City of Bloomington, Indiana Commission on Sustainability, 8 Sep 2020

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From YouTube: Bloomington Commission On Sustainability, September 8, 2020

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meeting agenda: https://bloomington.in.gov/onboard/meetingFiles/download?meetingFile_id=7541

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I'd like to call to order the tuesday september 8th.

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2020 uh meeting of the bloomington commission on sustainability.

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uh We'll start with a roll call I'll just go down the list.

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uh Anna abernathy, I'm here jared alexander, I'm here.

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I see his pain, his window pain.

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Did joe freeze.

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Did I freeze yeah, you did freeze, I think you were.

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You just finished bronson, okay, um teresa chakraborty,.

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Samantha ginter here.

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Ellen hinden.

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Ethan horvath here johnna mcgee.

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Andrew predmore.

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Dave rollo here, nigel ratzong here and pam weaver.

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Joe I'm here now this is bronson. I think I just.

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Okey-Dokey, um so if everyone got the agenda that was sent out earlier, um I'd.

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Like to motion for approval of the agenda,.

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So moved! Okay, um if there's anyone.

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From the public who would like to comment, please.

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um Raise your hand or let one of the hosts.

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If there's no one for public comment, we'll go ahead and move on to the report.

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From chair, uh the only news that I have to share with everyone today is that uh we are one commissioner down corbin.

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Baird has decided to leave the commission, so we will be.

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Searching for a replacement for him.

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And so there we go to report from esd.

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Thank you, joe, um not much of a report this month. I did want to note last week.

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I was able to present to council the vulnerability assessment and I had.

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Done a short presentation to the commission on that last month,.

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The full report is on the sustainability page.

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And if you weren't able to make it for last week's meeting.

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It really just details what types of climate impacts bloomington will.

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Experience and what the subsequent consequences may be for people.

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Buildings and infrastructure, so um that was.

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Well received and then um in the next coming months, we'll have a draft of the.

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Climate action plan so for the october meeting, I'd like to give an.

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Update on that um to the commission, so if we can build.

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That in and other than that, um if.

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You and if you're interested, especially those in the policy group, there will be.

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A meeting about the local income tax um proposed local income tax increase.

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Tomorrow um by council, so just keep your eyes out.

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On that, there's some components of that that would go towards continued energy conservation, investments and bike and pedestrian infrastructure.

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Things like that, so I can send out also to the commission.

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uh The materials that were sent out to councils.

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I think it was friday, so many people haven't had the opportunity to check.

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Those out yet and other than that um been happy to.

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Hear from some of the sub groups in the last couple weeks, so I'm looking.

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Forward to hearing um about what you guys, weren't working.

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Great thank you lauren uh and now moving on to.

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Our guest speaker for the evening we have daniel poynter with us. He is.

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With uh carbon neutral, indiana uh he's going to give us a brief, uh give.

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Us a a presentation and some information about.

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That organization, and what it, what it does.

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So daniel I'll go ahead and hand the floor over to you.

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Thank you. uh What time should I allocate for.

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um Honestly, you can have 15 minutes if you'd like.

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So we can go over we're not hard set on on the schedule on the.

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Duration, okay, cool. Thank you, I'm so excited to share with you guys.

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Thanks for coming together regularly to create a community about these issues,.

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So I don't even know where to begin I'll share like an origin story.

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My name is daniel poynter. I live in indianapolis.

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um I went to purdue for philosophy and for my 20s I worked as a software.

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Engineer and then when trump was elected I took a.

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Break and I started being an advisor to social entrepreneurs.

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So these are people that either have a for-profit business trying to do a.

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Social purpose like patagonia or warby, parker or tom's.

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Shoes- or these are non-profit executives, who.

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Are trying to get off grants and try to generate revenue so kind of where capitalism meets purpose? I was an advisor at about 100.

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People who were in the middle right there and then.

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About a year and a half ago, thanks to dory, chandler's, incessant posts on.

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Facebook about climate, I finally woke up and last year I just like a lot of.

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Things just dove in like a fanatic, basically and.

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um About 11 months, full time I used my life savings to just interview.

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200 people in indiana working on climate, everyone from the sierra club to hoosier.

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Interfaith power and light um andrew predmore and I had coffee and.

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Anne headen and lauren travis and um 200 people.

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Throughout indiana trying to find out who's doing what?

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Where do I fit in, like what are the gaps um and out of that.

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Came uh carbon neutral indiana, which, um true to my background, it's a.

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Non-Profit but it's a social enterprise, so we generate our own revenue. We.

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Haven't received any grant money yet, um and so you know earth charter indiana.

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Focuses on cities, helping them do resolutions and maybe measure their.

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Footprint like iueri, does as well who's your interfaith power and.

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Light focus on churches right so nobody's focused on households.

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And businesses or colleges or hospitals, and so but we're focused on.

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Households, businesses and colleges and uh our main way of operating is.

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um We're fiscally sponsored by the indiana forest alliance.

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They don't give us money, but we're a part of their 501c3.

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We have bookkeeping and financial oversight and that kind of thing.

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And so it basically, what we do is a household.

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Calls me or books an appointment and in a 15-minute phone call. I.

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Walk through the berkeley, cool climate calculator and we measure their.

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Footprint and um we do the same thing for small.

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Businesses as well and then at the end, if they want to be carbon neutral, they can financially support a project right now. It's a forest in alaska, but we're working to create projects in.

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Indiana and it's a subscription basis and it's a.

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Basic retail model, where, like girl, scouts to sell girl scout.

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Cookies, they buy a box for a dollar, sell them for five.

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um We buy offsets for about eight eight dollars and eighty cents and sell them.

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For fifteen, so our margin is less than the girl scouts. I'm proud about that, and the fact that we have a margin at.

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All allows us to grow even without any philanthropic support.

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So how does this fit into the larger picture? So if you haven't yet check out.

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Bloomberg's america's pledge report he releases it.

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Every year he has the best minds in the world from the world resource institute to rocky mountain institute.

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Analyze america's grassroots climate action in the face of us, leaving.

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The parish agreement, and so every year he puts out this.

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America's pledge report and it came out last fall at cop25 and in that report he basically says you know. These are the.

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Three main things that we need to do: we need to do renewable energy. We need.

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To electrify all the things buildings and cars and so on, and then we.

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Need to invest in land use and natural carbon uh natural climate solutions like forests,.

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Right and in that report he they group the states into three tiers.

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The leaders like california, that chart the path for everyone.

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The followers like minnesota that follow the leaders.

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And then the laggards tier three of which the report expects nothing of us.

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And I said us because indiana, according to their analysis, is in tier three.

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Laggard status so they're just hoping we don't mess things up, they want, they.

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Don't want us to get in the way, basically so they're not expecting much from us. Okay,.

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So those are the three solutions, but in addition to that they have a.

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Broad solution that touches all the solutions of just carbon pricing.

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Whether that's the cap and trade of california or.

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Carbon tax, like the country of columbia or something like reggie on the east,.

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Coast or something else, putting a price on.

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Carbon is a transformative policy that cuts across all different project types.

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Okay, so back in indiana, what are we doing in indiana? Well, we're not going to.

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Get a cap and trade program anytime soon, so what can we do? Well, what carbon.

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Neutral indiana is doing, is we talk about the social cost of.

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Carbon there was an article that said, the social cost of carbon is the most.

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Important concept you've never heard of I'd, never heard of it took me a year.

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Full-Time research to find the concept, I'm sure some people here have heard it.

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But basically, researchers at stanford university wanted to know how bad is.

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It to put carbon dioxide in the atmosphere they all. We all know it's bad.

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But how bad is it? That's an economist's question.

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So their number was 220 of damages for every ton we put in the atmosphere.

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Right, that's the problem. It's just an accounting problem, we're externalizing.

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Costs internalized profits, so in theory it should be simple. We.

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Internalize the costs um and that's what ccl and others.

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Advocate for but we're not going to get that in indiana anytime soon, so we can do that in a voluntary way. What does that mean.

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Well, you sit down with a household or a business, and you calculate their.

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Footprint and you say: okay, joe schmoe, your.

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Household emits 40 tons a year according to stanford.

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Which is a pretty good bet, that's 220 of damages, a ton which puts.

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You about 8 000 of damages right you're, putting that.

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Cost on others in bangladesh or wherever and most people, if they trust you and.

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They follow the math, they don't like that. They want to figure out a way to fix it right and that's where carbon offsets.

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Come in last fall. I thought they were just greenwashing. I didn't know anything about them, but when I ran out of my life savings, I thought my god who's gonna pay for all.

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These emissions reductions, I use eri as a 50 million dollar fund,.

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But a lot of it is for adaptation right, some of it's for.

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Mitigation measurement and so on, but it's not about getting in front of the problem. I'll take a tangent. My dad had a triple.

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Bypass, he was in the icu for 30 days on the.

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Edge of death and I went out to get a coffee. I sat by.

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His bedside the whole time and I'm sitting there in the lobby and.

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On the on the wall is a huge sign that says thank you to our nurses, brought to you by.

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Cinnabon and I wasn't smiling at the time I got.

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Really fucking pissed off and I talked to a nurse. I said how is cinnabon.

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Thinking the only reason my dad's here is because he eats shit like that.

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Right 30 days in the icu, I guarantee cost half a million dollars. Somebody had.

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To pay for that, why didn't he just get ten thousand dollars of nutritional therapy to help him not use food for stress.

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We put ten thousand in for preventative and we save half a million.

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Makes sense to me so that's what carbon neutrality is.

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Instead of externalizing all these costs and paying the fee, the costs.

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Who knows what? What they're going to be? It's probably going to be worse than 220.

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A ton: why don't we get ahead of the problem and pay.

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Pay for it now and indiana has a special responsibility. We're one of 10 states.

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That produce half of the emissions in america.

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Thank god, you guys are here in indiana, many of my friends left the brain drain.

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Thing you know so those of us who are still here in indiana have a responsibility and an opportunity, because there's a lot of low-hanging fruit right.

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So that brings me back to carbon offsets. I thought that's greenwashing.

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Well, let me frame it a totally different way. Imagine you've got.

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No offense to some people, but imagine you've, got a small college.

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And they have a sustainability director to pay them 90 000.

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A year with benefits, it costs the college 150.

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000, let's say- and I've talked to these people no offense, but this is just fact.

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And they're very proud that they've instituted a garden.

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And a recycling project, if anybody is anybody familiar with.

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Project drawdown.

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Okay, 100 solutions ranked by efficacy, I'm familiar with project.

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Drawdown good, okay, good there's a hundred solutions ranked by efficacy.

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Dollar for dollar: what's the biggest bang for our buck right.

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We don't have a lot of time. We don't have a lot of resources. Where do we invest? Our resources to mitigate recycling is like.

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60., electric vehicles are, like I don't know, 20 rooftop, solar, 10 plant, rich diets. I don't know five or.

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Six uh refrigerant management is number one.

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Because refrigerants and air conditioners have a global warming potential of a thousand times up to seven thousand.

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Times, carbon dioxide and yet all these grocery stores, just.

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Leak and leak refrigerants we're not doing anything about it.

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So go back to the the sustainability director of the college right, you pay them 150 000. They implement recycling program which is awesome, but it's way down on drawdown at 60. and.

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We spend 150 000 for that, a lot of non-profits you give money to.

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Them you have no idea where the money goes, you don't know if they're, competent or managing the money. You don't know if they're who knows.

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Maybe they have an impact report at the end of the year where they say: okay,.

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We talked to 20 legislators and we did this thing. We got 5 000 signatures.

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Okay, good, you can't really measure policy.

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Get it maybe the climate group does education.

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So they went to 75 outdoor events and they talked to 20 000 citizens.

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Okay, cool, that's awesome. Those things are important. We need policy, we need.

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Education, but if you want clear impact.

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That's what a carbon offset is 15 in one ton.

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Out, that's it and what's really cool is there's a there's. An audit trail.

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Every individ every party in the whole process has to.

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Produce paperwork and it's all available on the internet to read.

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And what's really cool about carbon offsets isn't.

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Not just that they're transparent means of impact.

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But that they let innovation bloom, there are 200 different methods by which you.

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Can create a carbon offset? Forests only have to do with three or four of them, so the most recent methodology that was accepted has to do.

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With methane abatement in animals in the uk, 10 percent of all the cows.

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Are in a pilot program and they're feeding them mutrol.

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Mutral is an all-natural additive, it's garlic and citrus. I believe.

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You mix it in their food, they don't even know, and it does something.

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To methanogenesis, I think, that's the term, it prevents them from burping up.

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Fifty percent of the methane right there's eight hundred thousand.

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Cows in indiana, to my knowledge, none of them are being fed a methane abatement. I might be wrong: why don't we feed those cows, something.

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Like neutral, the farmers can generate carbon offsets and sell them to.

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Salesforce, microsoft, stripe and small dairy farmers are going.

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Out of business, they need an extra revenue stream right.

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This is the promise of carbon offsets. They allow innovation to bloom.

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And they bring transparency to climate action right.

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Okay, so what have we done in for four or five months.

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With no grant funding all volunteers, we have 74 households that are carbon.

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Neutral there are five businesses that are.

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Carbon neutral on an annualized basis, we've.

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Sequestered 2100 tons and if the average ton causes 220.

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Of damage we've prevented 463 000 of damages that would have otherwise.

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Occurred, which is really cool- I know that's kind of abstract, but it's.

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So cool, I love that it's a very effective environmentalist.

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Thing if anyone's familiar with effective, altruism.

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That's equivalent to taking 421 cars off the road.

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Imagine if an environmental nonprofit had an earth day event.

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And they got 50 people to sign a pledge saying they would never drive again.

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That would make the news 50 people. What we've done is the equivalent of getting.

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421 people to never drive again right and even if the, even, if there's.

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Some wiggle room in there if, if not 421, let's say half 210, that's.

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A lot we got a shout out from bill mckibben in.

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The new yorker, which made my day it made me, feel like popeye eating spinach.

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When a household goes carbonated, they put a yard sign in the front yard.

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At least a hundred thousand people see those every day in indiana. We have one.

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On the moon on trail, the moon on trail in indianapolis gets 1.5 million.

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Visitors a year.

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We also work with colleges. This summer we had 15 summer interns.

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Many of them were environmental studies, students who had internships with iu and purdue or cummins that were cancelled because of covid, so we scooped in we scooped them up basically gave them.

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An opportunity um we have about 1500 signatures with.

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Our carbon neutral iu petition about two thousand signatures: a carbonyl purdue petition.

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um The student leader at purdue is awesome. Mason merkel.

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He's running with very little help from me.

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He had 75 student groups signed the petition and they delivered it to mitch.

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Daniels recently, it's awesome. It's absurd that iu.

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Had to send a resilience, a cohort person to measure west lafayette or.

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Tippecanoe's carbon footprint, when purdue could have done it. It's embarrassing.

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And the most exciting thing that I'm saving for last.

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We're very lucky to have senator mike braun from indiana.

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A republican who, on his twitter hand on his twitter, account.

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Had a video from trump congratulating him that he made it, he was successful in.

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Business, he didn't have to come into politics, but he did and trump said that I was like him right.

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And braun was proud of that. Brow braun showed that to his.

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um His supporters very proud of trump's endorsement, braun invited us and a few.

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Others into his home in jasper a few weeks ago, and he said that many.

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Republicans are in the closet on climate. They understand it's a problem, but.

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They're afraid to talk about it- and this is a guy who's, proud of trump's.

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Endorsement right, I brought a citizen's climate lobby.

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Friend with me to that meeting, but braun wasn't so excited about that.

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Particular solution he likes the idea of a voluntary, market-based approach.

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And I know voluntary might not be good enough, but it's a good start.

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So we've been facilitating meetings, that's at the federal level, braun.

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Did growing climate solutions act? It's a bipartisan act.

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To get farmers and forest owners participating in carbon markets.

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So that salesforce can pay them to do cover crops.

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But at the state level state senator mark stoops.

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His daughter's carbon neutral, rebecca stoops.

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um We've been facilitating meetings with senator mark stoops.

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And climate scientist jeff dukes at purdue and.

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Hoosier environmental council policy lead tim maloney.

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And indra frank and indiana forest alliance and others who've been.

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Facilitating about five meetings leading up to next week on wednesday.

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State legislature is going to have this thing called summer study committee and all morning long we're going to bring in experts to talk to the.

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Legislators about setting up a carbon market in indiana right, so we're going to have uh state senator.

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Mark stoops open it up and then hopefully mike braun, if he can make it through zoom and then we're going to have a project.

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Developer, an expert in carbon markets from oregon talk.

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And then we're going to have people on the supply side and the demand side.

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On the supply side, we're going to have regenerative farmers.

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We're going to have, hopefully the head of the dnr we're going to have a bunch.

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Of people representing forests and farms and on the demand side we've been lining.

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Up corporate buyers like fedex sales force, indianapolis.

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Airport, not all of them are 100 committed, we're still trying to get them to to participate, but what's really.

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Exciting is that the sustainability director fedex told me last week that they're, under a lot of pressure to decarbonize.

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But they can't because they there's no electric airplanes. So I said: how can we help you achieve.

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Your climate goals- and he said what would be very helpful.

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Is if we can get farmers in indiana plugged into carbon markets where fedex.

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Can pay them to do regenerative practices in a verified way.

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So that's what we're working on and just to give you an idea of the scale. I'm not.

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Going to name names but there's a small company in northern indiana.

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Maybe 50 or 100 employees they already pay.

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60 000 a year for offsets from forests in california.

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And they told me that in the fall, when the contract is over,.

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They would like that money to go to indiana projects. Well, guess what there are no indiana projects, not yet no forest projects anyway,.

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And there's another company that spends a similar amount of money up in northern indiana on offset so right. There there's a hundred thousand dollars a year.

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They could be going to indiana farmers or forest owners.

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So this is the tip of the iceberg of what we could do in indiana.

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When we take a voluntary approach to take responsibility,.

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For our carbon footprints become carbon neutral and.

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The last thing I'll say is: has anybody here heard of christopher hitchens the.

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Old, the deceased journalist.

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So back when we were debating whether waterboarding was torture, he volunteered.

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To be waterboarded, he was a journalist he's a famous.

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Intellectual and he's also bisexual and in 1999.

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He spoke to a liberal audience about how homosexual love.

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Isn't just physical, it can also be emotional and his liberal audience booed.

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In 1999 in 2009, there's a video of him saying almost the.

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Same thing and his all liberal audience cheers woohoo you're, so enlightened. That's only ten years.

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That's how social norms can flip in five years, people are gonna say: are you.

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Carbon neutral and then they're gonna, their friends, gonna, say, of course I am. Aren't you every decent person is.

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When that happens, money is gonna flow to sustainability projects.

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That are not getting money right now. So one last idea for bloomington.

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There's a systems theorist named donella meadows.

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I love her. She has a short essay. Everyone should read called leverage.

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Points and I want to read one really quick thing that is within the realm of bloomington's authority,.

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This should inspire, hopefully inspire you, okay. She said.

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Quote a more recent example is the toxic release inventory.

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The us government's requirement instituted in 1986.

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That every factory releasing hazardous air pollutants.

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Report those emissions publicly every year.

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Suddenly every community could find out precisely what was coming out of the.

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Smoke stacks in town, there was no law against those emissions.

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There were no fines, there was no determination of safe levels, just information, but by 1990 four years later, emissions.

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Dropped 40 percent. They have continued to go down since not.

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So much because of citizen outrage as because of corporate shame, one.

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Chemical one chemical company that found itself on the top 10.

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Polluters list reduced its emissions by 90 percent.

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Just to quote get off that list, so here's an idea for bloomington.

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You do lots of business with vendors, maybe tens of millions of dollars a year.

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I don't know people do laundry for the you, you launder the police officers uniforms, you have you pay people to landscape, you.

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Do all kinds of cool stuff you pay private contractors to help you.

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What, if you said, all things equal we're going to favor the business that has measured its carbon footprint and released it.

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Publicly or not released it publicly or what, if.

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You made it mandatory if you're going to do business with bloomington by the year 2022, you have to measure your footprint and.

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Release it publicly, why not? So if there's time for questions.

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I can answer questions or maybe you can submit questions by email.

A

Thank you daniel. If there are any, if there's any commissioner, that has some.

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Questions for daniel, um I can give you the floor. We can.

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Have a q a session.

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um I have a question: yeah go ahead. Naturally,.

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um So is the goal for is the goal for.

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Bloomington to reduce our carbon offsets or.

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For us to attract uh carbon, offset funding of our local.

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Projects because.

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It just seems like if, if our overall goal is for.

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Us to reduce our car, our carbon emissions, that collecting.

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Offsets and funding these various programs which sound nice are.

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Not going to actually impact that directly.

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Right, how is that actually going to reduce emissions?

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Just because people are buying something somewhere.

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Else, I feel I I feel like there's been a lot of public.

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You know criticism of carbon offsets for this reason.

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And I I guess my question is: have you come up against any of this criticism.

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And um what do you? How do you feel about that.

D

I completely I what I understand your question is: wait. Aren't we trying to.

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Reduce direct emissions: why, in the world, would we spend money on offsets and or should we try to get get the money.

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From the offsets, so if cummins wants to reduce its.

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Footprint, couldn't they invest projects in bloomington.

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So one quick answer to that. Imagine: there's a husband and a wife.

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And the husband swears like a sailor and for 20 years his wife has tried to get.

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Him to stop because it's bad for the kids and one.

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Day he swears the last time and she's like I'm. I'm.

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Done ed, I'm leaving and he goes no nancy- please stay I'll. Do.

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Anything she goes. I've heard that song before ed I've been begging you for 20 years. He goes please. This time will be.

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Different and she's like yeah, okay, it will be different. Every.

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Time you swear you put ten dollars in this jar.

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And he goes f that and she goes ten dollars now.

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And he peels the ten dollar bill out of his wallet and it hurts because he thinks of the beer he could have had and he puts it in the jar now.

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Whenever he swears, he's gonna think about it and.

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She's paid for her emotional labor for 20 years she's been unpaid, begging.

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And begging sound familiar, the environmental community does so much.

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Work for free when's, when are we gonna, get paid.

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So it's a voluntary fee that decent people pay.

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And it pays for unpaid work, basically and just paying carbon offsets.

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Especially if the price is high enough will motivate you to reduce your.

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Footprint in other ways, and also you don't even need to buy.

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Offsets all you need to do is measure your footprint and think about the social cost. That alone will initiate.

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Transformation.

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A

Right councilmember: bravo, you have a question.

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uh Well, I I guess maybe I I got a comment and I think that.

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You know this has been really interesting and thought-provoking. I think that you know I see what daniel's proposing.

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Is a tool in the toolbox? It's not to the be all end. All of course,.

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You know communities should try to reduce carbon to the extent possible individuals should, but but this is one.

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Means by which you can, and you know it's a good approach in.

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That it internalizes costs as daniel said, and it provides market.

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Incentives and so forth, but one thing that struck me daniel, was.

F

That you invoked daniel donnell meadows, who.

F

Was of course, a co-author and the limits to growth.

F

And so the the the the problem here, it seems to me is that in a.

F

Capitalist system that continually expansion and growth- uh you know you pay.

F

For these offsets and things like that, but ultimately you.

F

Have to recognize that if, if you lose because the whole system.

F

Is growing so, in other words, you know emissions are.

F

Growing as a function of of the economy growing and because you.

F

Know, energy and materials throughput increases as the economy expands.

F

um Then you know you're sort of trying to catch your own tail. You know.

F

In a sense, so it's I'm not saying it's your responsibility.

F

To talk about limits to growth, and I don't think that senator braun would.

F

Even conceive of that because he's very libertarian minded and so he's for the market, so it's one.

F

Approach that I think, really works, but of course we have to see it as angel.

F

Said we have to see it sort of in the context of there are many other approaches and ultimately we have to think about.

F

Ultimately limits it seems, but that's sort of a comment. I don't know if you.

F

Have anything to thank you for that yeah, I'm simplifying.

D

In a lot of ways, one thing once you're what we need to reimagine beyond the gdp donut economics I'd, recommend anyone who.

D

Hasn't seen kay ray worth, has a ted talk about donut.

D

Economics she's, an economist from the uk, really.

D

Exciting it's getting us out of this up and up and up.

D

To the right, it's no, it's a circle, it's a it's! A donut check it out um and also another quick thing I'll say is.

D

There's this concept that needs to be talked about more called the least cost approach. So if I'm a 90 year old man, I could mow.

D

My own grass, it's only going to take me an hour, but.

D

The risk to my heart is not worth it. It's better to pay a kid.

D

Fifteen dollars to do it, I could make my own baseball glove. It's.

D

Going to take me 200 hours or I could just buy a baseball glove for.

D

20, you know so there's this concept of the least.

D

Cost approach that's important that we can reduce our direct emissions.

D

That's good, but if the carbon offset is legitimate.

D

A ton reduced in china is the same to the earth as a ton reduced in indiana.

D

I don't think people talk about that enough. It's not the end all be all, but it needs to be mentioned here least. Cost approach.

E

Except, except what I mean, what you're saying is.

E

Something reduced in china would be equal to something reduced here, but a.

E

Carbon offset isn't reducing something there right.

E

We're actually trying to your programs are actually trying to pull carbon out. That's not the same as reducing.

E

Carbon emissions, or are you reducing carbon emissions.

E

Good point: you can generate carbon offsets generally in two ways.

D

By sequestering carbon out of the atmosphere or preventing emissions that would have otherwise occurred, so the forest project that we support in.

D

Indiana, it's a it's a bunch of forest and all.

D

Around it's being clear-cut, but not this forest, it's protected for to become old growth, and so that's sequestering carbonated.

D

Atmosphere, you could also generate carbon offsets by preventing emissions that would have already occurred. So if it really is a.

D

Legitimate offset and it's transparent, you have a journalist investigating the.

D

Audit trail and everything checks out a ton reduced.

D

And china is equivalent to a ton reduced to indiana.

D

The only trick is that the person in indiana may not trust it.

D

And they're willing to pay more if it's in indiana, because they trust it, they can see it.

A

Okay, uh one last go-around any more questions or comments for daniel.

D

I'll leave my email in the chat and I would love to have one-on-one. I talked.

D

All this time, I'd like to listen to anyone for an hour and just listen to what you're, what you've learned.

F

I I've just got one quick one, and that is daniel. You mentioned.

F

You had a what was very you made a convincing case that the ranking of.

F

Efforts is very important to do. You know, because some pay off much.

F

Greater right, like you, mentioned the coolants.

F

In refrigeration cows producing methane for indiana, what is what's the most.

F

Important thing we can focus on is it? Is it methane? Emissions from cattle is.

F

It or is it something else I mean what you.

F

Know where, where does this effort go planting trees? Is that the best approach.

F

In indiana, I don't know, what do you think we have.

D

An intern working on a report based on bloomberg's report just and.

D

We're going to send it to all the mayors of indiana. That's going to answer that question in general. I'd recommend you check out america's pledge, because they're smarter than I am and there's like a team of 100 people also check out mckenzie the the hot the.

D

Prestigious elite, consulting firm mckinsey has a.

D

Thing called uh math to 1.5 and how we're going to get there. So look at that bloomberg says three things.

D

Renewable electricity which we're trying to in indiana others, are doing that.

D

um Electrify buildings and cars which people are trying to do.

D

And then uh expand natural forest uh carbon sinks um I'll just give you an.

D

Idea really quick, there's 700 grocery stores in indiana.

D

They leak 25 percent of the refrigerants every year.

D

Those refrigerants gwp is like a thousand seven thousand.

D

Carbon dioxide right epa has a free program called green chill.

D

Where a grocery store can enroll and it helps them, reduce their leakage from 25.

D

To 15 out of 700 grocery stores, only one in indiana is participating.

D

This is a program that an intern should be doing getting all the grocery stores.

D

Enrolled in this there's just so many things to do, I would go back check out america's pledge check out mckenzie check out project drawdown.

F

Hey uh people are watching this on cats daniel. What's your contact info.

F

That you could give sure carbon neutral, indiana.org.

D

And you can reach me at um d pointer at carbonneutrondana.org.

D

Pointer with a y d, p d-p-o-y-n-t-e-r- and I would anyone.

D

Listening to this, I'm offering an invitation I'll, listen to you for an hour. Tell me everything. You've learned.

D

And thank you for sharing your attention with me today.

A

Okay, great daniel, thank you very much for taking uh taking time out of your.

A

Evening to spend with us and give us a presentation on carbon, neutral, indiana and all the work that you've been doing. uh We really appreciate it. Thank you. I'm gonna go.

D

Thank you for sharing your attention have a good rest evening.

A

uh So now we'll go to um working group updates, we'll start with the.

A

Waste reduction working group.

G

Yeah, so the waste reduction group- this is anna. The waste reduction group.

G

Met last week- and we had a great meeting of that committee- and so we kind of just.

G

Talked about three different goals that we feel like.

G

Are actionable um within just kind of the remainder of.

G

2020 finishing out the year so I'll summarize just some of the.

G

Things that we discussed and then let any members of the.

G

Committee feel free to comment or kind of add questions or comments that um that may have come up. But just to summarize, the.

G

Three action items that we are interested in taking are, um first of all, taking a look at all of the apartment complexes in.

G

Bloomington, um the issue was raised at our, as, at our.

G

Committee meeting of um just being concerned about recycling.

G

In town, um particularly within apartment complexes and town, home development, um and so really just taking stock of.

G

Kind of what are the options and where are the gaps there and kind of doing an audit? um So if anyone has resources.

G

um For that feel free to reach out, and let me know.

G

The second item is a great idea that samantha had.

G

This that is actually really to daniel's point, which is.

G

Compiling information on how businesses in bloomington are handling their.

G

Take out because so many people are at home.

G

Ordering takeout probably much more often.

G

We'd like to compile just a list of which businesses are offering recyclable.

G

Takeout options or compostable takeout options just to raise awareness um of how much waste that can.

G

Produce and then hopefully encourage people to support those businesses that.

G

Are taking waste reduction steps and then? Lastly, we.

G

Would like to host a virtual event, composting event in.

G

Partnership with a couple of community organizations, so we have a couple committee members working on that um just to.

G

Again, all about raising awareness of composting and some of the options we.

G

Have um here in town, particularly because you know so many are at home- um don't have don't have a lot going on.

G

And so this is a great time to kind of learn about those options. So that's kind of a summary of what we are hoping to work.

G

On so, if any committee members would like to add anything.

G

H

Thanks anna, I just wanted to ask mainly a question for.

H

Lauren, um I assume you probably know about open for bloomington.com, where it.

H

Kind of has the restaurants that have been open.

H

During the pandemic, just so people know where to find those.

H

Type of places um do you know if, once we get this.

H

Information all gathered, um would it be possible for.

H

That to like live on that website or is there somewhere else? You said you would.

H

Suggest where we could kind of have this information accessible to everyone, we're also planning on like making a pdf.

H

That can be distributed, but um somewhere, where it could kind of live.

H

Live on a website would be awesome. Yeah. I think that that site was.

B

Being maintained by visit bloomington, but I would have to check.

B

In terms of where it can live long term, once you've.

B

Compiled the information I think, it'll be a great resource also to have on our sustainability page because oftentimes, that's kind of a landing site to.

B

Redirect to other places so as you dig into more options for.

B

Composting we can also link to the new drop-off.

B

Sites at the monroe county, solid waste district that.

B

Will serve people in the county as well, so to kind of build up that resource list, not only for people in city limits, but.

B

Other places that are people that are looking for a place to figure out where to start awesome. Thank you.

A

Okay, um is there any updates from the sustainable business.

A

A

uh What about the policies working group? Do you have any updates from them.

I

Not really any updates on our part, I think there's only.

I

Two of us that expressed interest in it so.

I

This is open to anyone else if you're interested in it, I'm planning on.

I

In earnestly sending out an email and start getting.

I

Us looking at stuff, probably tomorrow um and so feel free. Let me know.

I

Outside of this uh shoot me an email, I think it's on the spreadsheet.

I

So um aside from that really haven't looked at anything or talked that much, I.

I

Haven't seen too much policy go through the city that would be applicable.

I

For us to really look at lauren feel free to.

I

Comment on this, if you know of anything else, I've more so just been looking at.

I

The uh city council website trying to keep track of stuff going through there yeah. I would recommend um city council.

B

Tomorrow night at 7 30 the recover forward.

B

Local income tax will be under consideration, even if you.

B

Aren't able to attend, you can also write an email to a council member.

B

With comments that that they can share with.

B

Public other than that, I think that anytime, there's even something coming.

B

Across another commission as well, so even if it was something in front of redevelopment commission, even if we're not able to attend exactly.

B

When the meeting's happening, there's an opportunity to write a letter, support or comment.

A

Okay, so that brings us to any new business that a commissioner would like.

A

To bring up to the group as a whole um is there any new business that anyone.

A

Would like to share.

C

Sure I'll I'll jump in for just a little bit. So I I know I've missed the last.

C

Couple meetings I've been in dc working energy policy, um there's.

C

Currently, some dockets with the indiana.

C

Iurc so the regulatory commission that regulates the utilities and there's some.

C

Advocacy groups that are currently going after duke energy for some of their practices, um I'm hoping to have a draft resolution.

C

Prepared for the meeting for next month um and if.

C

I can get on the agenda joe to kind of briefly talk about that and.

C

To pitch the case for why indiana or why bloomington should be.

C

uh Engaging in that process to try to get duke to quit that process.

C

um To quit that practice, and it has to do with how they're committing their.

C

Coal plants uneconomically, which is like slowing the transition to.

C

Renewables so I'll, hopefully be prepared to talk about.

A

Now great thanks, bronson.

A

um Well, if there are no other items that any commissioner.

A

Would like to bring up.

A

Our next meeting will be on october 13th, tuesday october 13th,.

A

Probably via zoom again and with that, I motion to adjourn.

A

Second, great, thank you. Everyone have a good evening.

J

J