City of Portsmouth, New Hampshire Sustainable Practices, 28 Apr 2022

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From YouTube: 4.28.2022 Sustainable Practices Blue Ribbon Committee Meeting

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4.28.2022 Sustainable Practices Blue Ribbon Committee Meeting

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um And I'm actually uh we're on zoom too, but nobody registered.

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As far as I can tell I'm going to start I'll put this out.

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All right yeah, I don't see any participants logging in from home, but if I do I'll, let you know.

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Okay, so the climate action plan working group has been working on.

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Really a lot of background research and understanding of what a climate action plan.

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Is and what other communities plan climate action plans look like and what it should look like here.

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In portsmouth- and we have the pleasure tonight of having them present and I think it's going to.

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Be effie, john and and steve and jess right, you four! I don't know what order but I'll. Let you.

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Just tell me when to advance the slides I'll start the slideshow and then we'll go through.

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It and then probably want to go through it and take questions after that's, probably the best to.

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Get through it all it'll probably be good. It looks like it's got a lot of content, which is great.

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And if I can open it there, it is okay, um how about, if I, if I kick it off so we started this.

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Subcommittee right after the meeting before last, we've been at this for about seven or.

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Eight weeks now, a lot of education, we'd love to share what we've learned. The objective here is.

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Ski towards what should a climate action plan for the state look like, and I personally feel.

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Like we know a lot more about what that might look like than we did this time two months ago,.

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Okay, peter yeah, I'm trying to get it to go. It's not no problem. It's probably me.

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Just this thing: there you go there, we go okay. Next.

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So what we've been doing is a lot of education of ourselves. We went out, we wrote a whole bunch of.

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Existing climate action points there's not to be reinventing the wheel not to interrupt if.

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You pull the mic a little bit sure good idea. We are recording it'll capture, it good point thanks.

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uh We're gonna share some of that research with you. uh We've been looking at what have been.

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uh Good caps and how might that impact? uh What we're doing here.

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um Our goal really is near term to be able to help peter put together a an rfp which will.

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Spell out in a fair amount of detail, what should the portsmouth climate action plan look like.

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We will be looking to engage a professional at some point to develop the thing, but we don't want.

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To just hand over a blank sheet of paper, so that's what we all been working on to this point. Okay,.

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So uh sources and work products. I mentioned this in part uh because we have a library.

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It's online: it's in a google share drive and I welcome everybody to take a look.

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We have found so much good content. We just decided to set up a share drive, so some of.

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The things we've been looking at there's some very good books by uh by hawkin and uh and john durr.

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That I strongly recommend as a read, we did carve out some of the caps and the group is going to.

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Talk about the climate action plans from different cities that we liked and what were relevant here.

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uh And we've also spoken with some of the local groups, like the sustainability eonh.

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uh The climate solutions group here in the city, um a couple of us members of clean.

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Energy new hampshire, so a lot of what we're seeing here is a sort of amalgam of inputs.

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From lots of folks, uh that is the link to the drive, um you will get a copy of this.

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Presentation uh so feel free to shoot any of us a note we'll make sure you have access to it.

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Thanks man, so what is a climate action plan? uh We grabbed this out of several of the existing caps.

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Don't worry too much about the art chart, because the original source is in that share, drive.

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But in looking at the climate action plans that we liked from several cities around the country.

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And a couple of recurring concepts that we thought were good and relevant to us. First of all, climate.

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Action and the climate action plan need to reflect the combination of both sustainability.

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And resilience we want to do less production of greenhouse gas. Yes, we also have to recognize how.

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Do we deal with the existing state of the world and where it's going, regardless of what we do.

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And resilience, as we all realize, is even more relevant to a port city like us or boston or.

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London, so you'll see some references to some of the other. uh The other cities that are are.

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Similar to us, uh and also a big thing that we want to come back to, is it's just critical to.

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Talk to the stakeholders we're. We are the first of the three stakeholders. This is the city.

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Sustainability group, but we want to make sure we have the residents and the organizations.

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In the city involved as well, we'll get more to that as we drill through it. Okay.

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So this this eye chart, this is actually what it looks like in full size.

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So I just want to include it so you know as well. I love this thing because it's one piece of paper.

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Or maybe technically two, this is from john durr if anyone's familiar with them from uh from.

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Client perkins, but it's all about the objectives and the key results for how do you get this work?.

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Done it's just a wonderful asset and we refer to on a pretty regular basis. And I I again I there's.

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A copy of it in the share, drive and dur will send you a copy if you send them an email. Okay, peter.

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So what are the elements uh I'm not going to beat them to death in the interest of time, but what.

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We're looking for is a plan for the city, like any other plan, and peter keeps reminding us of this.

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Has got to be actionable, uh it's got to be it's kind of a process involved. We don't want to set.

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Large-Scale aspirational goals we can't reach, we don't want to identify a bunch of things. We.

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Want to do that, we will never be able to afford. So it's all about. Yes, let's do the best. We can.

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For the city of portsmouth, but in a way that we can afford to make it happen, we'll identify.

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What the overarching goals are and then not unlike durs chart we like to break things down into the.

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Five or six categories that can be addressed to transportation, energy buildings and so on. um It.

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Also includes the cap, a good cap needs to include what is this stuff going to cost? What's going to.

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Cost the city what might be available through federal funding? What would the other partners.

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In this, like the businesses and the residents and the organizations, what might their contribution be.

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Because this is a city with lots of different organizations, we want to make sure we're aligned.

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With the organizations in the city, public works and the tree organization and there's there's a.

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Dozen different organizations, the master planning organization itself- want to make sure that we're.

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Tied into that and finally uh reporting, this is a big thing of any plan. We would love to.

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See the plan spell out how we can only do the work but measure what's being done, measure.

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Period over period, progress and share that with our constituency, which we believe to be everyone.

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In the city, thank you, um one of the things that we look at um these are the four big ones and and.

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They're all critical, so our particular cap will have to reflect you know what's what's meaningful.

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um But the greenhouse gas emissions- you hear a lot about that. That's mitigation. How do we.

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Reduce the amount of ghg that we are generating or ghg uh carbon often referred to as a carbon.

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Dioxide equivalence, carbon monoxide, equivalence adaptation, as we addressed earlier, that's about.

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How do we live with the things that are already going on? What's that going to mean.

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Sequestration, it's a whole topic unto itself uh in our case, being a tree city, that's a good place.

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To start and a lot of the better cap plans have addressed, how do we do this in an equitable way.

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The term climate justice refers in part to the fact that not everybody gets served the same way.

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When a plane gets put into place, so let's think about that up front to make sure everyone is.

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Being served, hey peter, I know I'm racing through this a bit uh again. There's a lot of content here.

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We'll kick it wide open for q a once we get through the uh the presentation.

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um We spoke to a consulting organization called sieve, forge who are in the business of helping.

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Get these things developed, and these are some of the things they tell us- create successful caps. So.

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For support from the city, we have that because we're here the actionable steps we talked about.

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Things that we can measure and the technical guidance, that's where we'll probably bring in.

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Someone who's got expertise beyond people in this room. But again, if we're building a house, we're not.

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Getting a blank sheet of paper we'll give them a rough sketch of what the house should look like.

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Help us design this house to our budget and our needs exciting um rolls. We talked about this a.

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Little bit earlier and as we go through the cap, it's really important that what the city's role.

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Is in the cap needs to be spelled out, and the residents and the organizations in town.

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The point of this it may sound self-evident, but these are things we've been told are often.

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Overlooked, we don't want this to be a city. Only thing we don't want it to be. A city is standing.

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Back a little bit and saying yes, this is a good thing to do, but we don't have anything specific.

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Our view as it's evolving is portsmouth can take a lead role and certainly um take responsibility for.

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Our part of the the greenhouse gas footprint but, as we've discussed, that's a very small percentage.

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Of the total, however, we are the city, so we can the things that we do can serve as examples.

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To the rest of the organizations uh josh, thank you for uh what you sent out yesterday on.

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Plugging in the evs, I got all excited when I saw the city tearing up the parking lot near my house.

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Because I thought they were laying in 480 volt lines for the ev chargers, so.

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The fact that portsmouth did that for that lot, great, that's something we want to share with.

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The for example, the businesses in town you guys, could be doing.

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Something similar, so the thing about roles is there's a lot of people that can be involved.

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Okay, we just pulled an example- and I just touched on this briefly, because the rest of the committee.

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Is going to drill into uh individual cities, but just an example and one that that we really liked.

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From the concord massachusetts climate action plan, this is the type of artifact that comes out of a.

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Good cap again, I realize it's an eye chart on the left-hand side. The full original is in the.

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Share drive but uh any any homeowner could look at this I mean I, I could show this to any one of.

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My siblings and say you know what here's a half a dozen or so things that you could think about to.

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Electrify, the house, I had a conversation with my brother about a month ago, my brother's an engineer.

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His background is very much like mine. He really wasn't quite sure what a hip-hop was.

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I mean, let's get sure what what a heat pump was. Oh, I you know, we talked about.

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Well, here's what I leave with uh with him and my sister-in-law and my two nephews. Well, if.

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You guys could switch off all of your oil and all of your propane tomorrow. Would you.

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Yeah, but how do we heat the house so things like that? It's just just sharing, what's available a.

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Lot of it's been done, but we just want to make sure we spread it around. Okay,.

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um And at this point, what I'd like to do is just turn this over to my colleagues who.

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We've also devoted on which of the caps that we have in our share, drive.

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We, like the best relative to portsmouth and we'll just go through um we'll, go through some.

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Of them and and call out um what we liked- and I don't remember who had milwaukee, I do but yes,.

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Yep, uh so this is obviously milwaukee oregon, which just to give you a reference point of where that.

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Is it's a little south of portland, so it's inland it's along a river um and it's kind of probably a.

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Little north of us longitudinally, but so just kind of get an idea of where you are, how big.

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Is it? Oh, that's a good question. I don't remember. I can tell you. Their cap is 106 pages long. Okay,.

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And as a side start interrupt just by far you mentioned, the group has also put a fair amount of effort into putting together a set of a ranking chart. It's a.

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Spreadsheet, that's in the drive we captured things like: what's the population 21 000.

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Just too slow, um so the reason that we pulled this slide out was just to kind of give you an idea.

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Of the process that most of these caps go through so obviously like john said a few times now,.

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Usually a professional consultant gets involved, but then it's really a process of collecting data.

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And information, so you start looking into what the greenhouse gas collection is for the city.

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You know what are some of the things that we are going to have to face as a community, and then they.

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Really start reaching out to the community, so they start doing things talking to local organizations.

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Whether that's local businesses nonprofits other groups in town that you know either we hope to.

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Participate or already have a stake in this, or whatever um lots of public engagement, we've.

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Talked about that a ton john already did as well. That's just going to be so vital to get all the.

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Residents and people involved and what they can do and how they participate, um and I like this.

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That this one kind of talks about doing a fair it had some town hall meetings. It also had an online.

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Survey to get feedback, so it really tried to get people engaged in a variety of different ways.

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One of the other pieces about this plan that we liked is that it also talks about co-benefits.

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Of having a climate action plan, so it's not just addressing the climate change piece, but it's also.

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Looking at okay, if we take this action, it could improve our community's health or it could be.

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More fiscally responsible for us as a community to operate this way. Instead of the way we've been.

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Doing so, some of the better plans account for all of those pieces. You can go the next slide.

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One of the things that we've really learned from all these plans is that it's very helpful to.

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Clearly, state what your goals are and give a time frame, so you can see right across the top.

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They have goals for 2035, 2040 and 2050 and they're clear, they're measurable. This is sort of setting.

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The basis for what their plan is going to be um one of the other pieces that I like that several.

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Plans do is they just define some things which I think is helpful just to make sure everybody's on.

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The same page, some of that's just like formatting and nitty gritty, but it is helpful just to kind.

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Of make sure everybody is thinking about things the same way, um and so then the next slide peter.

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So this is a busy slide, um but it just. I found this plan to be really helpful.

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Because, like john says, it addresses a lot of things and it does it well.

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Meaning they've established their three major goals now from each of those goals: they're going.

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To have to figure out actions, what you see on the left are those categories that john talked about.

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So, are we looking at building an energy? Are we looking at transportation? Are we looking at waste.

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Where are we going to start taking action to address the issues and then they also talk.

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About who's going to implement it, is it city-led? Is it community-led? Is it the businesses that are.

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Going to take the lead on this one, who's going to be the lead or the partners or who's going to.

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Be involved in this action. Is it something we do right away, or is it something we do down the road.

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What is the actual impact it's going to have so they're really looking thoroughly at all these.

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Pieces then, to john's point: what a what's the cost or what are the savings? How is it going to.

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Impact us as a community fiscally and what other benefits might we see from taking this action.

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Besides just addressing climate change issues, and so for each action they propose, they address all.

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Of these things up there, so you can clearly see if I'm a citizen- and I take this action.

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This is the impact it's going to have overall on all of these different pieces of the puzzle.

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Thank you jess, so effie. I think you have albany so come with me to california and we're going.

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To albany, which is across the bay from san francisco and again about a population of 20.

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000 we started by looking at plans with cities with a similar population to portsmouth just.

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Because that made sense- and it's on the waterfront, which is another similarity with portsmouth.

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The difference, and- and this is important for us to be aware of and to think about.

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California has a state climate action plan, that's current and realistic and based in science and.

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And enforceable new hampshire does not have a comparable uh climate action plan so.

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um That's an important difference, and one thing we really liked about albany california,.

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They have a group for community engagement, called carbon-free, albany and I'll. Send the flyer around.

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The room so you can just get this- is actually in the climate action plan and it's a link to the.

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Website for carbon-free albany, but they they put challenges out for households and neighborhoods.

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To be almost competing with each other on these carbon free challenges, so on this slide.

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If you look at the right side, first, where it says mitigation and adaptation, so not all plans address.

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Adaptation, this plan does address both and they see this area of overlap in the middle.

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Of the two circles, for example, example, building weatherization would be for both categories.

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And then building climate resilience.

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We talked a lot about reduction in greenhouse gases, but an interesting.

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Feature of albany's plan is they really talk about increasing carbon sinks as well, and.

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Being prepared for technology as it develops, you know bert's mentioned.

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Some of the technology, that's on the horizon. It's really hard to keep up with, but important.

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And then on the left side of the slide, I think it's a way to approach a climate.

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Action plan that addresses both mitigation and adaptation they're. Looking at a phased approach.

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Because we've talked about the urgency, it's really about the greenhouse gases.

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Is the matter of urgency, for the city and for climate change? So is that a phase one issue.

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And then the mitigation I mean the adaptation issues are phased in over a different time frame.

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And that's kind of what this critical pathway represents. So I think that's it for this slide.

B

And uh guys you guys are way more prepared than I was.

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Just a couple of thoughts on on each of these slides, um so uh this is concord mass, obviously,.

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uh Showing uh just a couple of charts about their their greenhouse gas footprint, so uh my first.

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Thing I want to mention, as a city of portsmouth has done, I believe two greenhouse gas inventories.

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Already uh and three josh, we did three: yes, three, twelve, sixteen and eighteen. Okay, sorry: I forgot.

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I missed cam uh and then now I know josh had proposed. Have you proposed that yet doing ongoing.

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So that was a proposal in the um network to achieve the city's net zero policy and it was.

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Raised when we increased the amount for this um rfp to go out and the thought from the city.

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Manager was, it should be included as part of the climate action plan doing it annually. So instead.

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Of setting money aside for it's like including climate action plan that we would like to do, this.

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On a recurring basis, right and that's, the point I was driving at is that this is gonna have to be.

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A regularly occurring thing: you're gonna, uh you know we're gonna- have to need this data.

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uh Just to to keep track of where we are uh and the more data we get and the better data we get.

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You know um the more we can learn from these inventories um just point out that this slide.

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In particular, breaks down the emissions by sector and emissions type, which I think is a.

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Pretty good start, um but you can definitely dive deeper into into the into the data.

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Which I think is important, because you want to be able to distill that information to get these.

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Useful insights that will actually lead to the actionable plans in the in the climate action plan.

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um It should be noted that some power companies are less than forthcoming about their energy mix.

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So this presents some challenges for getting exact uh greenhouse gas data, but that's just one of the.

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Struggles and challenges that we're going to have to deal with, I guess um and again as far as the.

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Cap is concerned, um I I prefer the climate action plans that I've read that that present.

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The interesting data in sort of a digestible way that there were a lot of plans out there with.

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Just a ton of data- and I just just felt my eyes- glaze right over, so I like the presentation I mean.

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That that you know that keeps you interested and gets the.

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The point across in a in a straightforward way and just keeps you actually able to read and.

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And digest that information? So that's all for this slide. Can I get the next slide. Please peter.

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F

These are two things that I really like in in this particular plan. I love the plan at a.

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Glance again, it breaks down the plan into these. These categories that we've seen already.

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It's a recurring sort of thing and I think that in the better plans that they.

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Sort of use these categories um and, on the right side the how to navigate this plan. I.

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Think is also great because it you know some of the plans again you start reading through them.

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And you just kind of feel lost, you don't really know what's kind of going on it takes you a while.

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To figure out, especially so, I've noticed that some of them were were laid out in in sort of.

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A side-by-side book format, but if you're reading them as just a straight scroll through a pdf, you.

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Kind of like just it just presents itself weird, and it takes a while to figure out exactly what.

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They were designing it for, um but so something like that just to to help the reader just say: okay,.

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This is how it's laid out. This is what's going on. uh I plans that had that sort of thing are.

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The ones that I I prefer, I like those better and I think those are that's useful um because there is.

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A lot of information in these plans and it can be overwhelming, um so that's that next slide. Please.

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And oh yeah, so it gets better. I like it's my favorite slide uh so on the left. Although.

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The print is small uh concord actually uses gives a page to each one of these uh actions.

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And it provides action, implementation blueprint, it tells you the steps, it tells you the time.

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Frame planning considerations partners all that descriptions. It's like just a breakdown with.

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Everything you need to know about that particular action. I love that they laid it out that way.

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um And on the right uh is actually a screenshot of their.

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Website dashboard, which I thought is important to have, I would love to see portsmouth come out with.

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Sort of a dashboard like this that keeps it active and interactive and and up to date, and it would be.

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A place where we can track progress and have our accountability right there and a place.

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Where people could learn, and so I I really think a uh a a really good dashboard would be- would be.

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Something that we want to come out with at the end of this process and I believe that's it next slide.

B

Excellent thanks team so that folks, it's just the cliffsnotes version of a few of the.

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100 plus page caps that are in the library but as you'll, see, there's a lot of really useful stuff.

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In there, and and if it's useful for anyone's, if you only want to rock a trivial pursuit, you.

B

Now know that there's a milwaukee that's not in wisconsin and albany. That's not a new york and a.

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Concord- that's not in the uk, so you can completely confuse the geography right next time. It comes up.

B

Oh, that's right. There's a concrete here too.

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Yeah we had to spell out which concrete we were talking about uh very clearly there.

B

So again, uh there's a little bit of overlap here with where we started, but now you've you've had.

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A chance to see a little bit of what we've been reviewing. So what are the key principles.

B

We're looking for in our cap, we do want it to be specific to us as jess and fe and steve mentioned.

B

um I I decided not to vote for the cap from my hometown in boston, even though there's a.

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Lot of relevant stuff there and, like california, massachusetts, has a lot of useful initiatives.

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We can learn from, but boston is so many times our size and they have a much bigger budget.

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So the size that we are the fact that it's a coastal town, the fact that we have both.

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A working harbor and an airport I mean there are some unique things there around mitigation.

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And potentially around uh brownfield, for example, brownfield solar deployment. So these are things.

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That are specific to portsmouth. You might not find elsewhere. We want to make sure you get called out.

B

um Again, I know we said it already, but we'll keep coming back to it. We want things that.

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Are relevant to us achievable and measurable? Yes, we want to be digestible. We want people to feel.

B

Engaged and involved there should be a variant of this that we could send to the great schools.

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And get the kids involved in hey. This is what the city is doing. If not, then maybe we just haven't.

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Done that great job of communicating it, um we talked about who the stakeholders are so we'll.

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Come back to that throughout this whole process uh and then in terms of getting the plan built.

B

um These are just some of the things we want to hit on right in the middle item number three.

B

Is where we bring in consultants? A lot of us in this room have been either consultants of service.

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Providers in our careers- and we know that when someone gets the opportunity to do a project, great.

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We want to strike the right balance between here's, a blank sheet of paper and here's how much money I.

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Have how long is it going to take? We don't want that, but by the same token, we don't want to do.

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All of the work, or do so much work that we're not leaving room for the expert to bring in.

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Their expertise so striking that balance is just something we want to make sure that we do.

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uh And also, we want to make sure that we're learning from our friends and neighbors.

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A number of the caps are very local um concord, of course, in york and portland.

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And southport, we spent a lot of time in new england-based caps, not because they're new.

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England, they just happen to be really good, but these are folks we can meet with drive.

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To learn from so on, so just a couple of things to consider for our particular cap: okay, peter.

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We also want to take into account what's already been done, because clearly, work has been done.

B

um Josh mentioned that there have been three inventories done already and, as steve pointed.

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Out, that's a great place to start and we'd like to roll that into something that's repeatable.

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uh Not repeatable but repeated and updated and gives us an opportunity to track over time. We.

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Just did a little bit of a comparison here between here's. What we reported in terms of the emissions.

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um In one of the uh one of the reports of the 2018 report and a similar report coming out of.

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Milwaukee, just greater granularity, it's all about having the data and having a way to present it.

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Getting the data is, is the big the big part of this and we'll spend a fair amount of time on that.

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But then making it available and digestible is something we want to keep image works.

B

Next peter, um we also want to take advantage of what's already been done in terms of the.

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The renewable energy committee's work- I love particularly some of these utility scale projects.

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That needs to be factored in again. This goes back to the point we made at the beginning.

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We're not starting from scratch number one and the this group in this room is not the.

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Only organization in town that has a dog in this fight, so in fact it's incumbent upon us, as we.

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Go through this to take advantage of existing work, take advantage of the overlap of the venn.

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Diagrams with other city organizations, as well as organizations outside of the city right, there.

B

So, what's next, um we are working on the the uh content to go into the rfp. So our goal here as.

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Peter's helpers, I guess, is to help get that rfp put together. um We want to continue the.

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Engagement with all of the constituencies and we're looking for inputs on how best to do that.

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We've just set some goals for ourselves to be able to distribute rfps out we're targeting.

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uh Summer, early summer june of 22., we expect it will be several months a couple at least before.

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We get significant responses back, we'd love to be in a position to select the consultants.

B

Sometime in the fall to knock on wood, we'll roughly collide with the time the money to.

B

Pay the consultant arrives we'll just manage to that process. um How long it will take to finish.

B

Obviously, that's something that we'll need inputs from the consultant in more more detail, but very.

B

Roughly speaking, that's what we're we're aiming at um and again this is somewhat cast in jello.

B

We're all learning as we go so we're open to any influence, excellent peter. My favorite slide.

H

Now we stop talking and throw it open a q, a yes, sir. I have a combination of questions and comments.

G

Three of them, but first someone ever know I was texting with the counselor cook right before I ran.

G

In here she had a death in the family, so she's gonna make it tonight, but she's just arranging.

G

House sitting at the moment: okay, so um she's gonna, be here, but as far as the three questions.

G

And just points I'll just throw them out there, you can take them any order. You want.

G

For the consultants and all of the prior ones that you looked at, were there any ones which you saw.

G

Pop up a couple times like the same names, second question regarding the inventories.

G

An issue that we found is the way the inventories were being measured changed between the years. The.

G

Software chains and everything else it was hard to compare, I think, the 2006 to the 2012 to 2018. So I.

G

Don't know if there's now a baseline that everyone uses across the country if it's still just people.

G

Using all different measurements and then the third one, just on the um I love that you included.

G

Things from the uh renewable energy policy and the framework, but it is somewhat outdated.

G

Like up some of the things in there, which I pull out, effort into researching and writing I've since.

G

Learned, it's actually not good. For example, one that was listed when you mentioned utility scale.

G

Was the biomass at shiller station like as great as that sounds it's actually not that great.

G

Overall, burning um wood to create electricity; okay, so obviously it beats coal, but just one of those.

G

Things I learned over time and I actually found myself um going against it after that report was.

G

Released so things are wrong and the ability to pivot on your yeah. So I pivot on that. So that was.

G

Three things I threw out there: okay, any order. You guys want to take them. If you have any thoughts or.

B

uh Would you guys want to tackle the consultant questions yeah? um So when we say subject matter.

E

Experts or consultants, most climate action plans use a team of consultants because of the technical.

E

Aspects of measuring greenhouse gases, there's usually like an engineering practice and then more.

E

Of a consulting team, that's involved in projects doing community engagement, so that's a different.

E

Kind of consulting than the engineering and technical type consulting but kim.

E

Lundgren's name came up a few times, in particular with portland, but also, I believe, in.

E

Concord mass, but we put together a list of consultants and scopes of work and contract prices.

E

And that's also on the google drive so um because there's engineering firms but they're not familiar.

E

To me, like integral group or linnaean solutions, I think they work in environmental engineering.

E

But there's a number of them and you know when you look through the plans, they usually credit.

E

The group that put them together so and and to that point there are also some I hesitate to call.

B

Them consultants, because they're not necessarily based but organizations that are in a position to.

B

And are willing to help with this type of effort, so you spend a lot of time talking to the folks at.

B

The sustainability institute at unh there's a lot of native local expertise there um and the clean.

B

Energy new hampshire group, which I think josh you've been involved as well they've, got a lot of.

B

Very good content already what they're looking for is to be engaged and to have the city engaged in.

B

These larger initiatives like push and conquer are conquered to maybe address some of those.

G

Things like the reticence of the utilities to share what they need to share as an example.

B

So, in addition to the the four fee, consultants that we was talking about and yeah there do seem.

B

To be some recurring names, uh we've also got some some other. You know some other resources.

B

That, I think, can help us release that sort of uh josh rolls into your question number two which I'd.

B

Like to take a crack at so yes, the in the last 10 years from what I've learned over the last.

B

Year or so, there's probably been two or three significant changes in the way that ghg.

B

And co2e is defined much less measured, so it is unfortunately the case that data that's.

B

More than two or three four year old may at least need to be rationalized in some way. um Just one.

B

Asset, a couple of us on the group have actually gone and taken unh's training in unh's platform.

B

It's a thing called sci-map, it's a it's a simap, there's some detail in it again. The shared drive.

B

The reason the reason I went into it is number one. It's unh and I have a lot of respect for.

B

Them and for the sustainability reason number two is a lot of their expertises within a short drive.

I

Here and reason number three: as a software person, I look at it as a platform. I like what I saw.

B

Relevant specifically to your question, it does have the ability to a degree to take.

B

Back data older data and do adjustments based on the things that have changed in some of the.

B

Definitions of the tracking targets now is that 100, of course not. It will probably be the case.

B

That this year's data will be better than last year's data, which will be better than the previous.

B

Year's data, but if we can all be you know we can all live with that less than perfection.

B

Situation, uh I've already volunteered to peter to be his. What am I your your intern is that.

A

Always done by and carrying co-op students back to my northeastern fellowship, um we thought I mean.

B

I I have volunteered myself to take the license. I have a license for this sign that thing.

B

It's very short money and uh I'm going to use that to work with peter and josh and whoever else. Let's.

B

Just capture what we have, and it may turn out to say this data is completely you know what.

B

Backwards, but at least it would be a starter uh whether that's the platform going forward.

B

Totally different question consultant might come to us and say you know what for what you need.

B

Here's the platform that has worked for 10 cities that are much larger, I'm totally open to that, but.

B

In the meantime, I'd love to just get get us into this. You know get into the process of getting that.

B

Collection and reporting and analytics up and running and just along what it is just along those.

G

Lines the issue came up who raised it about the utility companies and how they measure things. How.

A

They aren't very forthcoming with the data. It's also the fact that, probably in those greenhouse.

A

Gas inventories. We got the data from what was it was uh psnh and then eversource. I think they.

A

Probably divided it differently when they divided the sectors up, it's really about the sectors so.

A

Your residential commercial and industrial sectors we're looking for and each time I think they.

A

Could have divided it separately, so it's not even apples to oranges. It's apples to bananas. You know.

A

I don't know, but um so there's a lot to look at, but I think that's a great place to start to.

A

Compare what we have in our three reports and then see how we start with the new report. Absolutely.

B

And uh your third question, I think, was what comments.

B

um Anybody want to want to take that one.

F

What was questioning, I would say, it's just evolving like to your point. You know I think.

D

We are just trying it's not necessarily that we've decided on any of the specific things.

D

But just trying to be aware, like the city, has already taken action, there are already things.

D

Happening to address this issue, so how do we is it appropriate, and how do we make sure that.

D

They are included in our cap moving forward, which, again, I greatly appreciate, having put.

G

Half a month or I'm sorry, half a year into producing that framework.

B

Yeah I, for one hate seeing good work, go unused for whatever reason and and uh jess makes a great.

B

Point too so so for those of you that haven't seen it take a look at what uh what josh distributed.

B

Last night, it's just a piece of a piece of what needs to be done, but we electrify by.

B

In part, we electrify by making more charging available, so the visitors and residents and.

B

Businesses who actually have evs have some place to go to charge them now. How much of that.

B

Josh would you say was in scope in 2018, probably not very much. I could, since evs were largely.

B

Think about the future five years ago, four years ago, uh so anyway, continuing to to include what.

B

Others in the city are doing um and learn. Josh, like you, said, learning from what's been done,.

B

Every idea doesn't have to be great, but we learned something.

E

One thing I wanted to mention is: the format of these plans was really varied.

E

Some of them were like technical reports with dense text, difficult terminology.

E

No help for the reader finding what's where on one end and on the other end, it was almost too simple.

E

With color and icons- and you know not enough content, but the concord plan in particular.

E

Their greenhouse gas specifics were in an appendix, so the overarching goal.

E

For greenhouse gas drives all these 22 strategic actions, they follow.

E

But the technical side of it was in an appendix so there's different ways of dealing with this.

E

Obviously, we want to involve the community and having a second group like portsmouth climate.

E

Solutions uh in our case will be great, because um that kind of coordination is ready to happen.

E

The thing about the climate action plan itself there's the plan that the city will use to do.

E

The work and figuring out the city roles is still important, but then there's the work.

E

That's educating the community and promoting the ideas of how we slow down climate change, so we.

E

Have to really think about audiences when we talk about a climate action plan, is it for the public.

E

And the community, as opposed to city staff and the technical side of it, is it both and I think.

E

Another important issue that the subcommittee has talked about is: are we talking about mitigation.

E

And adaptation, or because of the urgency of climate change, is this group for a start just.

E

Going to focus on mitigation- and I don't have the answer to that- I just wanted to make that explicit.

C

Would it be different if we just focused on mitigation at first, like the process, be easier.

E

Well to me, it seems that it would address the urgency to focus on mitigation and say phase two.

E

Is going to be continuing all the adaptation work, or even in phase one, to start, some of that work.

E

But really to focus on the mitigation gotcha. But that's my opinion and I want to hear from.

E

Everybody, it's also true that sort of, as you read through a lot of the content.

B

And there are a number of cities and states have been at this for many years.

B

There's much much more mitigation content efforts results technology, you know, there's been more of.

B

It done so there's more information available. um The the adaptation is critical as it is it's it's.

B

A newer or a less well developed volume knowledge, but they there are examples of doing every which.

F

Way, uh newburyport has a uh a resilience plan. It's just it's a hundred percent resilience. I.

F

Think uh was portland the one that had sort of the mitigation, but then they have the master plan that.

F

So they have like two like simultaneous like parallel plans, same thing, some of them just.

F

Focus on mitigation, some combined, so yeah you can kind of do it any which way you want.

F

And you know, there's been resilient studies for the for the seacoast.

F

So there's existing work there already. So I don't know you know so it's just a decision. We have to.

F

Make do we want to put it all in the one, have two parallel plans: how do we, how do we kind of.

F

Proceed with that, what's the best way to go- and I I do think it's within this committee's charge of.

E

Sustainability to address adaptation- it's just, I see perhaps a phased approach and whether we.

E

Address both in the climate action plan or make a reference to the other or have an appendix for.

E

Adaptation- I don't know- and I would just add to be clear depending on what plan you look at.

D

Some call it adaptation, some call it resilience. Some have a separate thing for sequestration.

D

Sometimes that's part of adaptation as well, and I would also add to josh's point I feel like the.

D

Science is still changing, like literally on my way here. I just heard an npr thing talk about how.

D

They are recognizing that we really have to start doing sequestration, because even if we do address.

D

You know the greenhouse gas that we continue to put out. Our bathtub is already full, so we've got.

D

To start pulling some of the greenhouse gases out and so they're talking about technology.

D

About how to do that is they're like they, they literally set a vacuum at some sort of vacuum.

D

System to try to start pulling it out of the air, so it might be some of these plans. We looked at.

D

Mitigation seemed like the first line of attack, but now, as we learn more and more, that it might.

D

Actually be more effective to do both together. um I don't know again to effie's point. I think.

D

That's still to be determined, but it does seem like this is constantly evolving. So.

B

Yeah, it's both a challenge in the fun of this exercise. If you hit 10 different plans, you'll see.

B

At least 10 different approaches, yeah, sometimes multiple approaches. Well, I really like that.

A

The where concord had the dashboard and plans that have this ongoing plan, not the something.

A

To put on the shelf so some way to keep it interactive, whether you could have a plan.

A

But it looks like they had the plan, but they also have the dashboard so yeah. You can keep updating.

A

It keep people engaged and keep it moving ahead instead of just creating this one and for each.

E

Of those six categories on the dashboard, it was hard to read on the slide, but one of the bullets.

E

Was what you can do so you go to, they call it mobility, but most people would say transportation.

E

And under it, what you can do or energy what you can do and the interesting another interesting.

E

Thing about concord, is they addressed historic homes and how to retrofit them and work with.

E

Codes and historic district commission issues effectively, we don't have those.

E

No problems, I just wanted to mention that concord mass has a um festival saturday, it's.

E

Cooler, concord or something at the concord, public library and they ask you to park and ride your.

E

Bike and they have free bike tune-ups, you can see electric cars. You can bring your books to donate.

E

To the library- and it sounds great um so I think we could do a large amount of education, maybe in.

C

Tandem with like next year's, like portsmouth 400th event, is there that's a lot of you know. Community.

C

Gathering together, parades, etc, where we could definitely spread the word and get people on board.

A

Yeah, I think anywhere we can get creative with public outreach and publicly do.

C

Participation at the library or something like that, all those things and more, I think that is.

A

You brought it up in the presentation, but getting a consultant on board that has.

A

Experience with successful public participation plans is going to be really helpful.

H

Sir, thank you so, first off, I'm blown away by the quality of work. You've done.

J

I mean it's really really powerful. Thank you and I just as a resident here. I'm deeply appreciative.

J

That said, I've got a a number of questions and a couple of comments. um I'm wondering if you.

J

Guys are familiar, and I I'm putting this out to everybody with the book. Saving us by catherine.

J

Hey-Ho so catherine hayo is a climate scientist. She managed um all of the scientific input for the.

J

Last for the last national climate uh assessment uh she's, currently the vice president for the con.

J

uh Nature, conservancy, okay and she's written a book that will.

J

Both upset you deeply by virtue of uh her not withholding not holding back on the depth of.

J

The problems and but leave you inspired good by the possibility of what's got an easy balance.

C

To strike so well, her and her kind of the bottom line cut the cut to the end, her perspective and.

J

And after reading it, my perspective is that we've actually we're over the hump. We are over the hump.

J

We're moving downhill towards addressing climate change, and what there is to do is to accelerate.

J

Okay- um and this is part of that saving us saving us is the name of it uh and if you're interested.

J

um There's a group in kennebunk that is having um catherine. uh I I'm not sure whether she's.

J

Coming in virtually or um or by zoom on saturday to speak about her book- and I do know that you.

J

Can get to that event remotely through zoom and if you're interested uh the name of the group.

J

Is climate initiative and they're located in kennebunk and um my text number is 603-661-2867.

J

Just let me know if you can't find it fantastic.

J

I'm not clear, I'm not clear about a couple of things.

J

Number one in your presentation tonight as a resident, I would have liked to have seen a little.

J

Bit more context for the work you've done, I can kind of catch up on it because I've been in the.

J

Game for a while, but other people that's going to be a problem. Secondly, I'm not I'm really not clear.

J

What the expertise of the climate consultant is going to be, you know, what's he bringing he or.

J

She bringing to the table and it's in kind of concrete um in the most definitive manner, I'm.

J

Wondering how much of it is technical? How much of it is uh human, and I don't expect an answer.

J

To a lot of these things tonight, time is running short, among other things,.

B

Well, I can. I can comment uh just briefly on that last one because it's a good question so.

B

The consultancy we're looking forward guys check me on this. I think we're looking for.

B

Some demonstrated expertise and success in developing climate action plans. I think of.

B

It as almost an architectural engagement, the re, the result back to us is a blueprint. It's a cap.

B

So it's the actual climate action plan for the city of portsmouth they'll be laying out.

B

What needs to be done? You're not going to be doing it obviously yeah. I so my my cut my hope.

J

Is that it will be a partnership that you guys with the expertise you built, will work closely.

J

With them- and they will work closely with you absolutely and they'll- be almost your staff.

J

um So that they're, like that, um I tell my doctors and my lawyers that they're consultants and they.

B

Really don't like yeah exactly um I I had the thought, there's going to be a lot of community.

J

Education, um education without action is, is silly and actually without education is crazy.

J

uh That said, when these community presentations are going on, um I hope you'll afford people the.

J

Opportunity to some insights into steps they could already take. They don't have to wait.

J

For this climate action plan, and certainly the city's already taken and is taking a lot of steps.

J

But when you talk to homeowners, the simplest thing is when you're talking to homeowners.

J

Weatherization and this gets to the question about adaptation- resilience.

J

Weatherization helps them to cut down their carbon footprint, but it also gives them more.

J

Resilience as the price of carbon goes up, and the price of carbon is definitely going up, whether we.

J

Do carbon pricing, or um or not, um can I interject to west? Yes, please say that that is how at least.

D

In my opinion, how any good plan operates not just for the residents but for organizations.

D

And the city it looks at that time lane as okay, here's our action, here's what the city can do.

D

Now, here's what they can do in the long term or the long term same thing for a business if.

D

You want to take action today. Here are three easy things you can do next year or two years or three.

D

Years when you're planning here's something else, you can do same thing for a resident.

D

Here's something you can do today, you know next time you meet your heat, your boiler blows up.

D

How about you consider these options instead of going sticking with oil or that kind of stuff.

D

So brilliant that should be in any good plan. In my opinion, warms the cockles of my heart good. I'm.

D

Glad I could do that always appreciate it. How did you warm them, though fossil fuel, or did you use it.

J

It was definitely renewable that and that totally totally agreed justin that sort of raises an issue.

B

That I've been thinking about quite a bit where the delivery of the plan that we can all act.

B

Upon and go forward with, that's great that's a path, but what's become really clear. Here is just.

B

Ongoing education, it's not dependent on the plan at all, I mean, but there are things we could.

B

Educate and make available to homeowners and to businesses and probably to the city departments.

B

Today, yeah I mean it's, including some of the stuff we've learned to read so just.

B

How best to educate and who to educate and how to make it attractive and digestible all the classic.

B

Education questions that that to me is just part and parcel of all of this, and it's bigger and more.

B

Immediate, I think than than the cap well, thank you. um Will I see if I, when I look at your materials.

J

Will I see what these different cities are spending were there uh caps in a lot of cases? Yes,.

B

So so what we've done is we pull the copies of the caps in their entirety um into the the share drive.

B

It varies and, to begin I'd, love to say every city reports in.

B

Excuse me wes, do you mean the cost to produce the cap working with consultants and engineers or do.

E

You mean the cost of implementing the cap. Oh I'm talking about the cost to produce the cap. Oh sorry,.

J

I I'm answering the wrong question: yeah cost of implementation is a whole different fish when.

E

I could find it, it wasn't always available, but I looked for rfps and contracts on different cities.

E

And and put that on, there yeah, for example, I heard walking in here tonight that the.

J

City council um happily has now set a number of a hundred thousand dollars right, which is.

J

Sounds pretty great yeah now I don't know what concord spent. I don't know what the.

E

One for portland and south portland was 219 000., but that's bigger south.

E

Well, this is new hampshire, we'll always do it much more private sector 125 for concord, mass.

J

uh Well, just coming back coming back to what jessica said um in terms of affording people.

J

Opportunities, I would love it if, in the planning process, there was feedback as to how many people.

J

Stepped up and either started or already had in play, and it will let other people know that they.

J

Wouldn't be the first one, it will let other people know here how it's making a difference.

J

I listened to some presentations uh by a couple of companies today as to the impact uh on their.

J

Companies of really tackling uh climate change and climate preparedness and invariably was making.

J

A significant difference on their bottom line and their position in the community so that all.

J

All that reinforces, I would say that wes as a committee as a whole, we've discussed that as well.

D

And even kind of talked about. Is it worthwhile to create some sort of branding so that as people get.

D

Engaged then you know whether it's a sticker that goes on a business that says I'm you know I'm here.

D

To take care of portsmouth or you know, sustain portsmouth or whatever cool or conquered yeah or.

B

Support local or those kinds of things, I think so the same thing on the residential piece so that to.

D

Your point- oh they're, doing this people seem to be responding to that. Maybe I need to get on board or.

D

My neighbor just did this, so you know so why am I not doing that so that has been discussed is.

D

Trying to figure out how to and the the last thing that I wanted to um put into the conversation and.

J

You touched on, it was a whole whole matter of advocacy and discovering that there are.

J

um Structures in the state that are getting in the way um there are things that state could.

J

Do in enlightened fashion, there were also things that the feds could do right. uh I.

J

For anybody doesn't know, I'm a strong advocate uh for uh carbon pricing at the federal level.

J

And this committee, historically, for those of you don't know, has signed on and enabled me to go.

J

Forward and have the city council on two different occasions endorsed carbon pricing and I would.

J

Love to come back when you don't have such a full agenda, bed, bert and uh kind of update you on that.

J

Conversation with that, thank you for allowing me to ask take so much time this evening and.

D

Just thrilled by the work that you're doing, thank you just really really excited we're. Having some.

C

Fun, how are you yeah? It shows too yeah. It's great any other questions for these guys before we move.

A

On trying to move our agenda forward here, please drop an email any of us and and if you would like.

B

To look at the material, that's in that link in the share drive, it's just a question of send an.

B

Email and we click a button and you can get at it fabulous yeah, a lot of great information, I'll.

J

Get context john or bert: okay, there's one item on the agenda missing and it is the charging stations.

A

Right- I don't see it on here, or did you get it on there? This meeting used to end it because.

J

7 30, I thought: what time is it ending now: 8 30, 30., okay, um just getting started so.

A

Where do we want to go next action plan um symposium for seacoast climate action.

A

I don't know who put that on there, but if nobody's speaking to it, I can speak to it.

A

Shall we go there? Next it'll be quick, um so I'm not sure of all the players in the seacoast.

A

Climate action group, 22. 22 people in this group- are you part of the group, then bert, um and.

A

The idea for the symposium was really to get um it's. I guess it's more of a networking opportunity.

A

To talk to all the different communities and people involved in climate change in the region.

A

About what they're up to, and so what they've done is um alison tanner has taken the lead for this.

A

Symposium and the mayor has offered to host it and do a little introduction. Everybody involved.

A

There's about 22 or so participants who are from different communities. You know hampton.

A

uh The regional planning commissions, I think, um durham dover, I don't know, I don't- have a list in.

A

Front of me, but I think there's about 20 or so people involved and they'll go around and just.

A

Say what they're doing for climate action in about five minutes in their community or their.

A

Region or their organization- and um you know, have some questions and then and then see what we can.

A

Do next to move this forward, so that's really the idea. um I don't know if you have anything more to.

A

Advert but that's how I understand it happening and we'll get a sense of who's doing what and then.

A

Who to contact to get you know, support for actions, maybe work together on projects that kind of thing.

I

Well, I think just a couple of things that I have evolved is that it's not a public participation.

I

uh It's just the invitees and invitees have really a long series of questions.

I

What worked? What didn't work? Buddy, I mean, so they have five minutes presentation.

I

So, in a way it's to accelerate the seacoast knowledge of cats, so it's kind of self-education.

I

And uh cameron wake who was in a meeting here with kittery and portsmouth? I remember at the.

I

End of the meeting he said, perhaps at the end of this, this group would say: hey this.

I

Has been useful, let's meet again in a quarter, so it's another way to, I think, coordinate and.

I

Accelerate the exchange of information, at least that's the way I did. The session will be recorded.

I

And they will and the website will be uh posted. uh So anybody who wants to see what it's about.

I

Will be able to see what came down so uh it's very interesting to me how the evolution of the.

I

Symposium came down to many people's information like peter's, saying, hey, you know the regional.

I

Areas already had plans, so it's creating the path as you walk it and it's again one of these times.

I

Where it's humbling and frightening to see the rapidity with which things are changing.

I

For a deterioration and for a tremendous swell and energy.

I

To get people's best interests to come together and I'll comment on this, and the last plan.

I

Just something that I carry uh there was buddhism and ecology.

I

Summit and basically the comments that were made is that this is a spiritual crisis, and so, when.

I

We're talking about this we're really talking about. How do we reconnect ourselves as people.

I

As communities to the earth in ways we don't know how, and so that's why this is humbling work.

I

That's my little great thank you yeah a lot more than I had. um So when is this going to happen, bert.

I

Next week, next week, okay, thank you, um okay, great! So where do we want to go next? I ask that we go.

D

To recycling because I might scoot out, but I want to be present for that conversation, let's.

A

Go to recycling, did you put that on there uh bert, and I did collectively or bert, asked me to remind.

D

uh To make sure it was on the agenda because I have not been part of the portsmouth climate.

D

Solutions group for the last couple weeks I'm doing something else, but it had brought been.

D

Brought up at the last one that I was present for whether or not the city is actually recycling.

D

um And I've heard this anecdotally as well that people residents have asked their trash collectors.

D

Or have heard through the grapevine that, even though we're putting out our bins that all of.

D

That, in fact, is just going up to turnkey and that the city isn't currently recycling anymore.

D

So I don't I I doubt that that's the case, but I don't know definitively. I do know that that.

A

The city had a long has a long-term contract for recycling and solid waste.

A

And because they had negotiated the contract, they had a better deal for recycling still, but.

A

The thought is, what happens when that's out? I thought the thought was when we had to.

A

Renew that contract we'd stick with recycling because we put so much work into the program.

A

But that said, recycling is not being recycling even at the. Even if it's taken to a recycling.

A

Facility, it could be that it's taken there as recycling divided from the waste and then still.

A

Not recycled because there's no market for it right and I know, there's a lot of issues with.

D

Contamination these days. Well, that's that kind of way way more stringent because of.

A

That, because anybody that takes it, wants it to be clean because they can be picky now.

C

Right, um but I don't know, I'd have to I'd, have to check with public works. To give you a specific.

A

Answer like jess, I heard of um someone seeing recycling bins emptied into the garbage truck.

G

And these rumors persisted years ago, even before china stopped taking in all of our.

G

Trash recycling yeah, so there's always been these persistent rumors prior to the cost. The tipping.

G

Fees, recycling costing more than trash, which now costs distinctly more. I can't speak to this now.

G

um Versus from raised I'll definitely raise the issue. My personal opinion is simply that.

G

um Single stream recycling was a fairy tale sold to us by uh big business. It unfortunately leads.

G

To wishful recycling and most things we put in it, aren't recyclable. Most plastics aren't.

G

Recyclable, it's essentially glass is aluminum, is and paper definitely is it's tough to go.

G

Back one thing which I had pushed was just to get a glass smasher at the dpw area, which, like fifteen.

G

Thousand dollars thousand people bring their glass, it could be smash and then we could actually with.

G

The contract, whoever does our roads and paving the concrete, incorporate the glass to reuse. It.

G

Like on small scale, recycling workspan large scale, single use in the u.s hasn't worked great.

G

And plastic's not recyclable, I can smash glass for you a lot cheaper than fifteen thousand dollars.

G

Yeah I'll do it for free you're, not called a glass smash. Give me a brick wall and a hammer.

C

Or something like that, you might want to see what the volume is before you commit to that.

B

I got my friends a question for the committee. What's the best way to follow up.

E

With this I could would you or josh I can check with public works too yeah and I can bring it up.

G

When it comes to the budget season, which we're starting because there'll be a line item for.

G

Recycling, which comes which last was on the council, increased every year.

G

And then the question always comes up well, is it still worthwhile doing.

G

Yeah right right naturally, and that and at that um last meeting they also discussed, does it make.

D

Sense to go back to multi-stream, I know that's labor intensive and I know that might impact.

D

Who participates yeah, I don't know, but there was that question. Does that make more sense? I brought.

G

That idea up, but the way how recycling's done in america now is, there's everything's brought.

G

To a murph, these joint facilities and there's very few facilities actually just take single.

G

Types they do exist. That's why just doing local solutions. I remember when again when china stopped.

G

Taking our trash recycling so they went to clean up their environment, a lot of places in kittery.

G

Businesses, they were told, we'll only recycle your paper, because that was the correct approach.

G

So that means someone somewhere was accepting more than single stream. There's just aren't many murphs.

G

Left right that will do that. So how do we get a bottle bill in new hampshire, okay, next question:.

A

Well that that's the actionable item, you know: how do you get businesses to give.

A

Containers that are reusable out that they bring back they wash them and reuse them. I.

A

Mean those are the kind of solutions that need to happen. I think that was one proposed in new.

C

Hampshire this year, but I don't know if anything happened with it. I do remember reading about that.

F

I don't know, I don't know what the status is, though, I'm going to assume probably not.

C

I think there was a bottle bill proposed this year in new hampshire, but probably didn't go anywhere.

B

And to that point, and this cropped up a lot in the research that we're doing one of the actions.

B

Or one of the advocacies that we have to recognize as necessary is it's us that has to push conquered.

B

It it just is, if the rules don't- and I can compare my home state of massachusetts in my current home.

B

State for the last 25 years in new hampshire, sure, night and day, but that doesn't mean we have to be.

B

Satisfied with it, everybody in this room knows it's a long slow slog to legislate anything.

B

But all we know for certain is: if we don't push, then it won't happen. One thing I want.

G

To add to the recycling conversation single-use plastics being trash, um the.

G

Ordnance, which the eco club helped me pass to plus years ago, is now going to be enforced on city.

G

Property, including it's now in the contract for the farmers market this year, that they will abide.

G

By the ordinance- and that includes um everything under the sun from the composting requirement.

G

Which um I'm most proud of as part of that, but uh so change is finally gonna. Come from that, it's not.

G

Gonna be immediate, I'm sure some vendors there will still have like their plastic bags, but.

G

Everything should be compostable or reusable there amanda that progress is progress hold on george.

F

uh If you want to look it up that, according to this article, I had on my phone, I knew it.

F

Was there somewhere, it was house bill 1652. I just looked it up and it was referred to interim study.

A

Soon to be done, that means that there might be a work session on it in the summer or something but.

C

That's something we can follow up on and it says a lot that it was proposed so we'll see if we can.

C

Get it back again next year, although there might be a two-year restriction on interim study posts.

C

We'll see wow the woman knows her state politics and process so jess uh just to build.

I

Build on, I appreciate just bringing this up. uh I was at a dinner and somebody up in bristol.

I

They were able to change a platform that made a truck able to come up and pick up cardboard now.

I

They're making money off their cardboard where they weren't off recycling, so this is kind of.

I

Big when we were consulting the surge force, they said don't get too wrapped up in recycling because.

I

A lot of people will get all up in arms. Look for your big, so I get emotional, and so we want to keep.

I

This in perspective, however, I really like what you were saying, john in terms of where do we go.

I

When we're talking about cultural shift, josh and peter what I I don't know enough about the data.

I

Do we have once it leaves us, do we have the data from turnkey? What are they doing with it up? There.

I

How much percentage of what we actually do goes into the landfill.

G

I don't think turnkey, then ships it to a murph down in massachusetts. I think I think we what's up.

A

We deliver either solid waste or recycling, so it gets delivered to a facility that takes it.

I

All right, so it goes to the uh to the facility. Yes all right, so we go there yeah do we know how.

I

Much of that actually gets recycled. I don't know. I could ask that question no, but that's.

I

That's probably that, but the presumption is, if you bring it to a second facility, they're recycling, it.

A

As best they can so usually they sort out these days. It sounds like one and twos at.

I

They sort, it least, then the rest of it I'm assuming, might go to to turn. uh I don't know.

A

That's what we have to find the recycling piece we'd have to find out what turkey does with it.

A

We know what they do the solid waste, but we don't know what they do with the results. Okay, so I guess.

I

Where I'm going with this is we need, I would like to really be in touch with the reality.

I

Not with rumors or or things that are just floating around, so if we get the data.

I

And we see that every person, I'm spending time and money and energy warm water to wash out.

I

So there's a lot of energy going into this psychologically physically and emotionally.

I

So I would if we get the data, this might be a tremendous to say and I'm playing here.

I

What if this gave us a leverage to say the best way to deal with recycling is to reduce and I've.

I

Been thinking about you know all of us, so we might be able to use the data to get a better leverage.

I

Plan and go into a place that is a more healthy option. I like that yeah, because it is, it isn't.

A

It isn't to use really good recyclable plastic, so yeah our over reduce anyway. Our connection to.

I

Nature is not sustainable, so we need to have some fundamental life changes. Yes, and so maybe somebody.

I

Could have a refill store where you don't buy a plastic tube space? Oh you got those little pillows.

I

An awesome idea: anybody want to step up yeah, so I jess. I think this is close to all of our hearts.

I

And uh next week uh I guess we'll be in the news: we'll get some kind of information back yep great.

A

Well, how about a commercial break community water forum next week may.

A

3Rd thursday night 6 to 8 p.m. The city is putting on a water forum larry. I don't.

A

Know if you wanted to speak to it too, you had brought it up to me, but um brian wasn't able to.

H

The committee found out about it tonight I haven't spoken in so long. Throat's closed up.

C

Yeah, well, you guys were talking about uh people putting signs in their windows. It reminded me of.

H

A few years ago, when there wasn't a refrigeration, everybody had a card that they put in their window.

H

When they needed ice and the iceman would stop at that particular house, so you were talking.

H

About having doing branding for this, maybe we should go back to the old ice cart new window.

C

I have a milk man, milk man, we're just gonna- have to hire a nice man. uh We do. We have our.

D

Glass bottles that we leave on our doorstep and he comes every wednesday at four in the.

D

Morning takes old ones. Oh that's so great! That's awesome! I didn't even know they were still around.

D

Jimmy's, a milkman he's based out of maine right, so this water forum. um This is not something that's.

H

Talked about a lot when we're talking about climate change other than the fact that we got.

H

The ocean rising, but there are a lot of ways that water can be.

H

Reused and one of them is a product called gray water that these would be.

H

Things like gray water would be the residue from washing your laundry and it was pumped out into.

H

Some pvc- that's in your yard, that would help water, your your lawn and normally it goes.

H

Right down the sewer, so you know gray. Water is just one of the issues that we're bringing.

H

I think we should bring back on the table years ago. It was very popular to use that.

H

Gray, water and and now that we're paying so much for water and so much for sewerage.

H

um It's another way of diverting um a usable product yeah, reducing the use too right.

H

Reducing reuse, so this thing on tuesday, that is, you can see this uh in person or.

H

Via zoom, I think they're calling they have a name for that system. Now, where you can it's hybrid.

A

Yeah that you can go either way, but um I don't know if you got this in your emails, but there's.

H

A way to join the zoom yeah right again, six to eight p.m. Yep right here in console chambers.

A

But if you go on the website, the zoom link's on there yeah okay, so that's hosted as a city meeting.

B

Yeah: okay, great excellent, yeah brian, was at the earth um gathering the climate action last friday.

A

Great with peter rice and talked about think blue actually yeah. They got the little logo on here too.

C

Fish or a whale or whatever it is yeah.

J

What's, if I'm inviting somebody else, what's the best reference, I.

J

Can give them so they get the I'd, say, city of portsmouth.com.com and then search community.

A

Water forum, if it's not right in the front page, it probably will be right on the front page.

H

Tuesdays may 3rd six to eight city, council chambers.

H

You'll be on television, hopefully, people can make that.

A

We're just powering through the agenda bert. How are we doing? Well, we got all the green ones.

D

I'm gonna have to excuse myself, I'm sorry, I'm getting into a car to drive to new jersey now so.

D

Oh, that's horrible, yeah! All right! That's right! Josh! This is the car in new jersey, good night.

A

Thanks for the presentation, but um should we go to the report to the does the council report on there.

A

No, I don't see it anymore. Did we get rid of crypto off the agenda because I wanted to see what that.

C

Crypto's on the agenda, you wanna, who I don't know, who put that in there was that john? No, actually, I.

B

Was I was gonna ask if we could make sure we hit on charging station tonight? No, I was crypto you're.

F

A crypto I can make it very brief. Okay, uh so I saw on the paper not too long ago. There was an.

F

Article that the city portsmouth, is now accepting cryptocurrency uh as one of its payment methods.

F

I'm not exactly sure which bills you can pay through crypto, so the city's working through.

F

I believe paypal correct, which facilitates what facilitates the crypto transaction.

F

Now I understand that it's my understanding that the, if you're, paying in crypto as soon.

F

As the transaction goes through, the city paypal actually changes that currency to.

F

Us dollars so the city's not holding crypto. I understand that. Nevertheless, it was seen.

F

Concerning for a city that calls itself an eco municipality and is putting together a climate.

F

Action plan that we might be sending uh the wrong message on our adoption of crypto as.

F

uh Sort of the transactions that we want to just knowing the energy.

F

That gets consumed in the in the crypto mining operations, so I was just wondering if we could.

F

Learn a little bit more about that, and um just so we know I mean, do we really want to do this? Do we.

F

Want to go in that direction, is it even being used? Are people really paying their water bills.

F

With cryptocurrency, I don't think so, but maybe we could find out a little bit more about that and.

F

Just that's all, that's all. I was curious to know what was going on with that uh john had.

I

Suggested for this committee that every once in a while, we write a uh a piece but we've sent it.

I

To the paper john and I'm thinking, topics like uh waste for crypto for education, I think most.

I

Folks, who are using crypto or even thinking about they just kind of glaze over but the energy use.

I

That is attached with it is not, I think, is what I've known just here in this group.

I

How many know about the energy use that crypto is required? You know it's astronomical.

I

Yeah, so this is going up. What's that it's going up it's going up and it's like.

I

If every so anyway, whether uh we use it or not, this might be a topic that.

I

That would have some interest so uh john. I just put that out. I hope you're.

I

I don't know what your life is like any longer, but uh as we move along and some of the data comes in.

I

uh Maybe we could uh see about writing a uh a letter from the committee uh as an educational.

I

Device this occurred to me. I would welcome anyone to write that letter, just throw it out there.

A

Yeah be interesting to see what the reality is on it because I know there's a huge amount of.

A

Use for energy and that's my was my understanding and I brought it up with someone else. I know and.

A

They said it's true, there's a lot of energy use, but there's also a lot of energy use in creating.

A

Currency, so are you comparing apples? Are you comparing them to each other? So I I don't know.

A

I know I always thought boy, it uses a lot. Why would we even do that? So I've heard different.

F

Stories about some crypto mining operations are using hydropower that was existing and.

F

They were just saying, oh well, it was energy that would be unused if we weren't using it.

F

I've also read reports that they're firing up old coal power plants to to power these.

F

Mining operations, which is a little bit more concerning so it's a mix, ecuador, is now running.

C

Bitcoin mining off of geothermal volcanoes, so they're doing that and a lot of uh a lot of these.

C

Crypto assets are trying to get more energy efficient just out there like they are like.

C

There's some major ones out there they're trying to completely offset all their carbon so.

C

Just about there there is a slight counter argument to some of those. So if we figured out.

C

More in depth about how we're do, I don't really even hardly understand it, but how are we sourcing.

C

Or mining, and how are we you know: what's our impact, how many crypto transactions have we.

F

Had yeah yeah, that's a very good question: is it a net positive or a net negative.

C

And if it's a net negative we'd be happy, I didn't even know we were doing it yeah. I didn't either.

B

I guess that's probably the first question: how many transactions are we talking about because.

B

If it's something we have policy for, but we're not actually doing it, then we're not actually.

B

Having an impact right, exactly yeah yeah, I could ask to see questions during the budget season.

G

A month and a half or so I'd be curious. What was behind the decision.

E

To yeah it was paypal's decision, it's just paypal. Oh, it was just a page house yeah. They told us hey.

G

Your customers can now pay using, so that is it something the city gets to pick and choose.

F

Or it's just oh, it just comes with the package. I think it comes with the package. Yeah yeah. I think.

I

The controversy gets out of paypal. What brought it to my attention was, I think, in just a casual way.

I

Dagenlin was saying, and now you can pay your your thing and uh and crypto and it was like he was.

I

I think casually saying that, as it was a cool thing right, it's a cool thing. I I wasn't aware.

I

If he was aware of what he was saying, and so that put it out in the public and he's saying.

I

He wants to be the head of the spear in terms of the cap, so I'm thinking just so that he might.

I

If he wasn't aware of that, he might want to be aware of that. When he's, when he's coming, yeah well,.

F

And I certainly don't want to. If it's you know, I don't want to make a mountain out of a molehill.

F

If it's really just yeah, it was paypal, just said: okay, this is part of the package, oh by the way.

C

Just to be doubles advocate the carbon impact of paypal is probably significantly. You know an order.

C

Of magnitude, larger than anything, so if we are going to make a molehill, we should go after paypal.

A

It's funny, we think of all these advances that computers are going to help us with and they turn out being all those servers. The servers.

A

um Pcs, josh, you want to talk about charging stations gladly so um two separate things here.

G

One of the first things which the council was able to do a big picture with electric vehicles and.

G

Electrical charging stations was including in our cap improvement plants or six year plan 150 000.

G

For every year, for the next five years to install um city electrical charging stations, both level.

G

Two and level three on public property for public use, so 950k a year for the next 40k a year for.

G

Next time so not this year, but what you're talking about with the bridge street lot? That was.

G

Anytime, you dig up a lot. It makes sense to lay the groundwork there and the wiring there. So they're.

G

Laying the wiring there it'll likely be the first location where they're going to.

G

Do the electric vehicle charging stations because I've been pushing that for like.

G

Four plus years now great um so I mean it's a sensible location for it, it does and what.

G

In the motion which included, it was to include some level three as well.

G

Level, three might not make sense, downtown might make sense at the library, but the um it's now.

G

Three quarters of a million dollars in our uh cap improvement plan, but that's just the it's a.

G

Taxpayer-Funded side of it, the other thing which I sent out last night is the whole um private.

G

Side of it so the way our big picture, the way how things work in new hampshire is, there has to be.

G

A statute which says cities can do certain things statute says you can recycle weak, recycle the nice.

G

Thing which I learned about our zoning, it's kind of the opposite. It says you could take a novel.

G

Approach to doing any number of things to achieve these goals, so there's a naming legislation saying.

G

We could do any number anything essentially under the sun which meets certain goals.

G

But the problem then becomes we could only do what we list in our zoning, if that makes sense, so the.

G

Change here is we needed to change our zoning for electric vehicle charging stations throughout the.

G

City um and how much how much detail you guys want me going to now, but there have been some companies.

G

That want to do electric vehicle charging stations. I don't know if people read rochester off 16.

G

It's now have, I may have gone in already right near the walmart, where um it's just a private.

G

Business, that's all it is. Companies have looked at doing them in portsmouth, but the problem is.

G

In our local zoning, nothing says: electric vehicle charging stations, the closest thing to it.

G

Is gas stations, so the plank farms are like all right? Well, this is the closest thing you're to.

G

Which means you need a roof and a building and this and then they don't need any of that. So the.

G

Zoning amendments which counselor cook and I are proposing address that issue several fronts.

G

Big picture, the way it works is if it passes on monday night. We send it to the.

G

Planning board they'll: have the professionals look at it? They'll make some changes to it. They'll have.

G

A public hearing out they'll send it back to us. The city council will have three readings public.

G

Hearing and all that, so it's a lengthy process, but here's specifically what's in it and what I sent.

G

It might look confusing, so it's like charts and everything else in it. The definitions are at the.

G

Bottom, so there's essentially three definitions which I created uh the first one is level one and.

G

Level two electric vehicle charging stations as in accessory use, which is exactly what it.

G

Sounds like again, a level one charging station 120 volts. I heard it takes 12 to 20 hours or so.

G

And level two 240, volt or equivalent that could take I've heard like eight to 12 hours to charge.

G

And these are charging stations, are the accessory used to the primary permitted use of a property.

G

And the goal is to allow that throughout all of portsmouth residential business and right now.

G

If someone wants to install an electric vehicle charger, they likely need to get a variance because.

G

It's not allowed under the zoning here. They wouldn't need to get that variance to install it.

G

You won't need to go to a secondary board just fill out the permits do whatever else. If you're.

G

In the correct zone you can install, and the goal is to allow that, throughout the entire city, people.

G

Can install level one and level two and whether it's a residential, if that's the primary purpose,.

G

Then it's used residential if it's a business, a business if they're selling- I don't know.

G

A beer I just thought of gary's downtown if they want to install some electrical charge.

G

Stations as a secondary, they would be allowed to do that. They don't need to under this apply for a.

G

Variance they could just install them. The next thing, which uh definition would be level three.

G

Electric vehicle charging stations as an accessory use- these are the big bad boys which cost like 130.

G

Thousand dollars and 20 thousand dollars for the transformer to bring the electricity to a lower.

G

Voltage to get through it, those would only be allowed in certain areas, so not in.

G

Residential necessary, you would probably need a um a cup or something else to get it. The.

G

But they would be allowed as a secondary use to most businesses downtown. So if.

G

A business has a parking lot walmart. If they want to throw some up, they would be able to.

G

Put them up um some specifications in here and one issue which came up when some businesses were.

G

Looking at doing it was currently under the zoning, it would require some sort of facade to block it.

G

So some of the language which I kind of like a dumpster facade, you know dumpsters. They have.

G

These things built around I'm like and like so what- and this has been an issue, so I made clear.

G

And hopefully they keep this saying landscaping. Screening will not be required for the electric.

G

Transformers necessary for electric vehicle charging stations as principal use, yada yada.

G

Yada yada, so hopefully it will eliminate that barrier, so you could see them start coming up.

H

So those are two categories and the third category, which is more restrictive.

G

Would be electric vehicle charging stations as a principal use for level one through level? Three.

G

So that's if a business wants to come in and if their sole purpose is electric vehicle charging.

G

Like doing rochester, they can insert in um zones downtown or zones throughout the city without.

G

Applying for a variance, so that's the intent, I've spoke to a number of electrical vehicle experts.

G

On why there aren't that many in portsmouth? Why there's one going in rochester? Why is there's a.

G

Whole bunch of them in seabrook right next to each other, a whole bay of them, and this would address.

G

Those key issues which are identified, and so, if you look at the actual three-page document which.

G

I drafted up. It follows the same flow as the zoning. How many pages is the zoning ordinance like.

G

200 pages yeah, it's something crazy, yeah, and so this would it just follows the flow of it. The.

G

It's in the table of uses correct, so this is in the table of uses where it shows all.

G

The different zoning districts, um where my thoughts are, I'm not an expert, I'm just like.

G

My understanding is where it makes sense, and then it lists two of the three supplemental regulations.

G

I forgot to list the third one, because I am only human and we will see. I spoke to the chair of the.

G

Planning board last night, I gave him a call just as a heads up like hey. This will be before you.

G

And I'm confident city council will pass this and send it their way. I don't know what their timeline.

G

Will be but hopefully come fall. uh This will be on the books. So what's the process, josh should use.

B

To pass the city council and then go from there to the planning board correct, so we're going to refer.

G

Because it's coming from us right, we need to refer to the planning board and then the planning board.

G

They have their own process of reviewing. They'll have a public hearing on it, they'll vote on it. I.

G

Believe they only vote on it once I'm guilty of never having been to a planning board meeting.

G

The shame on you yeah and then you've missed a lot of fun. Some kind of uh work session. First talk.

J

About it, then they have a public hearing where they'll vote on it to vote, to send it to the.

A

Council, so it's usually at least a two meeting two meeting and then they'll send it back to.

G

Us and then we'll spend at least three readings on so three separate meetings. Voting on it have.

G

Another public hearing, so it's a lengthy process to change the ordinances, but this is some of.

G

The low-hanging fruit out there, um one thing I'm gonna, I'm considering- is doing something similar.

G

For solar, but solar is more touchy in the state what's allowed and what's not allowed by state law.

G

But um this was just again a low-hanging fruit. It made sense to unlock some of the potential.

G

To get not just the three-quarters of a million and taxpayer money, but letting public businesses.

G

Do their public businesses let businesses do their thing right and private um property owners.

G

Do the same as well fantastic josh! This is great. Thank you for you, thanks to you for.

B

Pulling this great work, um I had a question about the level three yeah, so I've had an electric car.

E

Three years and for a supercharger, I have to go to seabrook. So is that tied up with us not getting.

E

The volkswagen money and will we be able to have a supercharger and I don't mean downtown, I mean.

E

Close to the highway, that's where superchargers and level three chargers, not just tesla level,.

G

Three chargers that have been put in at the panera and at the um walmart and seabrook and.

G

The ones are going in rochester, those are all it's private money, that's funding it for the most part.

G

Is it panera, that's funding, I'm not positive yeah. I don't know if it's a land property owner, but.

G

It's it's just: it's not the city of rochester or this city of seabrook, saying let's put this in, but.

B

The municipality needs to provide the mechanism to allow it just like correct and there they had to.

G

So I spoke to um someone on the seabrook planning board he's a co-worker he's had some questions on.

G

This and he's like he believes that yeah they had to get a variance to get those in and it's easier.

G

To get variances in other locations than it is in portsmouth, so just and especially being told that.

E

This is kind of a blanket yeah. This is a blanket. These are a lot of somebody comes and wants to put.

E

It in correct so these this is what's allowed in these districts. You still have to do permitting.

G

Sometimes you might need to apply for a cup which is a additional user issues permit so, but they.

G

Will be allowed in certain areas and should attract more business versus hey the closest.

G

Thing to this in the zoning is a gas station, so you need everything. A gas station has which yeah.

G

This just requires parking lot and electricity yeah. Somehow we got a you know, standing.

J

um Very simple charging station at whole foods and based on what you said, I'm sure, I'm again, I'm.

J

Amazed that that happened and whole foods market on woodbury, though, isn't it sure used to be.

J

Yeah, I don't know if we permit those separately when they're part of a business, because they're.

A

They're proposing them in a couple of locations, they just went in as part of the development yeah.

G

Like they just put them in as part of that right, they didn't have to get a variance, yeah right. The.

E

Hotels, downtown, yes, yeah, and we, you know we put them in here at city hall, in the in the garage.

A

Downtown right so so they didn't got in somehow they got got past. The gas station definition well.

G

That's because it's not the sole use, it's it's accessory, it's an accessory like that's why I.

G

Said like accessories, they could do it right, but here, like the primary use, the primary use.

G

If the primaries is gonna, be electric vehicle charging, the closest thing in the current.

G

Zoning ordinance is as a standalone not related to development or anything else correct got it.

J

But this should make it easier across the board got it. Thank you scratching. Their heads wondering.

G

What's going on it's great, it's exciting, yeah! It's great, very thorough work, very impressive.

I

Time and we've got about 18 minutes left so that I'm done real, quick josh. Thank you on that.

F

The bridge street lot yeah, do you? Can you tell me again what's going in there? I know you said.

F

They're doing the infrastructure is there a plan for the station, I'm not sure where, specifically it.

G

Is but I'd imagine have a part of the lot picked out: they're running the wiring, now city owned.

G

Or it's all yeah the lot city owned. No, but I mean the eventual electric vehicle charging city owned.

F

Or partnership- private partnership- at this point- I'm not sure okay, I mean there will be funds for.

G

To be city owned, but right now, they're, just doing infrastructure, correct and they're very wide pipes.

B

Running the entire periphery, so you could put almost anything in there from what I've seen.

G

As much as I love city owned electric vehicle charging, the goal would be that 750.

G

000 goes towards that, but there'd be far. Some of that could go towards partnerships, get more.

G

More out of it, so if we could start doing public private partnerships for electrifical chargers,.

G

There's a tremendous opportunity for like sponsored charges and those types of things, but.

B

Again, we have to provide the legislation in the infrastructure or nothing can be done.

F

Get the roadblocks out of the way at the very least, which is exciting, yeah? Okay, why don't.

A

We move on to what's pcs uh fortunate climate solutions. uh Last night we had a meeting and.

I

Portsmouth climate solutions, basically, is a small group of people. Now.

I

Because I think we started out portsmouth climate solutions to get a climate action plan in place.

I

And what has happened is great that the climate action plan got feet.

I

And was running way ahead about where we were, and I think it manifests in what we saw tonight.

I

So what the climate solutions really would like is to be a public advocacy to help.

I

Get the climate plan once we get it into action, or even before so uh the minutes allison wrote was.

I

We brainstorm what we really would like to do and the next meeting we're going to continue to talk.

I

About how we can support the committee and they'd, like the committee, to ask what you know if we.

I

Have things that we wanted them to do the kind of solutions, then we can put it out to them and and.

I

They'll will try to use the portsmouth climate solutions to network, so it's kind of like that.

I

Interactive thing: we're forming a network here, uh which is the public involvement and when we talked.

I

Wes talked about hiring a consultant uh when I was talking to wes at city, forge that's. He was already.

I

Talking what are the things in place, and we have all these things in place. He spends 18 months.

I

Coming up in the one he did in santa barbara to be part of the team that would be ongoing.

I

So um I'm going to introduce something here that wasn't at the meeting last night uh that detail.

I

Once we get the five I saw tonight like energy, housing, transportation.

I

And I think we need to put social justice in there right.

I

Once we get those, I was thinking that and I think I'd like to just introduce it here.

I

Would it be useful to have a committee in the public realm.

I

That met on a regular basis as a subcommittee to give public input to the climate plan. The reason.

I

I ask this: is I walk with bill lyons, who has been a transportation expert worldwide, consulting to.

I

People, how do you do social justice and mitigation at the same time with your energy? So when I talk.

I

To him he has expertise up and down the line. You said well, I would be happy to head a committee.

I

And I was thinking well what, if he had it josh you have on electricity.

I

What if we had- and I don't know enough about structure- I'm just thinking this for next week.

I

If there was a head or a co-chair of five different committees for the identified areas,.

I

And those committees- I was thinking through portsmouth climate solutions. Bill said he'd.

I

Be happy to organize, say we had a 10-week session in the library publicly or a hybrid.

I

There would be a week where we would do the best practices that we could think of with expert input.

I

Followed by a week where the community could respond to those.

I

Best actions and write a paper that would then be submitted to the city council to this committee.

I

And would be kind of a form of a way to get it so for 10 weeks we would have that going on and.

I

I'm just playing with this as a possible structure for portsmouth climate solutions.

I

Other people had other ideas about lots of different ways to go.

I

But I that I would bring it up here and see if anybody had any specific ideas, how portsmouth.

I

Climate solutions could support the committee, the climate action plan uh or any other ideas. So I.

E

Yeah, the the whole time I was reading the climate action plans from other cities.

E

When I saw groups like carbon-free albany that I passed around with household challenges,.

E

And setting up neighborhoods not against each other but friendly rivalry. I just think that.

E

Would be a great role for portsmouth climate solutions to play the role that.

E

Cooler concord is playing or carbon free, albany or you know the community group, that's on the ground.

E

And they they could start working before. We even have a climate action plan. We could just.

E

Take what other cities are doing, look at it and adapt it york has a good group going, because I.

E

Got their emails now so if we had the five five sections and that maybe the committee.

I

Might suggest what would be the five things that we'd wanna and we could just try it as a.

E

Do you mean five sections like energy transportation, natural yeah and do each.

I

Week and get a paper kind of like portsmouth, listens, used to have a dialogue and they submit.

I

To the maybe I'm just playing with that, we also have a letter by james is doing a newsletter.

I

Where he is suggesting things to do- and I told james that he's the first newsletter.

I

Who actually got me to do something? I changed all my amazon uh deliveries to one day a week, rather.

I

Than coming out when I happened to do that, but I get off you know that was a thing yeah.

B

That's great, and so I happen, I usually don't order that much, but I had five coming and they said.

I

You could consolidate it today, one day a week, you get them all the same day. Save carbon and.

I

So forth, that's awesome! So that's what comes out in the newsletter james is cool, so wow.

I

um And does everybody on the committee get that newsletter? Well, we're that's what we're.

I

Trying to say do we want to become since james does it? How do we get information into him and.

I

And we're in a very small group now trying to say: where do we go yeah who's james.

I

He was uh somebody from drawdown solutions. We have 92 people who signed up for it. 42 came to.

I

The first course 22 came to a eight week course, and then these are the people who kind of are.

I

Now into it all the way, through the 30th week, yeah right yeah, like the navy seals of uh yeah right.

J

So navy seals a project right now so anyway, if any other comments.

I

Everybody's out well, the only comment that comes to my mind is it.

J

Might be a group to address uh for lack of a better term bipartisanship in the community and.

J

We, the country, are prone to fracture, becoming fractions and um we're very fr. We are very.

J

Fractured right now, as a country when I say social justice that include inclusion right.

J

So yeah so I'm wholeheartedly um and when you say you were talking about homes, I would.

J

I would expand it to buildings and include the commercial buildings every bit as much.

I

As the other thing, you're tired, so we're trying to define who is our audience? Who is our boundaries.

I

So I didn't want to take up too much, but I did want to get that on so wes did you want to say.

A

Something at a future meeting um I just wanted to to briefly introduce myself. um I haven't been.

J

Here in a while, this is going to take like two minutes. You can tell your whole life story in.

J

Two minutes, so I'm uh with that I'll get going, um I'm wes tater! uh I live here in portsmouth again.

J

I lived in kittery, which is another universe by the way um for a little over a year and have been.

J

Roaming around, but I'm settled back at 411 middle street. uh For those of you who don't know us.

J

411 middle street is a big, victorian house owned by bob vicaro. We live as something of an.

J

Evolving intentional community, we live in a beautiful house with a lot of artwork and one.

J

Of the best yards in portsmouth, it's wedding quality yards- that is beautiful, property.

J

Bob when touring people touring bob's partner um dan is a landscape architect uh by profession.

J

Bob is walking through the yard and he says I know 10 of the house.

J

10 of the trees, but there must be 50 here um in different species, including a redwood, by the way.

J

My my core connection to addressing climate change and solving climate change is the whole topic.

J

Of climate carbon pricing and at a subsequent meeting, um I'd like to bring that back to you.

J

Update you on, what's going on, for those that aren't familiar with this topic,.

J

um Provide some education, carbon pricing uh by all means by all accounts is the most.

J

Effective first step that countries can take to get their emissions under control.

J

um You increase the price and you uh empower all of these wonderful things that project drawdown.

J

Has, for example, uh so that's just a quick coming attraction of of what I'd like to do.

J

I I used to be in commercial, real estate. I one day I woke up and realized that I also.

J

Have something called bipolar and there's nothing more cyclical than.

J

uh Commercial real estate to balance out the cyclicalness of uh bipolar, and so I went to.

J

The liquor store for a couple of years now, I'm at whole foods it's the best job. I've ever had.

J

If you like seafood, I'm there in the afternoons, I don't see any of you. Thank you.

J

Thanks for including me, and thanks for uh the great work you're doing, thank you thanks wes great.

A

To have you, I think, that's everything, except that we need to vote a motion to approve the.

A

Minutes which we usually do at the beginning of the meeting, but um is there any emotion.

A

There's no acceptance, second, all in favor, okay, so we kept the minutes, and so I think that's all.

A

That left is a check-in unless there's another other business, you can yeah and it's a kind of.

E

A general question being on this committee: yep now that people know I'm on the committee, they come to.

E

Me with different questions like a neighbor said: what about those leaf blowers? Are those legal in.

E

Portsmouth, so I went to the ordinance and found that they're not, but I'm not sure what ordinance.

E

The noise control ordinance spell out leaf blowers or just the decibels. um It refers to.

E

Unless it's equipped with a muffler blah blah blah, so this neighbor asked me to look into it.

E

And follow up- and I I don't feel like everybody on this sustainability committee- is going to be doing.

E

Susan servicing for any question that comes up, but then another neighbor came to me and said she.

E

Had been traveling and she saw um restaurant-to-go containers where the restaurants join a group and.

E

You can subscribe and then there's boxes around town that you leave off someone's doing it already.

A

Great right, no they're doing it in another city: oh, let's bring it to portsmouth, but like.

A

These are all good ideas, yeah they're, all good ideas, um but in the climate action plan back to.

E

The uh leaf blowers should I call I don't I don't want to bother the city attorney. Call the police.

E

The police- I don't know I don't know- trying to say that people in ellen park cannot blow their leaves.

E

Well, I know um my mother used to live in new york and they outlawed them for a year.

E

From now so that landscaping, companies could have some transition time and they switched to.

E

Battery, I don't know I'd love to see not gas, they have battery ones. I o batteries. I have a battery.

B

That's why I was curious about the I. I think, that's awesome, that that we actually have a rule.

B

Against them, uh I would encourage jeffy to bring this up and I'd like to have it in the minutes.

I

Yes, that uh I think it's a good topic to bring up next week is when we get things like this.

I

uh How not so much as specific, but we're all. What are we going to put as our parameters.

I

So that's what I was trying to ask that yeah. So for our next meeting uh this you can tell your.

I

Neighbor you brought it up and we're going to talk about it more of a policy level. How can we best.

I

Support uh our community and use our time well great, to answer your specific question: the options.

G

Would be they could reach out to city attorney they could reach out to the police. They could also.

G

Fill out the reach contact, your city councillor, form and see if any of the nine of us respond and.

G

Run with it oh wow or you could try to say, click and fix it yeah. It's like how to be popular right.

G

Yeah, that's how I look at it and I'm not trying to be popular.

H

All right, unless there's another 37 years and nobody's ever asked me a question about.

H

The committee, so that shows how popular.

E

Sorry they're ticking on me.

C

Stole your wisdom anyway, so they only need any follow-up questions.

H

My next-door neighbor has a love.

H

Of leaf blowers, he does not only his yard, but all the neighbors and the street really well. I.

A

Heard a good argument against them. The thing is, I mean they're gas powered yeah. Oh, we are, I see.

C

Them filling it up, it's not just the noise, though the ordinance, so the argument against them is that.

A

They remove the organic matter from the grass and impact the ability for your grass to grow.

C

No longer mowing my lawn because they say I mean it gets to a certain point.

C

You could do something, but the actual carbon footprint of those small engines.

B

Really, california kill them horrendous. I mean oh good, because that makes them bad.

A

Right so the check-in, or is that what you're going to say yeah, I'm I'm I'm glad you're here.

A

Do you want to start, let's go to this, uh what I'm taking away.

I

Never has the committee been more powerful in terms of actually getting leverage on big topics.

G

I um was gone for two years came back and there's.

G

More energy in people never before and I was gone for.

G

All the month and um I'm really impressed the fact that there's the committee's running with things.

G

Previously, their things was just me running with it. Looking for people.

G

Now, there's other people just running with things period, which is amazing.

C

um Yeah, I think, I'm you know I've been here for more than a year now. I think and.

C

It just seems every time we meet, there's more good stuff happening, there's more to dig our proverbial.

C

Claws into and more leaf blowers to eradicate and the climate action plan is really a beacon of hope.

C

For me, especially, you know hoping hoping that portsmouth will still be here uh when I want to.

C

You know come back and not have maybe a completely waterfront property that could be avoided.

J

Could I could I ask that people introduce themselves because there are a lot of people here.

J

That I've never met before yes um and um thank you yeah, I'm ben I'm, I'm just from portsmouth.

C

High school eco club for about a year are you one of those climate activists that I so love.

J

What you're doing oh? Thank you yeah. I read the article in the paper I wanted to reach out to you.

J

And just so love what you're doing I appreciate it. Morally has been helping me a lot. Well, I'm live.

C

uh I'm laura lee and I'm feeling really excited to see everything we've been talking about about the.

C

Climate action plan, turning into like some like an actual slideshow with actual data and research.

C

That we can look at and work off of, so I'm someone who's very goal oriented. It makes me happy to see.

C

Steps moving forward and a slice of me, so I'm feeling really excited.

E

Yeah, I'm effie mally and um I'm just excited with the work we're doing and john made the.

E

Subcommittee work fun, so it was productive. Sometimes I've never heard before steve ditroleo.

F

uh As much as I want to say leaf blowers with my takeaway, I think a good takeaway is the.

F

Zoning and josh's work on just removing those zoning barriers to progress that that we're trying.

F

To advocate for here and if you're advocating for progress, you don't realize that you don't.

F

Have the enabling zoning or legislation then you're bound to run into a wall at some point, so.

F

Yeah, that's good! I'm glad! I'm glad that's happening. We should think about that more as well.

J

Take away, I I would echo what josh said: what's your name wes, I introduced myself earlier so.

J

I wasn't gonna do that again, but wes tater, 411 middle street portsmouth, new hampshire.

J

um The goose is good for the gander, said larry.

J

The the difference in the two years that have been gone is just amazing and um the work that's being.

J

Done on the climate adaptation committee and josh and leaf blowers, it's very exciting. We're gonna.

C

Have to talk more about that yeah and and the work that you guys are doing independent of here.

J

Is really inspiring you're so well organized you've done done your homework so well on how.

J

The state operates and the legislator opera legislature operates she's a force.

J

Team, yes, thank you, john kennedy. uh My takeaway is the depth and breadth. This committee has put.

C

Forward, uh I think it's it's impressive kind of on both both areas, and we all know that this is.

C

Not an easy fight, I think you need kind of lots of different battles and projects kind.

C

Of some big, some small, some really big, so I think we saw a lot of that thing.

B

um John carty similar takeaway to steve um very very happy to see what josh sent out last night.

B

And kudos to josh and kate in absentia and to peter, because this is the city and this city is.

B

Actually doing stuff we're getting stuff done, we're not just planning on getting stuff done.

B

I I'm looking forward to josh if we could maybe follow up on your solar topic, because that's.

B

Kind of near and dear to my heart as well, um but yeah. Thank you city of portsmouth um for.

H

My name is larry lariviere, um I'm impressed with the level of work that has done by this.

H

Subcommittee, um I don't think some of the other members of this committee have kept as quiet.

H

As they have been for as long as they were during your presentation and I'm.

H

Just amazed at it there's one thing that keeps running through my head and that is education.

H

It just seems like there are a lot of people that don't read the fine print, so they don't know.

H

What they need to know they read the headline and they think they know it all. At that point,.

H

But we learn by listening, so I think you've got to get people together.

H

In the educational process, in order for them to learn, that's why schools do so well, as opposed to.

H

uh Homeschooling, for most people is because those kids have somebody to direct that wes.

H

You spoke about the eco club, well, they've been at it for a number of years. They have.

H

uh A baseline and they're doing a lot of work now that other people kind of tilled, the soil.

H

So to speak, and these guys are just following in their footsteps and they're doing a great job.

G

I could hop in there for those who don't know laura lee is now a full-time member.

G

On her own, she was approved by the city council, so full-time member awards. Committee of the.

C

Community, so not part of the eco club she's part of the committee. Congratulations good to see you.

B

Laurel, you know outrank me, I'm not a member ma'am peter thanks larry, I'm peter britz.

A

Thank you for all the work you guys have been doing with the climate action plan. There's a.

A

Great presentation, I think it's great the group, the whole committee can see it see how much work.

A

You've done, and hopefully we'll continue to do because it's still a long road ahead, but.

A

We're going to make good progress and it's going to be a great start rather than just getting to.

A

Review we're going to have we're going to know what we want back at you by the way you've been.

B

Part of this since of this subcommittee since the beginning, so thank you for that.

A

That I think we can adjourn yes, would you make sure that.

I

The clarification of who's facilitating, oh thanks, bert. I think it's john, because there's some.

I

John switch over between aubrey. There are a couple switches that happen: yeah, I'm facilitating aubry.

C

Is recording next week, okay, so next meeting is last thursday. All right did you do the.

A

Minutes banner, you didn't, you did them just now. You just add that to the minutes at the.

A

End which one that john is facilitating and aubrey's recording the next meeting. Thank you.

J

So the next meeting is the last thursday of may.

A

4Th, it's always the fourth thursday okay, unless we change it. Thank you.

A

It's usually only two.