WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:13.160 Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our Committee on the Environment. Today is Monday, October 00:00:13.160 --> 00:00:23.300 the 5th, and it is 9.03, and we will call the meeting to order. We do have a quorum, 00:00:23.300 --> 00:00:30.040 and so we will go ahead and begin with our first item, which is consider approval of 00:00:30.040 --> 00:00:33.320 the September 8th, 2020 minutes. 00:00:33.320 --> 00:00:35.360 Move approval. 00:00:35.360 --> 00:00:40.320 Okay, we have a motion, and I will second. All in favor? 00:00:40.320 --> 00:00:41.320 Aye. 00:00:41.320 --> 00:00:48.440 Say aye or raise your hand. Larry, Mr. Collister, do we need to do the individual votes when 00:00:48.440 --> 00:00:53.320 it's just the two of us? Do I need to call that on this meeting as well? 00:00:53.320 --> 00:00:56.080 You know what? You can do it by unanimous consent. 00:00:56.080 --> 00:01:03.320 Okay. All right. So minutes approved by unanimous consent. Welcome, Jesse. 00:01:03.320 --> 00:01:07.720 How's it going? Sorry, I have a little technical difficulty over here. 00:01:07.720 --> 00:01:11.360 That's okay. You're just in time. We are moving to our... 00:01:11.360 --> 00:01:15.320 Yeah, just because it's a good thing you joined, because if we had a split vote on the minutes, 00:01:15.320 --> 00:01:20.760 it would have had to roll to next meeting. I'm going to break the tie. 00:01:20.760 --> 00:01:26.840 We will move to items for consideration B, receive a report, and hold a discussion on 00:01:26.840 --> 00:01:31.720 2019 greenhouse gas inventory. And I'll just go ahead and let you know, Jesse, we have 00:01:31.720 --> 00:01:36.440 to finish this meeting by 10.30 today. So we'll get through the presentation, and then we'll 00:01:36.440 --> 00:01:40.440 ask our questions. Okay. Thank you. 00:01:40.440 --> 00:01:46.320 Good morning, council members. James Douglas, conservation coordinator. I will pull up the 00:01:46.320 --> 00:01:59.040 screen here and we will get started. As you said, today's discussion, we're going 00:01:59.040 --> 00:02:05.560 to be talking about the results of the 2019 greenhouse gas inventory analysis. And so 00:02:05.560 --> 00:02:11.080 for today's focus, we will definitely be focused on those results. We'll also talk about the 00:02:11.080 --> 00:02:16.200 history and background for the greenhouse gas inventory. We'll talk about the individual 00:02:16.200 --> 00:02:22.880 changes and impacts associated with the 2019 results, and we'll hit on some current mitigation 00:02:22.880 --> 00:02:28.800 strategies and we will talk about some next steps. Just to kind of set the stage here, 00:02:28.800 --> 00:02:33.920 I did want to go over a few definitions. So you'll see throughout the presentation, we'll 00:02:33.920 --> 00:02:39.000 be referring to GHGs, which are the greenhouse gases, which are capable of trapping heat 00:02:39.000 --> 00:02:43.320 energy in the atmosphere. The three ones that we focus on as a part of our inventory are 00:02:43.320 --> 00:02:50.860 methane, nitrous oxide, and carbon dioxide. And you can see their abbreviations there. 00:02:50.860 --> 00:02:55.300 Every metric that you see as a part of the analysis is going to be presented in carbon 00:02:55.300 --> 00:03:00.900 dioxide equivalents, abbreviated CO2e. And that's basically the global warming potential 00:03:00.900 --> 00:03:07.080 of each one of these individual gases converted to that of CO2. And so those will be reported 00:03:07.080 --> 00:03:12.240 in metric tons, abbreviated MT. And we'll be talking, as I said, we'll be talking about 00:03:12.240 --> 00:03:16.920 mitigation, which is decreasing the flow of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by addressing 00:03:16.920 --> 00:03:25.200 that flux, by reducing sources and enhancing sinks. The greenhouse gas inventory, I believe 00:03:25.200 --> 00:03:31.600 everybody was there for the 2018 inventory, but just as a reminder, is broken into three 00:03:31.600 --> 00:03:36.640 scopes. Scope one emissions are those that are directly within either the geographic 00:03:36.640 --> 00:03:42.480 boundary or directly in operational control. Scope two emissions focus pretty exclusively 00:03:42.480 --> 00:03:47.280 on electricity consumption. And so that's not the generation of electricity as it would 00:03:47.280 --> 00:03:52.480 be in scope one, but that's when we turn on the light switches, the consumption of that 00:03:52.480 --> 00:04:01.040 electricity. And lastly, scope three, which is a little bit more challenging of a scope. 00:04:01.040 --> 00:04:07.180 Those are also consumption based, but that is outside of geographic scope and outside 00:04:07.180 --> 00:04:11.880 of operational control. And so those typically, when we talk about those, we're talking about 00:04:11.880 --> 00:04:18.320 things that are upstream and downstream and are a little bit more challenging to quantify. 00:04:18.320 --> 00:04:22.460 Just a little bit of inventory background before we get into the results. The greenhouse 00:04:22.460 --> 00:04:27.640 gas, the baseline inventory was done in the year 2006 and it's been conducted annually 00:04:27.640 --> 00:04:32.540 since 2015. When we talk today, we're going to talk about the municipal and the community 00:04:32.540 --> 00:04:38.520 analyses. Those analyses are run separately, but they are combined into one report. And 00:04:38.520 --> 00:04:44.060 so we'll just be looking for those differences there. They're done separately because the 00:04:44.060 --> 00:04:48.520 scale of the municipality and the scale of the community are a little bit different. 00:04:48.520 --> 00:04:54.660 In 2018, sustainability staff introduced the contribution analysis, which is a tool provided 00:04:54.660 --> 00:04:58.480 to us through ICLEI. And that just helps us better understand our inventories and the 00:04:58.480 --> 00:05:05.740 year to year change. And so if you remember the blue and red waterfall diagrams from a 00:05:05.740 --> 00:05:11.900 few months back now, it basically helps us understand what went well in any given year, 00:05:11.900 --> 00:05:19.540 what we need to improve and what's outside of our operational control. And lastly, the 00:05:19.540 --> 00:05:24.580 data collection analysis is going to change a little bit from year to year as things improve. 00:05:24.580 --> 00:05:29.220 And so ways that that can happen, we can get new data sets, we can get new methods of data 00:05:29.220 --> 00:05:34.580 collection and the process is always evolving and improving. And so we had a couple of those 00:05:34.580 --> 00:05:41.280 instances this year that we'll go over. Just a brief timeline. So the 2018 greenhouse 00:05:41.280 --> 00:05:47.340 gas inventory was presented in September 2019. We presented a little bit right on the topic 00:05:47.340 --> 00:05:51.980 of greenhouse gas mitigation, which is sort of all-encompassing and the inventory falls 00:05:51.980 --> 00:05:57.460 into that category. And so we had a couple meetings discussing the greenhouse gas forecasting 00:05:57.460 --> 00:06:03.580 and target setting between inventories. We wanted to present the results today of the 00:06:03.580 --> 00:06:10.560 2019 inventory before going into the next meeting in November to revisit the target 00:06:10.560 --> 00:06:15.100 setting with some updated information. We wanted to make sure that we had one more year 00:06:15.100 --> 00:06:20.740 of solid data before going into some of that forecasting data. So that's what we're doing 00:06:20.740 --> 00:06:30.940 here today. So we're going to dive into some high-level results first. And so, as I said, 00:06:30.940 --> 00:06:35.860 there are two separate analyses that are done as a part of the inventory, the municipal 00:06:35.860 --> 00:06:44.780 inventory. We had almost a 15% increase compared to 2018 and a 32.44% increase compared to 00:06:44.780 --> 00:06:49.140 our 2006 baseline. And you can see on the right-hand side, that's the top graph that's 00:06:49.140 --> 00:06:56.700 presented there. The community inventory had an 18.32% decrease since 2018, last year's 00:06:56.700 --> 00:07:03.460 inventory, and a 36.48% decrease compared to our 2006 baseline year. Now, when we combine 00:07:03.460 --> 00:07:09.540 those two, we get a combined change there of a decrease of 14 and a half percent compared 00:07:09.540 --> 00:07:16.740 to 2018 and 30.14% compared to our 2006 baseline. And as you can see, those are decreases because 00:07:16.740 --> 00:07:24.220 the municipal inventory only makes up about 16% of that combined total. And on the right-hand 00:07:24.220 --> 00:07:30.020 side there is the lower graph represents the community inventory, so that second bullet 00:07:30.020 --> 00:07:40.380 point there. So we're going to dive a little bit deeper into the municipal analysis first. 00:07:40.380 --> 00:07:44.640 And so on the right-hand side, you can see the four sectors that we take a look at there 00:07:44.640 --> 00:07:50.540 and the individual change. The left-hand graphic is the 2018 comparison and the right-hand 00:07:50.540 --> 00:07:55.520 graphic is the baseline comparison. And so a few of the highlights, the Denton Energy 00:07:55.520 --> 00:07:59.980 Center did have its first full year of operation this year. If you remember in 2018, it was 00:07:59.980 --> 00:08:04.780 just a partial year of operation. And so this is the first full year and there was an increase 00:08:04.780 --> 00:08:12.100 associated with that. Denton Municipal Electric continues towards their renewable energy goal. 00:08:12.100 --> 00:08:21.100 And in 2019, that reached an average for the year of 85%. And by that, with that renewable 00:08:21.100 --> 00:08:26.440 portfolio increasing, emissions from energy consumption at the municipal level did decrease 00:08:26.440 --> 00:08:34.220 because we're using a more renewable portfolio there. Continuing in the municipal inventory 00:08:34.220 --> 00:08:39.740 with a focus on the landfill here, so the Denton landfill had an increase in methane 00:08:39.740 --> 00:08:45.180 capture measured prior to processing. And so we wanted to take a look at this diagram 00:08:45.180 --> 00:08:50.980 here. And so if you look at the top portion of the diagram, where this metric is measured 00:08:50.980 --> 00:08:55.860 is right there at the end of collection and right before processing. And so it's kind 00:08:55.860 --> 00:09:00.320 of right where that hash mark is between collection and processing is where we're pulling this 00:09:00.320 --> 00:09:05.940 data from for the purposes of the inventory. Waste from municipal facilities decreased 00:09:05.940 --> 00:09:13.740 6% compared to 2018. And so that's the waste generated specifically at the municipal level. 00:09:13.740 --> 00:09:18.920 And methane increased at a lower rate in 2019 as compared to the previous year. So we did 00:09:18.920 --> 00:09:25.300 have an increase, but it wasn't as dramatic of a jump as it was in the previous inventory 00:09:25.300 --> 00:09:33.620 there. One more here for the municipal highlights. Our fleet services division improved data 00:09:33.620 --> 00:09:38.420 collection methods and continues to shift to alternative fuels as they become available. 00:09:38.420 --> 00:09:45.700 And so you can see that with a 3.58% decrease there compared to 2018 for the fleet. And 00:09:45.700 --> 00:09:50.520 natural gas consumption continues to increase as municipal operations grow to meet that 00:09:50.520 --> 00:09:55.940 demand. You know, since the baseline we've added more buildings and as the city grows, 00:09:55.940 --> 00:10:00.300 the municipality or the municipal operations grow with it in order to meet that demand. 00:10:00.300 --> 00:10:08.500 So we have that for the natural gas. Moving into community highlights, you can see the 00:10:08.500 --> 00:10:13.820 graphics on the right-hand side have changed to reflect the four scopes as they relate 00:10:13.820 --> 00:10:19.660 to the community analysis. As I mentioned previously, DME continues to increase their 00:10:19.660 --> 00:10:24.060 renewable electricity portfolio. And this is going to have a larger impact at the community 00:10:24.060 --> 00:10:30.060 scale because the scope to electricity consumption values are going to play a larger role in 00:10:30.060 --> 00:10:34.860 the community inventory than they are in the municipal. And so you can see that reflective 00:10:34.860 --> 00:10:42.200 there in the decrease of the electricity emissions. Along with that, the emissions from electricity 00:10:42.200 --> 00:10:48.000 have reached their lowest point to date since that 2006 baseline. Natural gas emissions 00:10:48.000 --> 00:10:52.640 continue an upward trend. This is influenced by both population growth and year-to-year 00:10:52.640 --> 00:10:57.780 temperature variation. We are going to follow this inventory up with a 2019 contribution 00:10:57.780 --> 00:11:03.660 analysis. And so the variability between those two things, that contribution analysis will 00:11:03.660 --> 00:11:09.520 point us in more of the correct direction and let us know which one of those is more 00:11:09.520 --> 00:11:19.700 likely to influence the year-to-year change. And we did have some updated data for transportation 00:11:19.700 --> 00:11:30.020 this year as it relates to efficiency of vehicles. And so the decrease from 2018, a lot of that 00:11:30.020 --> 00:11:34.280 variability is going to be encompassed in that updated data. And once again, the contribution 00:11:34.280 --> 00:11:38.380 analysis will take a little bit of a closer look at that. But we did get that updated 00:11:38.380 --> 00:11:42.820 data set on vehicle efficiency. And so that's going to play a bit of a role there. So we 00:11:42.820 --> 00:11:49.460 wanted to point that out. Some current mitigation strategies. These are ones that we already 00:11:49.460 --> 00:11:55.100 have in place and we're taking a look at. So we have Denton Municipal Electric looking 00:11:55.100 --> 00:12:00.060 at that 100% renewable electricity portfolio and looking to achieve that here in the next 00:12:00.060 --> 00:12:06.700 few years. Continued energy tracking and internal natural resource conservation efforts. So 00:12:06.700 --> 00:12:10.020 this is something that we already do internally, but it's something that we definitely want 00:12:10.020 --> 00:12:15.260 to take another look at. And we want to encompass recycling and waste reduction efforts and 00:12:15.260 --> 00:12:20.480 continue to encompass those into that. And on the community side, we're going to see 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:26.020 anticipated improvements through the comprehensive solid waste management strategy. With regards 00:12:26.020 --> 00:12:31.580 to fleet, continued development of alternative transportation options and support of alternative 00:12:31.580 --> 00:12:37.300 fuels. And so this is both on the municipal fleet side and in the community. And one of 00:12:37.300 --> 00:12:41.460 the really big ones here is continued participation and collaboration with national, state and 00:12:41.460 --> 00:12:46.340 regional partners. And so we value those partnerships very highly and we get plenty of good ideas 00:12:46.340 --> 00:12:51.660 on what we can do in the future. And I think encompassed in all of these two is the education 00:12:51.660 --> 00:12:58.780 and outreach component of everything that we do with regards to conservation, electricity, 00:12:58.780 --> 00:13:06.580 water, and all of those things associated with the community inventory. With that, we 00:13:06.580 --> 00:13:12.220 have these next steps. As I said, the 2019 contribution analysis is going to be soon 00:13:12.220 --> 00:13:17.260 to follow. And when we have that, we will provide you with those results. Some of the 00:13:17.260 --> 00:13:23.100 data there lags about three months behind what we get for the greenhouse gas inventory. 00:13:23.100 --> 00:13:27.540 The next discussion, we're going to be focused on revisiting the greenhouse gas reduction 00:13:27.540 --> 00:13:32.900 target setting and that's currently scheduled for November 2020. And once we get that target 00:13:32.900 --> 00:13:38.980 setting conversation sort of completed, we can explore greenhouse gas mitigation planning. 00:13:38.980 --> 00:13:46.300 So when and if we get a target, we'll be able to address whatever that target is. Whatever 00:13:46.300 --> 00:13:52.100 it is, we will need a plan to address it. And so we'll be talking about that at a later 00:13:52.100 --> 00:13:58.660 date. And with that, I know that was a lot of information there very quickly, but I will 00:13:58.660 --> 00:14:06.180 open it up for any questions that you might have. Oh, do I have to pull down the screen? 00:14:06.180 --> 00:14:15.540 Yeah, can you pull down the screen please so we can see the numbers? Okay. Paul? Councilmember 00:14:15.540 --> 00:14:22.420 Carter? I think I want to get a shirt that just says 00:14:22.420 --> 00:14:31.540 unmute on it. Really, I should give that to everyone else. You might have said this in 00:14:31.540 --> 00:14:37.820 your comments, but I'm just not quite sure I got it. My concern is to understand the 00:14:37.820 --> 00:14:45.300 big increases on the municipal level in the last two years. And we've got the percent 00:14:45.300 --> 00:14:50.260 changes on each of the contributing components, but it's not like a stacked bar where I could 00:14:50.260 --> 00:14:56.540 see how big the contribution is of each of those elements. So can you tell me maybe in 00:14:56.540 --> 00:15:09.340 terms of metric tons of carbon or in absolute terms, what contributed the most to that big 00:15:09.340 --> 00:15:13.100 increment in the last two years? Definitely. I've got both of those. I can break 00:15:13.100 --> 00:15:16.780 it down in the four sectors first. I think that might be helpful. So on the municipal 00:15:16.780 --> 00:15:25.940 side, the electricity made up 52.9%, waste was 43%, transportation 3.6%, and natural 00:15:25.940 --> 00:15:31.540 gas 0.6%. Of the bar? Or are you telling me percent of the bar or percent of the increase? 00:15:31.540 --> 00:15:37.540 Percent of the total. So electricity made up 52% of the total bar. Correct. I'm sorry 00:15:37.540 --> 00:15:41.940 to interrupt you. Not a problem. I don't think I framed my question correctly. So if let's 00:15:41.940 --> 00:15:51.860 say you sliced off the last two years at exactly the height of three years back, what's the 00:15:51.860 --> 00:16:03.980 composition of the increment? You know, what's the biggest contributor to the increase? And 00:16:03.980 --> 00:16:06.700 you might not have it now. That might be the thing to cover. 00:16:06.700 --> 00:16:11.820 Yeah, I'm just trying to wrap my mind around the portion of the bar. I think I understand 00:16:11.820 --> 00:16:18.940 your question. And so you're talking about the percent above 2017 values. I think it's 00:16:18.940 --> 00:16:27.480 about, I forget exactly what the units are that slide, but it's like 100 roughly. Right. 00:16:27.480 --> 00:16:35.700 So you had of the four major components, some went up, maybe some went down, I don't know. 00:16:35.700 --> 00:16:41.700 But of the pluses, what would the composition of that be? So then we could really say like, 00:16:41.700 --> 00:16:46.700 oh, wow, it's really driven by, you know, it might be a small percentage, let's just 00:16:46.700 --> 00:16:52.660 for argument's sake, it could be a small percentage increase in a very big factor. You know, that's 00:16:52.660 --> 00:16:58.540 what percent increase, I don't know, it's what drove the quantity of carbon. 00:16:58.540 --> 00:17:04.220 Right. And to point out kind of an example of that. So natural gas emissions from 2018 00:17:04.220 --> 00:17:13.900 to 2019 increased 6.29%, but only make up 0.6% of the entire large total of that. 00:17:13.900 --> 00:17:19.660 Yeah. So it could change a lot and not really be that much worth focus. 00:17:19.660 --> 00:17:27.100 Correct. And so the values previously that were, and I don't believe that this was included 00:17:27.100 --> 00:17:35.980 on the slide, but of that total 2019 municipal bar, electricity was about 53% and waste was 00:17:35.980 --> 00:17:40.300 about 43%. And so that's going to make up the vast majority of those. 00:17:40.300 --> 00:17:45.100 So whatever the changes were in those, that's what drove it. So it's kind of retelling me, 00:17:45.100 --> 00:17:48.180 mostly because it's 9% of it. 00:17:48.180 --> 00:17:49.180 Yes. 00:17:49.180 --> 00:17:53.500 Okay. And what drove the big increases in the last two years in electricity and waste? 00:17:53.500 --> 00:17:59.900 I don't feel like, you know, not happy about having presided over such a big increase in 00:17:59.900 --> 00:18:05.180 municipal carbon. 00:18:05.180 --> 00:18:08.460 So am I still, okay. I was making sure I wasn't on mute. 00:18:08.460 --> 00:18:13.060 So Keeley, you're sort of barreling through there with about 17 points out. 00:18:13.060 --> 00:18:19.220 Yep. So some of the larger contributors. So one of the highlights there was the Denton 00:18:19.220 --> 00:18:25.500 energy center did have its first full year of operation. And so that was at about 104,000 00:18:25.500 --> 00:18:33.340 metric tons CO2e. And then you have the landfill as well at roughly about 97,000. So those 00:18:33.340 --> 00:18:37.900 are going to be your two components there that are making up a large bit of the, the 00:18:37.900 --> 00:18:41.820 electricity and the waste, which are those two higher percentages that we discussed. 00:18:41.820 --> 00:18:49.620 Okay. So don't get, keep kind of pressing to like in this direction. I realize I'm taking 00:18:49.620 --> 00:18:50.620 your time. 00:18:50.620 --> 00:18:51.940 Yeah. Yeah. If you have a question. 00:18:51.940 --> 00:18:58.060 Yeah, I think I'm, you know, I'm, I'm, it's just all one question and I'm trying to barrel 00:18:58.060 --> 00:19:07.100 down to the answer. So what is it about the landfill that, you know, I mean, well, we 00:19:07.100 --> 00:19:09.420 landed on two, a two part answer. 00:19:09.420 --> 00:19:17.020 So what is it about the landfill that is that is so dramatically increasing carbon and, 00:19:17.020 --> 00:19:22.820 or is that really, are we really talking about the deck and even though it's operating within 00:19:22.820 --> 00:19:28.260 TCEQ guidelines and so on, it's still a major contributor of carbon. 00:19:28.260 --> 00:19:32.420 Sure. So I'll take that in two parts and I'm actually going to defer to Brian here for, 00:19:32.420 --> 00:19:39.300 for the first part for the solid waste bit. 00:19:39.300 --> 00:19:41.980 Good morning, madam chair. I'm member of the committee, Brian Burner, director of solid 00:19:41.980 --> 00:19:45.460 waste. Appreciate the opportunity to talk a little bit about the methane generation 00:19:45.460 --> 00:19:51.060 at the city of Denton landfill. Part of what you have to remember in this data is it lags 00:19:51.060 --> 00:19:57.140 somewhat in the way that it's reported as 2019 data. Several things happened in 2019 00:19:57.140 --> 00:20:04.340 that would allow us to capture more data or at this point. First of all, we did install 00:20:04.340 --> 00:20:10.140 additional landfill monitor wells at the facility. So going back to that landfill map that should 00:20:10.140 --> 00:20:17.100 that JT showed that, you know, you've got the, the generation or the capture, the processing, 00:20:17.100 --> 00:20:22.580 we're actually recovering more because we, we have more straws in the drink for lack 00:20:22.580 --> 00:20:27.220 of a better term. We're able to capture more that way. Also the regional growth in this 00:20:27.220 --> 00:20:34.140 area. We've, we've seen over 2018, 2019, additional trips by private parties, mom and 00:20:34.140 --> 00:20:42.060 pop generators, you know, city of Denton residents hauling material themselves to the landfill, 00:20:42.060 --> 00:20:48.860 as well as a slight increase due to the beginning of the closure of the DFW landfill in Louisville. 00:20:48.860 --> 00:20:53.460 So instead of taking it further into Dallas, people are hauling, you know, their individual 00:20:53.460 --> 00:20:58.580 waste here into Denton. So that's where, where we see a lot of this, this capture happening 00:20:58.580 --> 00:21:03.660 right now as a result of the methane generation. As we go into 2020 and we have a full year 00:21:03.660 --> 00:21:11.560 of, of additional growth, additional difference because of the, the DFW landfill closure, 00:21:11.560 --> 00:21:17.820 as well as our third party waste contracts, we may see some alterations alter alterations 00:21:17.820 --> 00:21:21.820 due to that, but we've also put additional wells in, in 2020. So we would anticipate 00:21:21.820 --> 00:21:29.980 being able to capture more and recover more methane as a result of that. 00:21:29.980 --> 00:21:42.380 Thank you. Okay. Thanks, Brian. And to the question about the, the Denton energy center. 00:21:42.380 --> 00:21:47.780 And so previously, obviously prior to 2018, that wasn't a part of the municipal inventory 00:21:47.780 --> 00:21:54.180 at all. And so, you know, we kind of go from, from nothing to something there. But there's 00:21:54.180 --> 00:22:03.980 the, the other side of that coin, which is the, the production there allows DME to have 00:22:03.980 --> 00:22:11.860 a little bit more of an aggressive stance on the renewable energy portfolio. And so 00:22:11.860 --> 00:22:17.660 the thinking there is some of the reductions from the consumption, the scope to emissions 00:22:17.660 --> 00:22:22.180 that we see in both the municipal inventory and the community inventory can be in part 00:22:22.180 --> 00:22:26.660 tied to those scope one increases, if that makes sense. 00:22:26.660 --> 00:22:37.500 Yeah, I heard that. Okay. I'll relinquish the mic for Council member Davis. Do you have 00:22:37.500 --> 00:22:41.860 any questions or follow ups? Sure. Thank you. I'm kind of toggling my screens 00:22:41.860 --> 00:22:47.380 back and forth here. So I have the numbers in front of me. I'm not sure if I quite understood 00:22:47.380 --> 00:22:54.260 the response to the municipal waste side, like things coming from the city, you know, 00:22:54.260 --> 00:23:00.580 are our trash cans more full at city hall? Are we not recycling as much like a city generated 00:23:00.580 --> 00:23:07.580 waste the increase in that? I wasn't quite sure I understood the answer to that. 00:23:07.580 --> 00:23:16.260 So the, I believe on that, that municipal slide, it was a reduction of 6.01% in municipal 00:23:16.260 --> 00:23:20.700 generated waste. And so that would be the waste that you're talking about in the dumpsters 00:23:20.700 --> 00:23:27.460 outside of city facilities in terms of the emissions themselves, scope one falls because 00:23:27.460 --> 00:23:33.380 it's municipal landfill, essentially. Got it. Thank you for clarifying for me. That 00:23:33.380 --> 00:23:39.580 wasn't making any kind of sense at all because we're doing a lot of good stuff at the city. 00:23:39.580 --> 00:23:44.740 Then I guess to Paul's question, I understood why he was asking the question earlier about 00:23:44.740 --> 00:23:49.660 breaking the bar into pieces and how to better understand some of these increases, because 00:23:49.660 --> 00:23:53.820 some of them are pretty concerning. Are we going to have a better insight into some of 00:23:53.820 --> 00:23:59.460 those when we have the contribution analysis? Because right now I'm having the same trouble 00:23:59.460 --> 00:24:06.040 wrapping my head around, you know, targeting the problem, how to actually go about crafting 00:24:06.040 --> 00:24:10.360 solutions without better understanding the contributing factors. 00:24:10.360 --> 00:24:13.940 We definitely will. And that's part of the reason that we introduced the tool. And the 00:24:13.940 --> 00:24:19.620 good thing about the contribution analysis tool is you can break it down in terms of 00:24:19.620 --> 00:24:25.740 granular data. You can break it down as granular as you have the inputs. And so an individual 00:24:25.740 --> 00:24:32.820 input that changes, if it's a dramatic change, it will be more highlighted in the contribution 00:24:32.820 --> 00:24:39.700 analysis in terms of that. And so if you remember those waterfall diagrams from a previous presentation, 00:24:39.700 --> 00:24:42.740 when we take a look at that, if we take a look at the more granular data, we can see 00:24:42.740 --> 00:24:47.020 those individual items. Okay. I'm going to probably hold off on some 00:24:47.020 --> 00:24:52.620 of my more pointed questions until we have that information. I do want to say though, 00:24:52.620 --> 00:24:58.660 I mean, to see the community moving in generally a good direction means that we've got a good 00:24:58.660 --> 00:25:02.780 base of support to keep building on. You know, we only have, we can move the numbers we can 00:25:02.780 --> 00:25:07.940 move from the city side, but to know that the community is moving in a good direction 00:25:07.940 --> 00:25:13.980 as well. I mean, that really empowers us to make some big strides from municipal perspective. 00:25:13.980 --> 00:25:23.380 So thank you. Okay. Jesse, I hope you come back. So I have 00:25:23.380 --> 00:25:29.660 a few questions. I know that we received, there you are, we received an email about 00:25:29.660 --> 00:25:34.980 the, using the equivalency calculator from the debt commissions. And it says that it's 00:25:34.980 --> 00:25:50.620 equal to 22,514 passenger vehicles driven for one year. And that's about 11,726,117 00:25:50.620 --> 00:25:58.300 gallons of gasoline consumed. And I know that we've used this equivalency calculator before. 00:25:58.300 --> 00:26:03.500 Does that, is that, does that sound correct? And in our future discussions, are we going 00:26:03.500 --> 00:26:11.260 to talk about ways to offset, offset these emissions? 00:26:11.260 --> 00:26:15.860 So as we get into more of those discussions about the target setting and the greenhouse 00:26:15.860 --> 00:26:20.660 gas mitigation plans, that can definitely be a part of the conversation. And so when 00:26:20.660 --> 00:26:28.740 we talk about mitigation, it can be reduction, it can be increasing sinks, it can be offsets. 00:26:28.740 --> 00:26:33.260 Those are all things that are encompassed into that conversation. And so once we get 00:26:33.260 --> 00:26:38.300 to, to that planning process, that's definitely something that, that we can have the discussion 00:26:38.300 --> 00:26:39.700 about. 00:26:39.700 --> 00:26:48.940 Okay. And looking into the actual report, were the, I did see some emissions from street 00:26:48.940 --> 00:26:56.660 lights. Were the LEDs included in that or not yet? So they'll be reflected in 2020 and 00:26:56.660 --> 00:26:59.460 not 2019? 00:26:59.460 --> 00:27:04.260 Those will, those are reflected and will continue to be reflected as a part of that. 00:27:04.260 --> 00:27:09.900 Okay. So the ones that had been updated, so it's kind of a mix in 2019, but as we go, 00:27:09.900 --> 00:27:11.900 it will, okay. 00:27:11.900 --> 00:27:15.700 Correct. And you're going to see two different things there. So you're going to see the conversion 00:27:15.700 --> 00:27:21.220 to LEDs as an increase in efficiency, but we're also going to see as the renewable energy 00:27:21.220 --> 00:27:26.340 percentage increases as a part of the portfolio, that's going to impact those as well. 00:27:26.340 --> 00:27:33.020 Okay. And was that, I'm sorry, was that street lights or traffic signals that you're referring 00:27:33.020 --> 00:27:34.020 to? 00:27:34.020 --> 00:27:39.020 Well, well, there was a section for street lights that I was asking about, but I do realize 00:27:39.020 --> 00:27:44.640 that the traffic signals have already been converted for the most part. So it would be 00:27:44.640 --> 00:27:49.780 the street lights that would make the impact in the future, I believe. 00:27:49.780 --> 00:27:54.940 And then the next, when we're talking about landfill waste, I looked at the different 00:27:54.940 --> 00:28:03.860 breakdowns and the most waste besides paper at 22% is food waste at 13%. And then the 00:28:03.860 --> 00:28:11.040 other things kind of significantly decrease a little bit. When, and this may be a question 00:28:11.040 --> 00:28:20.380 for Brian, if we're looking at reducing those municipal landfill emissions, when we're going 00:28:20.380 --> 00:28:23.700 to address the food waste aspect of it. 00:28:23.700 --> 00:28:28.340 Yep, I will defer to Brian for that one. 00:28:28.340 --> 00:28:29.340 Okay. 00:28:29.340 --> 00:28:30.340 Good morning again. 00:28:30.340 --> 00:28:31.820 Good morning. 00:28:31.820 --> 00:28:38.580 With regard to food waste, we do anticipate that being a major segment of what we review 00:28:38.580 --> 00:28:43.020 as part of our comprehensive solid waste management strategy. I mean, currently there are, first 00:28:43.020 --> 00:28:47.020 and foremost, what we are going to be doing with this strategy is doing a waste characterization 00:28:47.020 --> 00:28:52.460 study in both our residential, multifamily and commercial sectors to find out exactly 00:28:52.460 --> 00:28:59.580 how much food waste and other waste is there for us to deal with. And then from that, back 00:28:59.580 --> 00:29:03.780 calculate best practices. We know there are cities out there that have curbside collection 00:29:03.780 --> 00:29:08.580 programs that may or may not be effective, both economically and environmentally. We 00:29:08.580 --> 00:29:21.620 have backyard composting programs that may be a better state. There are digester programs 00:29:21.620 --> 00:29:27.300 where the material is actually contained, methane is digested out, and then as part 00:29:27.300 --> 00:29:32.740 of a biosolids program, the material is covered. So what we're going to be doing is evaluating 00:29:32.740 --> 00:29:37.780 both how much we have versus what the technologies are available, couple that with environmental 00:29:37.780 --> 00:29:45.180 impacts and fiscal opportunities, and then from that roll out opportunities for the council 00:29:45.180 --> 00:29:50.460 to consider as we create that plan to move forward in that program. So we're a little 00:29:50.460 --> 00:29:56.020 bit down the road, but within a year, we should have a very, very good go-forward process 00:29:56.020 --> 00:30:01.380 on how we want to affect all organic diversion within the city of Denton. 00:30:01.380 --> 00:30:07.420 Okay. Yeah. Thank you for that. It's going to be important as we continue our discussions 00:30:07.420 --> 00:30:13.500 on ways to reduce the emissions and waste at the landfill as well for this committee 00:30:13.500 --> 00:30:20.620 and also for the full council. Councilmember Meltzer, do you have a question? 00:30:20.620 --> 00:30:29.580 Yeah. I know that tomorrow we're going to be looking at beneficial reuse alternatives 00:30:29.580 --> 00:30:38.740 related to the methane, and should we understand compost collection as one of the alternatives 00:30:38.740 --> 00:30:48.380 in that set of options? Like in other words, if we did end up doing curbside compost and 00:30:48.380 --> 00:30:54.660 I heard you about the kind of economic and environmental assessment, but if we did end 00:30:54.660 --> 00:31:00.660 up doing that, is that instead then of generating methane? Is that where the methane comes from, 00:31:00.660 --> 00:31:02.920 I guess is what I'm really asking. 00:31:02.920 --> 00:31:09.140 And that's something we're looking at. What we found and what the data that's available 00:31:09.140 --> 00:31:17.200 is telling us is that in the short term, there would be no impact to the rate of generation 00:31:17.200 --> 00:31:23.240 at the city of Denton landfill. Secondarily, if we were to affect that growth curve long 00:31:23.240 --> 00:31:30.660 term, we would have to significantly divert the amount of organic material that is being 00:31:30.660 --> 00:31:35.180 put into the landfill. But what state of California and some of their recent studies are showing 00:31:35.180 --> 00:31:42.900 us these massive centralized composting programs have much greater fugitive emissions, methane 00:31:42.900 --> 00:31:49.980 emissions from them than the landfills do themselves. So right now what we're seeing, 00:31:49.980 --> 00:31:54.840 because again, they're closed cells, the amount of times they're turning, the piles actually 00:31:54.840 --> 00:31:59.820 go anaerobic, even though that they're being turned on a regular basis. So we have significant 00:31:59.820 --> 00:32:07.180 fugitive methane emissions from those processes. So what we're looking at is how do we capture 00:32:07.180 --> 00:32:12.440 the methane, keep it from going in the environment, be able to process it, manage it appropriately 00:32:12.440 --> 00:32:16.780 without emitting it into the atmosphere. And that's one of the things that we will be looking 00:32:16.780 --> 00:32:23.380 at. But right now we're still looking at potential cost benefit in composting as a result of 00:32:23.380 --> 00:32:32.140 adoration processes. You need to unmute, sir. 00:32:32.140 --> 00:32:36.260 Paul you're on mute. Yeah, I got to give you that shirt that says 00:32:36.260 --> 00:32:47.180 on mute. So I understand that analysis is to come. You're kind of opening up a possibility 00:32:47.180 --> 00:32:52.340 in my own thinking now, is it possible for those two go together that, you know, if composting 00:32:52.340 --> 00:32:59.860 were were to pencil out, you know, could it be complementary and go with methane collection? 00:32:59.860 --> 00:33:04.580 In other words, you're collecting all the compost, now you're putting it in one place, 00:33:04.580 --> 00:33:07.820 you capture it there and you do the beneficial reuse? 00:33:07.820 --> 00:33:12.740 Currently, you know, our beneficial reuse program is complementary to what we're doing 00:33:12.740 --> 00:33:17.620 at the City of Denton landfill. We, all of the organic yard waste that we collect goes 00:33:17.620 --> 00:33:23.900 to that process. So, you know, once we are able to get, you know, if we're lucky, if 00:33:23.900 --> 00:33:28.340 we're, if we're fortunate enough to get our expansion permit, which would actually allow 00:33:28.340 --> 00:33:35.140 us to do a source separated organics program, such as we're discussing now, then, you know, 00:33:35.140 --> 00:33:42.140 there may be some additional beneficial diversion that could be done. But right now, you know, 00:33:42.140 --> 00:33:48.100 it's steps that we have to undertake and evaluate to determine, you know, the cost benefit of 00:33:48.100 --> 00:33:49.100 those. 00:33:49.100 --> 00:33:55.540 Yeah, I get that. I just want to understand conceptually if they were complementary, potentially 00:33:55.540 --> 00:34:01.260 complementary in the future rather than competing. It sounds like maybe so. 00:34:01.260 --> 00:34:04.140 The potential exists, but it will have to be evaluated. 00:34:04.140 --> 00:34:08.340 Yeah. Okay. Thank you. 00:34:08.340 --> 00:34:09.340 Thank you. 00:34:09.340 --> 00:34:13.220 Councilmember Davis, do you have any follow-ups to that conversation? 00:34:13.220 --> 00:34:20.620 No, no, I was just, while Brian was talking, looking over some of our stuff for tomorrow, 00:34:20.620 --> 00:34:25.020 deciding what's on posting now and what's on posting for tomorrow. So, I'll, I'll hold 00:34:25.020 --> 00:34:27.020 off for that. 00:34:27.020 --> 00:34:31.860 Okay. I do, Brian, thank you so much. 00:34:31.860 --> 00:34:32.860 You're welcome. 00:34:32.860 --> 00:34:43.620 I do have a follow-up question back to Jesse's comment earlier about the waste emissions. 00:34:43.620 --> 00:34:49.940 So I think seeing where he had that question, it says 2019 baseline comparison, and it says 00:34:49.940 --> 00:34:57.860 an increase of 50.73% on waste emissions with a little trash can beside it under municipal 00:34:57.860 --> 00:35:02.120 highlights. And so I think that's where just by reading that chart, it looks like we've 00:35:02.120 --> 00:35:07.660 increased our municipal waste significantly. So, and you're saying that it's decreased. 00:35:07.660 --> 00:35:10.260 So can you explain that just a little bit? 00:35:10.260 --> 00:35:17.300 Sure. So those, those four images that are on the right-hand side there in that graphic, 00:35:17.300 --> 00:35:24.120 those are representative of the entire sector of those emissions. And so those waste emissions 00:35:24.120 --> 00:35:31.300 include waste from municipal facilities, but it also includes any emissions from the landfill 00:35:31.300 --> 00:35:37.060 itself, which when we're talking about that is all of the waste that the landfill collects. 00:35:37.060 --> 00:35:42.840 But because it is a municipally run landfill, that's why those emissions would fall under 00:35:42.840 --> 00:35:48.180 the municipal analysis and the municipal scope one emissions, if that makes a little bit 00:35:48.180 --> 00:35:52.380 more sense. So those are, those are two different sources of emissions, but we put them together 00:35:52.380 --> 00:35:56.220 under the waste category when we break it out into those four sectors. 00:35:56.220 --> 00:36:01.020 Okay. Okay. So what we're seeing the increase in mostly is, is the landfill and the municipal 00:36:01.020 --> 00:36:06.500 aspect of it, like the trash from city facilities is the one that... 00:36:06.500 --> 00:36:13.540 The trash from city facilities has decreased 6.01% correct from, from the previous year. 00:36:13.540 --> 00:36:21.340 Okay. All right. Um, I think that is, is that all for now on this item? Everybody okay? 00:36:21.340 --> 00:36:28.380 I believe that a lot of the more in-depth conversations on, um, ways to control things 00:36:28.380 --> 00:36:36.740 that we can discuss to reduce, will come in our next reduction carbon reduction, uh, presentation. 00:36:36.740 --> 00:36:41.460 I agree. And, uh, we definitely, we wanted to give you one more sort of known data point 00:36:41.460 --> 00:36:44.860 before diving back into that conversation. So we wanted to make sure that we got this 00:36:44.860 --> 00:36:48.540 analysis and this presentation done prior to that conversation. 00:36:48.540 --> 00:36:54.740 Perfect. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. Thank you. So we'll go ahead and move on to 00:36:54.740 --> 00:37:02.140 item C. Receive a report, hold a discussion and give staff direction regarding the following 00:37:02.140 --> 00:37:09.300 certification processes. National Wildlife Federation's Community Wildlife Habitat Certification 00:37:09.300 --> 00:37:14.180 lead for cities and communities and Bird City, Texas. 00:37:14.180 --> 00:37:20.220 Good afternoon council or committee on the environment. How's everyone doing today? 00:37:20.220 --> 00:37:25.740 Good. Good. Good morning. Welcome. My name is Sarah Luxon. I am the sustainability coordinator 00:37:25.740 --> 00:37:29.780 for the city of Denton. So I'll be in the interest of time trying to go over these three 00:37:29.780 --> 00:37:33.540 programs with you rather quickly. So that way, if there is any discussion, we'll have 00:37:33.540 --> 00:37:42.860 time for that. So, 00:37:42.860 --> 00:37:52.580 all right. So we'll be discussing three different certification processes that the city of Denton 00:37:52.580 --> 00:38:00.180 could pursue should you guys wish. So, uh, I will be seeking y'all's feedback regarding 00:38:00.180 --> 00:38:06.900 these three programs. I believe that we are capable of meeting any of these programs. 00:38:06.900 --> 00:38:11.260 The city of Denton is already doing many of the things that are required in each of these 00:38:11.260 --> 00:38:15.740 certification processes. And so we would like y'all's direction on whether or not to move 00:38:15.740 --> 00:38:23.300 forward. The first is the national wildlife foundations community certification. So this 00:38:23.300 --> 00:38:29.820 program is hosted by the National Wildlife Federation, which is a large conservation 00:38:29.820 --> 00:38:35.540 minded nonprofit. So they've been hosting this program since 1997 and there are over 00:38:35.540 --> 00:38:41.180 200 different communities nationwide that are already signed on. We're proposing to 00:38:41.180 --> 00:38:46.740 move forward with the certification process. Cities like Austin, Houston, and White Springs 00:38:46.740 --> 00:38:51.620 in Texas have already completed the certification process. I do want to note that it will take 00:38:51.620 --> 00:38:57.380 some time. Typically after you sign on to pursue this certification, it takes about 00:38:57.380 --> 00:39:03.300 two years to complete. And part of that is because you have to accumulate points at the 00:39:03.300 --> 00:39:07.980 community level. So this is something that wouldn't just be require the city to take 00:39:07.980 --> 00:39:12.700 initiative. It's going to require community to take initiative as well, because we can 00:39:12.700 --> 00:39:18.020 certify certain wildlife habitats here at the city, but individuals within our community 00:39:18.020 --> 00:39:23.780 are also going to have to certify their gardens or habitats that they have, as well as schools 00:39:23.780 --> 00:39:31.060 and businesses. So at our population, we will need about 400 community points. Currently, 00:39:31.060 --> 00:39:37.340 we already have 87 points. That means that there's already 71 National Wildlife Federation 00:39:37.340 --> 00:39:43.500 registered wildlife habitats here in the city, 65 homes, four common areas, and two schools. 00:39:43.500 --> 00:39:50.580 So we will need about 313 more points. As you can see in the slide, homes account for 00:39:50.580 --> 00:39:55.820 one point, common areas and universities and other businesses will count as three, and 00:39:55.820 --> 00:40:00.780 then schools. So actually you get five points for every school or nature center that signs 00:40:00.780 --> 00:40:08.740 up. So there is a $100 registration fee that's a one time fee. But one of the benefits of 00:40:08.740 --> 00:40:14.820 this program is National Wildlife Federation will help support in providing different outreach 00:40:14.820 --> 00:40:21.740 material. They'll provide staff support to help you meet that certification. And so they're 00:40:21.740 --> 00:40:27.220 going to you're going to get a lot of support from their, their program to meet this certification 00:40:27.220 --> 00:40:36.540 requirement. Ah, next we have lead for cities and communities. So in 2018 lead for cities 00:40:36.540 --> 00:40:42.020 and communities, it actually replaced the star communities certification process city, 00:40:42.020 --> 00:40:49.300 the city of Denton was already a star community. And so we were adopted into that silver membership 00:40:49.300 --> 00:40:54.860 for lead for cities. But since then, we have not re registered for that program and or 00:40:54.860 --> 00:41:00.700 that certification process. And so we are looking at re registering and recertifying 00:41:00.700 --> 00:41:06.260 as a lead for cities community. And the other cities that in Texas that have done so are 00:41:06.260 --> 00:41:13.700 Houston, Austin, Corinth, and Plano. One of the areas we'd like to pursue is is pursue 00:41:13.700 --> 00:41:18.320 why we would like to pursue this is because it is a great way to measure sustainability 00:41:18.320 --> 00:41:25.580 against other communities in Texas. So by using their program, we can see what practices 00:41:25.580 --> 00:41:31.100 we're doing and how those look compared to other communities in our area. So this is 00:41:31.100 --> 00:41:37.020 the dashboard, they use a dashboard called arc. It's a software that allows you to track. 00:41:37.020 --> 00:41:41.340 And then once you input your information, they will actually rank that information and 00:41:41.340 --> 00:41:50.180 we'll be able to get a score based on our inputs. Now, they do offer a grant that covers 00:41:50.180 --> 00:41:56.100 the cost of recertification. And that is something that we would like to pursue the the grant 00:41:56.100 --> 00:42:02.340 will typically open up in December and close in January. And if we are able to pursue that 00:42:02.340 --> 00:42:10.460 grant that will cover the cost as well as offer different training for recertifying. 00:42:10.460 --> 00:42:16.620 And just just to know if that grant lead for cities can be a little bit costly in the sense 00:42:16.620 --> 00:42:22.460 that it's ranges from about 10 to $15,000 to register your community. So if we are able 00:42:22.460 --> 00:42:32.460 to receive that community's grant, it's pretty substantial. Bird City, Texas. So this is a 00:42:32.460 --> 00:42:38.540 program that is handled by Texas Parks and Wildlife. It's a relatively new program. It 00:42:38.540 --> 00:42:45.140 was developed in the last three years. And it's become pretty popular here in Texas already. 00:42:45.140 --> 00:42:51.460 So you have communities like Bashrup, Dallas, Houston, and Port of Kansas, and as well as 00:42:51.460 --> 00:42:57.220 many others. I think they this last year, they were added a substantial number of new 00:42:57.220 --> 00:43:03.060 communities as well. But it basically is a community focused certification process to 00:43:03.060 --> 00:43:10.420 help protect birds, as well as the habitats in communities. So the city of Denton is already 00:43:10.420 --> 00:43:15.300 doing a lot of the measures that are required to meet the certification process. There's 00:43:15.300 --> 00:43:22.300 just a few things that we would need to do to complete the requirements for this certification. 00:43:22.300 --> 00:43:27.260 And to but if we are pursuing this program, it will definitely help support those habitats 00:43:27.260 --> 00:43:31.920 and educate our community about what they can do to support not just native birds, but 00:43:31.920 --> 00:43:38.580 also migratory birds. Now, there are two different types of certification. You have the basic 00:43:38.580 --> 00:43:44.640 and the high flyer. We would be interested in pursuing the basic, which is again, a lot 00:43:44.640 --> 00:43:51.380 of the requirements were already meeting when because those measured in community engagement, 00:43:51.380 --> 00:43:57.700 they measure habitat enhancement and protection as well as creating safe spaces for birds. 00:43:57.700 --> 00:44:02.300 The high flyer takes it a step further, and that will require some substantial changes 00:44:02.300 --> 00:44:06.940 to the city. However, in a couple of years, we may be able to meet those requirements 00:44:06.940 --> 00:44:15.980 as well. So again, the the certification we're recommending is the basic bird, and it'll 00:44:15.980 --> 00:44:21.340 take about a year to complete because you have to already meet all of the requirements 00:44:21.340 --> 00:44:26.820 before you can submit your application, which is typically due in December. That certification 00:44:26.820 --> 00:44:33.460 will last for three years, and then you'll need to recertify. So we would like to get 00:44:33.460 --> 00:44:39.540 y'all's feedback and direction on each of these certification processes. And please 00:44:39.540 --> 00:44:42.060 let me know if you have any questions. 00:44:42.060 --> 00:44:53.420 We can pull the slides down. Thank you. Yes, Councilmember Davis. Thank you. So for a couple 00:44:53.420 --> 00:44:58.700 of those, first off, those all are very interesting for the city to pursue, especially because 00:44:58.700 --> 00:45:03.580 we might be part of the part of the way there on a lot of those requirements you're talking 00:45:03.580 --> 00:45:09.020 about. You mentioned recertification for a couple of them specifically, but the the wildlife 00:45:09.020 --> 00:45:14.980 certification, I'm wondering, especially because it's points based on homes and schools and 00:45:14.980 --> 00:45:21.020 things that are outside of our control. Do we just have to keep up the education outreach 00:45:21.020 --> 00:45:27.260 or do we have to maintain a certain number of points to be recertified over time? Kind 00:45:27.260 --> 00:45:33.380 of what are we getting ourselves into as far as keeping track of people's yards and school 00:45:33.380 --> 00:45:41.220 stuff? Great question. So typically, sometimes whenever you register, you're registered for 00:45:41.220 --> 00:45:46.660 about 10 years. I think schools, it's about that certification for them. The habitat lasts 00:45:46.660 --> 00:45:51.740 about three years. And so for a lot of these, we would not be going after these individuals 00:45:51.740 --> 00:45:59.300 to recertify or remit those certifications. National Wildlife Foundation, they will actually 00:45:59.300 --> 00:46:03.620 communicate with those individuals and make sure that they're keeping up. But my understanding 00:46:03.620 --> 00:46:09.740 is that once you meet those community level points, you you are no longer. That's no longer 00:46:09.740 --> 00:46:14.980 the focus. The focus is maintaining the education because there are different educational components 00:46:14.980 --> 00:46:19.500 to it, to where you have to be have, you know, a group that you're meeting with. You have 00:46:19.500 --> 00:46:25.340 to be doing so many workshops. You have to be doing so many things in areas which I would 00:46:25.340 --> 00:46:31.580 like to note that we're pretty much doing all of those requirements already. The thing 00:46:31.580 --> 00:46:38.300 that we need to do for this program is basically get that community buy in. But it shouldn't 00:46:38.300 --> 00:46:44.580 be an on taking of once we sign up, now we're going to have to continually be on citizens 00:46:44.580 --> 00:46:51.220 to maintain their certifications since those certifications last so long. It wouldn't necessarily 00:46:51.220 --> 00:46:56.600 hurt for us to send a email or a flyer or something to our folks who have contributed 00:46:56.600 --> 00:47:01.460 to our score every so often to make sure they're keeping up. But you're saying we don't take 00:47:01.460 --> 00:47:08.460 on any additional responsibility for maintaining a score over time. No. And my understanding 00:47:08.460 --> 00:47:13.100 too is once you meet that level, it should be the amount of education that you're doing 00:47:13.100 --> 00:47:20.000 and should help you maintain that community score. But I don't believe and I will double 00:47:20.000 --> 00:47:27.500 check with them. But after you have obtained that community score, you're then trying to 00:47:27.500 --> 00:47:34.620 maintain the amount of education. Got it. Thank you. Councilman Meltzer, do you have 00:47:34.620 --> 00:47:49.560 any guidance? You got it. So thanks for bringing these forward. There's definitely pluses in 00:47:49.560 --> 00:47:54.860 getting recognized for what we're already doing. I see positives and almost kind of 00:47:54.860 --> 00:47:59.460 from an economic development point of view, like just to brand that these are things that 00:47:59.460 --> 00:48:06.660 we do. And they're positives from an education point of view and awareness. I'm interested 00:48:06.660 --> 00:48:18.300 to know what would lead to actual improvements in these areas as part of participating. There's 00:48:18.300 --> 00:48:23.940 a little irony in if we seek recognition from the National Wildlife Foundation while we're 00:48:23.940 --> 00:48:31.600 destroying habitat at a great clip. So I mean, that's just sort of that was one that sort 00:48:31.600 --> 00:48:39.820 of jumped out at me like, you know, it would almost be ironic. So my question to you is 00:48:39.820 --> 00:48:46.400 for each of the areas, could you describe where by participating we would make actual 00:48:46.400 --> 00:48:57.140 improvements in wildlife habitat, energy conservation, or energy efficiency and bird habitat? Yeah. 00:48:57.140 --> 00:49:01.140 So I can go through some of the advantages of each of these programs. For instance, lead 00:49:01.140 --> 00:49:05.620 for cities, a lot of the advantage is going to be in the improvements in measuring and 00:49:05.620 --> 00:49:11.820 benchmarking. So that is really the purpose of that program is to measure your sustainable 00:49:11.820 --> 00:49:18.340 actions. And so we'll have more benchmarking capabilities through that program. And those 00:49:18.340 --> 00:49:22.220 that's also beneficial because those benchmarks we can then compare not just to our community, 00:49:22.220 --> 00:49:28.920 but also to other communities that are participating in that program. For National Wildlife Federation, 00:49:28.920 --> 00:49:33.820 that community that program, it'll allow us to have better support for wildlife habitats 00:49:33.820 --> 00:49:38.900 in our communities. So instead of just focusing on what we're doing at the municipal level, 00:49:38.900 --> 00:49:42.900 we'll also be able to get buy-in and have citizens in their own homes that are meeting 00:49:42.900 --> 00:49:50.220 certain requirements to create habitats. So to become a certified habitat, you have to, 00:49:50.220 --> 00:49:55.860 there's three different areas that you'll have to meet with that program. So, and that's 00:49:55.860 --> 00:50:01.860 based on, are you providing housing for animals? Are you providing food? Are you providing 00:50:01.860 --> 00:50:07.660 water? Are you using organic practices? So citizens will have to meet those requirements 00:50:07.660 --> 00:50:12.820 or schools or whomever signing up for that program. Those are the requirements for those 00:50:12.820 --> 00:50:18.460 habitats. And by getting more members to sign up, we are ensuring that we're having more 00:50:18.460 --> 00:50:28.620 local habitats for animals within our community. And then for Bird City, Texas, that does have 00:50:28.620 --> 00:50:36.940 requirements that make sure that you are creating habitats for birds. So I've got the requirements 00:50:36.940 --> 00:50:43.380 pulled up here. So some easy things that we could is, it requires that we develop areas 00:50:43.380 --> 00:50:47.900 that are specifically designed for migratory birds. Now we could enhance areas that the 00:50:47.900 --> 00:50:54.680 city already has, or we could decide to take a habitat that we have and update that so 00:50:54.680 --> 00:51:00.680 that it's for migratory birds, but it requires us to maintain those areas and habitats that 00:51:00.680 --> 00:51:08.300 are safe for birds. So both the National Wildlife Federation, as well as the Bird City, Texas, 00:51:08.300 --> 00:51:16.180 have requirements that we maintain habitats for animals and pollinators and basically 00:51:16.180 --> 00:51:24.020 any living organism, organism in Denton. That's a great response. I have two other brief questions, 00:51:24.020 --> 00:51:31.980 Kiwi, if I could keep going. Sure. We're going to hit them pretty quick. Yep. Okay. Is there 00:51:31.980 --> 00:51:37.780 a cost from, is there any reason why we wouldn't just say, sure, do all three? Or is there 00:51:37.780 --> 00:51:44.820 some kind of a cost in terms of staff time? You know, should we, or do you have any suggestions 00:51:44.820 --> 00:51:53.940 like pick one? Definitely. Cost is pretty minimal for both the National Wildlife Federation 00:51:53.940 --> 00:52:00.900 program, as well as Bird City, Texas, they're pretty much application fees, which are both 00:52:00.900 --> 00:52:07.140 under $500. Again, the National Wildlife Federation is $100. I can't remember what the Bird City 00:52:07.140 --> 00:52:13.420 one is, but it's pretty low cost in the scheme of things. It will require some staff time, 00:52:13.420 --> 00:52:19.460 but again, a lot of these things are practices we're already doing or could easily implement 00:52:19.460 --> 00:52:24.460 into the things. And they may even be things that we're already working towards. So for 00:52:24.460 --> 00:52:29.500 both of those programs, I would say the amount of staff time required as well as cost is 00:52:29.500 --> 00:52:34.860 pretty, pretty low on the spectrum. But with Lead for Cities and Communities, if we did 00:52:34.860 --> 00:52:41.260 not receive that grant, I could understand why that cost can be fairly high in the scheme 00:52:41.260 --> 00:52:52.980 of things since it does run between $10,000 to $15,000. However, there is staff time. 00:52:52.980 --> 00:52:59.160 It would be pretty low on staff time. There would be some training. So I would have to 00:52:59.160 --> 00:53:03.840 get back to you on an estimate of how much actual staff time we would have to utilize 00:53:03.840 --> 00:53:09.580 to maintain that process. But I do think that if we were to receive the grant, it would 00:53:09.580 --> 00:53:11.420 be well worth it. 00:53:11.420 --> 00:53:17.460 Thank you. And then my last point is just a comment that if we have people participating 00:53:17.460 --> 00:53:25.380 in the habitats, wildlife and/or bird, rather just as a sort of communication spin, rather 00:53:25.380 --> 00:53:33.620 than a follow up to say, are you still doing it? If we had the resources to communicate 00:53:33.620 --> 00:53:39.020 with those people, I would think positive reinforcement would do the trick. Continuing 00:53:39.020 --> 00:53:44.500 to thank them for doing it and giving them tips. Here's what to do at this time of year. 00:53:44.500 --> 00:53:49.780 So I think the positive reinforcement would keep them engaged. But thanks, that's all 00:53:49.780 --> 00:53:50.780 I have. 00:53:50.780 --> 00:53:58.180 Okay. So it looks like the committee is, from what I can gather, in favor of going forward 00:53:58.180 --> 00:54:03.740 with all these three. I just want to have a few comments and a question. So the National 00:54:03.740 --> 00:54:09.180 Wildlife Federation was brought forth to us by a community member a while ago. And so 00:54:09.180 --> 00:54:14.380 I'm really glad that we're going forward with that. And I wanted to say, you know, we have 00:54:14.380 --> 00:54:19.620 TWU and UNT when it says schools, we have universities that are already committed to 00:54:19.620 --> 00:54:24.540 doing these things, I think would make really great partnerships. And then we have our sustainable 00:54:24.540 --> 00:54:34.260 schools program with the ISD, which can also help with the school aspect of it. My question 00:54:34.260 --> 00:54:40.980 would be, is there any code changes that we would need to make to allow homeowners to 00:54:40.980 --> 00:54:49.120 do this, to provide this type of habitat in their yards? I think we need to look at that 00:54:49.120 --> 00:54:53.460 and see, you know, if we need to have a little asterisk, you know, if you're doing this and 00:54:53.460 --> 00:55:00.620 maintaining this or have the certification you're allowed to, you know, not mow or... 00:55:00.620 --> 00:55:08.260 At this point there, earlier in the presentation, there was, I mentioned there was already 71 00:55:08.260 --> 00:55:12.460 habitats in our community. So there, technically you would not need to change the code for 00:55:12.460 --> 00:55:17.700 people to create habitats in their yard. This is already something that the code allows 00:55:17.700 --> 00:55:26.460 for. Okay, perfect. The next comment would be for Bird City. I think that's great. And 00:55:26.460 --> 00:55:33.540 I know, I noticed lately there's been a campaign for Lights Out. Is that part of this? And 00:55:33.540 --> 00:55:37.940 is that for like the high flyers that we're not looking towards? Or would that be something 00:55:37.940 --> 00:55:42.820 that we could look into? I know that I put in a request after I saw it that Dallas was 00:55:42.820 --> 00:55:49.920 participating. Is that part of this? That's a great question. And yes, there it can be. 00:55:49.920 --> 00:55:54.780 So in each of those sections, there's criteria that you must meet. However, they give you 00:55:54.780 --> 00:55:59.500 about like 10 to 15 options and you have to choose four or five of them. Lights Out is 00:55:59.500 --> 00:56:04.380 one of the options and one of those criteria. So that is something we could opt into through 00:56:04.380 --> 00:56:11.260 this program. However, it's not a requirement that we have to opt into it. Okay. And so 00:56:11.260 --> 00:56:17.180 I guess as this comes back to us, we'll be looking at things to opt in, opt out, how 00:56:17.180 --> 00:56:22.300 we want to participate. Okay, perfect. And then the last thing I wanted to talk about 00:56:22.300 --> 00:56:29.900 was the LEED certification. If we do that and we're recertified, is that public information? 00:56:29.900 --> 00:56:36.540 Can someone come onto a website and look and see how we're doing as a city? Yes. They can 00:56:36.540 --> 00:56:41.860 go on to the LEED for cities and communities and we should be able to make our dashboard 00:56:41.860 --> 00:56:47.540 public and they can see where our numbers are and then compare us to other cities. 00:56:47.540 --> 00:56:51.820 Because I had a similar comment to Councilmember Metzler on economic development that goes 00:56:51.820 --> 00:56:56.540 along with our sustainability strategy. And if somebody is looking to move to Denton and 00:56:56.540 --> 00:57:01.660 can research that and see how, you know, really good we're doing, that could be a benefit 00:57:01.660 --> 00:57:06.780 to us to have that. So I would, I would like to see us go forward with, with all of these 00:57:06.780 --> 00:57:13.060 things. All right. All right. Well, thank you for that. And so we will go ahead and move 00:57:13.060 --> 00:57:24.740 down to the D management reports. Dr. Banks? Yes, that is me. Good morning, everyone. We 00:57:24.740 --> 00:57:31.180 have two very quick items. I'm sorry. Sorry. I know. I just saw apologies. Yeah, I'm still 00:57:31.180 --> 00:57:37.900 getting used to it. I need Paul's shirt. Good morning, everyone. I just have two very brief 00:57:37.900 --> 00:57:44.860 items. The first is a brief report from Catherine Barnett and Elizabeth Ruiz concerning Soul 00:57:44.860 --> 00:57:51.860 Smart. We were designated under this program under bronze. We've now moved up to silver. 00:57:51.860 --> 00:58:01.020 And so just want to bring that to everyone's attention. We also received a special recognition 00:58:01.020 --> 00:58:06.340 for the permitting side because of the number of points that we had increased in that particular 00:58:06.340 --> 00:58:12.820 area. So kind of two awards there and one, so to speak. Catherine's here if anyone has 00:58:12.820 --> 00:58:22.060 any questions on that. And then just want to point out very briefly our matrix. We have 00:58:22.060 --> 00:58:27.460 finished the item number three, which is the Soul Smart report that we just provided to 00:58:27.460 --> 00:58:34.300 you. And I did want to point out that the Sustainable Advisory Committee is slotted 00:58:34.300 --> 00:58:40.180 for October 13th at the full council. So that will be going forward next week. And that's 00:58:40.180 --> 00:58:44.420 all I have. Okay. Yes, sir. Yeah, I thought we could go ahead and take two and three off. 00:58:44.420 --> 00:58:50.860 Those were mine and they're doing just fine. Did anybody have any questions about either 00:58:50.860 --> 00:59:04.540 of those two? I just want to know if the beard is because you're a short timer. No, sir. 00:59:04.540 --> 00:59:11.300 I had it before it was a short timer. Thanks for asking though. Well, while you're here, 00:59:11.300 --> 00:59:15.620 Dr. Banks, I do want to say thank you for your service and let you know that we appreciate 00:59:15.620 --> 00:59:22.500 all you've done for our city and all the information that you have brought to us when requested. 00:59:22.500 --> 00:59:29.140 You've been very beneficial and we've appreciated you very much and wish you well on your next 00:59:29.140 --> 00:59:35.020 journey. Well, thank you so much. I appreciate it. I don't know where we're going to find 00:59:35.020 --> 00:59:42.100 10 people together would know as much as you know. Thanks. That's very kind of you to say. 00:59:42.100 --> 00:59:48.500 All the knowledge that you had. Yes. So stay near a phone for a while. I plan on doing 00:59:48.500 --> 00:59:55.700 that. I will. Thank you so much. And so we will move to our concluding items really. 00:59:55.700 --> 01:00:00.980 Well, we're actually ahead of schedule. Good job, everybody. Does anybody have any concluding 01:00:00.980 --> 01:00:10.980 items? No, no, I just I would like to have an update on our green business program sometime 01:00:10.980 --> 01:00:22.420 going forward. Other than that, I think we're good. We're good. All right. So if there's 01:00:22.420 --> 01:00:30.420 no other questions and we can adjourn at 1003, everyone, thank you so much for the presentations 01:00:30.420 --> 01:00:32.460 and join us today. Thank you.