Okay. Welcome to the Friday, July 25th, 2025 meeting of the Sustainability Framework Advisory
Committee. We have a full house today, so I'm very thankful for that. We're going to deal
with items for individual consideration first, and the first item there is to consider approval
of February 28th, 2025 minutes. Any discussion about the minutes? I would like to make one
adjustment, and that is on the second page under the matrix section, where it says, "Are
there any potential plans to execute our own risk assessment of the city's infrastructure?"
I think we should add there is their own climate risk assessment, so that we specify what kind
of risk assessment it's supposed to be. I think it's that way in the matrix as well.
So if that change could be made, I'd appreciate it. Any other discussion? I have a motion
for approval. All in favor? Second. All in favor? Aye. Minutes are accepted. The next
item, item B, is to receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction on
the update regarding the Simply Sustainable Framework. And Elisa is going to present to
us her presentation. Good afternoon, committee members. My name is Elisa Amador. I'm going
to be talking to you guys about the Simply Sustainable Framework update. I'm the Senior
Program Coordinator within the Environmental Services and Sustainability Department. So
today's focus, we're going to review the draft that was in your backup, and receive
feedback and talk about next steps. So the framework we're updating is the framework
that was adopted in 2020, that came along with eight focus areas, 66 goals and strategies,
and 36 metrics. So we are changing that a little bit, and you'll see that it's included
in the backup that you have. So it will look a little different for moving forward. Since
2020, we of course also have to consider the plans that were also adopted since then. So
we want to, you know, not reinvent the wheel. We also know that some of these plans do have
their own metrics and goals and strategies that we also want to take into account, and
then we also want to marry them well into what we're bringing forth. So Urban Forest
Master Plan, you know, you guys are familiar with some of these. Denton 2040 Mobility Plan,
Parks Can, Conferences Always Management Strategy, Water, and of course you guys will be receiving
a presentation on the cap of the Climate Action Plan later today. And the plan is forward.
These plans also have some component of sustainability, and so we want them to align well with the
work we're doing. So in September 2023, that's when we reviewed two of the focus areas, which
was education and communication and community involvement. Also resiliency and public health.
During that discussion, it was brought to the attention that this is a great opportunity
in the new update to be able to ingrain those two focus areas in all of the framework. And
so what's remaining for us to review for and get feedback from are water, air quality,
energy, land use, transportation, and material resource management focus areas. So just like
we referenced a little bit before, you guys saw some of those plans. They have some kind
of, some of them will have a sustainability component. We also have to take into consideration
the Climate Action Plan after having it under our belt for about a year for implementation,
and you guys will be receiving that presentation later on today. But we also have to be cognizant
that we want to make sure that we're aligned on our communication strategies and outreach,
because we have so many messages, and sometimes we want to make sure that they're aligned
with city messaging, but also some of those plans that are also in place. So this framework
update is a little different in that we are tying everything back to these two goals.
So goal one is going to be the focus on municipal operations. So it's going to be reducing the
environmental footprint of municipal operations, assets, and facilities. Goal two will be more
focused on the community impact side. So that is reducing barriers, and so residents have
the opportunity to make that switch or that shift towards a sustainable behavior change.
And you'll see that the draft is a working document. With the draft, you know, we'll
receive feedback from you guys today, but it will be our planning document for the next
five years. So I pulled out some of the strategies that are included under goal one, which is
the municipal side. So you guys can read along, but I just wanted to call out a couple that
are included. So exploring the opportunities for property tax exemptions, for installing
renewable energy systems to primary residents, how we can look at city code for the reclaimed
water line once that comes online in the future, or the expansion of some of the reclaimed
lines in the future. Solid Base has brought forward a presentation to go before in regards
to landfill gas energy. So completing that project so we can harness the methane there
for our energy. The next one talks about fossil fuel powered equipment. And so some of you
guys may know that Parks has piloted some electric lawn equipment. So looking at opportunities
with different departments, seeing what they have and then seeing what we can spot out.
Partnering with economic development, we work with them to promote the green business program,
but also just they're able to seek businesses in working with installing alternative fueling
stations. And that can be short-term electric opportunities or long-term hydrogen. And Parks
and Rec, they already have certain projects going on with medians, and so this is kind
of capturing that as well. It would be removing invasive species and replacing it with native
grasses. On the community side, so we of course want the community to be informed on the different
opportunities where they can make that pivot or that shift. And we can do that through
rebates, audits, workshops of course that they attend, and then providing different
resources. There's also weatherization kits or conservation kits that we provide that
they can take home and put on their use for water tripping and many other things. We also
want to increase the number of conservation classes for water so we can reduce water consumption.
Some of the big popular classes that we've had and hosted are rain barrel classes. We
also do want to inform residents on how they can also be equipped by doing their own audits
at home. So DIY energy audits or DIY water audits as well. So the next one hits a little
on material resource management. So it is just exploring more opportunities to be able
to pilot diversion at University Moveouts. You guys have received a report before on the
UNT textile initiative that we've done and then also the TWU textile initiative that
we did this previous spring. And so just kind of catapulting off of that, what other opportunities
we have with universities to be able to collaborate with them. We've kicked off the electric lawn
equipment for residential, but maybe in the future we can also look at maybe a pilot for
commercial water as well. And transportation makes up a good chunk of our missions and so
we want to make sure that people are doing it also safely. I think Brand, you mentioned
being interested in helmets, things like that. So being able to provide resources so that
people are using active transportation, but that they're doing it safely.
Can I ask a quick question? On the previous page in the municipal operations strategies,
you listed incentives for renewables. Yes. Exploring alternative incentives such as property
tax exemptions or renewable energy systems, yes. For the city's benefit or for the residents'
benefit? For the residents. Pardon? For the residents. So see what I'm confused is I see
that there, but I don't see anything about similar incentives under... On the community
side. Yeah. Okay, I see. Well... I think we were thinking this is something that we need
to work on internally on the municipal side to be able to implement that for the community
side. So that's how... Yes, so there can be a community benefit, but that's some good
feedback we can include. Yeah, I'd like to see it under the community and add battery
storage to it. Thank you. Okay, so going back to community side, Haywood is also working
on completing a color-facing dashboard for the tree canopy. So that's one of the strategies
that we included for building. So next steps. We want most feedback. If you've reviewed
the draft, what are some recommendations you guys have? Any questions? Any questions?
Observations? I've got one. So on the community action strategy that says support energy efficiency
and building of improvements in existing residential structures. So that sounds like it's encouraging
homeowner improvements. Is there anything being done like at the building code level
for requirements for builders? Oh, I see. I think that we... And I didn't answer that.
I'm sorry. I'm an only non-Catheter in a little bit. So yes, we are exploring Camp and Barnett
sustainability manager. So we're working with our building inspection folks. They're looking
at the newest international energy conservation code and those amendments that are approved
to adopt that. And maybe the 2024 version, I believe. They would be bringing that forward.
But yes, we encourage that. Any other? No. If I'm remembering right, because this was
some time ago. I know we tried to update this framework roughly over four or five years
or so. In the lead up to the 2020 framework update, did we do any public facing outreach
in the development of that? So we had more feedback in the previous update and we feel
like that provided a really good foundation. And so with that in mind, we wanted to bring
it here so that you guys could provide the feedback for it. And then within your draft
document, I noticed in the previous update, there was a lot kind of framing the visioning
and a little bit of the intent behind the document in almost like a preamble sense.
And your update had some background information that was interesting and helpful. But I'm
curious if there's possibly some supportive language we could include in the earlier section
of the document that could help if someone's looking at this to understand sort of the
motivations behind this and why we're leaning into this so hard. I see from the previous
framework, there's like two or three pages regarding the summary of the document, the
vision of the document, the principles supporting the document, and those little abbreviated
phrasings I think are really helpful for someone who's just approaching this. And if we're
really trying to lean into some of this momentum behind the climate action plan and some similar
actions that the department's done, I think those types of supportive phrasing as a standalone
document without understanding some of that history could be difficult for somebody first
approaching this. So I think on the public face and side, it would be cool to see some
additional language around the motivations behind this update and what we hope to achieve
through this plan. Anyone else? Yeah. Just a question on the timeline. You may have said
this, sorry, but when do you need this to be completed? We are going to tweet this back
and I know include some of the feedback that you guys have provided. I think we're going
to be also bringing it to you. And then afterward, bring it to you. Okay. So we have a couple
of months. Anybody else? I have a couple of points, if I may. Thanks for the presentation.
On page four of the actual draft under goal one, we have reduced the environmental footprint
of municipal operations and evaluate and improve city facilities to ensure that they are resilient
to hazards and vulnerabilities. Again, I think this calls for the creation of a climate risk
and vulnerability plan. Otherwise, we're not going to know what we're going to be facing.
It's a way to look into the future and see what our biggest challenges are going to be.
And on the back of that, I know that in 2020, and perhaps you can help me or Kathryn can
help with this, in 2020, a former staff person created an emissions reduction strategies
and greenhouse gas mitigation targeting, which was given to us on February 3rd, 2020. Get
the page here. Here we go. On page three of that presentation, there's actually listed
a risk and vulnerability assessment, which was to be completed in August 2020. And I
was just curious as to whether or not that assessment was done and if it has been, if
we can get copies of it.
So the assessment was partially completed. You may remember we had some challenges with
the company who was doing that assessment. So we have a preliminary report that we could
forward to you. I believe we can share that. It wasn't fully completed, but we were able
to bring all the staff together to do what the goals of that were, but we can share what
we did receive.
Okay. Thank you. Great. Let me see if there's anything else here. I think, yeah, I think
this is really great. Yeah, very inclusive. Tell me the difference between this plan and
the Simply Sustainable book plan. Or do you mean the Climb Action Plan? No, no, there's
a, that document is called- Oh, the previous version. Yeah. Well, I think one of the big
differences is that we want to tie them all back to these different goals. We also want
to look at specific policies, which were stated in the previous 2020 framework, but how we
can update them to align with these goals. Okay. So we still have the Simply Sustainable.
This is the updated version of it. Yes, this is the update to the Simply Sustainable. Oh,
okay. Yes, yes. That's what confused me. I apologize, yeah. Right. Okay. Thank you. I
did have two other things. Sure. I agree with that. In the larger framing of this, I think
it's really helpful that you brought this down into the community and municipal. That's
in line with the way we've been framing some of where these actions actually hit. So I
think this overview is really helpful to split how those actually interact with the actions.
There were a couple items from the previous plan that I'm not seeing reflected in the
update that I don't feel we made a ton of progress on. They're a little timely, so I
figured it's worth mentioning. One being when we were developing the climate action plan,
there was continual reference to the 2019 greenhouse gas inventory. Okay. And in the
2020 framework update, discussed an annual update to our greenhouse gas inventory. Is
that something that we're able to achieve through our current air quality monitoring
program, or is that something that we might think about as a separate development for
inventory, even semi-annually, or? I don't know if you had a comment on that. I don't
know about semi-annually. No, I'm sorry. Every other year, annually, but I only recall the
2019 update ever being referenced in documents. I want to say I'm going to move along with
everyone. We're going to talk about the greenhouse gas inventory during the staff updates. Okay.
So the 2019 inventory was completed in 2023. So we do the longer look back to make sure
that the data is available. So we'll be working on an inventory looking probably at 2023 data
starting soon. So it's different from the air quality monitoring. It's a completely
different process. Right. I'm just curious if that could be included in this plan. I
know it's related in other plans like our climate action plan, but given that's something
we're really leaning into both in the 2020 update and in this update, I think having
that item specifically as a target that we're looking at those metrics and we're trying
to follow as a progress check, right? The actions that we're implementing are helpful
or not. Second, this is a little timely as well. Given ongoing discussions from our municipal
utility regarding energy generation, there were some specifics in the 2020 update that
sought to put a little bit more of a definition around what being a 100% renewable city looked
like. And there was a breakdown in that goal from the 2020 update that defined 100% renewable
generation, for example, or there were other targets talking about having contracts in
place to see through X, Y, and Z that were really specific. And I think having those
definitions are helpful if these are plans that council are adopting that should be cohesive
throughout city operations, right? And so if that's something that on the books we have
in this document, I know it's referenced in the climate action plan. I know it's currently
referenced in our renewable resource plan. I think that consistency or at least continuity
between the plans is really helpful. We can by name put something down, right? But we can
see also, even in our own municipal operations, we have one active gas plant and discussions
of a second one already in public meetings. But I think that definition of what does it
mean to be 100% renewable city is really helpful, at least in the way that we vision it in this
document. And that would be for council to determine whether or not that's the definition
they want to subscribe to. But I think putting words down that expand that, or at least that
target specific goals can be helpful to guide some of that discussion.
Any other comments? That's it. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Next on the agenda
is receive a report, hold a discussion, and give staff direction on the update regarding
the Sense Energy Efficiency Incentive Program results for fiscal year 2023 and 2024.
And Caitlin Davis is going to come up and present this. This is her first time to present
this to y'all. So be nice. All right. Good afternoon. I have a question. What's your name?
Yes. Good afternoon committee. My name is Caitlin Davis. I am one of the conservation
program coordinators in the Environmental Services and Sustainability Division. Today I'm just
going to give you a brief presentation over the Green Sense Energy Efficiency Incentive
Program reductions for last fiscal year, fiscal year '23, '24. So just a brief outline of
what I'm going to be talking to you guys about today. So first I'm going to give a background
of the Green Sense Incentive Program, and I will talk about the fiscal year '23, '24
kilowatt hour reductions from the Green Sense rebates. And then finally I'll touch on the
greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the Green Sense rebates for the fiscal year '23, '24.
So a brief background. The Green Sense Energy Efficiency Incentive Program began in 2009,
and rebates were offered focused on incentivizing increased energy efficiency in our existing
housing stock. And it was focused on the building envelope and building systems. So envelope
is insulation and windows, and the building systems are HVAC, smart thermostats, things
like that. And this program is coordinated by the Environmental Services and Sustainability
Division, and it's funded through Benton Municipal Electric. And prior to last fiscal
year's program updates, the program incentive levels have been in place and unchanged since
fiscal year '28. So of the program changes for fiscal year '23, '24, there was an annual
budget increase from $250,000 to $1 million, and incentive level increases were given to
those current offerings that had the largest impact on reducing energy consumption and
demand for our customers. And new program offerings included HVAC tune-up rebates,
weatherization or conservation kits, and dedicated funding for our annual solar fan giveaway.
And these last two items are specifically targeting renters, as the Green Sense rebates
are typically for homeowners. And they still have a large impact on reducing energy consumption
and demand for our customers, despite being small.
Can I ask a quick question? I'm just curious, how extensive is the fan giveaway program?
Do you have any numbers on? I guess that will be in the next presentation, right? Yeah,
okay.
Yeah, I don't have any current numbers.
Okay, thanks.
All right, so this graphic shows the total number of rebates by fiscal year. These numbers
are only for the energy efficiency rebates. They do not include the electric vehicles
and e-bikes, which have now since been moved to the framework fund. And we can see between
2023 and 2024, fiscal year 2023 and fiscal year 2024, there was a 118% increase in the
rebates awarded, which can be attributed to our funding increase, our changes in incentive
levels, as well as increase in education about the rebates through social media, ads on utility
bills and flyers, as well as our continued improvement of our online processing procedure
through our online application form, in addition to the paper copy for those customers that
prefer to use that. And this graphic right here shows the percentage of the installation
cost to the customer covered by the green sense rebates by fiscal year. Prior to the
fiscal year '24 program updates, the incentive levels remain the same, with the exception
of fiscal year 2017, which had different funding levels. But you can see...
I didn't mean to interrupt you.
Okay.
This decline in the graph we see up till FY24, this was due to the incentive levels, right?
So a proportion of the cost of the installation.
Yes, that is correct.
So the decline, is that similar to increased cost in materials, or is that attributable
to something else?
Most likely it can be inferred to the increased cost of installation over time due to inflation
and things like that.
Okay, thank you.
So yeah, so we can see that with the program changes in fiscal year '24, it has nearly
tripled since fiscal year '23 to 10.68% of the cost covered by green sense.
So on this slide, this is a graphic outlining the green sense cost per kilowatt hour reduced
or energy consumption reduced by our most cost effective energy efficiency retrofits,
and the ones that we currently have calculations for that we're confident in.
It should be noted that these are relative comparisons. They are only for the first year
of the equipment, rather than the life of the equipment, which can vary.
You can see in the left-hand side, in the light blue, it shows the estimated cost per
kilowatt hour, which was proposed when we came to the committee in 2023 to propose the
fiscal year '24 changes, and on the right, in the dark blue, that shows the actual cost
per kilowatt hour reduced.
So for the HVAC, that actual cost per kilowatt hour reduced is a little bit lower, and with
the installation, it's a little bit higher.
This is what we do to the fact that installation, we did increase that rebate in fiscal year
'24 to reach more customers and encourage them to improve their installation.
And then here is a summary of our more popular rebates, starting from left to right.
We show the number of rebates awarded by equipment type.
So HVAC made up 37% of the total rebates awarded.
Installation made up 6%, and Windows made up 8%.
And it was the average cost accrued by the customer of the installation, and then the
average rebate awarded to the customer, and then the percent of total cost.
So you can see that installation, we have the 37%, so it covered a big chunk.
It was a big help for our residents.
So you have the breakdown between the HVAC and the installation for proposed cost coverage
and actual cost.
Do you have similar stats for these larger by-dollar categories on slide 8 that kind
of helps us understand where we're getting a little bit more bang for a buck in the kilowatt
hour reduction that we're going?
Currently we don't.
We are working on adding that.
These are just the numbers that we are confident in right now.
We use residential load calculations, and there's a learning curve for me on my part
is doing that math.
But we are working on calculating that out.
I think given the volume that these take up within the program, having that kind of
information would be really helpful to help advise on the rebate levels, especially if
there's any additional information you might gather regarding actual installation costs,
which seems to have been a little underestimated, and the impact per dollar as that attracts
or deters people from applying for the rebate.
I think those two pieces are really critical for us looking forward in this rebate level.
This slide shows the total kilowatt hour reductions for HVAC and insulation.
Again, these are big heavy hitters that are more cost effective, and the ones that we
currently have calculations for.
Then we also have the average annual savings in electricity bills from these retrofits.
These are calculated using current D&E rates for both the summer and the winter.
Then again, the green sense costs per kilowatt hour reduced.
Finally, we have also calculated the greenhouse gas emissions reductions from the HVAC and
insulation kilowatt hour reduced.
There was a total of 776,388 kilowatt hours reduced from HVAC and insulation retrofits.
This is equivalent to 444 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent, which is the measure of
global warming potential of greenhouse gases, multiple greenhouse gases.
This is equivalent to the CO2 emissions from nearly 50,000 gallons of gasoline consumed
by the average American, and the greenhouse gas emissions from 157 tons of waste in the
landfill.
These are all calculated using U.S. EPA greenhouse gas emissions reductions calculated.
Next steps, continuing to follow budget discussions with city council, we are continuously working
on improving our data tracking and reporting of green sense and tracking effectiveness
of our new program allocations and continuing to update the program as needed.
With that, I will take any questions.
I have a question, thank you, great presentation.
Can you just remind us, because earlier on you said we also have incentives for e-bikes,
but that's in a different fund now.
Can you kind of tell us what that fund is and when those split apart?
Yes.
So I don't know what year electric vehicles were added to the green sense program.
Kat might be able to tell that, but the e-bike and e-bike rebates have been moved to a separate
funding, the framework fund, that was this past, that was for this year.
This was this year.
Yes.
And e-bikes were added to green sense in this winter '24.
Does that answer your question?
Yeah, thank you.
Anyone else have any comments?
Oh, you made it.
Congratulations.
Thank you very much.
I just want to say that the success of this program is really remarkable, and I hope it
will continue.
Just looking at those numbers of the reduction estimates for greenhouse gases, it's truly
something that's going to help us get to net zero by 2050, so thank you.
Sorry.
I understand this is like a rebate incentive program, and it's based on a little bit of
wiggle room that we get with DME.
I'm curious if there's been, we understand the number of kilowatt hours reduced, that's
calculable, right?
And we understand generally the rate at which DME pays for kilowatt hours produced.
I wonder if there's a way you could map out the value of what this rebate is doing for
the municipal utility as a savings measure, given that we're funding it at around a million.
I'm curious, what does that actually map out to in terms of their budget for what we may
be saving them in the bigger run?
I think that could be really additive to this picture.
Yeah.
We'll look into that.
That's a good question.
Anything else?
Thank you.
How many presentations have you given?
We can't track that, I'm sorry, so our records aren't that far back.
We have to break out the stone tablets and try to do some math.
All right, so I'm just going to give you an update on where we are with the 2024-2025
Greensense program.
Just a reminder that we did home EV and e-bike off of Greensense, so these are just going
to be strictly energy efficiency numbers that we're looking at.
I want to talk a little bit about the outreach and awareness that we've increased this fiscal
year for Greensense.
Brainstorm about some other ideas about how to reach the community, and then talk about
these steps.
So, I'm going to give you a good background about it.
Funded by DME and administered by Environmental Services and Sustainability.
A million dollars of pre and pre-fiscal funding.
And again, focusing only on energy efficiency.
We haven't included the Q1, Q2 results that were in the agenda.
Just to kind of show you where we were at that end of March time frame, and then where
we are now.
End of March was a little bit more concerning.
Rebates were rolling in pretty slowly those first two quarters, and we gained a lot of
ground in quarter three.
We ramped up our outreach program, and we were seeing the rebates really come in.
I'm happy with where we are with the dollar spend now.
Like I said, I was a little concerned in March.
So, compared to '23, '24, you can see the significant reductions on HVAC and windows.
Insulation stepped up a little bit, probably because of the increased rebate.
Insulation is one that I think you need a little bit more of an incentive to do.
It's not telling that people, you know, my insulation is failing, I have to go get it
fixed today.
It's more of a, wait, now we know we should do something about that, so what is it going
to take to get me to do something about that?
And then, just to step up through quarter three, we saw more growth from Q2 to Q3 in
'24, '25 than we did in '23, '24.
So, I was happy to see that.
The spend through June 30th is $600,000, and we've probably put out another $100,000 since
then.
So, I'm close to $700,000 right now is where we sit.
A little bit low, lower than last year, but also we don't have the EV and e-bike in here,
and that was about $140,000 of the spend last year.
So, just be aware that it's only going to energy efficiency, and we are seeing increases.
So, we stepped up the promotion about Greensense and our citizen connection through our social
media.
We offer incentives classes to let folks know what was available, how to apply for it, events.
We're promoting them at every event that we go to.
We send emails out to our installers.
We've got a lot of installers working with the program that really stepped up over the
last two years.
New installers today, so that's good.
We like seeing that and getting new installers in the program.
And then we put flyers up around town, and some of coffee shops, our rec centers, libraries,
just to increase that amount.
When we were trying to think about what we could do to get more folks to participate,
we were looking at postcards to high usage customers, advertising in the different product
stores, stepping up rebates maybe, like have an additional $500 for a certain time period
if you took advantage of the rebate during that time period.
We're back on track with spending, but I do still want to get some feedback about any
ideas that you all might have.
So, time to kind of increase that, customers accessing that rebate.
So, open for any ideas that you all have.
And then, of course, next step we'll continue to monitor the Grants of the Program applications
and extensions and report back to you all.
And then implement any additional communication strategies.
That's all I have for today.
So, any questions on where we are?
Thanks, Catherine.
One comment and a question.
The installer bit I think is really important.
Our HVAC was about to conk out.
And everybody we talked to was like, "Well, you know the City of Denton has this program."
So, they knew about it.
I thought that was really good.
Because that's, I think a lot of people are going to hear about it if you're in that moment.
Insulation, even that, though you might have somebody come and replace a filter and they
might say your insulation is low and they might perform it.
So, I think that's really good.
My question was, sorry if we've talked about this before, but can you say a bit about,
are these basically homeowners?
What about property owners, like apartment buildings, you know?
Like there's all different categories of people who could take advantage of this.
I don't know, can you say how that looks?
So, by and large it's homeowners.
We do have a group of landlords that take advantage of the program.
We see different property management companies.
We'll get multiple from them throughout the year.
Folks who have smaller apartment complexes, duplexes, we see a lot of that,
like the 10 unit apartments, they'll take advantage of it.
We've talked to some folks who are converting rental units from window units,
maybe to a mini split and looking to take advantage of the rebate for that.
So, we're getting a lot of higher efficiency heat pump.
So, that's a good retrofit.
We, not in the last couple of years, but we have done some larger multi-gallon properties.
We just weren't seeing that investment this year so far.
Talk at all to HOAs, I'm thinking like we did add the mini split this last year.
I'm thinking like mobile home communities, for example,
that's probably a really good market for that program specifically.
Do we have contacts in those HOAs that could distribute and reach those networks that maybe are harder for us to target?
We do, and we're working with the planning department on updating our HOA contact list.
And we're actually having a new way to register to find out more about the city
so that they can come in and request more information from us too.
So, I think that'll help.
You know, also, sorry, just piggybacking, there's, just thinking,
there's also these like Facebook groups that are like neighborhood specific, you know?
I don't know if you all are plugged into those, but the North Lakes neighborhood group, right?
And that's where people will tend to post a lot of stuff about neighborhoods and buildings and that sort of thing.
And we see some of our posts shared in those groups.
We're not members of those groups, so we can't post in them.
But we encourage folks to share about it.
And I do see it shared on Denton Downtowners, some of the other Facebook groups.
Is there any outreach you're aware of, like at the Big Box Home Depot and Lowe's?
We don't have any flyers there.
We've talked to them about flyers before and had a little bit of a pushback about leaving that there.
We can revisit that.
We do get a lot of rebates that are using Home Depot installers.
So, I think that it's getting around there.
And maybe somebody in the store is familiar with it.
I like the idea, too, of the postcards to high usage customers.
I guess the only thing is the high usage customers may not be as sensitive to their electricity bill.
To me, if we can talk to the property owners, the apartment owners,
and maybe incentivize that somehow for them to participate in it, because that could really help people who need it.
We've had some big conversations with the staff and some partners to let them know about it, and then you give them one, two, then the manager.
Has the Chamber of Commerce been involved at all in the dissemination of information?
Not for the residential program.
That's something we can look at.
We're looking at visiting with some larger employers and seeing if we can do lunch and learns for their employees who live in Denton.
Just to come inside maybe and give them a chance to learn more about programs that can benefit them.
Also, it might be advantageous to actually have, rather than an advertisement in the record chronicle,
to have somebody do a feature article on the program.
Yeah, that would be great.
In fact, you could probably write it in-house and just give it to them.
I'm imagining it, yeah.
Any other comments?
Peggy did that whenever she had energy on it, so that was a great one.
Any other comments?
Okay, thanks Catherine.
We're going to end it for the next one too.
We're going to let Michael take a break from the climate.
If y'all really want me, I'll kill you.
It's been a joint effort for sure, so you might just need a lot of the climate for a lot of the things we're going to be wrapping.
Okay, so we can just jump into the climate fan update.
So this is a look back at 23-24.
Remember the plan was adopted by Council in August of '24.
So this is mainly looking at 23-24 metrics.
So do you remember the climate action plan goals, the net zero emissions by 2050?
We have the three primary goals with 16 actions, five transportation actions that represent 53% of the reductions that need to be made.
Buildings, we had eight action plan use three, and those were 35 and 12% respectively.
And then we created the dashboard scorecard.
That was a pretty big effort.
It aligns with our master plans that we were looking at whenever we were developing the cap.
So there's 16 measures that are reported through the dashboard, and that's a combination of new and existing measures.
So we're able to pull some of that data over from other departments that are reporting it through their master plans.
And then some of them we just created with touch.
So just some of the accomplishments for this agenda for 23-24.
We have the 100% renewable for DNA customers, the $1 million investment in energy efficiency.
That was the first year that we were so happy with how that program went.
Solid waste, a solid overall diversion rate increased to 24%.
Our social media engagement was up to 185%, or up 185%.
And then we saw the rooftop solar increase 3.2 megawatts from April 23 through the end of fiscal '24.
I have a quick question on that.
Were those non-incentivized installations?
April to September 23 could have still been incentivized if funding was available, I'm not certain.
Okay.
But they could have still.
Okay, I'm just curious if the incentive period is still going.
Yeah, there were a few months where they could have been eligible if funding was available.
Is there any chance of at some point getting definite numbers on that?
Affirmation of whether or not it was done through incentives or whether or not it was done through incentives.
Yes, I can reach back out to DNA and see if they can break it out.
Thank you.
By the month it was approved.
Thank you.
So goal one, transportation.
So the slide has a lot going on.
We know.
So it looks at the city of Denton, the registered EVs and the total number of vehicles in the city of Denton and each other percentage.
So for the county, the city of Denton, we also have at the bottom there, we have the other cities in Denton County and the number of EVs and the percent of adoption that they have.
It's just interesting to compare.
We have the local state and federal incentives that existed at the time.
This was created.
The market assessment, which is we have 78 EVs and 37 plug-in hybrid electric vehicles available in the market now.
So GM, Ford, and Ford, Honda, Acura, others all providing different incentives with the EVs, whether it's home charging, whether it's different lease rates.
So there's a lot going on with the market for EVs.
Yes.
Are the cities doing different things for EV incentives or would you chalk these different percentages up solely to just different kinds of people who live in different kinds of cities because the same incentives are basically for everybody?
The same incentives are basically there for everybody. I would say that I'm not aware of any of the other cities that have a city-sponsored repay.
Interesting.
And then on the right, we just have a map of the EV charging stations.
If you overlay that with gasoline gas stations, it's pretty closely aligned along the major corridors.
We just see some of the smaller gas stations, you know, sprinkled throughout the community that you may not notice on the EV side as much, but the corridors are pretty well covered with EV charging and then around 380, you'll see more.
The shopping centers up there where you may be able to spend a little bit more time.
So transportation on the municipal side, we added 11 electric vehicles for the city. We added six e-bikes for PD in the last year.
Last this year, we had the first electric car range in which came in service April 25.
EV options are available for almost all of our light duty fleet replacements.
And then we have funding available to offset the incremental costs if the department needs it.
We've had several departments shifted using EVs and not needing financial assistance from the framework.
In addition to vehicles, we want to talk about improving the active transportation infrastructure.
So we added 4.2 miles of trail, 23, 24, and repaired almost two miles of sidewalks.
57% of residents are within that 10-minute walk to a park. And then we did 67 e-bikes per day.
A point that was raised earlier today, was a question regarding the addition of trails and whether or not those were contributing to transportation incentives
as a transportation infrastructure or whether it was recreation alone. So there's a park and there's a loop around it and that's a trail. Versus an actual connected, gets you to point A and point B transportation oriented trail.
I'm curious in the way that we're reviewing and tracking some of that information if we can incorporate that active infrastructure as transportation separate from recreational trails.
We can look at that because I know some of them do have a recreation, but it is also a connection. So yeah, we'll work with the parks and see how we can further filter that number.
Got it. Thank you. Yeah, that's a good question. And then DCTA, and this is the total ridership, increased 9.37% in 23, 24, compared to our year.
So building measures, you heard about GreenSense already, that the 769 energy efficiency related redates, the cool thing about that is that 94% of the redates went for the homes that are 2009 and older.
And I don't know if y'all remember when we talked about building code and how many of our homes were 2009 or older, the 74% that could really benefit from energy improvements.
Energy efficiency improvements because that was prior to many of the higher efficiency codes. So just that housing stock was less efficient, by the way, it was built time.
So it's interesting to see that 94% went for that. It was a good number. Overall, electric utility usage across the community decreased 5% per customer.
Even with our growth, we saw the 5% per customer decrease. So that was nice. Natural gas decreased 1% community wide and water decreased 7% community wide.
Sorry, those were all per capita? Yes. Well, per customer, sorry. Per customer, but like water, you say 7% community wide. So, the whole city used 7% less water?
Yes, but not the municipal accounts, the entire community. Interesting. And the same on natural gas across the entire community.
On the municipal buildings, we've converted to LED lighting at 18 facilities. We've done more of it during this time around 2018. Upgraded HVAC control systems.
Our electric usage decreased by 0.27% and our water increased 34%. And a lot of that can be attributed to the work that our parks department is doing to have more fish and irrigation systems.
That's a huge decrease in water usage. Our city buildings, we have different tiers of buildings. So we have 63 that have staff building usage.
And then 30 where you may have a couple members of staff in and out. And then we have intermittent at 111. So different higher use facilities get more energy efficiency work prioritized.
Sorry, what's an example of an intermittent staff building?
Maybe a work station.
So, also 34% because that is huge. Does that show it's possible like citywide, now this is municipal, but could that number be replicated on a larger scale?
Or is there something special about municipal operations that you can't really, other than you control all of that?
Other than we control more of the municipal side, I think that there's room for that. Maybe not that high on the residential side, but if we had folks watering two days a week as our watering ordinance states, instead of four or five or seven, we can see that kind of increase.
And it's not everybody, but there are those that water every day. Isn't it roughly 75% of our water goes to irrigation?
So land use goals, just enhancing access to necessities, walkable communities. So we talked about the 57% within a 10-mile walk to a park. This was still a case study that we looked at where in 2016, we had, I can't remember how many acres of this, sorry, 150 acre area that had the 221 single-family homes, the 28 duplexes and no multi-family.
And then by 2025, the same area, the same amount of acreage was now supporting 145 single-family, 86 duplexes and 683 multi-family. And we're looking at that because that's an area within the loop.
We know that energy cost is a significant portion and the shared wall construction is 35 to 55% more efficient. So how can we develop within our loop or within our core service area and still increase that access to necessities, have more efficient housing, not change the complete look and feel of a neighborhood necessarily, but still grow in a more sustainable manner, more efficient manner.
We have the renewable natural gas contract with the landfill that we talked about.
And then this is just a still shot of our climate action plan dashboard. The colors indicate where we are in progress, if it's stalled, hasn't started yet. And then the one on the right is the energy efficiency upgrades. That's some of the green metrics. It's just a great way to visualize where we are in space and time with the climate action plan.
That's it. Does anyone have any questions?
Anybody? I just want to say great job on all of this. I read the news article on the scorecard. I thought that was really good. Well done.
This is really nice to see.
How does this, excuse this, this is really stupid, but how does, where does the greenhouse gas inventory fit into this?
I mean, it's, you have, we know in municipal, according to the, to the inventory, the energy numbers are biggest in the municipal, and then transportation in the community with the greenhouse gas second.
But are, say, are something like the deck's numbers taken into account with this document? Is that addressed?
They're addressed in the greenhouse gas inventory.
But not in this document?
Well, the cap will refer back to the greenhouse gas inventory to see the progress that we're making.
Okay.
Yeah. So then we'll tie together. It'll inform where we are and what we need to look at.
Yeah, I was just curious because I didn't, I didn't, I see the three primary goals, and I, I think I understand now, and I wondered initially why it wasn't, one of the goals was not just overall, overall energy reduction.
Especially on the, on the municipal side.
Anybody have anything else?
Great. Progress is being made.
Yes, sir.
Yeah. Thank you.
Okay.
Thanks.
Okay, we are now at staff reports.
We have a water conservation update, a mid-year summary memo, a meeting follow-up, greenhouse gas inventory update, and the matrix.
Yes, so if anyone has any questions, we have a great update on the waterwise incentive program and the water conservation outreach that we've really ramped up this year.
The rain barrel classes are super popular.
I would say that in our turquoise alternatives classes, those are the two highest and probably the ones that we hear, we get the most feedback about.
Did you have, sorry, did you have an update on, because I remember we were talking about those irrigation components when we last brought up the, oh Lord, forgive me, is this under the sustainability fund or is this under the irrigation, assuming sustainability?
Water is funding the incentives.
They're not coming out of the sustainability fund.
We've had approval to do it and we were not sure if water was going to do incentives, but they chose to fund those.
Okay.
So we're, similar to Grantsense, we're helping process those through using the water fund.
Gotcha.
Thank you.
I was wondering how that split up.
Yes.
Since we had last talked about that and adding those components regarding the incentive program for irrigation equipment, do you know how much of that program has been used within this fiscal?
I do not.
We can bring that back at the next meeting.
Okay.
And then the turf buyback program, I was curious too, it was quite a sum that they were willing to put down for it.
I was curious how that implemented so far this year.
And again, I can have water bring that back if you would like?
Okay.
Can we get it on the water?
Thank you, sir.
That's okay.
We just have our education outreach and social media update through the third quarter.
We're trending higher this year than last with our outreach numbers and our engagement with folks.
It's been a good year.
I will say that some of these numbers do include, no, they're going to be right on the edge.
They may include a couple of the band giveaways, which has been going very well.
We have over 1,100 registrants for bands, and we have about 250-ish left to hand out.
So we've gotten those out into a lot of folks' hands.
We did it a little bit differently this year.
Instead of one big Saturday event, we have done Friday at multiple areas throughout town for folks to come and pick up,
and places where people are already attending events, so it's worked out really well.
This memo was about the risk management, the climate risk and vulnerability assessment.
So we did talk to our risk management team.
We don't think that we're going to have anyone on contract already that can do that assessment,
so that's something that we're going to work with them to explore how to move forward with that.
>> Will that have to go before council?
>> It's going to depend on the procurement process.
>> Right.
>> Yeah, and the cost, but possibly, very possible.
>> Okay, thanks.
>> Then we just have a little update on the greenhouse gas inventory.
So we presented that 2019 inventory in October of '22 to the committee,
and that's when we talked about shifting from annually to every two to three years.
I think JT said two to three years and we committed to two, and then left.
Not that we're still bitter about that, sorry.
But Caitlin has, she's fitting up to date or up to speed with the software.
We also had, equally, we've done our inventories since we started doing inventory to change the software.
So we have a new version of the software. It appears to be so much more user-friendly,
more plug and play, easier to have different scenarios.
I think we're going to be able to do some different type of planning and timeline planning with the software,
so we're really excited about it.
I believe Caitlin finished the training this week.
So we'll be working on a timeline and what that's going to look like to get that out the door.
So, data collection and then completion of that.
We're fortunate, Italy's migrated over all of our older inventories.
They indicated at first they'd only do a few of them, and we were, I don't know, sufficiently pitiful and they moved them all.
So, it'll be great. We'll have all of that background for planning and for looking at our scenarios.
It sounds, the software sounds really great, so we're excited.
And then we have the matrix.
Anybody have a hint for the matrix?
Brian, do you want to?
We could get a date from Water regarding their Water Horizon Center program.
Thank you so much for the staff report.
There were additional questions in there regarding how those programs have gone over this year.
I think it would be really helpful to review, especially if you kind of start looking forward to the budgets this next year.
I'd like to see how the Turf Buyback program, the irrigation equipment incentive has gone and if there's program updates we can think about there.
Okay.
Yeah.
Well, I may just be speaking for myself, but I was a little surprised to learn that there's talk of a new gas-fired power plant in the city of Denton.
And that seems like something that should be on our radar.
I was happy to see in the June article that the mayor said we're not doing anything about this yet and we need to have a robust public input process.
I definitely second that.
And I feel like we could play a part in that in some way.
So I'd like to learn about that and have a chance to discuss it.
Anybody else? I have a couple.
I would like to request that DME give us presentations when they have completed their integrated resource plan and the city renewable energy policy, both of which have taken the place of the revision of the Denton renewable resource plan.
And this ties in with Adam's request about things related to this new gas plan.
I already mentioned the rewording of my request for the climate risk and vulnerability study, so that's cool. I thought that given the ongoing removal of federal incentives that we seriously look at a return to solar rebates and institute new rate rebates for battery storage.
I think we should also look at type two car chargers as possibility for in some way helping with that.
That might help in regards to EV usage for sure.
Is the fiscal year beginning in October is it? Yes sir. Okay.
So I'd like to have those discussions in a timely manner.
I'm also curious about any discussions we can get regarding incentives for white roofs.
For permeable sidewalks and driveways or just talking to city staff who are connected with doing things like paving idea. I know that the idea of the cool creek. I don't think that's the right name, but the concrete that reflects heat rather than absorbs it.
If there's been any development with that, and I think that covers it for me.
I was just going to make one more remark on that regard is that as I see it, the success of the climate action plan, and I know you agree with this, but I just want to put it out there, is dependent upon cooperation and communication amongst all sectors, all departments.
And so I trust that to that end, we will be as inclusive as we can with our discussions and presentations from other staff members. Thank you.
If I may, sorry. One additional item related actually to the climate modeling. I recall a presentation JT gave us when we were first discussing the greenhouse gas inventory and the early development of our climate action plan.
Regarding, call it predictive environmental conditions, and he had discussed additional excessive heat days, he discussed additional flooding risk. A couple weeks ago, my neighborhood on a very normal rain event got about a foot underwater and water was in people's garages flooding people's cars debris all over the road on a normal rain event.
So just in light of thinking about, as we implement climate action plan, as we talk about an additional greenhouse gas inventory update, I'm curious, that probably covers a little bit of the excessive heat days and things like that but on the flooding risk side.
Of course we've seen recently in South Texas, when flooding planning doesn't happen. There's some consequences and if we're already seeing events where a casual rain event can flood people's homes and risk infrastructure and curious if we could hear, I don't know if this is water or watershed protection or who.
What strategies or plans, the city's developing regarding our flooding risk. If these are components of these plans, they're not really pronounced and what we have on paper so far so I think getting some information from related departments would be really helpful as we consider these updates to these different programs.
That could be actually part of the risk assessment.
Anybody else? Thanks.
Are you going to ask about the date?
When we're doing our planning.
Are those going to be available for the August meeting? Do we know?
Just want to make sure we plan for that next one.
All right, with that, it is now 2/13 and we will adjourn the meeting. Thanks.