HomeMy WebLinkAboutJanuary 7ENVIRONMENTAL INITIATIVES COMMITTEE
Meeting Minutes
Date: January 7, 2021
1.Call to order around 6:40 pm on Zoom link not made public because of Zoom mess up with the
published link.
2.Attendees: Aileen, Anand, April, Jolie, Pat, Peter, Sasha, Steve, Srini, Vrinda and Vishwas
Ganesan from Yellow Tin.
3.Move to publish Zoom link around 7:05 pm when Peter joined the call.
4.Srini to find from Deborah if EIC can use Town Zoom link for future meetings or buying a
separate Zoom account if the EIC meeting times clash with other committee meetings.
5.Approval of minutes of the meeting in December: Steve moved to approve minutes, Anand
seconded, unanimous vote.
6.Agenda review: no changes
7.Topics of Interest/ Open Discussion
○Srini reminded us that his term ends in January and he has applied to come back and
that he is helping Vrinda to run the meeting this month in the process of handover.
○ Vrinda-- Is it possible to refer those interested in installing heat pumps to qualified
contractors.
i.Pat--described her experience in changing her water heater. She did not install a
heat pump water heater--it was too expensive.
ii.Steve --
1.Heat pump installations are not easy yet. You require an electric 220 V
outlet at the heater. They are working on heat pumps that can work on
110V.
2.the price of heat pump is 2X of the gas powered regular water tank
heaters
3.The installation can be more than 3X of regular pumps.
4.The lifetime cost comparisons have to be worked out since heat pumps
are more efficient.
iii.Peter-- referring contractors implies the government knows better than people.
iv.Sasha--Can the town could hold contractors to a higher standard of quality
during inspections.
v.Steve--Bigger issue is how to address all the issues related to the GHG inventory
results -- to be discussed in the next meeting
○Steve updated the committee on his meeting with the new Mayor and two members of
the finance committee. Good discussion about town-wide undergrounding. We may be
able to do this with some combination of town general funds ($1M per year?) plus funds
from the fire district. Encouraging! To be on the next meeting's agenda.
8.GHG Inventory Update
○Srini, Steve and Anand updated the committee on the sub committee's review of the
CSG draft report
○Steve--
i.Pretty good job maintaining the format from the previous inventory.
ii.CSG extended the study to 2019 for the community but only until 2018 for the
Government --don’t know why .
iii.CSG improved the way auto emissions were calculated and back casted for the
previous years.
iv.Transportation data is accurate and consistent
v.Air travel emissions very high -- over 50% of total community emissions;
○Jolie: Road travel & air travel: what if it's business related? Steve: Business travel should
not be included because it's included in the corporation's inventory.
○Vrinda: (1) Do we have any control over air travel? (2) will there be double counting?
○Peter: (1) maybe and (2) not currently a problem.
○Anand-- Not sure the report is tracking EVs, CSG used statewide data. There are better
sources of data out there.
○Steve CSG has weaved GHG inventory with recommendations. It would be better if they
did the inventory separately.
○Peter-If they gave us the data we can use to monitor our progress.
○Sasha: Air travel emissions sound like a can of worms.... should be done by the Airline
companies.
○Peter: Can it be trusted? Can we do a nextdoor poll to get better data??
○Anand will summarize our requested changes to CSG
9.Yellow Tin : Educating residents on Clean Energy – A Presentation
○Srini introduced Vishwas
○They focus on providing a portfolio of "bundled" services, like heat pumps and PV, to be
economical.
○Early customers: Sonoma Clean Power, Mtn View, Intuit.
○They are B2B2C -- don't market to consumers. Suggested example: Button on our LAH
Sustainability page... Promote to Solar customers that city is running a webinar on
induction cooktops
○Steve--Compared efforts by Mountain View and LAH to promote energy audits. LAH
does not promote--very poor response.
○Steve: How to get people to engage? Sonoma: Not yet released; Mtn View: Not yet
begun; Intuit: offering incentives to get employees to engage.
○In Mtn View: Focus on marketplace... using pre-approved SunShares vendors.
○Peter: Doesn't seem like a fit for our town -- we don't do outreach like this
10.Reach Codes Compliance for LAH Town Hall Expansion
○Anand: Shouldn't every council decision be assessed in terms of it's GHG impact?
Steve: Agreed! Menlo Park just did something like this.
Anand will pursue this subject under a subcommittee.
○Jolie agreed to join the subcommittee on this topic.
○Steve suggested Anandi contact Zach to find out if the new town hall addition will be
low carbon.
11. Next EIC meeting: February 4, 2020
12.Adjournment at 8:10pm