Sustainable Belmont
Meeting minutes 12/7/05
In attendance: Heather Tuttle, Paul Santos, Anne Stuart, Jan Kruse, Suzanne Johannet
Rebecca Siegel, Walter Lind, Jennifer Page, Phyl Solomon, Deb Lockett, Ian Todreas, John McAlpin, Naomi Dworkin, Nancy Forbes, Paul Solomon (after 9pm)
Jan Kruse convened the meeting at 7:02pm.
1) Update: Tufts interns
On Monday, December 5, Anne Stuart heard the good news from Rusty Russell, the Tufts UEP (Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning) internship advisor, that five interns had chosen our climate action plan (CAP) as their choice for field study. The next step on our end is to draft a memo of understanding for the internship program. Deb and Anne will attend one of their classes in January.
The CAP subcommittee agreed to meet later in December to discuss the various details that need to be sorted out before the interns arrive, including: talking with members of Sustainable Arlington about their needs, obstacles, and experiences in working with the UEP interns on their own climate plan; and discussing ways in which the interns will collaborate with town residents and officials. Jan emphasized the importance of getting community buy-in on the CAP, and a couple people noted the advantage Belmont will have over other towns because we have a municipal electric utility.
2) Sustainable Belmont logo discussion
Members weighed in on Warren Croce's initial logo idea, discussing likes, dislikes, and suggested minor changes. The discussion centered mostly around design elements and the tagline. A detailed list of comments were sent to Warren to consider in his next round of design.
3) Additional updates/announcements
* Jan notified the group that the conservation committee has made significant progress with its proposed wetlands bylaw and will be sending it to us soon. The committee hopes to get the bylaw passed in April 2006.
* Marc Wolman, one of our Massachusetts Climate Action Network (MCAN) representatives, wrote a letter to Governor Romney on behalf of Sustainable Belmont urging him to keep the state involved in the proposed Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. Jan brought the letter to the meeting for members to sign.
4) Green building design
Barbra Batshalom, executive director of Green Roundtable (a branch of the U.S. Green Building Council), came to present information on green buildings and how to implement green building design policy in Belmont. She gave some background information on herself (a former architect) and the Green Roundtable (a nonprofit focused on education, policy, and technical assistance for building projects in both public and private sectors).
She emphasized the importance of framing the green building debate as wanting to make the most efficient use of resources, and avoiding wastefulness, because it's easy for green building to be viewed as frivolous and costly. All buildings have costs associated with them, whether it's an efficient mechanical system, or marble floors, or floor-to-ceiling windows). There is no reason why a green building has to be more expensive than a non-green building; it's all a matter of thoughtful planning and optimizing systems.
She also emphasized that a major component of successful buildings is the close collaboration between all parties in a project, since in most conventional building projects the design process is disconnected and the building systems often end up being inefficient.
Barbra talked briefly about LEED (leadership in energy and environmental design) and what its advantages are. LEED sets quantifiable goals for building efficiency, and the cost to certify a building to LEED standards is not expensive.
During the small group discussion, Barbra went into more detail about the planning process, emphasizing the need to map out the project and process and to make a clear expectation that collaboration will happen, with specific deliverables along with contact names. This process creates a level playing field.
Adjournment: 9:20 (app.)
Minutes submitted by Heather Tuttle
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