San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW)
PARTNERS MEETING SUMMARY NOTES January 6, 2011 | 10:00 a.m. County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room | 5961 South Mooney Blvd., Visalia, CA 93277 Attendees: Lew Nelson, City of Tulare Kim Loeb, City of Visalia Rhonda Mann, County of Kings Gail Henry, County of Tulare
Courtney Kalashian, SJVCEO Maureen Hoff, SJVCEO
Cal Rossi, SCE Frank Lauro, So Cal Gas
Mark Okino, SCE Jesse Langley, SCE Bill DeLain, SCE
Loren Aiton, U.S. Green Building Council
Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277 Time: 10:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m. Next Meeting: Thursday, February 3, 2011 Location: County of Tulare RMA, RMA Main Conference Room, 5961 South Mooney Boulevard, Visalia, CA 93277
Agenda Topics on January 6, 2011 Welcome and Introductions Energy Savings Goals for 2010 Marketing and Outreach Report 2011 Strategic Planning Direct Install California Sustainability Alliance 2010 Showcase Awards Other Business a. Energy Upgrade California Stakeholder Meeting b. Sierra Nevada Energy Watch Best Practices c. Facilitator for next meeting d. Action items 8. Adjourn VIEW Partnership Meeting
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Summary of Discussion: •
Kim Loeb called the meeting to order at 10:05am and the meeting began with introductions. To accommodate guest, Loren Aiton, the agenda order was changed and the meeting started with item four, 2011 Strategic Planning.
2011 Meeting Schedule: February 3, 2011; March 3, 2011; April 7, 2011; May 5, 2011; June 2, 2011; July 7, 2011; August 4, 2011; September 1, 2011
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) •
2011 Strategic Planning Courtney Kalashian introduced Loren Aiton, architect and U.S. Green Building Council Central California chapter (USGBC CC) board member, as one of the consultants to assist with Partnership Strategic Planning work. The USGBC CC has a nine member board of directors that will assist the partnership. Loren, Dax Brott, and Robert Mijares will serve as the main advisory committee. Loren explained how the USGBC CC is a great fit to serve as a consultant for the Partnership. Besides the obvious association of LEED, the chapter is also committed to sustainability throughout the region from Kern County to Merced County. He is excited about the opportunity and believes the project is right in keeping with the goals of the USGBC CC. The chapter will be volunteering their time to work on the strategic planning project and hopes to utilize their variety of staff skill-sets to develop a regional Climate Action Plan (CAP) template. Loren’s principle job is as an architect at Taylor Teter and specializes in sustainability; Robert Mijares is a civil engineer, specializes in storm water pollution prevention, and is certified to offer education in this area; Dax Brott is in mechanical business at BMI and is actively in tune with energy related matters. The board also has a HERS rater, environmental planners, and members who focus on other aspects of sustainability. The USGBC CC understands that the Central Valley is unique and Loren very much wants to tailor the CAP template to the region. He understands that some of the VIEW partner agencies have already begun, but hopes to facilitate the process and reduce the amount of time that it takes to put together. Courtney Kalashian added that the City of Visalia and the City of Tulare are already underway in their CAP process. She noted that the project has been outlined to take up minimal staff time. Loren explained that the SJVCEO and USGBC CC also share staff so the work would be seamless and efficient. Courtney recently spoke with the City of Tulare consultant who has been working on the city’s CAP and volunteered to speak with the USGBC CC advisory committee to share public information regarding their CAP. Jesse Langley asked if Loren or the USGBC CC had done work like this before. Loren said they have not specifically done Climate Action Plans; however, they have done other sustainability type of work and they have the resources to tailor the template to the region and to engage at the state level. Loren believes the last third of the project is always the piece that has to be customized so the USGBC CC will take it as far as possible before turning over a template to the partnership. Kim Loeb added that he wasn’t aware of a regional template for customization and asked Jesse Langley if he knew of something. Jesse thought there might be something for northern California but Loren believes that up there they are more ‘regionalistic’ and tend to be less collaborative. Jesse reminded everyone that there should be about 6 or 8 regional templates created over the next year out of the partnerships and hopefully they can all
2011 Meeting Schedule: February 3, 2011; March 3, 2011; April 7, 2011; May 5, 2011; June 2, 2011; July 7, 2011; August 4, 2011; September 1, 2011
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) build on each other to merge into one concept. The Coachella Valley region is similar to the San Joaquin Valley so there should be interesting comparisons. Bill DeLain asked if home builder associations have or should have a role in planning. Loren said it will be difficult to work with the Building Industry Association (BIA) but it is important to show them the wisdom of green building. There was also discussion about inclusion of a municipal piece and community piece in the CAPs. Both pieces need to be included; however, the best place to start with this partnership is the municipal side because that is the natural first step. Gail Henry was concerned for Tulare County because the community emissions are larger than the municipal emissions. Loren understood and agreed that jurisdiction customization will be key once a general template has been created. After Loren finished his presentation, Courtney reviewed the provided Strategic Planning progress report that showed deliverables for each menu item. The processes and procedures document will essentially be a ‘how to benchmark’ document and should allow someone to pick it up and do it. •
Energy Savings Goals for 2010 Courtney addressed that some projects seem to have ‘fallen off’ the list of projects for the partnership. Mark Okino wasn’t aware of why this was happening and said he does his best to filter through the list every month. Jesse Langley suggested keeping track of projects in a separate file so it is cumulative/accurate. Mark will look into the issue. Courtney thanked Gail Henry and the County of Tulare for their persistence. After putting in a call to the Air District there has finally been movement with the EECBG contract! Frank Lauro also provided a handout with a SCG project list. He highlighted some of the biggest gas users in the partnership so as to identify a focus for where to find savings.
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Marketing and Outreach Maureen Hoff presented a recap of the 2010 Holiday Light Exchange. Overall the program was a great success and almost all of the lights purchased were distributed. A final count and participant data will be provided to SCE before the end of January to count the savings from the program. Kim Loeb collected old strands after the meeting to take to SUNSET for recycling. Unfortunately the Holiday Light Exchange will not be returning, but Maureen will work with Jesse and Frank to find an alternate such as the lamp exchange program. Courtney added that our light exchange efforts inspired the City of San Joaquin to search for a funding source to do their own program after they read the Visalia newspaper article.
2011 Meeting Schedule: February 3, 2011; March 3, 2011; April 7, 2011; May 5, 2011; June 2, 2011; July 7, 2011; August 4, 2011; September 1, 2011
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) VIEW will have a booth at this year’s Visalia SpringFest Home and Patio Show from February 10th – 12th. Maureen passed around a sign-up sheet for volunteers and will also send it around again via email. Kim asked the utility managers if there was a new whole house flyer to use at events. The old one was very popular but then was pulled. Someone thought the Mobile Education Unit (MEU) brought the current flyers to events but suggested it would be nice for VIEW to have its own stash when we don’t use the MEU. Courtney presented a 2011 event calendar to show where the partnership plans on going this year based on 2010 event reports. We will not be returning to the Woodlake Rodeo because it did not offer the right market. Besides the events listed on the spreadsheet, we also encourage self-staffed events so we can add to the existing schedule. The partnership is almost out of chip clips and would like to order new marketing materials. Maureen presented an idea Leslie Caviglia suggested – bookmarks with a removable seed paper product that can be planted. Gail Henry suggested a combination chip clip and magnet. Courtney suggested reusable bags but Lew Nelson felt we already have market saturation with those. Kim Loeb added that whatever we do should be recyclable. Maureen will research three options to present at the next partnership meeting where partners can vote for their favorite. •
Direct Install Courtney spoke with Troy Nguyen of SCE’s Business Solutions outreach team and he provided her with a timeline of cities and dates for the Direct Install (DI) program. The spreadsheet shows how many businesses in each city will be visited by DI contractors. Troy is also working on getting an image of the contractor badge so chambers can send it out to prep their business members. As for DI banners, Troy will send information to the region managers and jurisdictions can coordinate with them to request what they want. The letters from mayors have all gone through legal except the City of Visalia’s which is still with legal due to the additional paragraph about the Green Business program. The County of Tulare letter was suggested to be signed by the Chairman of the Board since there isn’t enough room for multiple signatures. Courtney will hear from Troy on all the pieces and dates and will update everyone within the next week. Troy will also provide the partnership with a press release template that can be edited with city names and sent out locally. Courtney will make the appropriate changes to the press release and Maureen will compile a list of local media sources. Courtney will also provide another release that has been created for use by Chambers. Gail Henry and Bill DeLain made a presentation about DI in Three Rivers and will also be going to Ivanhoe on January 12th. Gail will also put in a call to Strathmore. Gail thanked
2011 Meeting Schedule: February 3, 2011; March 3, 2011; April 7, 2011; May 5, 2011; June 2, 2011; July 7, 2011; August 4, 2011; September 1, 2011
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) SCE for getting the program out to all the areas and making sure the partnership knew where to go. •
California Sustainability Alliance 2010 Showcase Awards Courtney congratulated and read information about the City of Tulare’s Honorable Mention for the California Sustainability Alliance 2010 Showcase Awards. The Sustainability Alliance website says, ‘The City of Tulare, located in central San Joaquin Valley, is committed to ensuring sustained economic and environmental vitality for future generations of residents. As part of this effort, Tulare has implemented extensive building retrofit and residential solar programs, developed a 900 kW fuel cell system, installed 1 MW of solar power at the City’s wastewater treatment plant, and will soon complete a citywide Climate Action Plan.’ Congrats!
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Energy Upgrade California Stakeholder Meeting There will be an Energy Upgrade California (EUC) Stakeholder meeting on Monday, January 10th from 6-8pm. Courtney will attend the webinar and take notes for those who can’t make it. Kim was hoping that the utilities could enlighten everyone on EUC as there hasn’t been much buzz and not much is known locally. Jesse said the program was first introduced at AgTAC back in June where there was a presentation geared towards contractors. The role of the local government is to ensure their appropriate contractors, local chambers, and other points of contact are aware of the January 10th webinar and other presentations going forward.
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Sierra Nevada Energy Watch Best Practices Kim had requested that we discuss the Sierra Nevada Energy Watch (SNEW) He was intrigued by what they were doing and thought it showed that there are much wider opportunities than what VIEW has been doing for marketing and outreach. Essentially SNEW is using local contractors for direct install programs in underserved areas. Jesse was surprised by the approach and said he hadn’t seen anything like this.
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Other Business Bill brought up an idea for using the partnership to build awareness around Habitat for Humanity’s work with ‘recycling’ older homes (as opposed to new construction). He felt their efforts mirrored what the City of Visalia was already doing and thought it would be
2011 Meeting Schedule: February 3, 2011; March 3, 2011; April 7, 2011; May 5, 2011; June 2, 2011; July 7, 2011; August 4, 2011; September 1, 2011
San Joaquin Valley Energy Leader Partnership (VIEW) great to connect the dots and make sure they were aware of Energy Upgrade California. It would make sense to bring the whole house people together with the Habitat for Humanity people. Jesse, Frank, and Bill will work on getting guests for the February partnership meeting.
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The facilitator for the next meeting will be one of the partners from Hanford – Lou Camara or Barbara Marty.
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With no further business the meeting was adjourned.
ACTION ITEMS: •
Jesse will look into an alternate program in lieu of the holiday light exchange – possibly the lamp exchange program.
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Jesse will work on bringing a supply of Whole House flyers to the next partnership meeting.
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Maureen will put together a list of potential marketing materials to present at the next meeting for partners to vote.
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Maureen will send an email reminder about the Visalia SpringFest.
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Courtney will be in touch regarding all Direct Install effort updates (press release templates, badges, letters, etc).
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Courtney will attend the Energy Upgrade California webinar and share her summary notes with the group.
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Frank, Jesse, and Bill will coordinate guests to speak on Energy Upgrade California and Habitat for Humanity.
2011 Meeting Schedule: February 3, 2011; March 3, 2011; April 7, 2011; May 5, 2011; June 2, 2011; July 7, 2011; August 4, 2011; September 1, 2011