Action Plan Overview- Pete Haga provided the group with an update on the action plan, sharing what we have been doing to date as a community and also a list of recommended action items for becoming more efficient. The city is currently supporting bike plans, changing street lights, aligning traffic lights in town. The action plan will always be a working document but by the time we meet next month it will be a bit more final and some of the items will be flushed out. Some city representatives toured the Fargo Facilities including the landfill and wind turbines. Grand Forks is also looking at capturing methane at the landfill although Fargo’s landfill has different situation in that they treat biosolids and have lots more trash so it isn’t a direct comparison.

Green Team- Pete Haga reported that the city has established a green team where all the city departments will continue to work together on items such as plan reviews for new city facilities, incorporating recycling at all city facilities, as well as educating co-workers on simple things that can be done by all to reduce our imprint on the environment.

Coordination with Fargo, ND- Melanie Parvey-Biby reported that last week she attended a Renewable Energy and Conservation Committee meeting, this group is very similar to the green team here in Grand Forks and they want to work together as to not reinvent the wheel and share information as well as consider supporting legislation where it is feasible. A couple of the bills that they are supporting include building new public facilities to a silver level LEED standard as well as adopt the 2006 International Energy Codes for the state which would make new buildings that much more energy efficient. Grand Forks Legislative Committee will take a look at this before any support from Grand Forks is given to a particular bill but communication will continue between Grand Forks and Fargo’s green teams.

Weatherization Program- Pete Haga reported that the city is supporting an item that came from one of the subcommittees to create an Energy Alliance or a one stop shop for an individual to get an energy audit, assistance with hiring contractors to do the work to make one’s home more energy efficient and then having the access to financial assistance to do this work on loan interest or no interest loans. The City is also hosting a roundtable between Mayor Brown, Pomeroy and possibly David Bradley to increase the public’s awareness about what can be done to weatherize one’s home (providing the simple things people can do) as well as information sharing about the current programs that are available as well as having some discussion about this new program that could offer weatherization opportunities to middle-upper class residents that currently don’t have any programs available to them. This would be modeled after the Red River Valley Community Action’s weatherization program. Housing Authority and the Office of Urban Development financed this feasibility study, which the final report will be available soon and the thought is to continue next with the planning stage as everyone that Mr. Weber and his colleagues talked to thought it was a great idea and wanted to be part of it, they just didn’t have the staff or the time to initiate this themselves.

GHG Inventory Report- Mr. Mann reported that the report is with the city and in draft form and that shows where Grand Forks fits in comparison with other cities for carbon emissions, the national average is 26.8, Grand Forks is at 25.6 tons eCO2 per Grand Forks resident. Electricity used in this region is purchased from the MidContinent Area Power Pool (MAAP), since MAPP generators use a high percentage of coal, their equivalent GHG emission rate per unit electricity is over twice as high as the national average. For the City of Grand Forks- the primary emission source is water supply 22%, waste water 22%, transportation 11%, buildings 36%. The Energy Alliance group also planned to share information with Dr. Mann on the type of data that they received from Xcel Energy as it might have been the data they were interested in obtaining for the initial inventory report.

Energy Services Group Update- Pete reported that the Energy Services Group is looking at facilities in the city and do energy audits of all buildings and can calculate the savings with carbon emissions, lighting use, ventilation, etc. They completed the pre-feasibility study and feel there is enough room for significant energy savings, they are a performance based contract company which means that all the work would be paid for through the savings, in order to proceed with this contract there will be a request for proposal sent out.

How do we proceed from here? Wiki is a way that we can all communicate, there if also a facebook for Greener Grand Forks

Other items of interest- there now no fee to recycle CFL’s at Home Depot

Bev Collings reported that there is a standard being developed for green standard buildings that is similar to the LEED certification but the publication isn’t available yet. She also mentioned an opportunity to work with a program that Xcel Energy has in working with their Energy Efficiency Engineer on new buildings, making sure the design is efficient so if the City proceeds with a new building they are looking to get involved in a project in ND.

A couple of upcoming conferences/educational opportunities were also mentioned and these are Green Building Conference in Warren, MN on Saturday Sept. 20 as well as Sustainable Planning and Engineering Conf. in Fargo on Oct. 20-21.

Meeting Notes by: Melanie Parvey-Biby, Environmental Compliance/Greenway Manager on September 24, 2008