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HomeMy WebLinkAboutGreenleaf Commission 2019-01-16 th MINUTES OF THE 11 REGULAR MEETING OF GREENLEAF COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABILITY On Wednesday, January 16, 2019, the above meeting for the Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability of the City of Livonia was held in the West Conference Room of the Livonia Department of Public Works,12973 Farmington Road, Building 12, Livonia. Chairperson James Baringhaus opened the meeting at 7:00 p.m. Members present: James Baringhaus Elizabeth Calhoun John Grzebik Michael Shesterkin Paul Sgriccia Members absent: None Also present: Jacob Rushlow, Superintendent of DPW Victoria Krause, Secretary I at DPW Shawn Grose, Eco-Schools at Hoover Elementary Terry Cullum, potential Commission Member 1. Hoover Elementary Eco-School Update. Shawn Grose returned to give the Greenleaf Commission an update on how Hoover Elementary has progressed as an Eco-School in the two months since the last Greenleaf Commission Meeting. He informed the commission that Chairman Baringhaus had visited Hoover Elementary and witnessed the third graders audit food waste at lunch time. The students were taught how to weigh the uneaten food that is being thrown away. They have found that 20 pounds of food were being wasted daily at Hoover. Mr. Grose extrapolated and figured out that they were wasting 3,600 pounds a year just at Hoover Elementary. He estimated that they are wasting approximately 49,000 pounds of food a year in Livonia at the K-4 level. In order to reduce the amount of wasted food, the students are looking at a food share table or donating the food to a shelter. Additionally, they are working with General Motors on a Go Green Project, 1 of 12 in the Midwest where an engineer comes in to work with the students. Chairman Baringhaus asked Mr. Grose how many of the thirteen K-4 Livonia Schools are active in sustainability. Mr. Grose responded that some are Michigan Green Schools. The schools are considered elite after teaching the students 25 lessons whereas Eco-Schools are student lead. The Chairman also asked how Mr. Grose would expand into other schools. Mr. Grose said that he would be meeting with principals and offering to audit their schools. The Chairman asked to be appraised of dates and Eco-School events at Hoover Elementary. 2. 2019 City of Livonia Greenleaf Award. Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability th 11 Regular Meeting of January 16, 2019 Page 2 Chairman Baringhaus presented three nominees for the 2019 City of Livonia Greenleaf Award. The first nominee was Livonia Public Schools nominated by Performance Engineering Group Inc for their new boiler program. The building automation systems that were added over a five-year period identified excess boiler use. Due to this information, they decided to install high efficiency boilers in Frost Middle School as a pilot program. With the new boilers, they saw reductions in energy use, greenhouse gas emissions, costs, and natural gas usage. The second nominee was the Eco-Action Program at Hoover Elementary and was nominated by Shawn Grose. Hoover Elementary was the first Michigan school to receive the Green Flag Award by the National Wildlife Federation. The third nominee was Great Lakes Recycling (GLR) which was put back into the running by the Chairman after being previously nominated. GLR recycles metal, electronics and junk cars. GLR owns www.scrappost.com, a global marketplace to list and purchase scrap. In addition, GLR is involved with the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) Detroit chapter, creating vehicle donations to support mental illness services. Commissioner Shesterkin began the discussion. He said that Livonia Public School’s main focus was on being green but that is not what this is all about. He was also shocked that they were using such inefficient boilers for so long. Commissioner Shesterkin felt that Shawn Grose’s work with the Eco-Action Program at Hoover ranked high. On the other hand, GLR is a business within the community that is making money off scrap and doing it more efficiently and less impactfully than most. Commissioner Grzebik concurred stating that Livonia Public Schools was making a good step forward and being a good steward of the taxpayer’s money, but they should be recognized by the school board. Hoover Elementary has already received recognition for the work they have done to become an Eco-School. GLR most fits the award criteria and why the award was created. Commissioner Calhoun liked the work being done at Hoover Elementary, but they are working with the Chamber of Commerce for the award and they prefer a business. Commissioner Sgriccia agreed that business is what the award is intended to acknowledge so his first pick would be GLR. The Chairman asked for Terry Cullum, a potential new commissioner, to share his thoughts. His background was in scrap metal for GM and believed that if you are doing it well you should be recognized, so he was in agreement that GLR was the best candidate for the award. Upon a motion made by Shesterkin, seconded by Grzebik, it was: #1-19 RESOLVED, that the Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability does hereby agree to present the 2019 City of Livonia Greenleaf Award to Great Lakes Recycling (GLR). A roll call vote was taken on the foregoing resolution with the following result: AYES: Baringhaus, Calhoun, Grzebik, Sgriccia, and Shesterkin. NAYS: None. The resolution was adopted unanimously. Chairman Baringhaus informed the commission that this year’s award would be designed by last year’s award recipient, End Grain Woodworking. They will be using a wood beam from Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability th 11 Regular Meeting of January 16, 2019 Page 3 an old farm house in Livonia that is being torn down. As the Greenleaf Commission logo is still a work in progress, they will use the City of Livonia logo on the award. 3. 2019 Greenleaf Commission Goals. The Chairman briefly discussed the 2019 Greenleaf Commission Goals. o 2019 Greenleaf Award Presentation o Launch Greenleaf Sustainability Leaders Recognition Program o Earth Day Event o Zero Waste Education Development o Greenleaf Website Redesign o Greenleaf Commission Logo o Star Community Metrics Implementation The 2019 Greenleaf Award recipient was chosen at this meeting and the launch date was scheduled for February of 2019. The Greenleaf Sustainability Leaders Recognition Program will be discussed at the March 2019 meeting and launched in the second quarter of 2019. Chairman Baringhaus indicated that they needed to start looking into what they wanted to do for their Earth Day Event as they may need to apply for grants or solicit donations. Commissioner Grzebik volunteered to start looking into an event. He was going to get in contact with the DPW and the Parks and Recreation Department to see what event they have scheduled. The Chairman stated that zero waste education will be added to the website once the redesign has been done. Commissioner Sgriccia suggested that the redesign of the website needed to be funded so that they could hire someone to complete it. The Chairman notified him that the website would be redesigned by the City of Livonia IT Department. Commissioner Sgriccia said that it is not getting there, and a consultant is needed. He thought that they may be able to get a grant to have someone hired for the redesign. He informed the commission that RRRASOC uses Iris for their website design. Commissioner Shesterkin felt that by hiring someone for the redesign, they would be getting a sense of credibility and expertise. He also suggested the commission have an app for residents. The Chairman said that the City has discussed an app and he would make a recommendation about the designer. The goal is to discuss zero waste education at the March meeting and launch it in the second quarter of 2019, while the website redesign would be discussed at the May meeting and launched in the third quarter of 2019. With the redesign of the website the Chairman would like to see the Star Community Metrics dashboard included. Chairman Baringhaus has decided that the current logo designs are not in line with what the commission would like. He believes that they should just start from scratch as the Madonna University Students that did the first logo designs have mostly graduated. He stated that they need to give the new student designers more guidance on what they wanted. On that note, he asked the commissioners to forward him any designs that they see that they like so that they can give the students a reference of what they would be looking for in a logo. The logo will be discussed further at the May meeting and launched in the third quarter of 2019. 4. Recycling and Reuse Charette. Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability th 11 Regular Meeting of January 16, 2019 Page 4 Commissioner Shesterkin informed the council that the purpose of the charette is to determine the will of the people involved and that today there is general lack of political will do things because voters may get upset. He explained that a charette is a small group input session in order to advance a project with optimal success. For the proposed charette he determined that they would need ninety-five people. In order to find these people, they would need to enlist the assistance of the leaders of the Nextdoor App in neighborhoods throughout the city. Using the app, they would try to find an equal number of residents that actively recycle and those that do not. Once they had the ninety-five participants, they would break them into two groups to make them more manageable and to need fewer facilitators. The group of approximately forty- eight would then be broken down into small groups of six or eight with a facilitator for each group. Each small group would start with a team building exercise to build trust and foster open and honest conversation. They would then do small group conversation followed by reporting and wrap-up. Commissioner Shesterkin thought they may be able to find a college student that would be willing to volunteer to help for a capstone or practicum project. He felt the charette would show that they were taking effort and using science to determine the actual desire of the residents of the City of Livonia. Commissioner Sgriccia stressed the need for a neutral title, for example Municipal Waste, so that non-recyclers would not be defensive walking into the charette. Chairman Baringhaus suggested that the small group meeting to collaborate on the recycling ordinance could also organize the charette. The Chairman wanted to ask Jacob Rushlow, Superintendent of DPW, about the progress of the large recycling carts with the City Council, but Mr. Rushlow had to leave due to a large watermain break. Commissioner Shesterkin stated that the need for the charette was dependent on if the carts were still an option. Commissioner Sgriccia stated that the council needed to know what the residents wanted either way. 5. Hines Park Mill Run Project. Chairman Baringhaus stated that he couldn’t see the Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability doing anything directly. Commissioner Calhoun shared that it was going to be on tonight’s Council Meeting only in that they would be agreeing to put it on the agenda for the Committee of the Whole on Wednesday, January 23, 2019. Commissioner Sgriccia asked if the land being sold in the Hines Park Mill Run Project were flood plains. Chairman Baringhaus informed the commission that the 14+ acres surrounding Willcox Mill are the issue. There are only 1.8 acres being sold with Newburgh Mill. The sites that are for sale are not currently accessible and the sale of these properties with give the public more access. 6. New Business. Ford Police Cruiser 2020 Chairman Baringhaus mentioned the email that he sent to all the Commissioners containing the link to information on the new 2020 Ford Hybrid Police Cruiser. He mentioned that they Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability th 11 Regular Meeting of January 16, 2019 Page 5 might want to make a recommendation to the city. He also suggested researching local cities to see if they are using hybrid cruisers. Introduction from Terry Cullum Commissioner Sgriccia asked Terry Cullum, potential commissioner, to introduce himself. Mr. Cullum informed the commission that he has been a Livonia resident for 31 years and was a recent retiree from GM. Most of his career at GM he dealt with materials engineering by getting recycled materials into the vehicles and hazardous materials out. He was the representative of sustainability for GM. Recognition for Leaving Member Commissioner Grzebik asked if there is any recognition done, such as a letter of recognition, for members when they leave a commission. The Chairman was unsure but said that he would check with the mayor to see if they were provided a certificate to recognize their service. Inquires There was one inquiry to the Greenleaf Commission on Sustainability made by Best Buy. They would like to have some of their sustainable home products added to the Greenleaf website. The Chairman said that this was something that they could investigate when the website is redone. Audience Communication None. 7. Approval of Minutes. On a motion by Calhoun, seconded by Shesterkin, the Minutes of the November 14, 2018, meeting was approved with Grzebik abstaining since he did not attend the November meeting. On a motion by Sgriccia, seconded by Calhoun, and unanimously adopted, the meeting of January 16, 2019, was adjourned at 8:38 p.m. Next Meeting –March 20, 2019 at 7:00 p.m. West Conference Room, DPW Administration Office JAMES BARINGHAUS, CHAIRPERSON GREENLEAF COMMISSION ON SUSTAINABILITY