Wednesday, December 15 at  8:00am-9:30am / Town Hall, Selectmen’s Room

Next Meeting:  January 19, 2011
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE!

Present: Lyn Swett Miller (Chair), Larry Litten (Vice-Chair), Brian Walsh (Selectman), Mary Ann Cadwallader, Joanna Whitcomb (Dartmouth), Chris Kennedy, Peter Kulbacki (Public Works).

Absent: Chris Soderquist, Marjorie Rogalski
Guests: Andrea Caruso, Bill Bittinger
Guest speaker: Karen Kelly from Alliance for Climate Protection, working on Repower America — Repower at Home.

Action Items:

• Larry will meet with Frank Austin on waste.
• Larry will contact Gina Pollock about findings at Dartmouth.
• Peter Kulbacki will send Frank Austin’s talk to Lyn - Someone needs to summarize it for ‘To Done’ part of event--Lyn
• Chris K. will look into the cost of materials for the kiosk posters.
• Everyone needs to look below for action items listed in October and November.

Minutes:
Peter K. re. Town Energy Use:  Frank Austin’s report summarizing the Town’s efforts to decrease its footprint is data rich and makes the point that many projects take many years to accomplish.  The Town is committed and has already saved money improving its buildings’ energy efficiency.  The Town is looking for funding to make a visual presentation that could include Sustainable Hanover and Dartmouth’s successes as well as the successes and data reported by Frank. It will need to include key stories and honor the importance of capturing data that charts progress along the way as decreasing our carbon footprint will be a long term process.

The Town’s approach for their buildings will be to meter each building, decide on its temperature, and use such things as motion detectors to save.  It won’t be an individual choice.

Larry plans to meet with Frank on waste.  Dartmouth, too, will have some interesting data as a student has been doing a hands-on investigation (as in dumpster diving) of how the single stream recycling is working there.  Larry will contact Gina Pollock about findings at Dartmouth.

Joanna W. talked about Dartmouth’s Energy Use:
Dartmouth is monitoring energy use in every building in real time.  They can measure the effect of an open window.  They’ve installed screens in the dorms that go green or show polar bears drowning according to energy use. They’re seeing lowered energy use as they encourage collaborative and competitive action among users to conserve.energy.  They’ll be concentrating on the 25% of building stock that consumes 75% of the heating/cooling bill as they retrofit Dartmouth trustees have committed 12 million to greening Dartmouth.  (Steve Shadford.is the go-to person for more information.)

Discussion about Motivation:
Discussion followed about how to motivate and involve the average building owner; one of our jobs at the February and April events. One of our visitors reminded us that most people are motivated by love, greed, and fear—children’s future, money, and climatic consequences. Someone else reminded us that 82% of the revenues for foreign oil come from New England. We need to celebrate the Town’s progress and get more citizens involved in action and recording their data.

Repower at Home:  To this end, Karen Kelly from Alliance for Climate Protection’s Repower American/Repower at Home, an energy conservation program being piloted in New Hampshire and Washington, DC, came to talk with us.  Repower America’s goal is to mobilize the grassroots for change in climate legislation.  Initially, they pushed Congress to force polluters to pay for damages.

In her work for Repower at Home Karen approaches institutions (she gave a school example) and sets up collaborative ways for individuals within the institution to compete to lower the carbon footprint of their household.  The first step is signing a pledge to save energy (‘A clean energy future starts with me.  I pledge to save energy in my home and set the trend in my community’) which precipitates an invitation to the website, <repowerathome.com>.  An icon there gives a list of actions that a participant can pledge to do.  Opposite each action is the resultant energy savings.  e.g. The first action listed, to eliminate the use of vampire power, would save approximately 873 lbs. of coal yearly in the average household.  

It’s expected that success in lowering household energy use, will empower folks to look for the next thing to do at home and at their place of work.  The process therefore is organic and depends on a bump from collaborative action and success.

We discussed using the tools on the website and how some modifications to the data feedback there would allow people using programs that measure in ‘kilowatts’ or ‘money’ (like Clean Air/Cool Planet, Carbon Challenge, Do Your Part Climate.Org) rather than in ‘lbs. of coal’ to make better use of it.  We encouraged her to have a handout that listed 6-10 actions, rather than 4.  Both of these changes would be useful if she were to give the Building Efficiency workshop sessions at our February event, which she agreed to do.

Given the growing number of climate websites, Sustainable Hanover may need to recommend some websites and beginning actions so that the community will speak the same language, can work together on some actions and celebrate the results of collaboration.

A common language when discussing data and action is not only needed in our community but regionally.  Bill Bittinger spoke to this and the part Vital Communities played in facilitating a Municipal Energy Action Plan for Lebanon which produced a poster size graphic.  What about a MEAP for each town and then for the region?  This Municipal Benchmark, then, would allow towns to measure their progress against an average and could encourage sharing of best practices.  A common language for data and financial reporting among the region’s towns would be helpful.

February 26th Event:
Peter Kulbacki will send Lyn Frank Austin’s talk to Lyn.  Someone needs to summarize it for ‘To Done’ part of event.
Budgeting for Advertising: We agreed to include a calendar when we place an ad for our February and April events.  In the end we asked for a budget that would cover 4 newspaper ads, 2 Sustainable Hanover across-the-street banners that could announce events, and materials for 6 large posters for our kiosk. Chris K. will look into the cost of materials for the kiosk posters.

Respectfully submitted,

Mary Ann Cadwallader

Unfinished Business from previous minutes follows:
February 26, 2011 Community Workshop:
a. Review Goals (Celebration & Sharing; Context for Action; Developing Plans for Action in Strategic Areas)
b. Data Gathering (Ad Hoc Energy Committee?)
c. Implementation Process: Power Down Power Ten Families (1 Year Focus Group)
d. Brainstorm attendees & key players from faith communities
Action Items:
-Lyn will work with Chris K. to gather data in time for the Feb workshop
-Schools project – Data Gathering, Carbon Challenge.
-Choose what additional data we want.
• Chris Kennedy: Town Buildings Report – Write up summary by the end of December;
• Chris S., Lyn: Agenda for February workshop to verify and finalize in December
• Lyn will write a draft advertisement for the Power Ten families & Contact Clean Air, Cool Planet for possible funding
February Event Plan
December:
• Identify all champions and agenda for February workshop;
• Food – Ask Emily for Co-op involvement
• Sign off on strategic areas…
• Families – What will the children do?
• Finalize events that will occur in January to stimulate interest/involvement
January:
• Finalize speakers/facilitators for strategic sessions;
• Finalize food, etc.
• Finalize advertising/marketing
February:
• Finalize presentations for the entire group
-Patrick O’Neal – Chief parking person in the town. Question: constant circulation.
Misc. topics:
Issue now about peripheral lots. Parking & Transportation board. Upper Valley
Transit Association is a useful part of the conversation, but they don’t have money.
Dartmouth has been and could be more involved.
How many tons of carbon based on dropping kids at the middle, elementary and high school? HHS students Calculate?

3. Who/Topics:
a. Transportation in Hanover: Patrick O’Neal in town (Bike/ped)
b. Residential Land Use: Lawns, gardens, rain gardens (Larry)
c. Buildings – Why, Context: Weatherization, energy usage, heat (Bob Walker)
d. Collaborative Consumption/Local economy/Consumerism/Consumption – Waste/Recycling
e. Saving money / saving energy / Financial planner/Physician/Carbon Planning
i. Marjorie – NPR
f. Power Ten: Families: Ad in the paper – recruit to research studies – ad, high school student
projects… Track for a year… (Lyn will create structure for this)
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Action Archive from October Meeting not reported upon in Nov. or Dec.:
* Lyn and Chris S. will address website items,how we want to be represented on the Town’s new website, bar graphs showing before and after energy use of Town’s projects, recording Celebrations and Challenges. .
*Chris Kennedy will compile and show the carbon-footprint reduction of the improvements made at the Waste Water Treatment Plant;
* Julia Griffin will share her To Done list with Lyn. Julia is it in your purview to ask Charlie Sullivan to redo the CPC Energy Audit of the Town as a comparison?
* Peter Kulbacki will get a summary from Kevin Mclean of the Waste Water project.