City of Charleston SC Resilience and Sustainability Advisory Committee, 24 Mar 2021

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From YouTube: Climate Action Plan Community Meeting 3/24/2021

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Climate Action Plan Community Meeting 3/24/2021

A

All right well welcome everyone, let's go ahead and get started here.

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So welcome to the city of charleston's community meeting about the climate action plan, I'm going to go ahead and share my screen.

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So the so tonight we will meet for about an hour and a half and if you can use your gallery view in zoom that will help you see more people um and basically the purpose of our meeting tonight is to share the draft climate action plan with the entire community to get your feedback and to hopefully inspire some climate action at home.

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So please know this meeting is being recorded, so you can access it later and anyone who wasn't able to make the call.

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Just a couple reminders to help minimize disruption and ensure a positive experience for everyone. Please be patient with each other and this virtual technology, please keep yourself muted, unless you are speaking, um there'll be a chance for that towards the end, since we can't be together in person, if you can keep your video on, so we can see each other's faces. That would be great and for anyone who's calling in. If you can announce yourself, that would be helpful.

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Please feel free to use the chat box to share any ideas. You have comments or questions, especially if you're more comfortable writing than speaking and, of course, um at the end, please be mindful of how much time you're speaking that way we can hear from as many people as possible.

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So here's our agenda for tonight.

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So my name is katie mccain and I'm the director of sustainability for the city of charleston. I'm really excited to be here tonight and to share this plan with you, and thank you all for your time for being here, and I would also like to introduce a stuart weinberg who has been really helpful stuart. Would you like to say hi.

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Hi, um it has really been absolutely wonderful to see a climate plan come together that is realistic and that we actually can do so thanks, katie.

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Great thanks, jordan stewart is a member of the city's resilience and sustainability advisory committee, which makes recommendations to city council and we'll talk more about that um shortly so tonight I will give a brief presentation of our draft climate action plan.

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Then we will hear from a panel group of community representatives who actually helped create the content for the for the draft plan and they're going to talk about why taking climate action is important and what you can do at home to help and then we'll leave plenty of time for questions and answers and any comments folks have towards towards the end. So if you can save all your questions for the end, that'd be great.

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I'm I'm gonna post right now, just in the chat, so you all have it. This is our sustainability portal on our city page. So if you've never been there, please visit it at the end, I'll post it towards the end of the meeting too. That's where we have our climate action survey open and any initiatives we are working on about sustainability are posted on that website, so you'll find it helpful, I'm sure so to get us started. First and foremost, what is a climate action plan?

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Well, a climate action plan is really a document that outlines a collection of actions that will help us, reduce our greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately mitigate climate change. So some of the actions in this plan could include programs, projects and policies, and we are looking at this plan to be a five-year plan, so that means we are looking at trying to accomplish everything in this plan within five years, which will be challenging and then updating the plan in five years as technology changes.

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So 2020 was the earth's second hottest year on record and in fact, a majority of the hottest years on records have actually been in in the last 20 years.

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Here's a graph that shows the global mean surface temperature increasing, and you can see that the majority of this increase has happened in the most recent years.

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So how exactly is our planet warming? Well, when the sun emits radiation, it passes through our atmosphere and most of that radiation is absorbed by the earth and warms the earth.

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But some of that radiation is sent back into space is, is um redirected and some of it is actually trapped in the earth's atmosphere and warms the atmosphere more so when we add more and more greenhouse gases to our atmosphere, these build up and they act like this blanket around the earth that trap heat and as that blanket thickens, when we add more and more of carbon dioxide concentration, more of that radiation is trapped and that's ultimately, what's leading to this long-term warming of our planet or global warming, which is disrupting our climate climate change.

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So it's global warming that is causing our climates to change.

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So as a prime example when humans burn fossil fuels for energy, we add more and more of these heat trapping gases or greenhouse gases into our atmosphere and that thickens the blanket around the earth making our planet warmer.

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So that's how we're getting warmer now over 90 of the extra heat that is trapped by global warming pollution is actually absorbed into the ocean, so this is making our this is changing our oceans, dynamically and making adding a lot of warmth to our oceans. So just think of all the you know, plant and ecosystems in our ocean wildlife that are affected by these massive temperature changes.

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Also it it. I don't think it's a coincidence that you know we've had some major storms happen in the mo in our most recent years and then such a big break between those and hurricane hugo. These really line up with that global warming that we've seen increase uh dramatically in more recent years.

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Now there are lots of factors that are part of forming hurricanes and storms and strengthening them, but we do know that warm water, warm air, holds more water vapor and the rising of that warm moist air from the ocean definitely helps power. A storm more.

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So looking at some local impacts, here's a chart that shows that we've had our average high tides being um annual high tides over above equal or above seven feet. um So that's that's an abnormal high tide and you can see in 2019 we had 86 events where we had high tides that were over seven feet.

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So these pictures are no surprise to anyone. I don't think we've seen lots of localized flooding, uh impacts from storm surge, sea level rise and extreme rain bomb events. You know when, when we get an inch an hour, that's of rain- that is not super normal, so we I love this quote. We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change and we are the last generation that can do something about it.

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So, while climate change may seem like a negative thing, the truth is, if tackled correctly, it can really present an opportunity to improve our world. You know we could be the generation that goes down in the history books for addressing the climate crisis.

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All the all the innovation and creativity will really help contribute to a more livable and advanced society, so the city of charleston and residents like you, have recognized that the time to act is really now and that's why we've taken on the challenge of updating or creating a new climate action plan.

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So in summer 2020 we kicked this off with a the latest greenhouse gas inventory, and this report gives a snapshot of our missions from both our government operations and our city-wide operations and city-wide emissions. Then in the fall we kicked off the the planning process with a community survey and a public meeting, and we saw input from people like you um to help inform the creation of the climate action plan.

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We had over 500 people participate in that process, so it was great hearing from folks and if any of you are on that on the meeting, I appreciate you being part of that and this this second part, then all over the winter we created six new committees um that were basically working groups that have convened over 150 people, 30 meetings all winter over 30 meetings that basically created the draft content for this climate action plan that will be presented to you today, so lots of community involvement, which is really important because, ultimately, it's the community who's implementing the plan.

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So it's really important that the community is supportive of the plan and helps draft it. So that's why we are entering the final stages here we have a in march. We have another community survey open right now in our public meeting tonight, and we're really seeking input from people like you to on the draft strategies and action items that all those working groups crafted all winter and then, once we incorporate your feedback, then we will add that to a final draft and that will be presented to city council later this spring.

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So, like I said, we've had lots of folks contributing so um a special thanks to everyone who has been involved, there's actually eight different committees that have been involved and all eight committees are represented here tonight on the call. So that's really that's really neat the resiliency and sustainability advisory committee that um a few members here serve on reports to city council and they basically provided the guiding principles for this plan.

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The new climate action plan task force is ultimately responsible for the content of the plan, and then there were five subcommittees: one in buildings, transportation, waste, carbon sinks and education and community engagement, and these groups really focused in on their specific effort efforts and their sectors and made recommendations to the climate action plan task force and ultimately, as you can see on the right, these, uh the committees will all be part of this.

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In the final review process, too, so we'll be presenting a draft final report to the resilience and sustainability advisory committee, and then it will go to city council after that, and there's been opportunities for public input throughout all eight of these committees. So it's been really great to see folks get involved.

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So a successful climate action plan in charleston includes both ideas and support from a diverse group of community members, and that includes you know, residents, stakeholders, staff and, of course, local elected officials have been heavily involved too.

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A successful plan is going to be focused on actions. The city can control or can heavily influence. So as an example, the uh charleston county actually manages the recycling program in our area, not the city.

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A successful plan will be prioritized based on our local goals and our needs, and last but certainly not least, a successful plan will be centered on equity and that will help ensure that the benefits and challenges of our climate action are shared equitably amongst all community members, and I want to touch on this a little more because we know that some communities are historically underserved and underrepresented and these at-risk communities usually bear the brunt of climate impacts.

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So since charleston prides ourselves in diversity and inclusion, we made sure that equity was a central part of the draft of this plan and we had participants from the city's new special commission on equity. Inclusion and racial conciliation serve on our climate action plan task force and vice versa. So we were cross-pollinating there and we've had some really great discussions about looking at unattended consequences and making sure that we've had equity in mind. When we look at these action items.

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So there is a difference between climate mitigation and climate adaptation.

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Climate mitigation focuses more on the cause actions to reduce emissions that actually cause climate change, and that's really what this climate action plan is about now, climate adaptation are, it are actions that manage the risks of the climate change impacts such as flooding and sea level rise, and both of both mitigation and adaptation are really important to achieve climate resilience and you'll see some of the action items here today actually are both mitigation and adaptation.

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For example, trees, trees absorb a whole lot of storm water and help with flooding on the adaptation side, and they also absorb carbon dioxide through photosynthesis. So they help with the mitigation side.

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So, like I said, we have an adaptation strategy, it's called our flooding and sea level rise strategy. So now we're going to add the mitigation strategy and together those will make our resilience plan for charleston.

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So I'm going to jump into a quick review of our greenhouse gas inventory we did over the summer. The full report is available online.

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The main inventory is a city-wide inventory, so it covers emissions from the entire city limits. So if you live in the city, your home would be part of these emissions inventory and we don't have it down to your specific address for privacy purposes, but it has a residential piece to it.

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Now there is also an inventory for the city of charleston government operations. Only um so this looks at city buildings, like city hall and our city fleet, and our employee commute. What's really important. To note from this slide is that our government inventory only makes up two percent of our city-wide inventory so that right there means that, even if the city were to reduce our emissions, 100 percent, which is the goal we we still can't make that big of a dent on the city-wide inventory.

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We need the whole community to help be part of this solution and help reduce emissions. So here's a quick snapshot of our 2018 citywide inventory and the important things to note here are that buildings and transportation are really the biggest sectors where we're seeing the largest emissions.

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It's honestly the same for our government inventory. uh We see our city buildings and our city fleet and our employee commute being very high, we're being the highest.

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So our climate action plan task force is looking at how we reduce emissions and what our targets should be. So we've aligned our targets based on recommendations from the intergovernmental panel on climate change, which, um which is for net zero emissions by 2050..

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The group is also looking at a shorter term goal such as 50 reduction by 2030.. So remember I mentioned uh this is a five-year plan. So it's in it's important that we anticipate this plan will be updated in five years and, of course, technology policies and processes will change along the way. So we will be working towards that net zero goal, particularly in the updates.

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So, as I mentioned, we've had over six working groups, all winter coming up with the draft. The draft items for the plan, and now I'm going to present those to you so in our building sector, we had two main strategies, so buildings, think of your energy use in buildings when you, when you flip on a light, switch or use an air conditioner. So the two main strategies are increasing energy efficiency and conservation, using less energy and also promoting and planning promoting and planning for renewable energy.

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So there is a whole list of action items for buildings, and you can see this in the survey and I encourage you to dive into it deeper. But I'm just going to talk, I'm just going to mention four highlights of some of the action items so creating design guidelines for renewable energy in the historic district, investigate the feasibility of renewable energy opportunities for city facilities, expand incentives for sustainable construction and development, and building certification programs and promote local weatherization and energy. Retrofit programs.

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Now, when we look at our transportation sector, there were actually six different strategies identified, so increasing the use of public transit systems is a big one, embracing electric and other low or no emission motors, increasing bicycle and pedestrian activity.

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Improving land use policy to reduce vehicle miles, traveled, increase, employee commuter options and reduce idling, and some of that action item highlights are create a plan to transition the city's fleet to alternative fuels, expand public electric vehicle charging, infrastructure, improve and expand bicycle and pedestrian infrastructure and support the cogs efforts in exploring zero emission water transit.

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Now, let's look at the waste sector, so there are two main strategies being recommended out of this sector: one is to reduce consumption and waste and the second is to increase recycling and composting, and the action highlights are continuing to support the elimination of single-use plastics strengthening partnerships to enhance edible food recovery and donation, exploring opportunities to promote community-wide composting and establishing sustainable procurement standards for city operations.

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And finally, our carbon sinks subcommittee really looked at carbon capture and storage, so their two main strategies are expanding and protecting tree canopy and protecting and promoting natural ecosystems, and some highlights of action items are planting more trees on both public and private property.

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Strengthening tree protection regulations making room for our marshes to migrate, so they stay healthy as our sea levels rise in collaborating with partners to increase the preservation and restoration of our saltwater ecosystem assets like our wetlands and our marshes.

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So I think, what's really neat is that every action item in this draft plan has two or more additional benefits that for just charlestonians, so we there's a we've identified, 11 different co-benefits, and you can see the list here I'll give you a couple examples. So, for example, if you perform, if a if a residential customer performs some home energy retrofits such as switching out, you know bulbs to to be led and more energy efficient, this results in a major cost savings over time.

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It also really helps the efficiency economy and it improves our air quality.

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Another example: if we look at our carbon sinks protecting our marshes and our wetlands, these are major adaptation assets. They they absorb large amounts of flood water when we have rainstorms and storm surge, especially so so. Protecting these not only helps us with climate adaptation and beautification, um but also include improving our water quality, specifically and there's considerable cost savings to investing in green infrastructure versus gray infrastructure, so like a sea wall.

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So those are just some um examples, but it's really neat that every action item has additional co-benefits with it and those will all be outlined in the plan too.

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So I hope I have stressed that we need your help to meet these goals. Government can't meet these goals alone and it's really important that uh we, we all consider taking some individual action to help address this climate crisis, and I think it's really important to take some small steps when you do this. So next we're going to hear from a panel discussion who's going to offer you some easy ways that you could take action at home and I'd like to stress that you take small steps. So don't try to do everything.

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That's talked about um feel free to pick one or two items that really resonate the most with you and try. Those first once you've created a habit and informed that tradition in your lifestyle then consider adding something new. It's really important to start with small steps rather than taking biting the elephant all at once.

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All right so now we're going to jump to the panel discussion like I said these are community representatives who have participated in our winter working groups that produce the plan and they're going to talk about why climate action is important and what you can do at home to help. So I'm going to stop sharing my screen for a moment or for the rest of this and we're going to go to our first panel participant, which is belvin and belvin, represents our climate action task force belvin. Could you please introduce yourself.

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Yeah, hello, everyone, my name is bella nolosov, I'm the founder and co-chair of the charleston climate coalition, local climate activism and advocacy group, and I grew up here on the olive bombs.

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I see the climate crisis as a call to action. I helped start the climate coalition because I knew the facts all too well. I knew that climate change was hitting a tipping point with a ui ipcc panel telling us we have about 10 years to rapidly implement climate solutions or we'll just face complete disaster.

C

I knew that my home, the low country, was on the front lines of the climate crisis, facing dangerously hot summers, intensifying hurricane seasons and rising sea levels. I knew that hundreds of millions of people would suffer if we didn't do anything. I mean the stakes are high, so high, it's really hard to get your mind around it. Sometimes here's another fact that really stuck with me the last time there was this much co2 trapping heat in our atmosphere.

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There were no ice caps and the low country was a part of the ocean floor, and once you learn that you either want to curl up a little ball and despair or get to work on fixing it or both.

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You can alternate between both that's what a lot of us do, but all we can really do is our best, like katie, said integrating climate action into our lives, not uprooting it, uh but just doing our best, and I think it's high time, though I do that I have a strong conviction that the only way out of this is through community.

C

None of us can stop this alone. We need businesses and organizations and neighborhoods teaming up to take climate action. We need more groups like the fly fishing climate alliance, a coalition of fly fishing businesses committed going carbon neutral by 2030..

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We need our farms and restaurants and clothing stores and contractors, and so many more are taking climate action doing their best to act. All we still have time, and one institution has an especially large sphere of influence like the city of charleston. When you get civically engaged, like you all, are doing such a great job of doing tonight and always be pushing them to do the best they can as well.

C

uh We humans are social creatures and our community is acting like nothing's wrong. It's hard to act like we're facing down an emergency, but we really are so, as you hear all the great ways tonight to get involved and take climate action, keep in mind that it's not just for you to be making a difference. It's for everyone connected to you to see that this change is possible too.

C

We look to each other for inspiration, so let's all work on transforming ourselves and our communities to take climate action because, as katie mentioned in so many cases making the changes we need to avert the climate crisis will make the little country cleaner, more livable. If we do this right, more equitable, too, if we don't do it, our home is in existential danger, so it seems worth it to me.

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I thank all of you all for coming tonight and I look forward to hearing what our panelists have to say on ways to get involved.

A

Great, thank you so much melvin.

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So next we have danielle. Danielle represents the education subcommittee.

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Could you introduce yourself.

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Daniel hello, everyone, you can hear me: yes, okay, hello, my name is danielle richardson, I grew up, was born and raised and grew up on the east side, which also be in charleston downtown, um I'm also on educational community and we've come up with a few different ideas of how we can be educated communities.

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One of the most important things I wanted to do to be on the education committee is to make sure that our neighborhoods and our community members are aware of what climate action is and how they can be able to get involved. So what I have done is even taken a step forward and attend the university of michigan to take a college course called act on climate, and he talks about individual community and political agendas for climate action planning, which I think and believe it will be awesome and great for the city of charleston.

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So what we was doing for these last few weeks in our subcommittee, we've been working on ways that we can be able to educate the community on buildings, transportation, waste and the carbon sink.

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One of the things that we can do in the building committee is create an education campaign around lifestyle actions that supports energy waste and efficiency include the promotion of existing energy in audit redux programs.

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We also like to create educational campaigns around lifestyles, actions to support the community use of renewable energy so that we can be able to take what we are already using and be able to recycle and reuse it to be able to make a health more healthy and safe environment for all.

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We also want to be able in our buildings we want to also bring more awareness to designers of energy efficiency opportunities and sustainability, construction methods and materials such as a passive, solar or mass tumblers, and which that would be really good for us to be able to connect with the new developers, that's in the in the city, because our city is changing and we're having so much new construction that's going on, and it would be great for them to also include the climate change programs as long as while they're building new apartments and buildings for our community members.

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Next thing we was also talking about how do we can change and amplify the climate change in transportation?

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We would like to create an education program for the community on the use of electric vehicles, in which now they have seen more and more electric vehicles. That's coming into the city, which is a very great idea. So then we don't have to use the gas to pollute the ear we also have.

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We would like to use the media campaign in support multi, multiple transportation and specifically human people of traveling in different places, like riding a bike walking on foot or even approaching, and branding new things and new areas of getting better transportation into the city, where I've seen that we have a great new um carter buses that are all electric.

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How cool is that? um So that's really great! So what we also we've learned and have created for campaigns in our waste department. We want to be able to have an educational program of around the lifestyle of our actions in zero waste, including promoting the existing charleston academy programs that they have containing waste.

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Up danielle, we suddenly can't hear you.

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You know so, can you still hear me now.

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You're back yes,.

E

Okay, then, we want to be able to form and charleston zero waste app and with that app, if you can be able to find things that are not um efficient or need extra help with doing things in the city, then you can actually use the app to be able to report race issues and problems throughout the city.

E

That would be a very good resource for the city of charleston people to have, and last but not least, we were talking about the carbon sink and we want to really create an educational program that also includes having our youth participate and they are talking about the trees and how it has a host of benefits, of having good trees in the community and how to properly care for the trees and the programs and resources that support any more trees in the community. I know for sure.

E

On the east side, I have seen some wonderful trees that have been planted just as recently, and thank you for the wonderful members of our community, who have put together only saturday mornings and getting the trees prepared and planted in different areas of the east side.

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We also would like to have an educational campaign around the importance of protecting our salt water. Equal ecosystem as a major carbon sink in support in existing community based marsh restored, registered risk. Restoring programs that form this feeds to the seashore and the south planet, oyster restoration, encouraging demonstrate native plants landscaping and requires less maintenance, resources and care for the carmen things to have carbon free maintenance, such as using electric power equipment.

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So, within those things, we would like to be able to have these campaigns going and include our youth in our community and also to be able to make sure that we all understand and understand what climate change is.

A

Thank you awesome, very comprehensive. Thank you, so much danielle all right. So next, in our panel we have kelly kelly is representing the waste subcommittee kelly. Could you introduce yourself and and tell us ways we can take action related to waste, sure.

F

Thank you and really thank everyone for being here tonight. My name is kelly: thor wilson, I'm the conservation programs manager for the south carolina aquarium and as a marine biologist, I'm very concerned about the repercussions of climate change um on the ocean and ocean inhabitants. As katie mentioned in her opening slides, the ocean has absorbed the majority of the heat gained by the planet and is dramatically changing as a result. So um we it's.

F

It's really frightening, um what's happening there, but I'm increasingly concerned about the negative impacts it will have on us and and really already is having on us. Not only is climate change, changing the landscape where we live, but we're better understanding the health issues that will come from increased storms and flooding.

F

Increased occurrences of red tide in our oceans broken a broken food web because so many animals are going extinct, the ability of farmland to keep up with food needs and the list goes on and on, but I'm on that waste subcommittee, which is really the perfect place for me, because I've made reducing my waste a very high priority over the years. It's I challenge myself daily to um to reduce waste, so so I was excited to join that subcommittee.

F

um I've started to think about everything as having a carbon footprint. I mean I look around me now and and everything I'm looking at or everything I touch has a carbon footprint, and so when we start to think think about that, maybe we can decide that it's not as important to have so much stuff right if it's contributing to um extra carbon in the atmosphere.

F

The production of goods is a really energy intensive process from extraction of resources, manufacturing transportation and then ultimate disposal, and we live in a such a throwaway society not only with single use, convenience items that have kind of taken our food world over, but also with just wanting the latest and greatest fashion or kitchen gadgets or furniture and cosmetics.

F

Ultimately, we need to learn to live with less. I think this is a good time to note that low-income individuals and families are already living with less and have a lower carbon footprint than more affluent individuals and families. So, let's start with something we're all familiar with, reduce reuse, recycle.

F

We have to acknowledge that recycling is the latter option, but when we do recycle, we have to do it right. We are polluting the recycling stream by putting things that aren't necessarily recyclable in it. So we are going to give you a link to charleston county's recycling page so that everyone can really get on the same page there. But really reducing is the most critical part of this equation and that's what we're talking about here right, living with less reducing what how much we purchase um one way of do.

F

I've done this um in the last year is, in my it is establishing a new gift-giving rule, both as a giver and a receiver, especially for those that are unaware of my specific needs or desires, and vice versa. I have pretty much let anybody know that could be giving me a gift that I, if I can't eat it, drink it or experience it.

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I don't want it um and, as it turns out, and and I do the same right- that's that's my gift-giving goal and as it turns out the gifts I give and receive are now thoroughly enjoyed, rather than collecting dust on a shelf or going to the thrift store, because it's not the right style or size.

F

So some of you may be aware of the aquarium's litter-free digital journal. It's a litter, tracker and kind of um something that I I work with regularly.

F

It's a citizen science app that helps identify the most problematic types of debris in litter sweeps and food wrappers are consistently the most really on top of the plastic debris found in the natural environment.

F

Well, easter is just around the corner and, unfortunately, holidays like easter and halloween contribute greatly to these items littering our communities, so one important way to cut down on food packaging that is so prevalent in the natural environment is to buy in bulk whenever possible and try to stay away from the individually wrapped products. I know they're convenient, but we have to get rid of convenience to lower our waste stream.

F

So for the last several years, I've for easter I've made my kids plastic free, easter, baskets, and so I'm just going to share that with you, they're 17 and 23, but they really appreciate a basket full of goodies every year. So so, ultimately I seek out candy that is not individually wrapped. They still unfortunately come in plastic bags, but I can find big bags of this candy.

F

That's not wrapped, and then I break it down into jars, that I've saved um and uh and and it's really pretty in the basket when you have assorted, candies and jars, and then I I look for choc chocolates are especially found in paper and foil and and add those in, and it just really makes for a beautiful basket and it's an environmentally friendly basket. And then I use the bags as I use all bags, I'm forced to take, because I can't avoid them for when shopping.

F

I use them to clean my cat litter, so they do have a use.

F

Another great way to reduce waste is to check thrift and consignment stores, as well as facebook marketplace, before shopping for brand new items, um and- and this goes for anything in your home- pretty much I mean or clothing or shoes- I mean it's incredible: need a new dress for a wedding: go go to a consignment, store you'll, it's it's not only protecting the environment, but it's protecting your pocketbook as well.

F

um Food waste is the highest percentage of waste in our landfills and really needs to be addressed in this climate plan, and we've had a lot of conversations around that food waste takes a tremendous amount of natural resources to produce, and then on the waste side it produces methane as it decomposes, which is a more potent greenhouse gas than even carbon dioxide.

F

So in the waste subcommittee we're talking about how we can assist um with food waste reduction in grocery stores and businesses like restaurants, um but at home. It's really important that we take this on. We have to wrap our heads around food waste in our homes, so buying only what we have a plan for or or for the next two weeks.

F

Not for just an endless kind of pantry full of food is really important and then taking regular inventory of food items that need immediate intention and really um working with what you have is is critical.

F

You can there's so many apps now you can actually put those ingredients in uh to a google and you can come up with a recipe for it. I mean it's really incredible um and then whatever scraps you have or if anything goes bad rather than tossing it, it's important to compost it. We will provide a link to charleston county's backyard compost tips for you and then. Finally, it's critical that we address single-use plastics that are not only at crisis levels in the natural environment, but have a large carbon footprint.

F

Approximately 50 percent of about 350 million tons of plastic produced every year is made for single use. You guys that's a horrifying number once we're able to recognize how much single-use plastic we use in our daily lives.

F

We can become more cognizant on how to shop for items with less packaging or with more environmentally friendly packaging, focusing on just the produce section alone.

F

As a start, can cut your single-use plastic down dramatically, don't use the single-use bags put your produce in a reusable bag. It's all going to get washed or peeled anyways. So it's important um to just not take those silly little bags and and buy things that aren't wrapped in in plastic right and and it's it's it's it's an easy way to to cut down. um This is again. um Food waste is again I'm sorry.

F

Single-Use plastic waste is again where it's important to buy in bulk um and then reuse, cont, use, reusable containers for smaller portions. um It's important to support businesses that have environmentally friendly practices and know that the city of charleston has reinstated the ban on single-use plastic bags, straws and styrofoam. So if you do come across uh businesses, restaurants, that are using these items, there is actually a reporting tool that the city has and we'll put a link to that. It's.

F

If you know, if you know the business you can, you can just remind them um and and that's a great way to go, but if you're not comfortable with that, um then you can can report um the business on the reporting tool and- and you know, they're just gonna- get a friendly reminder that this is um the case and then ultimately I don't know what happens after that, but anyways. um So so um y'all there are so many benefits and co-benefits to reducing the amount of waste that we produce.

F

um Our city will be clean, um we'll protect the incredible waterways and wildlife that are so iconic to charleston and ultimately, we'll have healthy ecosystems, which is critical because our health depends on healthy ecosystems.

F

So that's what I have I'm happy to answer. Well, I guess we're going to do questions at the end. So thanks for being here, y'all great.

A

Thank you so much kelly. That was incredible. Okay and just a reminder. We any links that any of the panelists are mentioning we're putting in the chat so feel free. You can get some more information in the chat.

A

So next we have uh katie zimmerman. Who is representing our transportation subcommittee katie? Could you introduce yourself and share some ways? uh Some easy ways folks can take action related to transportation.

G

Sure, thank you. um So my name is katie zimmerman. I have lived in the city of charleston for 23 years. um I live in west ashley and uh I I've not driven a car in 15 years and have not eaten meat in 23 years, and those were both decisions that I made um specifically related to how I felt my personal contributions to the climate crisis could be could be. You know reverse course.

G

um I realized that can be considered um not doable by by some folks, but um the the emissions coming from transportation, particularly in south carolina, statewide transportation. Emissions have now taken over as the largest source of climate changing emissions, and so that just really points to how important it is that we are as a community and as individuals investing in transportation choice um the ability to take a bus, especially as danielle pointed out now that our buses in charleston are electric the ability to bike safely the ability to to walk.

G

Even if you are using assistive devices you, you should be able to choose to get where you need to go as a pedestrian.

G

The city has done plenty of planning area planning studies where they've asked participants. If you could safely walk bike or bus, would you choose to change how you take those trips and overwhelmingly? The responses are yes, so we know that charlestonians really would prefer to leave their cars at home for some trips and that's a big deal because nationwide.

G

We know that most car trips are not related to commuting they're they're little trips, they're things like going to the grocery store, dropping the kids off at school, um going down the street to do something um at the same time that we are actively affecting our climate through the ability to transport ourselves in multiple ways or not.

G

um At the same time, we have an equity crisis when it comes to mobility, so if we can actually start to think about providing safe mobility choices, what we're also doing is we're also protecting our most vulnerable community members in south carolina.

G

The populations who bear the brunt of unsafe biking walking infrastructure are black communities and senior populations they're the folks who are getting killed or injured most often in our state, and so we need to invest in safe spaces, for them to travel and all the rest of us who have more choices, who can choose to take a car will shift our mode if those options are there so saying all of that I recognize each one of us doesn't have the ability to go out and strike a bike lane, and I also would just not recommend trying it, but what we can do is- and this is kind of my challenge to to any of you who are up for it- think about a trip that you're gonna take this week, where you probably would have just hopped in your car and done it.

G

Can you do it a different way? Can you try it out? Can you bike it? Can you walk it? Can you get on ride carta and map out and take the bus? Can you get on the holy spokes bike, share app and see if that makes sense for you right now, they only serve downtown, but that's going to change um looking at those different ways and test it out. If your trip is awful, if, if you feel unsafe doing it, I want you to be loud about it.

G

I want you to contact your city, council, member, your county council, member and your state, senator and rep, because all of those people are involved in our charleston transportation decisions. If you don't know who those people are, you can email me and I'll help you figure out who they are. I also neglected to mention um the exec. My professional life is I'm the executive director of charleston moves, which is the mobility advocacy group in charleston county.

G

So I I think that the most simple individual action to take, if I'm just going to pick one when it comes to transportation, is test it out see if you can leave your car at home for stuff.

G

If it's bad, let me know or let your elected officials know preferably your elected officials, but but I'm glad to help with that um and you you can get in touch with me and I'm happy to drop my email in the in the chat as well. So I I don't want to take up more time, but that's what I would recommend for folks.

A

Great thanks so much katie, I love the. I love the personal challenge, see if there's see if there's rethink when you, when you go out, that's neat um christine, is actually going to talk a little bit about connecting with some of your elected officials, so perfect, perfect segue.

A

So next on the panel we have uh brian cordell and brian is representing our building subcommittee. Brian. Could you please introduce yourself and share some easy ways? Residents can take action related to their energy use in building.

H

Sure katie uh really happy to be participating and to be serving on the buildings subcommittee, um I'm brian cordell, I'm the executive director of the sustainability institute in charleston, um and you know it's been a pleasure serving on this subcommittee with friends and colleagues and then a bunch of people that I didn't know prior to this um and to be sharing. My passion um around this with other folks has just been an awesome opportunity.

H

um I wanted to talk for a few minutes about energy conservation and the opportunity we have with that, and I should say I'm a west ashley resident.

H

You know I care about the energy issue in our community because, through our work at the sustainability institute, I've seen the struggle that families have throughout our community paying their energy bills.

H

It is, as many of you know, absolutely economically debilitating for thousands of families in charleston and across our state, and most of our homes here in charleston are older and were built pre-1980 when we, you know, started getting newer energy codes, and so we have a lot of outdated systems and a lot of opportunities to upgrade our homes.

H

um So I've seen the scale of the problem that we have here of the challenge and I've seen the effect that it has on on lots of families.

H

I've also seen the power that we all have to be able to do something about that and how easy it is to take some simple low and no cost actions that can really make a difference in our homes and on our bills.

H

And of course, we all know the direct correlation between our high energy bills and the carbon emissions in our community and just what effect the building sector has on those carbon emissions.

H

So I wanted to talk for just a few minutes tonight about some of the simple uh things that we can all be doing. um Many of them are non-complicated uh easy to install measures in our own homes.

H

Things like adding insulation in the attic making sure that it's at the right level, many of the homes in our community actually don't have any insulation, but many of the homes that we go into just don't have enough insulation.

H

Can you hear me? Okay, okay, um air sealing is another one uh simple, caulking, weather stripping windows and doors uh cracks around the house is another uh thing that you can do with very little cost associated with it. It's a great activity to do on a saturday morning. If you have a extra few hours. Katie challenge made a personal challenge to you. I guess my personal challenge would be to take a saturday morning and see how many of these things you can do.

H

um You probably have a lot of these materials around your house that you can work with like caulk, and it just takes a few hours to go around and find gaps and cracks in your home and fill them with caulk.

H

um Then there's some. You know other things that we can do that have a little bit of expense associated with them, like switching out our light bulbs for led options or switching out our older thermostats for smart thermostats.

H

The nice opportunity that we have is that we have utility companies locally, that have rebates associated with taking these measures and some discount programs and we'll put some links to those in the chat box.

H

But, for instance, dominion has a program where you can purchase led light bulbs at up to a 70 discount. You get a quantity of 15 of them. um They have discounts on smart thermostats, um smart uh power, strips there's, appliance rebates, there's hvac rebates that they have rebates associated with duct, sealing and duct insulation, but there's a lot of things that we can do on our own.

H

Of course, there are also things like uh just repairing um or putting in new duct work, uh switching out our hvacs uh switching out our water heaters. You know those items have a little bit more expense associated with them, but um have deep savings associated with them as well and often times those savings will, uh you know, pay for those measures and just if you're.

A

Breaking up a little bit, can you maybe try shutting your video off.

H

Sure is that better.

H

I

And I just want to mention.

H

I I want to mention the opportunity to get an energy audit. That is one of the most important things you can do in your home is to have a professional come in. Do an assessment on your house and help you learn what measures you can take that are the most cost effective.

H

Unfortunately, right now with the pandemic, the utilities aren't coming out to your home to do that, but through dominion you can do a virtual home energy checkup, which is really a powerful tool to use, and so you know, I would recommend that folks look into that.

H

um We also have a number of weatherization programs in our local community. um Of course, the sustainability house institute has one that you can take advantage of we'll put a link to our website and our application process.

H

um But weatherization programs are great because you know within a few days um you can have a crew come out, weatherize your home and take you know up to 20 30 off of your energy bills, um and so we offer that that service, palmetto cap agency locally does as well and again we'll put a link to that opportunity. In the chat box.

H

So I think that's really all I had to share with you. Our subcommittee has worked on strategies for both homes and commercial buildings and there's a broad range of strategies that we're recommending, but we really just wanted to share a few simple, easy things with you tonight.

A

Great thanks so much brian and those links are in the chat.

A

Lots of cost saving opportunities with home energy retrofit so um feel free to check out some of those up opportunities.

A

And you can see ben posted, something in the chat to you about the essie entertainment, interactive tool that can all help you save energy.

A

Then did you post that to everyone or just me, okay, I.

J

Accidentally said it to you all right so.

A

um Next, in our panel, um this person needs no introduction. This is councilwoman jackson who is actually who is in our um council, represents council district 12 and she is representing our carbon sink subcommittee, so council, member jackson, if you could um please share, introduce yourself and share with us some easy things, residents can do to take action related to carbon sinks.

K

Thank you katie and thank you to everybody who was here as a panelist and the experts that we continue to learn from every day, as well as all of the citizens who are eager to help us. um um I, for this purpose, I'm carol jackson. um I will be part of the council as we deliberate on the on adopting the plan and so I'll be happy to be a.

K

You know, a very persistent cheerleader on on all of that, but for right now, I'm I'm I'm I'm very privileged to have sat in on the carbon sink um subcommittee after they've sort of gotten underway. So I can take credit for all of the conclusions that they'd come to and and really you know made them made them relevant.

K

I think for all of us, um my reason for being in charleston and but mostly for being a climate um supporter activist in my own way is uh just just the logic that I tried to go through when I turned 60 going on 12 years ago, and I wrote to my two daughters who at that point were in their 20s. I think- and you know I said: okay, I'm 60.

K

I'm going to have 20 good years of activity, so I want to do I want to do stuff in the world that is going to make a difference to you all. So I gave them a chance to tell me what they felt was the most important thing for me to be doing, and it was like buy good snacks and ice cream, and you know invite us over for tv night, but other than that.

K

I told them I'm going to work because I feel like um my generation as the as the hardcore uh beneficiaries of the greatest generation. My parents were world war ii, people who'd saved and scrimped, and you know never never threw away a thing. My my grandmother had prune jars lined up all over her storm cellar till the day she died and she would recycle them over and over and over again, so I grew up with a generation learning from a generation of parents and grandparents who never would have thought of creating waste.

K

It just was out of their realm. My generation was the total opposite. We were the first generation who were the beneficiaries of my parents, gi bill and the housing, and all of that that they were privileged to be able to take advantage of. I had an excellent education at every level of public school and college, and then we went off into our careers and you know we're all activists at some level in the 60s and the 70s we cared about a lot of good stuff earth day was founded.

K

When I was still in college, we went out, we marched, you know we tied our t-shirts, we didn't buy anything that we didn't really. um You know want to take with us the day that we died, but over the years we all just learned how to make money, and we spent money like water, and I I continue to feel bad about that. You know pretty much every day of my life and my kids are tired of hearing about it.

K

So I'm glad to have this audience and I really feel like um this is the time when my generation needs to give back to the younger generations who are going to carry this burden. You know with with you all until you get to be my age, so I I hope and pray that you continue to have innovative ideas. I totally count on all of that, but in the meantime I'm focused on the carbon sink.

K

um uh You know small steps that we can all do together and- and I broke the the good work of our subcommittee into two parts. Basically, it's plant your brains out of stuff plantings, native grasses and trees and make sure they're all native, so forget lowe's. Maybe they have one or two native things. You know every season but get on extension website. They have amazing online resources and I think katie's putting one of them in the chat and and and get your list of native plants. I had to order some of them online.

K

So it's not that you know walk out, I'm privileged to live just uh half a half a mile or less away from heim's nursery, which is one of the best regional nurseries in the whole territory, and I keep telling them please buy native and they say: okay, mr jackson, you know just sign up here and buy this yew tree, so I don't know if we're ever going to convert the nurseries, but I know that there there are growers down on john's island in guadamulla and places in on that.

K

You know we're still growing the things that their great grandparents and beyond planted. So I think we should all be conscious of buying native and planting it and never feel like you've planted too much overcrowding in the plant.

K

Sections is just fine because they're going to sort themselves out, so my husband and I took our first six or eight months of covert last year and turned our front yard from crummy grass that just hosted weeds and and then ran off water into our next door, neighbor's yard and- and we made a very- um I don't know if it was scientific, but we followed the clemson technique of building a rain basin and then we planted around it and in it we put in a lot of natural grasses at the very lowest part of the yard.

K

And then we put a berm we took where we dug out. We made a berm, so we're protecting water running off into our neighbor's yard, and our neighbor is that much closer to the marsh that we all live um uh in front of, and so we are catch, capturing water like crazy and it's really fun. And now it's year two and I can't wait to see all the dead stuff. That's gonna come back.

K

So my um my my my segway is to plant a lot of stuff: that's gonna catch water and also uh avoid the kinds of plants. The native plants don't need a lot of pesticides, so avoid chemicals as you're planting avoid chemicals, and that's my um my own little baby step in the last few months I gave up you know any chemical sort of weed killer, because we have weeds coming up where we don't want them and I'm using 30 commercial, vinegar and the worst thing about that is.

K

It comes from amazon and a big carton and it weighs a ton and my husband has to carry it into the garage. So that's not good, but it works great and if somebody could invent a sprayer that doesn't break after two or three months, I'd really love that. But that's my only challenge with using commercial grade vinegar. I think it's it's it's it's! What I'm going to use from now on.

K

I love um when the when the dutch dialogues teams were here. They they brought in the gentleman that taught us all about how to absorb rain um at every every um opportunity and the catchphrase for that is every drop counts. So I tell myself that every time we see a rain, I'm always following around well, I should have been. You know like trying to capture a little more rain over here and every drop counts, um and it should be good quality, wet rain. You want to filter it before it gets into the outfall.

K

That's the only other thing that isn't really on my list to talk about, but knowing that the marsh is the, I think our march in the low country is the second biggest estuary in in the in the united states um other than louisiana, maybe east of the mississippi.

K

I'm not sure about that fact, but it's a huge estuary and if the marsh is not cleaning that the carbon, then we're not doing our job and if the marsh is unhealthy, which I look out way out over a big expanse of marsh and I'm very worried about a huge swath. That's like brown year-round now, so I keep uh andrew wonderly to go out and check it out in his boat cheryl to make sure that it's natural die back and not something that we have to be fighting.

K

But I I watch where the water runs into the marsh, and so I know a lot of you live in. You know neighborhoods where basically just see your water run into a storm drain and it disappears- and you don't think about it after that- maybe you are helping us clean out the storm drains.

K

I hope you are, but ultimately that rain water, whether it comes in from the sky or comes in from another property in your neighborhood, is going to end up in what we call the outfall and the outfall is some marshy area that captures the water that's running off from all of our neighborhoods and it needs to be as healthy as it possibly can be.

K

So pick up your dog poop and if you know, people that still have old septics we're going to start to help people convert their septic tanks that might be leaching and not doing their job, and so we need to make a healthy runoff system and we need to make every drop count. Thank you.

A

Great, thank you so much councilwoman jackson, great tipsy, and if you haven't seen her shark tank rain garden, it's really cool. There's pictures on the website. If you go to that rain proof link.

K

Yeah, come on by, I live on patterson avenue right next to the park. It's the only house that has a little lighthouse in the front yard. Most of the time it twirls around and lights up at night, great.

A

Okay and um finally, we have um one more panelist, and that is christine and christine is representing the resilience and sustainability advisory committee and christine. If you could please introduce yourself and um christine, is going to talk about some collective actions you can take to reach others.

L

Well, good evening, everyone this has been so fabulous so far, I'm christine von kolnitz. I really appreciate everything that y'all have done and said. I am like katie said on the sustainability and resilience committee. I am the sustainability and energy manager at musc and all of the individual actions that have been talked about tonight.

L

I just feel so close to everyone who has taught tonight. My soul is just so aligned with yours.

L

I can just see you know just from my grandmother having a closet full of jars to you, know, collecting waste and making sure I'm recycling and riding my bike riding the bus and educating people and I've lived in my house for 20 years, and it took me 20 years to you know, get it to the point where now I have solar panels, you know I started off with you know the insulation in the attic and and now you know we're we're there with the solar panels.

L

You know these things, don't have to all be done at one time. You know it takes a lifetime, you know to grow and we're always growing we're always changing we're, always learning new things like tonight.

L

So um I want to you know just say I care about the health of the planet, because I care about our health. I care about your health and I care about the health of all the other living things and organisms around us. You know from the smallest mushroom on the ground to the birds to you.

L

So you know the environment affects all of that.

L

The the world health organization defines environment as it relates to health as all the physical, chemical and biological factors, external to a person and all the related behaviors environmental health consists of preventing or controlling disease, injury and disability related to the interactions between people and their environment, flooding that we see in charleston. You know that mixes ways such as chemicals, fecal matter and litter. You know all that gets you know into a soup and it can lead to health issues like asthma, skin related and gi related issues.

L

And then you know if the flooding comes into your home, that can lead to toxic mold. That can cause asthma, so these are just some of the issues that are related to flooding and that's just one environmental issue. So you know health is a big issue with the environment and that's really one of my main concerns tonight. I want to talk about collective action.

L

As you know, we've been talking mostly about individual action, but along the way our panelists have also mentioned collective action so um and collective action aims to build large coalitions to impact government or corporate policy.

L

It's you can do this by holding demonstrations signing petitions, organizing boycotts and lobbying officials.

L

Large groups can exert influence on the behavior of institutions, and we've seen you know, since just since covid came the collective actions that have literally saved lives, you know just by wearing our masks. We don't know how many lives we saved this year and then you know we also saw collective action in all the protests. After george floyd's after the george floyd incident and those pop those protests, um you know they have already led to significant changes all across our country.

L

So you know collective action does matter. um You know the first thing we can do, of course is vote and I think katie's going to put a couple of links in the chat to charleston county the voting page there and also to sc votes.

L

All this information can help you vote, and I know that over the last year we've seen how it's possible to improve the voting experience. You know covid really made a stretch and for you know those of us that could vote absentee.

L

We were able to do that and it was easier. I was able to go down to the library and vote at the library.

L

You know that all these different places opened up for voting before the actual day of the vote. So you know voting is a collective action that we can all take and the environment is. Is you know it's not it's not a political thing. You know it's a personal individual thing this. This is our health. You know this isn't about um one party or another. This is about how we are going to survive, and you know we need to take that in consideration when we're voting.

L

uh Another thing that everyone can do just like tonight, you're attending a public meeting. You can attend other public meetings like the resiliency and sustainability advisory committee meeting. Our next meeting is april 8th. So we encourage you to come out to that and katie is going to put a link in the chat for that.

L

You just have to register and and you'll be you'll, get a link and we invite you to come and and hear what's going on uh and there are um other links that are gonna be put in the chat for uh the city of charleston city council, the county of charleston council and the state house. So you've got legislators and representatives up at the state house that they need to hear from you all of these people.

L

If you have any concern they want to know about it, they want to make your life better. They want to make all of our lives better and and that's what they're there to help do so.

L

Let them know how you feel and and if they can do something they will and finally go out and join an environmental organization. Take action volunteer.

L

There's a website that katie's going to put into the chat, charleston good, it's the grass. They have a grassroots guide and there's so many different organizations listed there and you can pick one or more and and you can meet new people, you can have fun, you know you can volunteer and you can do good. At the same time, there's also um charleston keep charleston beautiful.

L

They take volunteers for the clean city sweep or adopting a drain like carol mentioned and um education initiatives, so you know there's all sorts of ways to get involved. You don't have to do something physical. You could just um volunteer and sitting at a table to help educate people um and then there's also the charleston parks. Conservancy you can get out and plant some plants. You know very active, they take volunteers uh um all the time. They have great um volunteer efforts all over the city and their parks are beautiful.

L

So you get to come back and enjoy the fruits of your labor. So I really just can't say how much I've enjoyed tonight. Thank you and get out there and get involved either individually or collectively.

L

We need all of you and we can't do this alone. Thank you.

A

Great thanks so much christine and here's a link to find your rep and state senator. If, if you are interested in saving the chat, so you don't have to click on everything at once, there should be three ellipses on the bottom right and if you click that it should give you an opportunity to save the chat, if it doesn't. Let me please let me know.

A

All right well, thank you to all of our panel members, that was that was really great hearing different perspectives and hearing hearing some ideas just to start with I'm going to go ahead and share my screen here again, our panel will be around for questions as we move into this q a session here um so just as as wrap up and as as christine said, you know, you know, start somewhere start with something little.

A

These little changes add up to make a big impact and don't feel like you have to be perfect um for, on everything. um Being you know, kelly gave some great ways to reduce your plastic consumption. When you go to the grocery store, you know. Look at that broccoli do I have to buy the one, that's wrapped in plastic and has styrofoam on it, or uh can I buy the one that's in bulk and bring my own uh reusable produce bag, but you don't have to be perfect. So just choose a couple.

A

Things start small, because these small changes are they're better than nothing at all and it really helps you get going. So thank you to the panel for all your inspiration and I hope some of these ideas resonated with folks. So, if you'd like to get started, we actually have a climate action pledge on our website um and you can. It also gives you some ideas for to take some action and- um and I and I love this quote here- you know anything else. You're interested in is not going to happen.

A

If you can't breathe clean air and drink clean water, so don't sit this one out do something to address this climate crisis. You are by accident of fate alive at an absolutely critical moment in the history of our planet, so I hope um I hope the panel uh has been inspirational to you all and with that we're going to jump into our question and answer session and comments are welcome during this time too.

A

uh If you can um raise your hand, that would be great, so we don't all speak over each other and uh please keep yourself muted until called on and just if you can try to keep your comments to about two minutes or less. That would help us hear from more people. um If you want to make more detailed comments, I highly encourage you to do that. Please do it in the survey.

A

um That would be great, so I'm going to stop sharing for a second and it looks like we have our first um request to speak leslie.

I

Hey guys, this is leslie's garden great to see so many familiar faces on.

C

I

um I was on, I am on the education subcommittee with katie and in my professional work, do a lot of flood risk communications with fema um and katie just wanted to give you a shout out for all of this great work that you've pulled together.

I

I thought tonight everyone did a really great job of making climate change more um tackle.

I

um It's so big, often times that we get nervous and I think we shut down- and these are a lot of great ways that we can all have an impact- and I know we're talking about different communication strategies to send this message out and get this message out, and I look forward to seeing where that goes. So thank you, katie and to everyone else who spoke tonight really great work really inspiring and awesome to see charleston taking the lead on this.

A

Great thanks so much leslie appreciate it.

A

Anyone else have a question or comment.

E

B

Hi, um I'm kendall. I served on the building subcommittee, um which was really interesting. I've I took, I have a um academic background in sustainable architecture and I've taken a little bit of a hiatus from that sort of work. So it was really interesting to hear from all those incredible people.

B

Some of you are still here um to get kind of get back into that and I loved this whole thing hearing about all these individual actions that everyone's taking it's really great to virtually meet a lot of you incredible people, um you guys are doing great work, um but I just wanted to share that. I I think that you guys are obviously doing incredible things and also um on the waist note um for composting.

B

I started a vermicompost bin, I'm in my house a couple months ago, and it's going really well um and it's very easy. So um I'm sure the um backyard composting that we talked about is um a great resource, but also the epa does have a lot of things about vermicomposting. If you are in a small space, um I live in a rented apartment, so I don't have a backyard. I can't really do a lot of those things. um Also, there's still home collection services like compost.

B

Now, I believe, still um collects from your house if that's an easier option but um yeah. I just wanted to share that everywhere.

A

Great thanks so much kendall.

A

A

F

I'll just put it out there that um the south carolina aquarium um we're not taking volunteers inside of our building, but we are definitely taking conservation volunteers, so um working primarily with me and a team of about 12 folks on plastic pollution and litter, and so, if that's something anyone here is really passionate about, um and you have some time two to four hours a week. I would love to talk to you more.

F

So I'll put my email address in the chat I just as we were talking about volun or as the volunteer opportunities came up. I wanted to just throw that out there and thanks to everyone who is here tonight um for joining and all the great speakers really wonderful.

A

Great thanks kelly.

A

See scott left a comment I'm on the education subcommittee and he directs a new climate center at the citadel he's doing some pretty interesting stuff at the citadel.

J

Hey katie, maybe I could get it.

A

J

um So hi everyone, I'm ben kessler. I served on the transportation subcommittee, so I was helping everyone out on on understanding some of the issues at hand. It was really great to see you know the the community involvement and collaboration that we're all doing on these recommendations.

J

um So that was really, I think, charming to me to see. You know everybody coming together and finding consensus on things that you know can provide solutions to our communities. So um I'm actually here in columbia, I'm with the south carolina energy office, I'm a clean transportation specialist. So um I know katie was talking about it, uh clean transportation and you know finding ways to be sustainable.

J

So if you all have any questions on you know, alternative fuels, alternative modes of transportation, emobility feel free to contact me I'll drop my information here in the chat, but um definitely a reason why it's important to me. I think christine brought it up. Is you know public health? um Not just my health, but but you always tell if I had asthma when I was a kid because my family lived downstream.

J

Well, I guess down wind of uh of a landfill that used to burn tires so uh kind of has a you know, a personal issue to me, and then brian you were talking about. You know the burden that our communities face here in south carolina. So just another point of of importance. So thank you all for for inviting me to this and I um you know very grateful to participate. So thank you.

A

Great thanks so much ben, it's been great, having your technical expertise on these committees.

A

um Caitlyn, I think everything.

M

Hi, I am, I am not on a subcommittee, I am a journalist, so I'm not I'm not a true member of the community, but um I'm kind of curious about if there's any aspirational southeast cities, that charleston is trying to model this work off of and uh and if you all have any specific areas that you do want to get feedback directly on from the community.

M

Just because tonight has been really educational, but I haven't really heard much from from community members. So far.

A

So every climate action plan is different and there are best practices when it comes to climate action planning that are seen throughout lots of climate action plans. I wouldn't say: there's one in particular that we were modeling off of, because charleston is very unique and it's important for us to have our own list of strategies and goals and the the best place for folks to provide more detailed input on all the strategies and the entire list of action items is actually going to be through our survey.

A

So um let me let me throw the link to that in our chat again, so this will take you to our main sustainability portal and from there you can see the entire list of actions and strategies. You can see a survey that also has a link to that list. You can see our climate action pledge and you can pretty much see anything. The city is doing really the same sustainability on that link. So I encourage folks to please take that survey. If you haven't already it will it will close um we'll close on march 29th.

A

So if you can um take it by the weekend, that would be great and that's that's really the the best opportunity to provide detailed comments on the action plan. So thank you for bringing that okay.

K

Maybe it would be helpful for um caitlyn to to know that this particular plan is actually a long-awaited revision or basically a reprise of what was done by by a whole another group of community members stuart, were you were you on that.

D

No, I wasn't here in 2010, but um even the green plan that was presented to the city council in 2010 really never went anywhere because of what caitlyn just said. It was not enough community involvement, involvement, yeah. There are a lot of people on the committee, but one of the things that that we were able to do with this process uh and katelyn just to go through the members of each of the subcommittees.

D

You would see how expansive it is as far as community involvement, um and that is one way and then, as I said, I've said a good number of times we're going to present a plan to the city council. That's realistic!

D

Most other cities come up with beautiful plans, but they don't fund it and they're not realistic and nothing ever gets done. We wanted to get something done in the next five years to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

D

L

And I just quickly wanted to correct something: caitlyn said that she was not a member of the community because she was a journalist and we need journalists. Our.

D

L

Definitely needs journalists, and we appreciate journalists and thank you for being here and thank you for.

M

L

A

And if y'all didn't hear already, the city council has actually approved us applying for two pretty big grants coming up. uh One is for the purchase of two electric garbage trucks, so that would be the first electric vehicles of our fleet. So that's really exciting. If we were to win that and another which was just approved last night, is the application to create some community compost drop sites. So uh that's an application we put into dhec, um so that's really exciting, so keep fingers crossed on those.

A

Are there any other questions or comments? You don't you don't need to raise your hand, you can just unmute yourself, there's.

A

So you can follow the progress of the climate action plan on that web portal. You can also follow us on facebook at sustainablecharleston and on instagram at sustainabilitycharlton. Let me share this page that has all the details.

A

um Here. We go: okay, nope.

B

That's not what I wanted to do.

A

Okay, so here's the landing page for the survey and everything here's my contact information. If you have any um comments, you'd like to directly talk with me about, feel, please feel free. You can see we have um facebook instagram and we recently just started a new news. Flash email list that you can sign up for in the notify me section of the city's website, and that will give you updates when we post them about sustainability initiatives and resilience initiatives.

A

So that's pretty exciting. So um please also know that uh we will. We will take your feedback. um It sounds like most of the feedback is going to come in the survey and we'll carefully consider that before that draft action items, plan becomes final and is sent to city council. So this is this. Is our this is our time to share that and be part of the process. So thank you all for for participating and for being here tonight.

A

Any other final questions or comments from the community before we wrap up here.

A

All right well hearing none. um This is an ambitious plan. We right now only have one staff member in the sustainability office and you are looking at her, so we will see what we can accomplish in five years. Hopefully we can expand our staff capacity uh to some extent, um but uh I I really appreciate you all being here tonight taking your time to learn about this, and- uh and I hope you will take the survey and give us your feedback. So thank you all. I hope you have a great rest of your evening.

L

Thank you, katie. Thank you. Katie great job.

C

L

C

Thank you thanks all for coming good night.

C