay. Yeah, because we do have the awards by employer size.
Great. Well, thanks. This, like Adam said, is another great program.
And I really like the fact that you keep on the question there from the point of view of water conservation, the xeriscaping and mating.
Yeah, yes. We push that a lot. Yes. We try to in every way that we can. Thank you.
Thank you very much. Thank you.
Next, staff reports. And the first staff report is on the air quality monitor update.
Yes, and you have a memo in your backup. We can answer any questions that you may have on that. We do have all 12 monitors installed and reporting data. Wrap that up in August, September? October.
Sorry. The timeline expanded a little bit when our installers responded to a hurricane. So, DMV was great. They helped us with that installation on all 12 of them.
And we'll be coming back to you in the new year with some information about the data that we're finding.
Okay, let's pull some of that. So, we'll have a good three months with all 12 of them when we come back. We spoke about the dashboard. Is there a timeline for when that will be launched?
It'll be after the first of the year. I'm building the background on it right now. It's fun to communicate. It's a lot of data to communicate. So, I guess it'll be appreciated.
Will that dashboard also include the site locations of the 12 monitors, or at least it could generalize? Yes.
And we generally followed the locations that we had identified previously. We had to modify a little bit because of the light holes. Not all of them are as easy to have power on them and to add to as others.
And any more discussion on that? Okay, the next follow-up is on a previous meeting question, which I believe is, how does Denton recycle plastic?
Yes. Yes. So, Dr. Myard asked about that at the previous meeting. So, we included that response in the backup.
Any discussion about that?
I just have a question. So, in the first paragraph, you have a list of what you look for. Is it true, TT, HDPE, and so on and so on?
So, this is what you sort at the facility. Yes. Which means that when people put plastic in their bins, they put everything. So, what do you do with the rest of this that does not fit in these categories?
So, the plastic that is not programmatic does have to go to the landfill. Correct? Yes. But all of the other recyclables are sorted. So, everything is sorted and what is not accepted in our program does go to the landfill.
Okay. So, there, what happens to it? Is it just buried or you burn it? It's buried in the landfill. Okay. And that's going to produce more microplastic.
And one more question that I have. I heard that the black plastic is not very safe, not very healthy for us. Do you recycle that? Or that goes in the landfill too?
Are you talking about black plastic bags? Any plastic that's black. Like carry-up trays and stuff like that.
Yeah. I'll have to look into that. I don't know if any, I'll have to ask, I can ask Pratt about that. Okay. I can look up where I read about it and maybe you would like to have that.
Any more discussion about plastics? It says that those are sold as a commodity to third party vendors. Do they, do they ever audit that, audit those vendors to see what they're doing, what they say they're doing with it?
I guess I should practice that. Definitely. Do you, do you know any more about the last line is the city might get involved with recycling plastic bags or accepting plastic bags? Do you know when, like is there a timeline?
Julissa, do you have a timeline on that one? Sorry? I just think, I mean I take them to a grocery store and I know that you can do that, but I'm not sure a lot of people know that, so I do think it could be a big deal if that could happen.
So we currently accept them at Home Chemical Collection for drop off, but not curbside.
But it says they're acting to secure a vendor to process these materials. Does that mean there'd be a curbside collection process in place or no?
No, so for Home Chemical, yeah, Home Chemical residents and non-residents can take plastic film to Home Chemical Collection as of now, whenever they're open, and they're open Monday through Saturday from 7 to 4 p.m.
But there's not a process to get it into as a curbside?
No, just because it tangles up the machinery, it causes a lot of issues at the recycling facility, and so I don't see it going curbside anytime soon, just because not a lot of programs that I know of accept a curbside, just because of the problems that they cause with a lot of the machinery.
Okay.
That it's easier to sort whenever it's dropped off versus in a single stream.
Gotcha.
And they are working on the purchase of a baler for the plastic bags that will then be able, so it'll be a large bale quantity of it that can be sold to the third party.
One comment is that perhaps at some point with the Green Business Program, there could be a category for businesses that do not use plastic bags.
Yeah, as part of the resource guide, we, in the materials management section, it does talk about how you can reduce your packaging, packaging needs, and yes. Beautiful. Yeah.
Okay.
Thank you.
Next, we have 2025 meeting dates.
Yes, you have a calendar with some adjustments for November and December.
Same thing we did this year, split into different meetings sometime in early December. Just take a look at that, think about your schedules and we'll bring it back for adoption at the January meeting. But if we have any times that it looks like we may have folks out of town, then we can look at modifying the schedule ahead of time.
And then we're not meeting on the 27th of December, so that meeting cancellation has been posted now for this year.
Any discussion about dates?
Okay, the final item is the matrix.
Does anyone have anything that they would like to add to the matrix?
I just note what I have from this meeting to add, we're going to get some contact information back to folks, that's not going to go in the matrix, we'll just share that contact information with you for the UNT textiles. We had a question about removing synthetic material. Synthetic fiber. Synthetic fiber through the textile initiative.
And then looking at some carbon reduction estimates for the framework funded items. Anything, those are the two that I captured that would work onto the matrix.
I have an idea. We spent so much time, as you all know, working on the climate action plan. And I don't know what the timeline in this would be, but it would be really interesting and important, I think, to, once some time goes by, to come back and talk about implementation. How is it being taken up? Somebody could speak to that, you know? So it doesn't just sort of...
I think that's being dealt with in January, right? From what it says on the matrix?
We'll be bringing that back... Spring 2025? That sounds good. Any other matrix material? Okay. I request a motion to adjourn. Mr. Briegel moves. And who's going to second?
All right. Mr. Helms. So that will conclude today's meeting. Happy holidays, everybody.
Thank you.