SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE

MEETINGMINUTES

Friday, February 15, 2013

OTAK, 17355 SW Boones Ferry Road, Lake Oswego, OR Map & Directions

1:30pm-3:30pm

Attendance: Matt Rodrigues, City of Eugene; George Drake, PBS; Curt Vanderzanden, KPFF; Nancy Kraushaar, City of Wilsonville; Matt Butts, Group Mackenzie; Laurie Allen, CMTS; Tom Arnold, City of Hillsboro; Diane Warner, Contech; Mike Carr, MSA; Tim Black wood, Hart Crowser, Kevin Timmins, OTAK

Topic
 / Introductions
Notable connections to national APWA and Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure (ISI):
  • Nancy Kraushaar- Oregon APWA Chapter Sustainability Liaison to national APWA
  • George Drake- ISI Education Committee

 / Review Sustainability Committee Goals
  • Bridge to the Center for Sustainability and Institute for Sustainable Infrastructure
  • Member Education
  • Advocacy
  • Recognition
Briefly discussed committee goals and moved into discussion of how to connect with national and ISI.
 / How do we best connect with national and ISI?
George gave an overview of the ISI Envision tool. ISI is collaboration between APWA, ACEC, ASCE and Harvard University (Zofnass Program for Sustainable Infrastructure). The Envision tool is meant to be scalable to all sizes of projects and uses a range of questions covering economic, environmental and social factors to assess a project. The tool can be used for free by registering at the ISI website. Projects may also go through a verification program and if qualified achieve a recognition level of Bronze through Platinum.
Currently there are four registered ISI Envision Sustainability Professionals (ENV SP) in Oregon ofwhich George and Matt R. are two. Application to attain an ISI ENV SP credential is $150 to $450 depending on if you are a government employee or an ISI Member. Testing is free to government employees and $200 for ISI members.
One project is in the assessment phase nationally.
The group discussed that it is important to define what the benefit of the Envision tool is. For instance LEED has tangible energy savings associated with it. It was suggested that the tool could be used to show accountability to the public or elected officials for public projects or developer projects that have a high level of community interest. It would also be helpful from a value engineering perspective as often sustainable solutions are cost effective.
Nancy reported that there has been little communication from national to the SustainabilityLiaisons. Nancy will be attending the Sustainability Conference in San Diego and volunteered to debrief the Committee at the next meeting following the conference.
Action Items:
  • Nancy will follow up with National to see what opportunities there are to coordinate on sustainability resources across chapters. She will also inquire as to any list-servs or blogs national maintains or could point us to.
  • George will follow up with ISI about creating a LEED style resource database of how projects addressed certain assessment criteria.
Follow up items not assigned:
  • We discussed bringing a project to a committee meeting and running it through the Envision tool to get familiar with it.

 / Spring Conference Technical Sessions –Already set
We briefly reviewed the Spring Conference technical session list. Unfortunately there is no defined “Sustainability” track at the Spring Conference. Ideas were generated to get the word out about the committee.
Action items:
  • Matt R.will follow up with Eric Jones about the possibility of having a committee presence in the registration area (display or slideshow?). Another option maybe placing something in the registration bags or providing information electronically.
Follow up items not assigned:
  • We discussed meeting with Cameo to discuss how to make the conferences consistently sustainable events.
  • Can we get a short pitch for the committee prior to the keynote presentation?

 / Fall Conference Technical Sessions –Ideas?
(4 Sessions to be provided by Sustainability Committee)
We discussed a number of ideas for the four Fall conference technical sessions as highlighted below. The goal is to report on progress towards securing presentations at the Spring Conference committee meeting.
Please email the group with any new ideas for technical sessions.
Action items:
  • Kevin and George will work on securing or creating a presentation on the ISI Envision tool.
  • Matt R. will talk to Bulk Handling Systems in Eugene about presenting on their waste stream management products.
Follow up items not assigned:
  • We discussed having a panel discussion on sustainability with a number of municipalities.
  • Consider a presentation on the different project ratings systems and how they complement (or not) each other. (Curt??)
  • Consider a presentation of the future of high speed rail
  • Consider a presentation by the Portland Office of Sustainability on its outreach, sustainable purchasing rules, and certification program.
  • Consider a presentation on the Climate Smart Communities program.
  • LED lighting case studies. Possible PGE program to upgrade municipality owned lights to LED.
  • Presentation on state of EV (Had a similar topic at Fall 2012 Conference).

 / Julian Award – Clarification of categories and criteria
We discussed that the goal should be to receive more award submittals and award higher quality projects. One way to help with submittals would be through simplification and standardization of the applications. A number of ideas were voiced around advertising the applicants at the chapter conferences using posters or digital displays. Having a People’s Choice category or system was also discussed.
Action items:
  • Tim and Matt R. will work to come up with a proposal for potential changes to the Julian Award.

 / Website – Ideas for additional content
We reviewed the site in its current state. Some comments below.
  • Like the current news section, add similar education section
  • Add link to tools such as Contech Rainwater harvesting calculator.
  • Look for blogs or listservs to direct people to. LinkedIn has ISI blog that could be referenced.
  • Look at adding a resource center with special provisions sections, code, and policies that would be helpful. Especially to address low hanging fruit.
Action items:
Matt R. will look at feasibility of adding these items and solicit content as appropriate.
 / Info ShareNone, it was too nice of a day.
 / Adjourn
Future Agenda Items
 / Fall Conference Technical Sessions
 / Julian Award – Suggested refinements
Future Meetings
April 4th
7:00-8:30am
Spring Conference Hood River / June ???
City of Wilsonville / October 24th
Fall Conference
Bend / January ???