JOINT SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE HYBRID MEETING FORMAT April 24th, 2024 at 6pm Room 1406, Permitting and Development Center 6310 Wilhelmina Delco Dr, Austin, TX 78752 Some members of the Committee may be participating by videoconference Public comment will be allowed in-person or remotely via telephone. Speakers may only register to speak on an item once either in-person or remotely and will be allowed up to three minutes to provide their comments. Registration no later than noon the day before the meeting is required for remote participation by telephone. To register to speak remotely, call or email Rohan Lilauwala at (rohan.lilauwala@austintexas.gov or 512-974-9394). CURRENT BOARD MEMBERS: Kaiba White, Chair (Electric Utility Commission) Diana Wheeler, Vice Chair (Urban Transportation Commission) Charlotte Davis (Resource Mgmt. Commission) Haris Qureshi (Environmental Commission) Melissa Rothrock (Zero Waste Advisory Commission) Bertha Delgado (Community Development Commission) Larry Franklin (Austin Travis County Food Policy Board) Chris Maxwell-Gaines (Water & Wastewater Commission) Amy Noel (Economic Prosperity Commission) Stephanie Bazan (Parks & Recreation Board) Jon Salinas (Design Commission) Vacant (City Council) Alice Woods (Planning Commission) Rodrigo Leal (Mayor’s Representative) Anna Scott (Mayor’s Representative) Heather Houser (Mayor’s Representative) Yureisly Suarez (Mayor’s Representative) Christopher Campbell (Mayor’s Representative) For more information, please visit: www.austintexas.gov/jsc AGENDA CALL TO ORDER PUBLIC COMMUNICATION: GENERAL The first 10 speakers signed up prior to the meeting being called to order will each be allowed a three-minute allotment to address their concerns regarding items not posted on the agenda. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Approval of minutes from the March 27, 2024 meeting of the Joint Sustainability Committee. DISCUSSION AND ACTION ITEMS 2. Conduct Joint Sustainability Committee Officer Elections for the 2023-2024 Term. DISCUSSION 3. Staff update to the Environmental Investment Plan process to create recommendations – Zach Baumer, Office of Sustainability. 4. UT-City Climate CoLab – Structure, Priorities, and Potential Research Areas - Dev Niyogi, University of Texas-Austin. 5. Joint Sustainability Committee discussion of approach and recommendations on the Environmental Investment Plan. FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS ADJOURNMENT The City of Austin is committed to compliance with the American with Disabilities Act. Reasonable modifications and equal access to communications will be provided upon request. Meeting locations are planned with wheelchair access. If requiring Sign Language Interpreters or alternative formats, please give notice at least 2 days (48 hours) before the meeting date. Please contact Rohan Lilauwala at rohan.lilauwala@austintexas.gov or 512-974-9394 for additional information; TTY users’ route through Relay Texas at 711. For more …
Benefit Cost $202.5M, 100% Covered by TCEQ Need to apply for grant funding ASAP: $240 million for trucks; ~$200,000 per charger ($60 million) $10-15+ million one time and $5+ million per year Nearly 1 million (968,400) tons CO2 emissions avoided. air pollution reduction (health benefits), reduced maintenance, lower heat exposure for ARR workers (better AC during hot weather) GHG reduction, plastic pollution reduction, reduce need for new landfill, local economic development, save on ARR tipping fees Consumption Working Group Environmental Plan Proposals Austin JSC April 22, 2024 Proposal ARR Fleet Electrification: Replace all 300 heavy duty Austin Resource Recovery vehicles (flatbed trucks and refuse trucks) with electric vehicles. Install appropriate heavy-duty charging infrastructure to charge these vehicles. Plan: Austin Climate Equity Plan. Circular economy & waste reduction programs • Zero Waste Business Incentives and Rebates: This program provides incentives to businesses to reduce waste, including switching from plastic or styrofoam containers to reusable or compostable. Current program provides a one-time incentive up to $3,000 and is only providing about $5,000/year. The incentive should be restructured to help businesses address ongoing costs (multi-year incentive) and funding should be allocated for additional staff to do outreach to businesses (including all restaurants) ($1 million/year). • ARR zero waste education: Expand to reach the full Austin community, not just ARR customers, including with a paid canvassing team. (increase from $410,000/yr to $4 million/year) • Furniture collection for Reuse Warehouse: Current plan is for drop-off only. Funds are needed to enable pick-up to increase diversion from landfill. ($) • Deconstruction Warehouse: To divert salvaged construction materials from the landfill. ($10-15 million) • Fix-it Clinics: Expand and host more ($500,000/year), • Circular Austin Accelerator and Circular Austin Showcase competition: Expand outreach and an increased number and value of awards for competition winners would increase effectiveness in building a circular economy in Austin. (increase from $ to $); • MoveOutATX: Increase number of events (increase from $/year to $/year); Plan: Austin Resource Recovery Comprehensive Plan & Austin Climate Equity Plan (Food and Product Consumption Goal 2, Strategy 4) Low-carbon concrete fund: Concrete represents the largest of Austin’s purchasing emissions, with potential surcharges for truly carbon neutral cement ranging as high as an additional $18/cubic yard, but with costs falling as new technology scales up. This fund would pay for additional testing, program fees, and surcharges to cover both city and non-city owned buildings of 1.1 M cubic …
Sustainable Buildings WG Recommendations for Environmental Investment Plan 1. Transition Austin Community to Clean Renewable Energy - community wide programs a. Expand energy efficiency programs i. Details: Building Envelope, Air Sealing, heating and cooling, LED lighting, ii. Hot Water, Appliances Benefits: Improved health and safety of buildings and their occupants, Increased building life, Measure building performance, Create an order high need properties, reduced bills iii. Cost: AE budget is $13.6 million/year for existing programs. Goal should be to double this dollar amount to $27.2 million/year. These costs will be offset by reduced AE energy purchases, ancillary services purchases, and transmission costs. b. Expand demand response programs i. Details: Expand price-based demand response programs. Define ‘demand response ready’. Sectors impacts: Buildings, Industry, Transport. Electric hot water tank programs, thermostats, home energy managements systems, commercial and residential battery storage, electric vehicle smart chargers, smart meters Benefits: Automate demand response, improve grid resiliency, reduce peak demand costs, Essential to NetZero goals, leverage current energy crisis ii. iii. Cost: AE budget is $3.6 million/year for existing programs. AE budget should quadruple to $14.4 million/year. These costs will be offset by reduced AE energy purchases when ERCOT prices are high. c. Invest in utility scale battery energy storage i. Details: Battery storage is an important part of a decarbonized grid. Decentralized batteries on resilience hub buildings, school and supportive housing can be used as a virtual power plant (VPP) to help with load shifting during normal use and provide critical resiliency backup energy during outage events. Longer term heat batteries can decarbonize industrial facilities throughout Austin by soaking up excess solar and wind during curtailment and putting energy into those industrial uses, which allows much higher penetration of renewables. Antora, another heat battery system can re-export electricity through its TPV tech. Benefits: Faster grid decarbonization through demand curve flattening and responding to electricity pricing; greater resilience; cheaper, cleaner energy. ii. iii. Cost: Using the average cost of 4-hr duration batteries provided by AE ($1,168/kW), 200 MW would cost $233.7 million. Using the average cost of 8-hr duration batteries provided by AE ($1,992/kW), 400 MW would cost $797 million. Using the average cost of 100-hr duration batteries provided by AE ($2,150/kW), 100 MW would cost $215 million. The combined 700 MW battery investment would cost $1,245.7 million. These costs would be recovered by earnings in the ERCOT energy and ancillary services markets. Heat battery pilots could …
DRAFT Joint Sustainability Commission Transportation, Land Use, and Electrification Environmental Investment Plan Recommendations Recommendation Description: Expand All Ages and Abilities Bicycle Network, Urban Trails, Sidewalks, and Shared Mobility The JSC recommends the City of Austin (COA) invest a total of $2.11 billion to expand the number of Metro Bike stations and to build out the All Ages and Abilities (AAA) Bicycle Priority Network, the Tier One Urban Trails network, and sidewalks and shared streets as recommended in the Urban Transportation Commission's "Climate Equity Investment" Recommendation 20240305-006. We recommend the following specific investments: 1. $48,960,000 to build out an additional 148 miles of the AAA Bicycle Priority Network and meet the 2023 Bike Plan Goal of 380 miles built out by 2026. Projects should be selected using the project prioritization model in the 2023 Bicycle Plan, which scores projects based on equity, destinations & travel demand, connectivity & safety, and cost. Relevant plan sections: Austin Strategic Mobility (ASMP) Bicycle Policy 2, Austin Climate Equity Plan (ACEP) Transportation and Land Use (TLU) Goal 3, and 2023 Bike Plan Item 4.7.la. 2. $22,600,000 to build out an additional 200 Metro Bike Stations to reach the 2023 Bike Plan goal of 300 stations by 2025. The investment should prioritize new stations in low-income areas with high mobility needs and connections to CapMetro's existing high-frequency bus and Metro Rail network. Relevant plan sections: ASMP Shared Mobility Policy 1, ACEP TLU Goal 3, and 2023 Bike Plan Item 4.7.2. 3. $75,826,000 to build out 15.6 miles of Tier One Urban Trails by 2028 and put COA on track to reach the 2023 Urban Trails goal of building all 94 miles of Tier 1 trails by 2043. City Manager should also consider investments to ensure "the Urban Trails Plan is deliver[ing] projects on an accelerated timeline" as the Urban Trails Plan notes doing so is "dependent on increasing internal City of Austin capacity across supporting departments concerning staffing, systems, and the processes for permitting" Urban Trails Plan Section 3.5). Relevant plan sections: See ASMP Urban Trails Policy 2 & 3, ACEP TLU Goal 3, and 2023 Urban Trails Plan Section 3.5. 4. $64,000,000 to build out 136 miles of new sidewalks and 80 miles of shared streets per year through 2028, putting Austin on track to address all "Very High" and "High" priority sidewalks and shared streets within 10 years. Projects in the highest Equity Analysis Zones …
“Environmental Investment Plan” 20240215-025 STATUS UPDATE April 24, 2024 1 Resolution 20240215-025 Reaffirm commitment to net-zero by 2040, act with urgency required to achieve this goal. Solicit community input and prepare options and associated costs of capital improvements or programs that would: 1. Reduce carbon emissions 2. Decrease water usage and improve water quality and detention 3. Advance the sustainability of City Operations, and 4. Improve Community Resilience Post a public hearing of the JSC in March (27) / April (24) to gather input from the public and the Committee is requested to submit any recommendations for investments to Council by May 1 Review whether recommendations can be funded through: - Utility rates - General Fund Expenditures - Grants - General Obligation Bonds (may include Nov 2024) 2 Resolution 20240215-025 In addition to proposals put forth by the JSC, analyze investments needed to fulfill the following adopted plans: - Climate Equity Plan - Water Forward - Watershed Protection Strategic Plan - One Austin: Climate Resilience Action Plan - Austin Strategic Mobility Plan - ARR Comprehensive Plan - AE Resource Generation Plan - PARD Land Management Plan and Long Range Plan - Austin Travis County Wildfire Preparedness Plan - Central Texas Regional Air Quality Plan - Urban Forest Plan - Austin Travis County Food Plan - Green Infrastructure Strengths and Gaps Assessment Analysis should also identify options for fulfilling either all or specific elements of these plans before their current target date. 3 Final Product A list of projects and programs that: 1. Reduce carbon emissions 2. Decrease water usage and improve water quality and detention 3. Advance the sustainability of City Operations 4. Improve Community Resilience For each project or program - General Scope / Description - Aligned with which Plan and Goal - - Approximate Cost - Potential Funding Mechanism Timeline (Short, Medium, Long term) - Utility base rates - General Fund Expenditures - Grants - General Obligation Bonds A Memo with attached Report / Spreadsheet Attachments - JSC and Community Recommendations A Presentation to Council on May 28 4 Process Scoping and Screening Initial review JSC and Public Input Finalization OOS has created a catalog of all goals / strategies in all plans called out in the Resolution Teams + Departments worked on a shared assignment spreadsheet to populate projects and information Departments reviewed their own Plans & Goals - Identified gaps Teams convened to share their findings …
Joint Sustainability Committee RECOMMENDATION 20240XXX-XXX Motioned By: Date: XXX, 2024 Description of Recommendation to Council Subject: Joint Sustainability Committee Environmental Investment Plan Recommendations (Natural Systems) Seconded By: D R A F T 1. Preservation of existing agricultural land: The Joint Sustainability Committee recommends that $XX be allocated to preserve existing agricultural land and increase the amount of farmland using practices that improve soil health through land trusts, land banks, conservation easements and/or other legal or financing mechanisms. a. Details: Develop an inventory of available farmland in Austin/Travis County, conduct appraisals, fund conservation easements and/or incentives for farmers adopting regenerative agricultural practices (TBD but may include cover cropping, crop rotation, no/low-till, mulching, compost application, elimination/ reduction of synthetic pesticide and fertilizer use, etc.) a. Plan alignment: Food Plan Goal 1 and the Climate Equity Plan Natural Systems b. Benefits: Slows the loss of local farmland; improves the quality of locally produced food and protects soil carbon pools. Soils with healthy levels of organic material increase water retention, improve water quality, protect biodiversity, sequester carbon and mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. c. Cost estimate: $TBD for inventory and appraisals (one-time); $TBD per acre for easements (one-time); $TBD for incentives (annual) Goal 2. 2. Revolving loan fund for Working Farms Fund pilot: The Joint Sustainability Committee recommends that $5.5 million be allocated to establish a revolving loan fund to preserve agricultural land in Austin/Travis County through a pilot program that provides a path to ownership for a new generation of farmers and increases the amount of farmland acting as carbon pools. a. Details: A collaboration with the Conservation Funds Working Farms Fund and local agricultural nonprofits will acquire and permanently protect small to mid-sized farms, and provide a pathway for underrepresented farmers to own their own farms b. Plan alignment: Food Plan Goal 1 and the Climate Equity Plan Natural Systems Goal 2. c. Benefits: Slows the loss of local farmland, improves the quality of locally produced food, protects carbon pools, and serves as a template for program replication. d. Cost estimate: $5.25M to establish a revolving loan fund; $250K annually for operational expenses d. Cost: $350K (TBD) real-time response to leaks, solar panel outages etc. and improving management of water and electricity usage in City parks, pools and buildings. 3. Energy and water dashboard for City facilities: The Joint Sustainability Committee recommends that $350K (TBD) be allocated to create a consolidated energy and …
UT City Climate Colab Empower communities with climate data and tools A framework for cities to build climate smart infrastructure (netzero, heat/health, fire, investments..) Dev Niyogi¹ Allysa Dallmann¹, Marc Coudert², Zach Baumer², Patrick Bixler¹, Paola Passalacqua¹, Junfeng Jiao¹, Yang Zong Liang¹, Zoltan Nagy1, Heidi Schmalbach¹ 1. The University of Texas at Austin 2. The City of Austin utcitycolab.org URGENCY • Increase in the climate extremes; city needs to prepare for eventualities • Disadvantaged communities greatly challenged in "bouncing back" Infrastructure investments and response plans underway • • Students interested in place-based research • Federal grant opportunities are growing TEMPERATURE One of the “simplest” climate variables Austin changes not explains by global changes alone City scale information needs bottom up rather than top down approach only (Top down is global to local which is what we see for El Nino, La Nina effects for example) Climate Downscaling (coarse grid (100 km x 100 km ) global information statistically brought to local scale (10km or finer) – This is top down and most common way of getting climate information AUSTIN’S FUTURE CLIMATE Rain events will become more intense and less frequent Temperatures will become hotter Less frequent, but more intense cold events CIMBY CLIMATE IN MY BACKYARD There is a need to localize data climate information To complement community experience UT City Climate CoLab This creates a framework that is tied into local city departments, communities, and UT EXPERIENCE from the community, and the city UT + City Climate CoLab DATA from the climate and atmospheric sciences USEFUL TO USEABLE UT City Climate CoLab • National - NOAA NCEI • Texas has State Climate Office • Regional Climate Hubs (for agriculture) UT City Climate CoLab • City needs are unique • Data needs are localized UT City Climate CoLab • Climate models are complicated • Scenarios, Resolutions, Model Choices • Reanalysis, Data, AI/ML output UT City Climate CoLab • Localizing data and information with lived experience is important to develop local policies and investment decisions. UT Investments -Climate Program Coordinator (Allysa Dallman JSG + PT2050) - 2 postdocs (JSG; Ali and Manmeet) - LBJ 5 summer GRAs, part of Program Manager (Deidra Miniard) - Faculty time - Research Grants City Investments -CoLab Program Manager (Alexia Leclercq) - Product Developer (advertised) - ILA projects (e.g. Water Fwd; AFD) - Office of Resilience/ Sustainability - Access/Partnership Open source, Build height data sets for cities …
JOINT SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING MEETING MINUTES Apr 24, 2024 The Joint Sustainability Committee convened in a hybrid meeting via videoconferencing and City Hall. Chair Kaiba White called the Board Meeting to order at 6:06 pm. Board Members in Attendance in Person: Chris Maxwell-Gaines, Lane Becker, Larry Franklin, Charlotte Davis, Kaiba White, Haris Qureshi, Jon Salinas Board Members in Attendance Remotely: Diana Wheeler, Anna Scott, Heather Houser, Chris Campbell, Yure Suarez Board Members Absent: Bertha Delgado, Alice Woods, Melissa Rothrock, Amy Noel, Rodrigo Leal City Staff in Attendance: Rohan Lilauwala, Zach Baumer CALL TO ORDER Chair Kaiba White called the meeting to order at 6:20 pm. PUBLIC COMMUNICATION 1. Melinda Chow- River Watch, speaking in favor of Austin Civilian Conservation Corps (ACCC) success stories 2. Parc Smith – American Youth Works, speaking in favor of ACCC 3. Chase Wright – Hungry Hill Foundation, speaking in favor of ACCC 4. Jaquan Jackson – Hungry Hill Foundation, speaking in favor of ACCC 5. Paul Robbins – Environmental activist, vice chair of RMC. Speaking on the need for stronger restrictions on water use and for reclaimed water. Green choice program is obsolete, needs to be repurposed for dispatchable renewable energy 6. Adam Greenfield – Safe Streets Austin, speaking in favor of Urban Transportation Commission’s transportation package, Farm and City’s recommendations. In support of dais). converting 1 lane on every arterial to protected bike or bus lanes. 110 miles - $40 million for quick build. Savings from crash cost reduction. Example of longhorn dam 7. Scott Johnson – speaking on the importance of low-emission asphalt 1. Approval of minutes from the March 27th meeting of the Joint Sustainability Committee. Davis motions to approve, Maxwell-Gaines seconds, passes on 11-0 vote (Suarez off 3. UT City Climate Colab – Dev Niyogi, UT-Austin Presentation on the new collaborative research framework between University of Texas at Austin and the City of Austin Commissioners agree of value of Colab Suggestions of project – citywide solar potential assessment Offer to come back regularly to update JSC 2. Joint Sustainability Committee Officer Elections for the 2024-2025 Term Qureshi nominates White as chair, Maxwell-Gaines seconds, passes 12-0. Wheeler nominates Davis as vice chair, Qureshi seconds, passes 12-0. 4. Presentation on the Staff Response to Resolution 20240215-025, the “Environmental Investment Plan” – Zach Baumer, Office of Sustainability Discussions on how to maximize community benefits …
