Jan. 16, 2008 Russ (chair), Brian, Pam, Rob (secretary). Meeting called to order, we have a quorum. Agenda: * Finalize warrant article * vote on carbon footprint consultant * working session #1 on draft energy action plan Approved Jan. 2, 2008 minutes (which includes the above agenda). (Rob post and make official on web site, after I get email from Brian). All: discussion of details of warrant article. (to be included with the minutes when Brian emails it to me). All: voted on and accepted the modified warrant article. Russ: let's all note that we have solicited three bidders and one verbal and two written proposals for the carbon footprint study. And we did not consider the verbal proposal. The two remaining bidders are Jim Shipsky and ICLEI. Pam: Jim has performed Hull's carbon footprint study, but ICLEI has done many worldwide. Russ: Jim is $5000 more than ICLEI who has done this many times. Brian: In both cases the ICLEI software will be used, so the result will be the same. How much support will we get from each? Russ: We will get more connections from ICLEI. Brian: I suspect that the product will be more detailed and professional from ICLEI. Russ: How are we going to approach the household part of the carbon footprint study? Pam: ICLEI included the residential assessment in their proposal. They have all the sectors covered that we have here in town (municipal, residential). Brian: What kind of customer service will we get from each bidder? Jim is local and a helpful person. Pam: ICLEI has been very responsive, their office is in Boston. They also included $600. for membership that we have already paid. So the ICLEI proposal is $14,400. Jim's is $20,000. Russ: I seem to remember a full consultant with a volunteer base to collect the data. Pam: (reading proposal from ICLEI) ... collect all data, use ICLEI software, do presentation. Russ: Jim seems to offer as follow on work, the next step recommendations for the town. ICLEI has this included in the (lower) cost. Russ: I call for a motion for a vote on the carbon footprint study vendor. Pam: I make a motion that we vote, who votes for ICLEI? All: unanimous vote. Brian: Pam is ICLEI liaison, Brian is her backup. Contact John so he can start P.O. paper work for HMLP. Pam: I will email John and email ICLEI. Russ: I will email Jim. Brian: is the new committee name of "energy action committee" OK? All: yes. Brian: I suggest we set up the work on our energy action plan in 4 buckets (similar to Newton): * energy efficiency * cleaner energy * transportation * solid waste management Pam: this is going to be shaped by what we find in the carbon footprint study. Brian: this is only a draft for the town meeting. We need to have a draft to present to the town. Russ: the carbon footprint study will be done by town meeting, we should have time to incorporate the results into this plan. Brian: we need a pretty tangible outline and scope for this document. A big part is the carbon footprint study. We need to compare to other towns, benchmark our town, make long and short term goals. The new committee will manage those goals. Pam: do we just want to use Newton's plan as our outline? Russ: yes, that is a great idea. Russ: we just need to read the executive summary at the town meeting. Rob: is Newton's plan copyrighted? Check this! Brian: what we don't have now are the recommendations that ICLEI will recommend. That will give us many actions to add to the plan's goals. Pam: perhaps we can get early feedback from ICLEI to put in the draft plan for town meeting. Brian: we have a professional company with ICLEI, they will give us good advice and suggestions. The with the ICLEI data, we could hire someone to write a detailed action plan like Newton's. Russ: I don't see any copyright on the Newton plan document. It was written by an intern, Emelia Raven, supported by some institute and MIT. Russ: Brian, were your thoughts that we would each take a section of the document and work on it? Brian: well, if we can get Newton's plan in Word format, we can each just edit a section. Russ: Newton addresses all the factors we care about. They even address making the town more walkable, public transit connectors, etc. Russ: I think we should read the document (Newton's) and assign the buckets to members. Russ: Let's assign people to these buckets. * energy efficiency (buildings, building codes) Rob * HMLP green project rebate program John * cleaner energy (generation - wind/solar/geo thermal, distribution) Brian * transportation (T? train, boat) Russ * solid waste management (dump!) Pam Russ: has emailed the Newton plan to everyone so we can start reading and editing it. Pam: Rob will try to take Newton plan in PDF format and convert it to Word. I will try to get a Word copy of the Newton plan, perhaps from ICLEI? Brian: each person will review and prepare a bullet point summary of their sections. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Meeting is adjourned at 9:20 p.m. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Next meeting: Jan. 30 7:30pm. Here is a link to the warrant article we produced: town meeting warrant article