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2024-6 AgendaSUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION Regular Meeting Agenda Thursday, June 27th, 2024, 7:00 pm Heredia Room, City Hall Commission Members Staff/Others Liaisons Amanda Kueper, Adam Burnside, Craig Heinen, Logan Thein, Santwana Dasgupta, Matthew Dobratz, Helen Burk, Amanda McKnight Rachel Lindholm (Sustainability Coordinator) Ben Whalen (City Council) Kris Anderson (CSC) 1. Call to Order/Welcome 2. Approval of Minutes/Agenda  Regular Meeting Minutes: May 23, 2024 3. Public Comment  Any resident comment and items not printed on the agenda 4. Staff Reports (Lindholm)  Digital Sustainability Guide  Fleet Analysis 5. Discussion Items  2024 Workplan (Kueper) • Education around Watersmart and usage reduction/water conservation (Heinen, Dasgupta)  Garden Tour (Anderson) 6. Action Items  None 7. Committee Reports  Community Services Commission (CSC) (Anderson) 8. Next Meeting Thursday, August 22nd, 2024, 7:00 pm Heredia Room, City Hall 9. Adjournment REGULAR SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION MEETING Thursday, May 23, 2024 Heredia Room, City Hall PRESENT COMMISSIONERS: Amanda Kueper, Adam Burnside, Matt Dobratz, Amanda McKnight, Santwana Dasgupta, Helen Burk STAFF: Rachel Lindholm (Sustainability Coordinator) LIAISONS: Ben Whalen (City Council) ABSENT Logan Thein (Commissioner), Craig Heinen (Commissioner), Kris Anderson (CSC) Call to Order Kueper called the meeting to order at 7:03 p.m. Approval of Minutes/Agenda Burnside motioned, Dasgupta seconded, approved by all. Public Comment No public comments. Staff Reports Sustainability Specialist Lindholm reported: ● Rain barrel sale and tree sale are complete, all sold items have been picked up. There were only 10 trees remaining after allowing community members to purchase a second tree if they so desired. The remaining trees were planted in a city park. ● The city-wide garage sale had 94 sales registered. This is exciting from a waste-reduction standpoint. ● The digital sustainability guide is basically complete minus a few stock photos. This will be promoted across city channels including social media, city website, sustainability e-newsletter, etc. ● The city posted a job requisition this week to recruit for a solid waste-focused staff position. Lindholm will supervise the position. Also, the Legislature passed a measure related to extended producer responsibility; Lindholm will send information about the measure to commissioners. ● The State of the Community event is coming up on June 11 and commissioners are encouraged to attend. ● The National Community Survey is open from May 24-June 7. Commissioners are encouraged to take the online version and share within their local networks. Discussion Items 2024 Work Plan Sustainability Recognition Program Dobratz spoke with city staff at the City of Eden Prairie about how their recognition program began. Dobratz said they warned him that it takes some time to build up awareness and get more than just one or two submissions. We should also be considering the logistics of the submission/nomination process and how to make it as easy as possible for users. Lindholm reported that city leadership expressed concerns about the creation of an official city-recognized program consuming an excessive amount of staff time for the expected return on community engagement. As a compromise, Lindholm suggested dedicating a section of the e-newsletter to the recognition program on a more casual basis to grow awareness and interest among the community and perhaps in the future the program could be expanded to be a more official city recognition program. Plastic Trash Reduction Action Steps Burnside reported on some of the research he’s done regarding plastic bag laws. His findings suggest that charging money for plastic bags at stores does contribute to a reduction in plastic bag use. He asked the group whether a nickel-per-bag law could be something worth considering in Richfield. Dasgupta asked if Hennepin County has issued any recommendations about ordinances cities can draft regarding waste reduction. Lindholm said the County is in the process of finalizing its solid waste management plan, but it contains several action items that the City of Richfield has already implemented. Burnside also suggested plastic bottle deposits where recycling is incentivized by a return of a nickel per bottle. Kueper suggested Burnside draft a letter to the council with some options of what the city could do to help in the efforts toward waste reduction. Solid Waste Education Efforts Kueper suggested two goals with a solid waste education campaign: (x number) of new households requesting an organics cart this year and/or (x%) of residents reducing their cart size or pickup frequency this year. McKnight pointed out the campaign may need to be very basic entry-level information for people like herself who have never used organics recycling and don’t understand how it works or what it entails. Whalen suggested the campaign include some messages reminding people the cost is included in their trash collection anyway, so they might as well use the service. Kueper pointed out that organics recycling can actually save people money because they might be able to downsize their trash carts. Sustainability E-Newsletter Update Lindholm showed commissioners the draft of the newsletter, which will be named the Sustainability Scoop. McKnight will create a header logo for the email, and Lindholm will put together a draft to send to the public sometime in June. DRAFT MINUTES UNTIL APPROVED BY THE COMMISSION Action Items No action items. Committee Reports Whalen attended the recent CSC meeting. They met at the park building in Madison Park. The closed warming houses are now being rented out for community events. The group discussed what could become of the buildings with some remodeling. They also discussed the Wood Lake Nature Center redesign. Input gathering is still ongoing in the community, with construction estimated to begin in 2025. Other/Next Meeting/Adjournment Next Meeting: Thursday, June 27, 7:00 p.m. in the Heredia Room. Adjournment: The meeting was adjourned at 8:29 p.m.