1. 062525 Minutes for approval — original pdf
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JOINT SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE REGULAR MEETING MEETING MINUTES June 25, 2025 The Joint Sustainability Committee convened in a hybrid meeting via videoconferencing and at Austin Energy Headquarters. Board Members in Attendance in Person: Kaiba White, Chris Maxwell-Gaines, Charlotte Davis, Josh Hiller Board Members in Attendance Remotely: Marissa Bell, Anna Scott, Rodrigo Leal, Chris Crookham, Jon Salinas, Haris Qureshi, Yure Suarez Board Members Absent: City Staff in Attendance: Rohan Lilauwala, Matthew Duree, James Scarborough, Amanda Mortl CALL TO ORDER Chair Kaiba White called the meeting to order at 6:19 pm. Public Communication 1. Approval of minutes from the April 23rd, 2025 meeting of the Joint Sustainability Committee. • Davis motion, Maxwell-Gaines second. Davis amendment to remove bullet point under ‘Public Communication’ that says ‘Tom’. • Passes as amended on a 10-0 vote (Leal off dais) DISCUSSION ITEMS 2. Staff Briefing on the Environmentally Preferable Procurement Program – Matt Duree, Capital Procurement, Financial Services Department; Amanda Mortl, Office of Climate Action and Resilience. • Davis: How are smaller purchases scrutinized? How are keywords tied to procurement? • Duree, Mortl: Education, programs, OCAR support can help departments. Large contracts (e.g. office supplies) dealt with by central procurement, contracts written to eliminate non-environmentally friendly options. • Scarborough: category experts look at contracts, identify where to take action based on keywords, set targets/workplans, help departments make decisions. • White: How many staff can make purchases? • Mortl: Around 2000; OCAR supports educating these staff • Duree: Future OCAR partnerships to develop more detailed training • Bell: How does keyword turn into a measure/requirement? How are keywords/targets determined? • Duree: needs policy direction. • Mortl: working on developing action plan for each purchasing category • Scarborough: keywords can change, but need a year or two for contracts to catch up • Mortl: not always simple to make requirements. E.g. easy to require electric landscape equipment, but market might not be ready, small business/competition might not be ready. E.g. concrete – needs specs. Changing contract requirements could lead to reduced bids/competition. • Mortl: Purchasing emissions in 2022 – 206,000 MT CO2e, approx. 4x our municipal GHG footprint 3. 2024-2025 Joint Sustainability Committee Annual Report • Davis suggests offline coordination to pull a draft together for July JSC meeting, if commissioners have suggestions. 4. Recommendation in support of Solar on City Facilities and a Revolving Fund • Meeti FUTURE AGENDA ITEMS • ADJOURNMENT White adjourned meeting at 8:26 due to loss of quorum.