A Community Worshop on Climate Change Solutions

~ Group Summaries ~

On October 4, 2007, Sandpoint Mayor Ray Miller hosted a Call to Action on Climate Change – a meeting on community-based solutions. The program participants broke into groups, each addressing a different category of climate change solutions. Below are summaries from those groups.

• Energy Efficiency / Renewable Energy
• Land Use
• Transportation
• Waste Management
• Water Conservation

Bruce Millard, Facilitator

Ways to reduce energy In Buildings - Home, Business, and Government Facilities

Top Five:

Reducing Lighting and Appliance Energy

Reduce domestic hot water energy

Reduce Heating Loads of Building

Support Alternative Energy Source by buying ‘Green Tags’

Use available Solar Energy to lower your heating and lighting costs

More:

Investigate Utility rebate programs and conservation programs

Cut power to electronic equipment when not being used with a power strip or unplugging

Create Energy onsite

• Install solar hot water heaters.
• Install solar electric collectors
• If stream onsite, explore installing small hydro system to create energy
• If great wind site, explore installing small windmill to create energy

Collect Rainwater from roofs and use for landscaping

Reduce waste from building and site

Government Policies:

Support exploring Wind Energy Development – Baldy Mountain noted as top 10 sites

Support Conservation Programs of Non Profits --- and push State and Federal Government for Energy Conservation and Regional Alternative Energy Development Policy

Adopt existing Energy Savings Building Programs – do not start over.

Start with volunteer programs and phase into law for residential buildings

Reduce development impact fees for Green Buildings.

Educational Programs

Cottage Industries can be developed thru educational programs – City can promote concept for new small local businesses in the City – similar to the Business Incubator program

City should work with other communities in Idaho and Washington on ideas and programs. PARTNER with others, LEARN from others

Some Informational Websites

http://www.smartcommunities.ncat.org/buildings/gbedtoc.shtml

http://www.cascadiagbc.org/

http://architecture2030.org/  Design Challenge

John Reuter and Nancy Gilliam, Facilitators

[bold marks the key points group wanted to emphasize]

1. Require roof gardens or have incentives for them; especially businesses. Overall discussion about how buildings need to neutralize their impact to the landscape.
2. Require tree canopy be maintained
3. Require permeable paving
4. Any trees that have to be removed, use as biofuel.
5. Parking lots have solar panels
6. Underground parking
7. Restrict development in the county/keep it in or closer to city. More compact housing. Cluster housing in city and county. Build UP
8. Incentives/regulations for urban and rural sustainable [single tree/select cutting] forestry. Have more powerful consequences/fines; enough people to enforce; all new developments include these.
9. Forestry education for landowners about climate, forests, fire, water relationships.
10. Alternatives to burning slash would yield new jobs
11. Strengthen wetland codes
12. Road restrictions pertaining to current trends of cutting roads high into the mountains, vertical, up rocky slopes.
13. Funding sufficient for oversight of all of these; for monitoring and enforcement.
14. Education: group felt people want to do the right thing if they only knew how and why. Recommended city/county have every dept educate citizens about climate change actions they can take: when getting a zoning/building permit, landscaping needs, chemical usage, as they become oriented to living here. Give citizens the economic advantages of sustainable practices. The City/county ought to provide Information services.
15. As a part of #14, we discussed the role of the Univ of ID in this sustainable education project for all citizens. Demonstration model, hands on, well staffed location for people to see and learn these concepts.
16. Highlight the "opportunities" of sustainable practices.
17. Increase the amount of press given/success stories.
18. Theme: the community should adopt a tag line/theme: "Sandpoint is a Green Community" and post it everywhere. Have a school contest for this.
19. The county needs to fund green space protection…protecting ridgelines, views. Trade out some existing county holdings for prime lands.

City specific suggestions

1. Urban Sustainability regulations and incentives for buildings
2. Funds for public education on sustainability: flyers, internet, via govt depts.
3. Green theme [#18 above]
4. Demonstration site: [#15 above]
5. Sustainability Education Bulletin Boards at various locations: City Beach, chamber of commerce, city parking lots, grocery store, Walmart, gas stations, all schools, Starbucks

Sue Traver and Susan Drumheller, Facilitators

Overall bicycling and local food production seemed to generate the most discussion.

Bicycling: Perhaps the most discussed issue.

• In-street bike lanes are very much needed, and other safety measures, to help encourage bike use. A dedicated bicycle lane is needed on Church Street to help get bikes safely through downtown.
• Workplaces should encourage bicycling by providing bike racks, lockers and showers, and even by charging employees to park vehicles.
• Education of motorists, businesses, police and cyclists is important, too, so people know the rules of the road and rights of cyclists.
• The city could implement/help with borrow-a-bike and rent-a-bike programs.
• Kids should be encouraged to walk/ ride bikes/ or ride the bus to school. Now one in five parents drives their kids to school. Perhaps an incentive program.
• Cover bike paths with solar grids.

Walking town:

• More and better sidewalks – disabled access;
• Close down the downtown to vehicles; make it a pedestrian downtown (except for handicapped, delivery of goods, emergency vehicles and other certain exceptions).
• Land use planning that allows for walking and bicycling to services, work.

Commuting/ Mass transit:

• What opportunities exist for commuter trains between Sandpoint and Kootenai County or Spokane?
• Light Rail?
• A park-and-ride for commuters to Coeur d’Alene;
• Workplaces should encourage teleconferencing and telecommuting;
• A well-organized car-pooling program may work for Sandpoint-Coeur d’Alene commuters.
• Bus shuttles to popular destinations, like the ski area (not just up the mountain, but to the mountain);
• Regular bus system or trolley through town.

Fleet Management:

• City should audit it’s fleet usage: how much fuel is used, whether too many employees are issued vehicles, carpooling opportunities;
• City should purchase hybrids or electric or other efficient vehicles;
• City should run vehicles on biodiesel and help create a market for biodiesel.
• (Concern regarding biodiesel and the pollution created to manufacture it and the impact on food production – using restaurant grease is OK, but isn’t good to raise the price of basic foodstuff because of the demand for biodiesel ingredients).

Food:

Need to encourage locally grown foods through a variety of measures; such as supporting the Farmers Market; encouraging, planning for the siting of community gardens; maybe even tearing out concrete and growing fruit trees; edible landscaping and finding ways the city can promote the purchase of locally grown foods, and coordinate farm-to-market efforts.

Miscellaneous:

• Roundabouts to lessen idling cars;
• Use LED lights in traffic lights;
• Have more educational forums like this to engage the community.

Kim Marshall, Facilitator

• This is a mileage issue as well as a volume issue. (6 hour haul for our trash to landfill site in Oregon.)
• Positive change will require shifts at both the end-user level (choices made by individuals, families, businesses) as well as at the city/county/state level.
• Therefore, two primary needs: education/PR, and increased collaboration across entities (city, county, businesses, etc)

Specific Suggestions Made to the City of Sandpoint:

1. Set progressively higher targets for the percentage of the waste generated in the city that is recycled.
2. Offer a smaller trash cart option and charge less per month for these.
3. Increase yard waste pick up (many municipalities offer weekly pickup on trash day) to substantially reduce yard waste going into 6-hour haul trash stream.
4. Collaborate with county on creation and maintenance of a regional compost-making site. Make the finished compost available for pick up at the site for free. Benefits: reduce burning; reduce hauling in to the area of pre-bagged plastic sacks. Creating free source of compost can also assist in water conversation measures by making mulching more cost-effective.
5. Increase the items that can be recycled, especially white office paper, mixed paper, including pasteboard (cereal boxes etc) and cardboard in larger sizes.
6. Low hanging fruit to generate change in behaviors that will reduce trash: increase distribution of information on what is currently available for recycling options and for city yard waste pick-ups.
7. Have an ongoing recycling education/encouragement campaign. Use recycling services, home compost, use municipal yard waste composting when available, cloth shopping bags, encourage reduced packaging (including use of cloth shopping bags) highlight recycling successes – both business and family.
8. Make recycling available to multi-family units and businesses as well.
9. Lobby to the state to classify compact and long tube fluorescents as hazardous waste.
10. Explore potential collaboration with the county and the school district to see if combining resources (perhaps space, perhaps $, perhaps something else) could strengthen recycling options at both.
11. Explore co-mingled option for recycling. (All recycling goes into one barrel and is sent to Seattle? Portland? Where it is machine sorted.)
12. Create tool sharing, like a tool library, to reduce purchases of infrequently used tools.
13. Create a city version of the Dufort and Colburn Culver Malls (free re-useable section at the county waste sites.)

Ideas concerning education needed:

1. Primary focus on localization – maximizing our region’s abilities to meet its own needs.
2. Make the new paradigm hip and cool. Include a focus on What is Meaningful
3. Focus on Reduce and Re-Use as well as Recycle.
4. Find case studies of businesses that improve their bottom line when they attend to Reduce, Re-Use, Recycle.

In the time we had, we barely touched this topic. Worth capturing though: from Mayor Miller’s introduction to the topic:

We do not control the water that flows through Sandpoint. Bigger and more powerful downstream users do. Without water conservation, the summer high level for the lake could easily end up four feet lower, which could devastate many summer tourist industry aspects.

Additional points of discussion:

Storm water and grey water for irrigation. Encourage cisterns and rainbarrel use. There is a source for rain barrels down in Athol.

Click on Read More to see the Participants' Commitment Summary

~ Participants’ Commitment Summary ~

On October 4, 2007, Sandpoint Mayor Ray Miller hosted a Call to Action on Climate Change – a meeting on community-based solutions. Many program participants made commitments to take action on climate change. Below are summaries of those commitments. (26 commitment forms were turned in representing 28 people.)

In November we will check back in with everyone to see how they are doing on their commitments, and we will post the results.