Thank you everyone for joining us. My name is Diana Vasquez. I'm the Berto review board manager. Uh today is a B review board meeting. I've started the recording and now I'll hand it over to Chair Boat. Good afternoon everyone. I am calling
this public hearing to order at 4:38 p.m. Um, I think we have a really interesting agenda this evening. Um, and uh, looking forward to the conversation in accordance with the building emissions reduction and disclosure ordinance regulations adopted
pursuant to the building emissions reduction and disclosure ordinance Boston city code ordinances section 7-2.2. The Bordau Review Board will hold a virtual public hearing at 4:30 p.m. on May 27th, today, to review the following
topics in regards to the reduction of greenhouse gases from building energy production and consumption so as to promote the public health and welfare of Boston residents. In accordance with the Commonwealth of Massachusetts executive order suspending certain provisions of the open meeting law, we are conducting
this public meeting online to ensure public access to the deliberations of the Berto review board. The public may access this call through telephone and video conferencing. Members of the public will have an opportunity to provide public comment during the public hearing. To do so, please raise your
hand or type in the chat in the application via the Zoom meeting platform. If you're calling in and you can't use the platform, you can raise your hand by pressing star9 um or send your questions to staff via email. The staff email is bertore review board at
boston.gov. For the record, I am Jessica Boatright, chair of the board, and I will now conduct a roll call of board members. Board members, please say your name in the order that they appear on the slide. Steven Ellis Hassan Farooqi
Lorie Ferris Gail Adamore Stville and staff do you want to introduce yourselves as well? Diana Vasquez I'm B manager in the environment department.
Hi everyone. Claudia Martinez, policy and equity advisor, environment department. Ziggy Chin, BW, board assistant in the environment department. Oliver Sers Garcia. I'm commissioner of the environment department and I'm filling in for Hannah Payne, the
director of carbon neutrality who's on leave temporarily. Thank you. Um here's the agenda for today's meeting. We're going to start um with a public hearing for a hardship compliance plan. Then we'll switch from a public hearing to a public meeting
where staff will report on updates to Berto regulations. After that, we will approve the meeting minutes from May 12th and hear administrative updates and then finally we will adjourn the meeting. So, we are going to advance to
the hardship compliance plan hearing. Before we hear from our applicant, which is the New England Aquarium today, I believe that staff are going to provide a quick overview on hardship compliance plans generally. Um, this is the first one that's come before
the board and we have a number of new board members, myself included. Um, so, uh, so staff's going to walk us through how how this kind of works generally. So I hand it over to Diana. Yes, thank you chair. Uh so I'll provide sort of a
a quick table setting on hardship compliance plans before we hear from our applicant the New England Aquarium. So just as a reminder there are three sort of main flexibility measures is what we call them within Berto. One being building portfolios. I would say this is
probably the most popular option. Uh we also have individual compliance schedules. I would say those are maybe the second most popular option. And then third, we have hardship compliance plans. So hardship compliance plans are the most
uh most difficult to apply for as a building owner, but it also provides the most opportunity for flexibility. And so owners must propose an emissions reduction plan that fits the hardship that they're claiming or that they're facing. Um, and this may include asking
for a different timeline or a different emissions of li emissions limit based on their own sort of circumstances and characteristics. Uh, and just just to complete the table, hardship compliance plans can be combined with a building portfolio. So, an approved building
portfolio could apply for a hardship compliance plan. Uh, next slide. Just a very quick sort of summary of what a hardship compliance plan is versus what it's not. Um, a hardship compliance plan can provide relief and
flexibility with complying with Berto emissions by either providing, as I mentioned, an alternative emissions limits or standards or alternative timelines. Uh, it's available to owners that have what we call an eligible hardship. Uh, and it must be approved by
the Berto review board. uh who can set conditions on the approval. What the hardship compliance plan is not. It is not an exemption of complying with emission standards. Uh there are no blanket exemptions with standards with complying with emissions limits in
Berto. Uh and it's not an exemption for annual reporting. So building owners will still have to report their energy and water data each year uh in addition to third-party verification requirements.
Next slide. Uh there are two types of hardship. So we have what we call short-term. So they're granting relief for one to three years uh and can be extended once due to extenduating conditions up to 12 months. And we also have long-term. So those are relief
that's granted for four plus years. Uh and the re review board shall reassess approved plans every five years. So there's a touch point every five years within that plan. And then very quickly, I won't go super deep into this, but the these are the six different reliefs that are available
to folks who apply through a hardship compliance plan. So, as I mentioned, they could ask for an alternative schedule than what's the default. They could ask for alternative emission standards or alternative emissions limits than what their default is. They
could request exemption of specified energy use in whole or in part. They could request um adjusted compliance obligations due to third-party barriers or delays. Uh additional compliance mechanisms that the review board determines are consistent with the
spirit of Berto. Um and then finally sort of other relief that the review board may deem appropriate on a case-byase basis. And so I just wanted to dig a little bit deeper on what we mean by what eligible hardship is. Anybody who has applied for a hardship compliance
plan will have completed these sort of steps. Step one, demonstrating the existence of one or more defined circumstances or characteristics. Uh within the application, we have four categories. Those are regulatory or contractual, financial, technical or
operational and other. Uh step two is then they evaluate all of their available options for compliance. So that includes did you evaluate building portfolios? Did you evaluate purchasing renewable energy certificates? Uh, etc. Uh, and then step three is sort of
demonstrating that even after completing steps one and two, that building owner is still experiencing, you know, significant challenges with complying with Berto and that is why they're applying for hardship. And very quickly, here's what the application and hearing process
entails. Uh, each application requires a public hearing. Uh the review board will hold that public hearing for all applications and there will be an opportunity for questions from the board and a public comment period. Uh and then the board may vote to deny, continue or approve a hardship compliance plan with
standard and or special conditions. Uh I won't go super deep into each of the standard conditions. Uh but this is a list of the standard conditions for any approved hardship. Next slide. And then general guidelines for special
conditions. Uh special conditions for an approved hardship must be relevant to the distribution of benefits to environmental justice populations and advance the purpose of Berto. Um examples include measures related to equitable equitable workforce
development, housing affordability and stabilization, energy costs and benefit sharing, public health and climate resilience. Uh, and then any proposal for special conditions shall be agreed upon with the applicant. Um, and likely be discussed with the applicant ahead of a hearing. Uh, at least when it comes to
staff recommended special conditions, we try to discuss them with the applicant ahead of time. Great. And I think that's it for me, chair. You um, thank you so much for that overview. Um, I I just want to pause for
one second. Are there do board members have any questions specific to what Diana just went over before we go into the presentation? Awesome. Great job. Um, so now I will hand um the floor or the microphone over to representatives from
uh the New England Aquarium Corporation. If you could introduce yourselves and then we'll start your presentation. Thank you so much, Chair Boat Wright, and thank you to the staff who helped us prepare for today's hearing. I'm Letier, chief of conservation and stewardship at
the New England Aquarium. In that role, I oversee all of our programs and help uh lead our sustainability work for the organization. Next slide, please. And as we understand it, we are the first hearing that you're having on a
hardship compliance plan. So, we thought it'd be helpful for you to get a sense of who we are as an institution in part because you'll see that we're very different from other uh owner building owners that you might come across with with hardship plan applications. And so
it would be helpful to give you a sense of the kind of work we do and why that ties into our operations within the building. Next slide. Just a bit of history snapshot. We're about 55 years old and as many of
you know we're right on Central Warf. We own that prop that entire campus. So the building the full campus the theater. So that entire footprint uh belongs to the New England Aquarium as a privately owned property. And over the years we have continued to change that footprint
from the original building to additional um the additional space that we occupy there plus uh building the Simon's Theater uh and moving through the years to expanding that footprint including expanding our overall collection uh in
in the building. And so we're at the point now where we are thinking again about our our campus and uh planning both sustainability planning and broader campus master planning as we face some challenges uh on on the central warf
especially related to flooding and uh sea level rise and other resilience issues being right there on salt water. Next slide please. I won't read this but leave it here for a minute for you to read but uh we want to make sure that you all are aware that
our our mission is a conservation focused mission and so we do consider the components of education research and advocacy as part of our broader mission to protect the blue planet. Uh so this is our full mission statement and our
vision next slide is a vital and a vibrant and vital ocean for future generations. So all the work that we do on campus and off-campus uh pushes us toward toward this vision and we do so related to this through six values on
the next slide that help drive us toward that mission and vision. Uh we live blue which means we think about our own footprint. We try to walk the talk when we think about this conservation mission. So, we're uh pushing forward in
our efforts on in our operations in the building in our programming that aligns with that uh ocean conservation uh mission and vision. So, live blue and we lead with science. Many don't know that the New England Aquarium has a dedicated research arm of more than 40 experts
that are studying ocean habitats and its creatures, especially the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and sharks and turtles and so many others. But in all the work that we do in the building as well, we have many scientists that are on our animal care team. I'm a scientist myself. We think
about our work from a science-based perspective. So that is how we lead in making decisions in advocacy in education that science foundation. Um but we know that we have to innovate. There are things that are constantly changing around us and our approach has
to continue to change when it comes to thinking about things like the well-being of our animals and operations and our approaches and engaging communities and those uh audiences that we serve. We have to continue to think about innovative ways to move forward on
our mission and vision. U but we do take a balanced approach and so though we are a conservation organization we recognize conservation is about people as much as it is about animals and places. So we are trying to look for solutions. We are
solutions-based approach applying that science to how do we conserve say a species while fostering a vibrant blue economy and the industries that depend on it. So we very much take that balanced approach in advancing our mission, vision and values and all these
other values. And then we commit to diversity, equity, inclusion plus that is very clear in our practices when it comes to hiring and engaging audiences, when it comes to engaging with our visitors. Our signage is very clear on
this point that we we respect diverse perspectives and we uh foster that sense of of community both in our building and outside our building and programming and we recognize that that means we have to work at the speed of trust. We have such a broad range of audiences from the
communities immediately around us to the policy makers in Washington DC and everything in between. And so that speed varies and we know that in order to achieve the conservation mission um that we are seeking we need to think through
those approaches. Next slide. And so with within that we created these uh main four pillars that help us think through our strategies each year and how we're advancing that mission. And again you can see here that
um they though they are written distinctly there is quite a bit of overlap here and how we apply our science to protect uh ocean animals and ocean habitats that to drive the ocean conservation mission uh and helping others to use the ocean responsibly.
That speaks back to that sort of balance and innovation approach that I talked about in our in our values. And we really want people to walk away from visiting the New England Aquarium inspired to take action for the ocean. So we do that through programming and
education and other engagements. Um but that inspiration pillar is really important to us because we recognize people come come and go on a continuum. They might know nothing about ocean conservation and walk away ready to be advocates and there's a continuum all the way in between. And so we just want
to make sure people are inspired and want to take action to join in our mission. And we help create engaged, resilient communities. So some examples of that, you might be familiar with our downtown waterfronts for all campaign. Uh really uh helping to engage the
community on waterfront resilience. Uh we were one of the founding me members of the coalition for resilient and inclusive waterfront. So we're very much about being part of the community, engaging with the community as as our pillars. And so next slide, collectively
that background um it can be summarized in this way. The aquarium is who we are, but conservation is what we do. And so we think about that in so many different ways and making sure that we're pulling those pieces together as a aquarium that's a
conservation organization. Next slide. And if you haven't seen that campaign, I encourage you to look for the the different posters and videos and social media related to our conservation action related to that sort of campaign
tagline. Uh and then as additional foundation before I turn it over to our campus operations team to talk more about uh our our need for this hardship, I just want to highlight a few ways that we also show up as conservation leaders.
So not just on the central warf, it spans from our international and national engagement. Here's a list of our memberships. uh the international union for conservation of nature is a recent membership and our understanding is we're the first aquarium to have an
international membership in this way. Uh we were supported by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums to become a member and the Wildlife Conservation Society which operates the New York aquarium uh is a member but we're the first aquarium to be a part of this international
conservation body and these are other accreditation and membership um organizations. You'll hear a bit more about aquarium conservation partnership soon. And these are just a couple examples of the way we are showing up as far as in the state uh where I sit on
the resilient coast external task force. Our CEO Vicky Sproul uh is engaging in a range of issues international to state. We have our director of community engagement sits on the conser the greenway conservancy board. So these are just examples of ways that we are
showing up as a leader. And then the next slide um that includes within the city. We're very active again across our from our CEO through members of our teams that are representatives on these
boards and commissions and councils um working groups within these uh city bodies. So we are we are a leader and taken very seriously how we're showing up uh across across the city and at the state and international levels. Next
slide, please. We also recognize that we are on the waterfront. We are facing these threats ourselves. So, as a property owner, we're really thinking practically about the threat to our to our warf and to our building and to our investments. But
through that civic engagement and even the national international engagement, we we're able to see the breadth of impact that we are already facing, but we will face. And this shows a snapshot from the warf district council uh
resiliency plan that we we helped uh create as a member of WDC that shows that by uh 2070 this is the kind of flooding we'll see beyond the waterfront. So you see central warf there will be mostly underwater but this
is nearly $4 billion worth of assets that will be impacted if organizations like New England Aquarium and others don't come together as leaders to address coastal resilience uh and the kinds of changes we need to see. So this is just to give you a sense that this is
an issue where we're leaning into as well to address these kinds of issues. And in addition, next slide. we recognize not only those those kinds of assets that will be threatened if if we don't act and others don't act but uh
we're not just a uh destination you know so I laid out that we're a conservation organization and this is our leadership but we're important to the economic uh to the economy here in the city and the state uh we're a tourist destination but also in many ways uh the their indirect
economic benefits of visitors from other countries and from other states and throughout throughout Massachusetts coming into Boston uh to visit the New England Aquarium and you just see a snapshot of the kind of impact that
having us uh engaged as leaders have on the economics of the city and the state both indirect and direct uh investments by those by those visitors. So, uh, we know that that is important for us to keep our footprint available to all of
those visitors and not underwater. Um, but making sure that we're not adding to the problem, uh, of of climate climate resilience and coastal resilience. And then the last couple slides for me before I turn it over next slide. Uh Michigan is just a list of
some of the other partnerships that we have related to our economic uh impact right there on the on the waterfront. These partners are near or next to our campus uh in order to support the economic viability of of Boston and Central
Warf. Next slide. And lastly, I mentioned that I help support our sustainability work. Uh we our last two-year strategic plan aligned with our live blue value. We recognized we needed a more comprehensive sustainability plan
that looked across our entire organization. That includes our use of greenhouse gases and any waste we're producing materials, food from our guests, food for our animals, uh our water use. We even uh have as part of
our sustainability planning reducing our own footprint on animal collections and then the food we feed them. Uh thinking about different ways to invest more sustainably through funding and finance and also bringing people along. So our staff, our visitors, our partners. So,
we're in the midst of creating the sustainability plan that's much more comprehensive now to make sure we're capturing all the ways we can be more sustainable and setting targets for ourselves within various categories along the way. Uh so overall these are
um some of the background doc background uh information I wanted to provide just to set the stage of who we are and I'll turn it over to Ferris Batty our um vice president of campus operations to give you a sense of why we're asking for relief.
Next slide please. Thank you Latise. As uh Latise said, my name is Ferris Batty, vice president of campus operations and facilities here at the aquarium. Um I know at the beginning of the presentation um chairwoman Bo Wright asked um for us to introduce other
members from the aquarium here. We also have on the call from the aquarium Jordan de Penrock. He's our director of facilities and we also have um Kimberly Fontis. She's our COO, chief business officer. She's on the call as well. Um so let me get on to it and get with it
in terms of why are we asking for relief. Um the first thing is that we're not a traditional place of assembly. Um our energy use intensity as you can see here is 232.1 um KBTU per square foot. Um that's more than three times or just about three
times the average use or the average place of assembly uses um in terms of intensity use uh or in terms of energy use intensity. Um, we also have some building and space constraints. Um, when it comes to trying to install electric
boilers, we don't have enough space on on the grounds on the campus to do that. And so, um, being able to do that so that we could become compliant would be a big thing for us or a big capital expense. the current unavailability of green steam. Um, Vincenity is offering that or
we are in the talks with vincity for us to procure some green steam next year to sort of 15% so that we can sort of um gradually or um go into that in phases. As you can see, you'll see a little later a slide that talks about how we plan to procure the green steam and how
it impacts us as well. Um, and as I stated a little earlier, we have significant higher um compliance costs. um it would cost.1 million um expense to um procure electric boilers, not to mention the space we would have to make for them. And then we
would not be able to bring those electric boilers on until 2030. Um and then we would also incur a $400,000 increase per year in terms of um cost for the increase in utilities that we would incur. So to do those
things would just be a hardship for us um at at going through as we try to go through this um this whole um hardship this old hardship or this old part of reduction um ordinance. If you can uh go to the next slide how are we different? As you can
see or as you all know aquarium has over 10,000 species of aquatic animals and 50 exhibits. Um here are some pictures of some of the animals that we have. you see the penguins, um the f the um sea lions and the sea turtles that we have.
We and a number of more animals on site. I mean, I do recommend I do highly encourage that you visit and if you do want to visit, just let us know. But please um you know, you see that what we have and you'll see even more of what we have if you come on site. Next slide. We also operate 200 plus life
support systems. consist of various pumps and filters. We have a high-pressure steam system that we use to heat our giant ocean tank and we also use to heat the building. We have a chilled water system or we have various chilled water systems throughout the aquarium. We have a
24,000 lb air handling unit that sits on the roof. Um various lighting systems and water quality control systems as well. Next slide. Now, our prop proposed individual compliance schedule um versus the public
assembly schedule is what you're seeing in terms of this table on the screen. Now, um the public assembly schedule as you can see, we want to be different of course from these numbers that we have here. I'm going to
let you take a look at that. You know, we are proposing an alternate mission schedule that is more aligned with the results of the of a study conducted by Verdice Group through our participation in the aquarium conservation partnership. And we'll tell you a little bit more about that as well a little
later, but take a look at that and um you know, digest it and if you have any questions, please let me know. Next slide, please. The aquarium conservation partnership is uh or better known as for us the ACP is a coalition of 35 aquariums working
together to increase our conservation impact and and we're part of the ACP pledge and being a part of that pledge we pledge to get to net zero carbon net zero GHG emissions by 2040. So we plan to
be net zero by 2040 and net zero by 2050 as well. So we're trying to get on an even more accelerated path than what we have with you all. So um you know we're trying to do our best to make sure that we that we impact and that we you know
live or talk the talk that we'll walk the talk as uh Latise mentioned earlier. Next slide. These are some of the uh participants or some of the organizations or aquariums that part that participated in the u benchmarking exercise um that was that
was conducted by um Verdice and through ACP. Um next slide. Here are here are two pathways that we can take to get to net zero. We have decided to take the first pathway, the one that you see circled here. Um,
we're going to implement some identified energy efficiency measures. Um, we're going to electrify our kitchen equipment and then we're going to purchase green steam and we're going to um procure green power through either Rex or a um
PPA or VPPA. Next slide, please. These are some of the energy conservation measures that we're going to take or that we're going to have um performed over the next um 5 to 10
years. As you can see here, um we've already began our um installation of the VFD controls on our um various life support systems. Um, so we're going through that in phases and as you can see here, um, we're going to replace our
York water cooled chiller with the new VFD screw chiller, um, in 2026. And then we're going to electrify the, um, equipment, the kitchen equipment in 2030. And we're going to replace our multistack chiller condenser fans with, um, ECM motors in 2030 as
well. Next slide. This slide here shows the effect of um green steam will have on our kilograms of um carbon dioxide per square foot. Um as you can see, the more green steam we purchase, the more of the effect that it'll have for us. Um you can take a
look at that and digest it and and if you have any questions, please let me know. Next slide, please. This slide shows some of the environmental justice measures we'll take. By us being an aquarium, we can't quite and being down on central roof, we can't quite take some of the more
traditional um environmental justice measures. But for us, I mean, we are going to participate or we have been participating in the Boston family days um that is that the um that Mirror Woos program has has um has championed so far that we we participated in the pilot
program last year and we're going to continue participating in that. As Latise mentioned, we we are um founding member of Crew, the Coalition for Resilient and Inclusive Waterfront. We're going to continue our educational outreach. We're going to partner with Boston's power course program through
the um a better city organization. We're also going to allow public access to our tent when it is not in use for private events. We're going to consider flood risk when and if replacing or installing mechanical systems in our building. And we're going
to celebrate or collab collaborate with the city to close the 2030 flood pathways that impacts central warfing as you saw on the image there. and impact and it sort of impacts or it does impact a lot of downtown Boston as well. Next
slide. That'll be it. If you all have any questions and I do see a question in the chat. Yeah, we can um we'll hold that question um until after the staff comments.
Um so thank you um think thank thank you for that really thorough and um helpful presentation. Um I recently visited you on one of the Boston family days and uh I was very impressed with how many
student families you fit in the aquarium um on a weekend day. Um, I want to turn it over to the environment department um for staff comments and then we'll come back around to questions. Awesome. Thank you, chair.
You can go to the next slide. So, staff comments. Uh, this application was originally submitted in July of 2024. As the New England Aquarium has suggested, we've been working together. Uh, staff reviewed the initial application uh as incomplete. uh
and we've been working together to sort of modify and adjust the application to answer questions or any sort offormational gaps that staff identified. Uh this submission is the third iteration and was deemed by complete by staff and the aquarium has been very helpful in um doing timely
responses. Staff has also had Steven Winter Associates uh a technical consultant that we've hired to review the application and they prepared a short memo for the board. This memo is available to the board in your B board folder. Um, I also think this might be a
good time to pause, Adam, if you're online, if you'd like to introduce yourself from Steven Winter Associates. Sure. Uh, can everyone hear me? Yes. Great. Uh, yeah, sure. My name is Adam Shetka from Steven Winter Associates.
Uh, as D mentioned, happy to be working uh with the environment department. Um we've been in business for over 50 years with offices uh in Boston, New York, Connecticut, and Washington DC. And yeah, just here to offer technical assistance, uh answer thirdparty questions uh and just general consulting
whenever there's uh any questions or topics related to Berto uh technology, electrification, and anything along those lines. Awesome. Thank you, Adam. Um and then finally for staff recommendations. Staff recommends approving this application with standard
conditions and our recommended special conditions which are on the next slide. Sorry this the text is small still kind of a large um text. There's a lot there but essentially we recommend two types of special conditions. one
related to reporting updates and then one related to acting on stated commitments. So for reporting updates, we recommend that once a year the aquarium submit a brief written update by March 1st of each year uh just regarding their emission reduction efforts uh to date. So updates on any
planning and implementation of energy efficiency projects, renewable energy or procurement projects, etc. Uh investments made for Berto compliance and funding or financing options being pursued. updates on the implementation of equitable workforce development commitments, updates on the
implementation of climate resilience commitments. Um, and just a note to say that the first update would be given March 1st, 2026. Uh, every 5 years, uh, as part of the reassessment for the hardship because it's a long-term hardship, uh, the aquarium should
provide an update regarding progress on the implementation of their stated commitments. So we categorize them as emissions reduction, equitable workforce development and climate resilience. So these are the commitments that Ferris reviewed on his slide deck regarding
environmental justice. Um and then third sort of acting on those stated commitments for the duration of the hardship. the aquarium must demonstrate good faith efforts towards implementing those stated commitments um and demonstrate good faith efforts to pursue similar commitments uh in their
emissions reductions, equitable workforce development and climate resilience. Um again, so those are sort of the commitments that uh Ferris reviewed on his environmental justice slide deck or slide and that is all I have and I'm happy to answer questions from the board
chair or or for the applicant. Um thank you. Uh thank you very much. Um so I'm now going to ask the board as Diana said if there are any questions or comments that they'd like to discuss before we start. I just want to note
again that the special conditions recommended by staff have been discussed with the applicant beforehand and they have agreed um to those to those conditions. Um so if the board is uh
considering new or additional special conditions, we'll we'll likely have to discuss them with the applicant before we can make a vote. So, just to kind of set the stage, um I I'm going to start off with a couple
questions and um and then I will call the next board member. Um this um we don't we don't always the um chat is is really for um public comments. We're not always able to take
all of the questions, but I do think that it would be really helpful to explain um green steam uh as an energy source a little bit better and you know why it why it's the right choice for the aquarium. If you could explain that a
little more detail, that would be really helpful. You want to know what green steam is or um or why it's uh why it would be better for us? Kind of both. Both would be great. Yeah. Okay. Um green steam is a
product that who's our steam provider offers. Um it's their way of providing steam without using um gas house emissions. So they're going to or they have been um you know exploring ways to provide steam to their customers through
electric boilers or through the electric means of the way that they provide it or alternate to the way that they provide it now. They provide steam now by using gas. Essentially everything is produced by using gas boilers and um and so they heat the steam and then send it
to various buildings throughout the um city of Boston particularly in the downtown Boston. Um, and so Green Steam is just a different product that they offer or that they would offer um to so that we can so that we can be in compliance with this ordinance. Now, the
thing or the reason that it's best for us is because we just don't have the space for the electric boilers. So, we we right now use steam to heat our building and to heat our giant ocean tank and various other exhibits throughout the aquarium. And so it would be best for us to continue doing that
instead of um trying to instead of incurring a a great capital cost on our end. So it makes sense for us to continue using that and then since they offer green steam it it makes it makes a better sense or better choice for us to start using that pro start using that
product and using their product. I'm pretty sure we're going to incur more cost but you know that's sort of the u nature of doing business so to speak. So I think you started to answer this but can you tell us a little bit about
um whether you've done any exploration of either heat pumps or geothermal energy as an alternative to the green steam um geothermal or heat pumps? Yeah, we looked into that initially. Um
I know from from our point of view um geothermal or heat pumps would be a great disturbance to the environment that we have um around here trying to um you know build those going deep because if we want geothermal is we would have
to essentially go deep into the ocean install heat pumps or loop with geothermal and that would be deep underground and that will disturb the various um you know the various the various occupants that share the central
wolf with us and so it makes sense for us to try to to go with the green steam because it's a product that we already or steam is a product that we already use that we already have the infrastructure for and so it makes more sense for us to do that instead of trying to explore something new in that
way it would also be more of a you know an expensive cap capital project cost as well so to try to stay away from that we decided to use the green steam. Um that's really helpful. And then my last question before I pass it on. Um I
you know you have um pretty aggressive goals in terms of where you're going to be in 2030 and where you're going to be in 2040. And I'm curious if you have done analysis either independently or with vicinity about how likely it is
that the um infrastructure and the availability of green steam is going to you know is going to increase enough to service you you to the extent you're projecting by 2040. We've been in contact with theity throughout this whole process. Um our
our account reps kind of has kind of walked us through this. he's provided these um these um figures for us. Well, they have provided these figures for us pretty much. Um they they have committed to um com committed to providing us with 15% and you know increasing it so forth.
That's kind of why we've um gone into this phased approach 15% next year and then you know within the next five years we'll keep increasing it. I believe where we have 33% the next year and then um or 66% the next year and then 100% by
2035. So 66% by 2030 and 100% by 2035. So they are um confident in their product and being able to have it available for us and available for most of the city of Boston in terms of the buildings downtown too. So we're comfortable with it right now. If we do,
you know, if we do have some issues, we will make sure we let you all know the issues that we are having. And, you know, it may come a point in time we may have to come back in front of you all, but right now we're happy with what they um are providing us so far. You um I am going to hand it over to
board member Ellis for any questions that he may have. Thank you, Chair Boltright. And uh I also want to say thank you to Latise and um and Ferris for your presentation earlier as well as Diana um and the city staff for what they've done thus far as well as Adam
and it's good to meet you Adam. I you know thank you for talking a little bit about green steam and and I just want to acknowledge that you know you're not going to be the only organization relying on vicinity to sort of deliver on this green steam that uh they are promising. And so in a moment I'm going
to have a question for environment staff, but I actually want to start with your other energy use, which is electricity. And and I'm curious, you know, what percentage of the aquarium's uh energy use is electricity compared to steam.
It's about 7030 in terms of electricity use and 30% steam. 31% exactly steam. So 69% for um electric for electricity just to be exact. Not a problem. I appreciate the exactness. Now, I noticed in your application it stated that the aquarium
has been purchasing Rex to to match 100% of your electricity, but you know, you're ineligible for Berto. And originally, my question was going to be about the the consideration that you've had for purchasing mass class one Rex, but can you tell us a little bit more about you mentioned earlier that you're
considering a PPA or BPA and how that process is going for you all this far? Um, we're working with Verdice. They are um they're working with a company called COO. And what COO does is that they invest in power
purchasing or power um development, solar power or solar plant developments, particularly down in Texas so far right now um where they where they provide the funding to a developer so that they can go ahead and build the land and develop this so to speak. So we're working with
them. We are in talks with them. Now, there is a a cost with that, of course. But what that'll do is that that'll help as you know us offset some of these um some of these greenhouse emissions um kind of just like a Rex do as well. I'm pretty sure you know how it works. So, we will try our best to make sure that
we invest in that because I think it's not only is it, you know, good good policy for us to invest in it just because uh or because of this ordinance, it's good policies for us to invest to it just because. I mean, it fits our values overall, too. So, it's something that we are very heavily looking into
and we can provide an update on that once we do um invest and once we do have a project on board and we're able to um you know provide you with an update on that. No problem. Got it. So, just to make sure I'm also understanding and I appreciate the the alternatives cuz
schedule that you've laid out here. So for the 2025 period, will you be still above that that uh emissions uh limit that you've set or would you be considered below that 14.8 that you provided us all today?
Um we plan to be at or below. Okay, got it. That's our plan. That's our goal. And so um we've already instituted some um you know performed some various energy conservation measures in addition to what what what we talked about or listed on the slide that you saw. So
there are there are ways or there are things that we're doing to try to make sure that we hit all of these targets by the by the dates or by the years that they're assigned to. Okay, not a problem. As long as I more so wanted to make sure that the consideration that if you are already purchasing Rex, I recognize the price difference between
you know mass class one and all the other wrecks on the market. But uh that's something that you continue to consider. Um can we actually go back to your environmental justice slide please? Ziggy, thank you. Ziggy, appreciate it. No problem. All
right, so I just wanted to check on uh one thing here regarding your your work with uh Boston Power Corpse. Are you currently partnering with Boston Power Corpse or is that a plan for the future? That's my first question. That's a plan for the future. Got it. And my next
question regarding uh the the flood risk that you've all been talking about and I I admit I I have some ignorance on where things are at with the the planning and development for the central warf, but can you share any details about like what what the plan is in terms of
protecting your technology or any new technologies that you're considering right now to bring in for the future? It's a tough one. Not because it's a it's a tough question. is because our plans aren't quite finalized just yet. Um, and I don't I don't know, Latisa,
you want to get on that one? I'm happy to. So, as far as the actual equipment, there are capital uh opportunities like thinking about relocating certain equipment that we know is vulnerable. So, what space do we have to move certain things up or to better secure those things underground within our
campus? So, like certain pipes. But we have also been working with uh Cambridge 7 on the broader campus plan and thinking about staging for elevations of the warf and potentially down the road, right? Things like wave attenuation island. So this is 2040 and out, right?
Thinking about those kinds of plans. So we have phased approaches for direct equipment on campus and then other ways to shore up the campus including like elevations and more green space to reduce the flood impacts. So those are
part of our nearly nearly final campus plan. We've also been working with the um BPDA as well because as they plan to um you know make some improvements on Long Warf Long Warf, right? Yeah. we've been working with them because it's better that we do it in concert instead
of trying to do it separate and um so working in concert with them. Their plan, you know, provides input for us and our plan provides input for them too. We had a meeting um last year. We probably we plan to have another meeting sometime soon as we finalize the plans.
I think, you know, the biggest thing is going to be costs for sure and the availability of funds to to to make sure that we can do these or perform these things that we need to perform so we can make a more resilient central warf. Got it. Thank you. That actually helps me pivot to my question that I have for the
city. Um, and so this is a two-part question. Uh, the first one, and you feel free to restate what was said already. Um, I'm I'm curious about the plans surrounding resilience and the central warf because looking at that image where the aquarium is located versus where water would be coming in is
a huge concern um with respect to what's going on uh with rising sea levels. That's the first one. And then the second one I'm going to ask is regarding green steam. So, I'm going to pause to let you at least answer that one. I can restate my question if you need me to.
Sorry. Was was that for the city, Stephen? Yep. Okay. Yes. Do you mind restating the first question? Sure. Not a problem. What do you know of in terms of the work for resilience and how you know what's happening in Central Warf and and can you share with us the public, you know, what what the city is
doing to help alleviate some of these concerns because we have Berto, but then we also have a climate uh resilience issue that we're we're sort of dealing with with rising sea levels. Diana, do you want me to take that one? Oh, yes, please. Okay. Um, hi Stephen. Well, yeah, that's a good question. I'll be
succinct only um because this is about Berto, but um definitely an enormous part of what the city is working on. Um uh there's you you'll know that um Climate Ready Boston is a um resilience planning
effort that took place between um 2006 and wrapped up with its last neighborhood plan in um 2022 um with um all uh 47 miles of coastline with different um conceptual designs for
the coast. And the funny thing is I don't have every single one of those interventions memorized. Although I see Latise smiling, which means that you probably know a little bit about what is in those plans for your the flood pathways that you're particularly concerned about. But what I will say is that the Warf District is a um special
though not unique area where there has been a lot of planning by the property owners um themselves. Um this is a very complex issue where different solutions um overlay on top of each other and some of them obviate each other. really the idea of whether this is going to be at
the building scale or the district scale um is um sort of comes down to the details. We have a district planning approach and philosophy um because we're all in this together and um not leaving individual um properties up to um themselves and that's also really at the
heart of what the um uh um sort of warf district is looking to do. Um but essentially um it's really a a careful planning of what is going to be um protected um that is existing um with sort of fortifications versus what are
sort of elevations and and changes that can be done there. So overall, um that is the um definitely there's there's just as much effort going into resilience and the the long-term um viability of our city depends on our
institutions like the New England Aquarium being able to remain where they are and thrive. And so it's definitely a problem that we are um looking to solve. Thank you, Commissioner. Uh last question because I think I've taken up enough time here is more so what is the city's level of confidence with
vicinity's ability to roll out green steam knowing that there are going to be several buildings uh owners relying on them to roll it out. So what in terms of your studies and what you've been communicating with them what is your level of confidence in bringing on green
steam? Um Diana, do you want me to take that one too? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Um well, I I will say that um we we as you rightly point out, there's a lot of um we we expect there to be um demand from from
multiple Berto covered um properties to um uh use green steam. We we think that some of the work that vicinity has been doing to move in that direction is the right um is sort of uh points points to
its viability. I will say that um we are not in the necessarily in the in the business of pre-approving anything before it actually comes to a decision point. And so if I sound ky in my answer, it's only because I want to sort of maintain the consistency of of the uh
process here. But we clearly I think what is implied in the staff recommendation of the um you know um hardship plan here is that um we do think it is a viable option and as I think um Ferris said himself like you
know there users like the aquarium will be checking on this also as it progresses um to make sure that it is meeting everyone's expectations. So we um we see signs in the right direction but also are um you know not stepping back from the responsibility of sort of
checking in at every point. Got it. Thank you commissioner. uh it may or may not be uh connected to Berto to ask this particular question, but I'm going to ask in any way for the future. It would be wonderful just to have a presentation on you know vicinity's sort of strategy
and and and getting a better understanding as to what that will look out look like in terms of their roll out. So, I don't know what power or position the city has on something like that, but knowing that this is a a a strategy for flexibility that many organizations and building owners will be considering, it will be helpful to
see that in the future. Nevertheless, um the aquarium, I want to thank you for your commitment to marine life conservation, education, and advocacy. I will now turn my time back over to the chair. Thank you. Thank you, board member Ellis. Um board member Fuki.
Great. Thank you, Madam Chair, and thank you to the whole applicant team. really appreciate the very thorough presentation and all the work you all are doing outside of Berto. Um as well uh I wanted to I will share a lot of the con you know questions of my colleagues. I appreciate them asking this. Um I
wanted to ask as well about the workforce that you're using to conduct a lot of these renovations. Um to the extent that you know at least for the uh Berto related uh retrofits and renovations um can you talk more about
uh some of the workforce practices that you plan to undertake particularly if you're planning to use any uh registered apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship programs um or hire Boston residents for these roles? We don't I mean I don't we don't you
mean Boston residents in terms of uh they own a a construction company or things of that nature? Well, I was sorry. No, I guess I was speaking more about the residency of the workers themselves, but I think uh I would also certainly be interested in if there are Boston based contractors who
are, you know, being employed by the aquarium. I mean, that's more the route we'll take is our Boston based contractors. Um, we wouldn't take the route of hiring specific people to do projects, so to speak. We would hire companies to do these type of projects and if they are minority owned companies
or womenowned companies or um, you know, the the MBWE companies in terms of that nature. Um, you know, that is something that we are researching. Um, you know, I am new to the city of Boston. And I would say that to the Boston area. So, it's kind of hard for me to find or to
um I guess locate Boston or um minority owned businesses. Um we have found a few that have done some work for us. They've done some great work. Um but they have been um they they have one this one particular company has an issue. So, we have got the staff to stay away from
them, but we are in the process of looking for more. Um, I know when I when we spoke with the staff with um Diana and uh Claudia and Ziggy, we talked with them about helping us to procure or helping us to um find more organizations um you know MWBE organizations that we
can that we can um contract with to help us with with the work in regards to or related to not only Berto but any work that we have inside of the facility as well. Um the company that did provide some work for us, they didn't uh the work that they did was not Berto related or directly Berto related. Indirectly it
was but not directly Berto related because every work any kind of work that we do here is probably indirectly related to Berto. Um no doubt. So um you know any help that we can get like I said I I spoke with Diana about that and she said that she will provide us with some help with that and so we'll go from
there. Um as long as we can get some help and we can hire a company that can do the work, we don't have a problem with it. At least I know I don't. Great. Great. Thank you. I appreciate that a lot. Yeah. And I know a lot of this is still future work as well. Uh at least in your current practices with
contractors and subcontractors, um are you using any apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship programs? Um we in our current work in terms of construction work, no. Um, in terms of our hiring practices,
um, we have, um, and I don't have, Latise, can you speak a little bit more to that one? Yes, we have apprentices for the on-site work, not construction related. So, things like apprentices to learn how to become an aquarist, as an example. So,
we have teen interns and adult interns and apprentices for work related to our programs. Got it. Okay, great. Thank you. And uh you'd mentioned on the slide as well that you plan to partner with the power core program. Uh can you speak a little
more to what you're planning for that proposed partnership and how that might work? No, I believe that that um program is uh through a better city. Um one of our um well, she's on the call. I'm sorry. Kim Font is a board member who's
on the call. She's a board member on the Better City um board. And so, um, our plan is to partner with them so that they can help administer that program and and just make sure that we become, um, part of that program. And like I said before, all the work that we do is not just to be compliant with Berto,
that's to be a good, uh, member of the community as well. So I mean our plan is to partner with them so that we can have um staff on site to help us with various things that we have maybe you know put them in in various departments whether it be our um trades department or our
mechanical system operators um that department too so they could become apprentice with our organization and could quite possibly gain employment in the future. Excellent. All right. Thank you. Um I was also you know interested to see the uh the cost estimate that you said
for you know as grounds for seeking this hardship compliance plan of you know you mentioned a million plus in capital expenditures I believe something like 400k a year in utility costs in addition to what you're paying right now at least for the capital cost have you all as a part of that cost assessment looked into
inflation reduction act tax credits that can help bring down that cost? um we haven't explored it I would say since the new administration um has come on board. It's something that we did look at in the beginning. Um you know
the inflation reduction act is a tool that we can use that can help us but you know probably going forward. I don't know just how widely available those um those things will be or we don't know how widely available they'll be. So it's something that we just have that we haven't looked into or continue to
explore just yet. Yeah. I'll quickly say that we partner with um team Massachusetts. The application we put forward for the Noah coastal resilience regional regional um pot of money from IRA. Uh our application wasn't approved by Noah, so we didn't get that last
round, but as Ferris mentioned, we expect new IRA money to be harder to come by in this this next in this federal landscape. Sure. Yeah. No, definitely agree and appreciate that. Certainly on the grant funding uh standpoint, I don't think
that'll be a a good pot to look for. But I think uh certainly on the the tax credit side, uh you know, leveraging tax credits is still to my understanding, you know, something that people can and should pursue. Um that isn't impeded by any of the current actions. Um,
obviously we can't speak for the future, but um, in particular, I wanted to call your attention to some tax credits that can, uh, reduce the cost of the project for use of apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs. And I think that would be a really great way to, you know, um, bring down the cost and to
support workforce development uh, as you conduct these repairs. So, um, I wanted to know if that was on the the docket, but it's good to know. Um, all right. I think uh and the last question, this is building off of a point that chair boatright had made
about um exploring geothermal energy. Um you'd mentioned the disruption that that would take to the other neighbors on the warf uh if you were to move forward with some kind of a geothermal project. Uh have you had any conversations with the other neighbors about having a joint uh
geothermal power purchase agreement? Um, and you know, in particular, I asked this because I assume that a lot of those other buildings are probably also subject to Berto and would probably be thinking about some of the same challenges. Um, no, we have not and that's something
to explore, I would say. Um, so I mean that's something that we can um that we can talk about with our various neighbors, but we have not um explored that. But um but uh we can we can um explore that.
Okay, great. Thank you so much. All right. Uh, those are all my questions for right now. I'll yield back to you, Madam Chair. Thank you. Um, board member Ferris, thank you. Yeah. Uh, thanks for the presentation and, um, for the previous questions which I share. I just have a
couple of additional questions. Um, the first is about the energy conservation measures that you showed that you're implementing this year and next year. And I I may have missed it, but did can you describe um basically what percentage of load reduction or what percentage of total energy use you
anticipate to achieve through energy conservation measures compared to offsetting with the green steam? Let me uh make sure that I get you the right information. Um, can you repeat the question? I'm
sorry. Sure. Yeah. The question is what um how much uh do you anticipate reducing the energy use or kind of reducing the energy loads in the building through the energy conservation measures you're actively pursuing um compared to I guess how much is going to
be left over? How how what what percentage of the emissions are going to be covered through the green steam um compared to just reduced through energy conservation? what with the um the green steam will be more than our energy conservations
measures that we would take. I mean there are very there are very few energy conservations that energy conservation measures that we can take. Um these seven are the ones that you see that we can take that would impact the most. Um so the green steam would be more.
Exactly how much more I don't know. I I can get that information for you if you like. But exactly. But I will say the green steam will be more um than what the our energy and then us performing these energy conservation measures though. Yep. Okay. Thanks. Um the other
Yeah, I guess I would be curious to see how much energy improvement you're achieving before the green steam is able to offset. Um if you have that information and then the other the other question I had um was about the longevity of your steam systems. I guess I understand from the previous questions
that um particularly in the near to midterm the green steam makes sense because of the the spatial challenges and the the financial challenges of installing all electric systems. Um but I'm wondering you know at some point the steam systems will also reach an end of life and so I'm wondering if you've
thought about when when that will happen and if there are plans to convert to electric systems at that point. Um that's a very good question. Um sort of pertuous so to speak. We do have some issues now with our steam um that we have to uh remedy so to speak. Um and so
the issues that we're incurring now is where a steam pipe is located. Um the rising sea levels and tides have impacted that. And so um it's sort of it's at the end of it life so to speak. And so we have to uh well we are exploring rerouting it um and and
exploring you know what it would take to do that. And so right now we've took some measures to mitigate that those issues that we have. And so in the very in the very near future, um we're going to take some measures to where we either um reroute the steam pipe to to reroute
it throughout the um our campus um or try to figure out um do we need should we stay keep it in place um you know like I said we we're going through that process right now um in terms of you know converting to electricity now at this point in time we just can't do it
and so not being able to do it now in terms of um what we have to take care of that's point of emergency right now and then being able to convert to electric boilers or things of that nature will be tough for us to do right now and so staying the course with the steam pipe
or with the steam is is is the best um course of action right now for us okay thank you thank you board member Ferris do you have additional questions or you're good oh no thank you. I will hand it back to
you. Okay. All right. Great. Um, board member Latimore. Yes. Uh, thank you for all of the information and u my, uh, peer board members asked quite a few of the questions that I I had. So, I appreciate
that and the answers. I do have a couple of other questions. Um, does the uh, New England Aquarium have a a WMV utilization policy? Do we have we don't have an official policy? No, right. Not at this time. It
is like I said, it is a a practice of ours or it is a practice that we want to employ. Making sure that we do that. Um, you know, we don't have a a an official practice as I stated right now, but it is something that we are going to or that we do employ sort of unofficially.
We make sure that we um you know explore companies or explore ways to use companies that we can um you know employ on on on site. Um we do have we like I said in the past we've used um MBE company on site that has come on site and performed some work for us that was
indirectly related to Berto. Um and we had some other companies come on and and provide some work on our um campus out on the front plaza that that company provided some work for us or performed some work for us. So, I mean, as we can as we find companies that do and and
that do perform work or that can perform work, we most definitely will. Thank you. Um, I would say a couple of things. Um, one is, um, Emerald Cities, um, uh, has a, um, program, uh, where they train minority, uh, business owners
to kind of move, um, closer or, you know, kind of tweak their current professional skills to align more with the kind of potentially burgeoning um, clean energy, you know, economy. So, that's one resource that I'm sure
Emerald Cities, you say? Emrose Cities is what it's called. Um, I think I got the name right. I'm thinking, yeah, that's Alexis. I can't remember Alexis's last name, but the city, I'm sure, has her contact information or MBE, Minority Business
Enterprises. And then the um I know the city's going to be working with you, but just a couple of of resources. Uh, the um Mass Housing Investment Corp., also known as MIK also has a pretty extensive MBE directory that and I'm sure other
members um both the city and members of this review board can you know support your access to a range of MBEs. I'm really pleased to hear that there's a burgeoning or you know fledgling relationship with uh power core Boston
my agency just full disclosure covenant square neighbor development corporation did is a partner with the city in the Noah grant that we got that the city got the and we are going to be supporting the training partial training of power core Boston um participants. So really
looking forward to seeing how that um relationship evolves with the New England Aquarium. So I appreciate that you are looking at that. Um in terms of the question I have about um improvements, when I look at your submission, just wondered about the
status of the 2025 improvements. You know, it looked like you had by the end of this year you had about four or so targets u for energy uh efficiency measures. So I just wondered about the status of those. Are they on track or
you know what what is the status when they are on track? Um Jordan, can you speak a little bit more to those? Sure. Um good evening. I'm Jordan Tenbr, director of facilities and grounds aquarium. Uh one specifically we've been focused on namely is the the VFDs. So a
lot of our process equipment uh air handling building comfort systems um we've been trying to uh implement control on a lot of these motors an effort to you know reduce how long or how hard they run. Um some of the
initial building surveys conducted identified approximately 29 motors um above 7 and a half horsepower. Uh to date we've addressed about 13 of those and are ongoing um through that list as
we speak. So we'll continue um doing that and hopefully appreciate some significant savings as a result. Great. Thank you. That's good to hear. Um, I just wondered, uh, you know, without necessarily having to disclose the the
aquarium's financial status, just wondering, you know, what your anticipated costs will be for um, improvements, say, over the next two or so years, and how you will fund them. Some of the my uh fellow members have talked about you know tax credits which
you know hopefully will be available maybe but just wondering what the antic if you have an understanding say for the next two to three years not necessarily all the way out to to um you know 2040 or so but the next two to three years what the anticipated costs for these for
your improvements as as you've initially sketched them out and how you would plan on funding them In terms of uh our VFDs, that work we're doing and and and the air curtains work that is planned as well. I mean, we we plan on that
being in the ballpark of 100 grand, $100,000 with the VFDs, maybe a little bit more than that. Um and then we also have the um the triller that we need to replace. That's going to be more than that for sure. um that's going to be
upwards of um $2 million$2 to $3 million just because of the um just because of where it's located at in on our campus. I mean, you know, we in a very, you know, when you look at it, when you look at our space, you can say, "Whoa, that's big." But when it comes to performing um
projects and construction, logistics of it all becomes a headache for us being right here on the um central warf and close to the water. And so, um, and then certain things being where they are, the trailer that we have to replace is on the roof. And so, being able to get that up there and removing it and and and
removing what we have there now and then, you know, putting putting what we going to buy or what we're going to procure up there, um, you know, replacing it is just going to be a headache as well. So, that's what that's where the money really comes in at for us, logistics. And so, that's a good two
to $3 million project. And, um, the steam project is a is a pretty penny as well. Um these are all projects that um the children's at the end of his life so we kind of have to do that one. The steam is at the end of its life so we have to do that one too. And so these are all projects that we have to do. Um
in terms of you know where the money is coming from we do um you know we're always soliciting funds in terms of soliciting for funds in terms of um donors and grants and things of that nature. Uh we also have to pull some of these funds out of our operations as well. And so there are there are a few
things that we're trying to do to help us secure these funds so that we can perform these uh various projects that we have. Thank you for that response. Uh and then my final question is on the EJ benefits. Um it was helpful to see the list and uh
hear about the um different benefits. I wondered um how how are EJ communities informed of and how and how to what extent are they using the climate resilient benefits that you listed? Um you know Boston family days is
probably the biggest one for us and you know we have a number of um number of families that come on site on Sundays and visit the aquarium. So we have no issue there. Um we do well we have had a um a con a community assessment that we
performed that just finalized um earlier this year and so we went out into the community and asked various u members of the community what would they like to see from us that's basically it and um you know the majority of them surprisingly said that they didn't want us to come to them um they wanted to
come to us so which was a surprise for us so um we we're in the process of um you know creating events that will u be very beneficial to the community when they do come visit us. I know on Sunday, June 8th, we do have World Ocean Day.
So, if you're, you know, in town, please come by and we can have various um vendors on site, various um scientists on site that'll be giving talks and things that nature um about the various um things that they research and things of that nature. But, um there are a
number of programs that we're talking about just trying to make sure that we impact the community in a positive manner. in the future. Okay. Thank you. No, no further questions. Thank you. Thank you. Um, board member Sovel,
hey, thank you for your time and all the information. I just was curious about one thing. Why didn't you not get the last round of Noah funds? peace just stepped off the call. Um, I think it
was I from what I'm thinking. I can't I don't want to give you an official answer. I don't want to give you my opinion either. So, let me give you a um and let me give you an official answer and let me speak with Latise because I'm pretty sure that we have a um that we have in a letter that they gave us that
probably isn't, you know, doesn't say much, but it says something. So, I want to make sure that I give you the official position on that uh or the official reason as to why we did not or why we were not able to procure those funds. And so, if if I can present that
to the board or to um the staff so that they can give that to you so we make sure that you have your answer at a later date if you allow us to do that, that'll be great. Okay. All right. Sorry about that.
This reason I'm asking is if you had problems getting that, are you going to have any other issues trying to apply for grant money or any other credits that you need in order to continue the repairs and to run the um
facility at as in terms of how we view the current federal landscape? Yeah, we're going to have problems um procuring federal funds in terms of how we view the current federal landscape. Um you know, we're
going to try to um we're going to try our best to um procure funds or procure federal funds or pursue those funds. Um we're going to we're going to expend every effort we can to procure those federal funds. Um, and but I don't know
or I think we as we view it, we view that we might not have much success in procuring those funds just simply because of the current administration and the way that they are um handling business. Okay. Y Ferris, this is Kim.
And I just wanted to add that um while what Ferris says is true that it may be more challenging um over the next several years for federal funding, we do have a lot of private foundations that are interested in um our work and and not just in our conservation and
science, but actually we actively have um private fund foundations right now that are funding some of our capital projects. So I think we remain optimistic that those those private foundations will still um still have interest in funding us.
Thank you. Thank you for the question. you. Um, I am about to open up the meeting to public comment unless any board members have uh additional pressing questions for staff or um or
the aquarium that you want to make sure we address. I have a brief question. Okay. Uh, yes. I I had a question for staff about uh the ability of the board to compel or suggest the use of apprenticeship or pre-apprenticeship
programs as a part of a special condition. Um any insight on that? Sorry. So I want to make sure I understand the question. Um sort of what is the ability for the board to Sorry. What was the question? Oh no,
sorry. No, I was I worded it in a confusing way. I think uh well, can we compel or suggest as a part of a special condition that an applicant leverage apprenticeship and pre-apprenticeship programs? Mhm.
Um I can jump in Diana and let's um I believe currently in our staff recommendations we have you know one of the suggested special conditions is acting under commitments and one of the categories that we're including is
workforce development. So the aquarium is already proposing to be part of these power core programs with a better city. So they already have a condition that is acting on that commitment or pursuing good faith efforts on similar commitments in that category. So I
believe that would cover what uh your concern is but let me know if you have other questions on that. Got it. I think that that clarifies it in the sense that if the applicant makes the commitment initially, we can hold them accountable to that. But we can't
propose new commitments uh ourselves as a part of the condition unless they choose to voluntarily follow up with that. Yes. Or or overall um any sort of like commitments or special conditions would have to be mutually agreed upon. And so,
you know, it would it would just take a longer discussion, I think. Sure. Sure. Absolutely. Um is that a similar situation for use of minority and womenowned business enterprises if we were to uh set forward some kind of requirement for at least some portion of the work to be completed
by MWBEs. Uh yes, similarly it would it would need to be sort of you know mutually agreed upon. Um, so yes, then the size and scope of the projects they're discussing,
um, I'm assuming that some, but not all would fall under the Boston residents jobs policy reporting anyways. Um, probably not all of them. Um, is that is that an accurate
um assumption? to is that a question to Seth? Yeah, I think so. I I don't I guess you know the thing that I I haven't tracked is you know for each sort of step in the
updating like what's the scope of that individual project right because I think the size of the project is what's going to trigger BRJP but I I would um in good faith assume that because of the size of the building itself many of the
activities would um would trigger BRJP, but I I obviously we haven't discussed that, so I I may be wrong. Yeah, I believe that's that is true, but I I don't want to speak because I'm not
I'm not that familiar with the Boston res. I do know there are certain projects that trigger it, and I do believe that that would be the case with some of the size of the projects at the aquarium. Did you say BRJP? I'm sorry. I'm I'm just want to make sure I educate myself
on that as well. Yeah, it's the Boston residents jobs policy is the city's requirements of um jobs over Rusty. I don't I don't know if Gail remembers or if anyone else knows the
exact number that off the threshold. I don't remember the threshold number, but I but it sounds like from um uh the representatives from New England Aquarium's report that the their costs are in easily over the next two years
two to$4 million. So I would imagine that that that I don't know but I imagine that would fall under BRJ you know the JP it's a it's definitely if I'm remembering correctly it's a
fivedigit it's a five-digit number so you would easily be over that and um so you would be required to have a certain number of women minorities and Boston residents working on the project and you would be reporting to an oversight body
on that or your your general contractor would be doing that. So, um so I my guess is that the majority of the work would be covered by that. The the okay threshold is 50,000 square feet.
Okay. Um, all right. So, um, any other questions from the board? All right. We will now open the meeting to public comment. As a reminder to members of the public um, to provide
public comment, please raise your hand or type in the chat um, in the application via the Zoom meeting platform. If you're calling in and cannot use the platform, you can raise your hand by pressing star9. Um, send your or send your comments to staff
email boardboston.gov. Uh, if you do make a comment, please try to limit it to three minutes or less and um and and focus on um the on comments. Do we have any public comment?
All right. Um, so assuming no further discussion or questions, is there a motion from a board member regarding approving this application with the staff recommended special conditions? Um or we
can also have a motion to approve it with standard conditions. Um or our third option is a motion to continue to a future date if there are additional conditions that we want to add on to what staff has already proposed.
A motion to approve uh with uh special conditions as as set forth by the staff. I second. May I ask the staff to please pull up the special condition slide so that we can see it, please?
Why don't we take a minute just to for board members to read it, but I'm hopeful that we can get a go-ahad from staff that we don't need to read it out loud in order to take a vote. Okay. All right. So, we'll just pause for a minute for board members to
read the slide. people. Are people good? All right. Um, is there [Music] um is there any more discussion needed before I call for a vote? All right. Um, so I I will
um on the motion to approve the application with the staff recommended special conditions. How do you vote? I vote in favor. Um, board member Ellis. In favor. Board member Farooqi. In favor.
Board member Ferris. In favor. Remember Latimore in favor. Board member Stell in favor. Great. The eyes have it. The motion passes. Uh, New England Aquarium
Corporation's hardship compliance plan has been approved. for the regulations. The environment department will send a copy of the written decision letter within seven days. And um thank you again um to the staff from New England Aquarium Corporation. Um this was a you
were very thorough in your presentation and um and we appreciate that uh we had a lot of questions and um and appreciate the time and thought you put into addressing them. Thank you board. Um, we appreciate it.
Like I said, if you have any questions or anything, please contact us at any time. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Thank you. Um, we'll we'll look forward to um to to seeing updates um for the
vote, too. So, um so we are now going to switch to our public meeting. I'm calling this public meeting to order at 6:08 p.m. I know that um that staff has some information
about updates to Berto regulations just as a time check um because I I think there's some interesting things in this discussion. Can can I just do a poll um just by way of hands? Can if if you're
able to if we need to if you're able to stay on until 6:45 could board members raise their hands just so staff sort of know how to budget this time. Okay, it looks like um I I think we're good, right? One, two, three. Yeah. So, so hopefully we'll finish by
6:30, but um before I hand it over to Claudia, I just wanted to double check because um because I think that there there's some interesting there's some interesting things we are going to talk about. So, I will hand it over. Perfect. Thank you so much, chair.
And I will do my best to keep us on time. uh see can you go to the next slide? Um okay so we're coming here to give you an introduction to some of the key regulation changes that we're proposing to the air pollution control
commission in June of 2025. Um and before we go into the meat of those regulations proposals we have for you I did want to take some time to give you a reminder of Berto's regulatory structure. Um so we have sort
of four levels of guiding documents or um yeah guiding documents that that govern Berto. The first level is of course the ordinance itself. This is the overall law that established Berdo and all of the key requirements for the program. This ordinance was adopted by
city council in 2021. Um, and out of all of the documents that you will see here listed, the ordinance is the hardest to modify because it we would require to go back to city council for any changes and approvals of that sorts. So, an example of something you could find in the
ordinance that you're very familiar with is that it creates building portfolios as an option of a flexibility measure and establishes very broad requirements for that such as that the building portfolios need to be approved by the Berto review board. The second level
that we has we have are regulations. These are more specific rules to implement and enforce the objectives of of the ordinance. These regulations are adopted by the air pollution control commission. Some of you were present where when we adopted those last
regulations early in 2024. And an example of those more specific rules that we have is that while the ordinance created building portfolios, the regulations establish things like the application process for building portfolios and additional environmental justice requirements for certain
portfolios such as having environmental justice maps that you have seen uh for pathway to portfolios in previous meetings. The next level that we have are policies and procedures. These are even more detailed guidelines that clarify the ordinance and regulations.
And these might be updated more frequently to respond to lessons learned during implementation and to adapt to new changes as they come up. Historically, these policies and procedures have been adopted alongside regulations by the air pollution control commission. And some examples of these
are um the data sources for creating these those environmental justice maps are in um policies and procedures. So it says like, oh, the heat map comes from the city of Boston's heat map. The asthma asthma map comes from the US EPA.
And because these sources can change more frequently, they are in policies and procedures instead of regulations. And a final level that we have is guidance, which are more general how-to guides and manuals that we have for building owners to help them navigate Berto and comply with the requirements
in the best way possible. So examples are the how to reporting guide, how to report solar guide or in this example we have a guide on how to create your environmental justice map for a building building portfolio application. Um, next slide
please. So when we are talking about the 2025 Berto regulations update, we are talking about updating specifically regulations and policies and procedures that are related to flexibility measure applications as well as third party verification. We're also adding some
clarifying language related to already existing Berto procedures that we already have in place like reporting for buildings with shared energy system campus reporting emissions calculation formulas that are already in place but we want to formalize them through regulations or policies and procedures
as as it's relevant. So you can see here this regulations update does not include the ordinance because again this is adopted by city council and it's not on under the authority of the air pollution control commission to change the ordinance and we're also not consider considering any other substantial
changes to the regulations at this moment. Next slide please. Um, I also wanted to take some time to explain why we are pursuing these regulations updates and why we are focusing on those particular topics of
third party verification and flexibility measures. Um, the last regulations as I mentioned were adopted at the very beginning of 2024. So, some of you might be wondering, didn't we do this already? Why are we going back to these? Um but during that super uh long and productive
regulations development process that we had between 2022 and 2024, we develop an understanding with our community partners, with building owners and the review board itself about the importance of implementing Berto in an equitable way and how that involves also being
able to continuously learn as we implement Berto and using those lessons that we learn to rectify unforeseen burdens or challenges that arise or and to be able to respond to community needs. So in these regulations updates, we are particularly seeking to respond
to challenges and lessons learned that we have identified through this day-to-day implementation of Berto and the constant engagement that our team has had with with building owners. Uh so all of the changes that you will see here today come from this constant
communication through our help desk to these review board meetings and processes through our ver virtual building consultations as well as the inerson Berto workshop series that we started last year and I will refer back to these lessons learned as I present
our stroke proposals today. Next slide. Um, and then I also wanted to give the board and the public a sense of the tentative timeline that we have for these regulations update. We kicked off this process in midmay by releasing a
survey to the public to collect additional feedback on regulation changes and this will be uh remain open until at least the end of May. Uh today we're presenting key straw proposals to the board and we're looking forward to hearing from you later today. And our
next milestone is to come to the air pollution control commission or APCC at their month monthly meeting on June 11 with the first formal draft language for the regulations revisions and we will request the air pollution control commission to open a public comment at that point and this would formally start
the regulations update process with the APC. uh during that first public comment period, we will have time to come to you again on June 23rd to present that formal draft language and get additional feedback from the board. After closing that period and many making any
necessary revisions, we would come back to the APCC either in late July or early August at a special hearing. Um and at that point the commission would have the discretion to open a second public comment period or if everything was
perfect at the first try they could vote to adopt the regulation changes but based on our experience we usually need two public comment periods. Uh this public comment period process would be repeated. We would come back to you in August 11 with the revised draft
language and then uh the newly revised language would be presented to the APCC again in September. And at that point they would have again the discretion to adopt those regulations or open a new public comment period and continue the process as needed. So this is our
tentative timeline at the moment but again this is subject to change at the discretion of the APCC. Next slide please. Okay with all of that background in mind we're going to move into presenting six key straw proposals that
we're proposing to the APCC. Again, these proposals are really designed to address challenges that we have identified in past years with implementation of Berto and we're hoping to streamline Berto compliance for both in the short term and long term. Um, and
these are the six key proposals, but again, additional draft language related to existing BTO procedures will be presented to the APCC in June and are not included in the presentation today because we wanted to focus on more of the key changes and especially those that are pertaining to the board. Uh,
next slide, please. Okay, the first key proposal is to streamline requirements for third party verification. Currently, all building owners are required to provide third-party verification of the reported data for the five calendar years prior
in 2026 and every verification year thereafter, meaning every 5 years. Again, this applies to all buildings regardless of when they start their emissions compliance obligations. So what we're proposing here is to differentiate third-party verification
obligations between 2025 and 2030 buildings and to reduce the burden of third-party verification for everyone's first emissions compliance year. So here you can see we're proposing that for 2025 buildings which are the larger buildings within owners would provide
third-party verification in 2026 but only for their 2025 calendar year data. And then every verification year thereafter the obligation would go back to verifying the last five calendar years. Then for 2030 buildings which are
the smaller buildings within we're proposing that owners would not be required to pro to provide third party verification in 2026 because they're not subject to the emission standards at that point. Then in 2031, which would be their first emissions, the first year
that they demonstrate emissions compliance, they would provide third-party verification only of 2030 data. And then every verification year thereafter, it goes back to every 5 years. So we believe these changes would lessen the burden of third-party verification for the first emissions
compliance years for every building. And limiting third-party verification to only one year of data for the first emission compliance year really still ensures that we have the integrity of the most critical data that we need to enforce emission standards because we
don't need to verify really previous years of data when building uh when the buildings were not subject to emission standards to make emissions compliance a success. And we think that removing this requirement would eliminate unnecessary
owner expenses as well as start uh staff capacity in this first emissions compliance cycle. And our team is planning to complement this change through a more in-depth and proactive internal data quality procedures to ensure that building owners can still
trust their reported data to plan for long-term decarbonization efforts. Um, next slide, please. So the second big change that we have here is modifying application deadlines for flexibility measures. So here you
can see that um all flexibility measures currently have deadlines of applying the year prior to a compliance year. So for example, if an owner wanted a building portfolio for 2025, they needed to apply by September 1st of 2024. The board
voted to extend that deadline, but that was the original language in regulations. And the original purpose of this was to encourage building owners to plan for flexibility measures in advance of a compliance year. Um but now that we have been implementing these deadlines
for a while and in talking with building owners during those building consultations and inerson workshops, it has become very evident that a lot of building owners are still only becoming aware of these flexibility measure options. And even if a yielding owner
wants to, you know, implement or pursue good fate efforts to comply with Berto in 2025, one of the key ways to comply, which is flexibility measures, is no longer an option for them under current regulations. And they can only apply right now for a flexibility measure
starting in 2026, the earliest. So we are proposing to essentially give building owners an additional year to apply for flex flexibility measures for a given year. So for example for portfolios and IC it would be applying
by September 1st of the same year uh to have a building portfolio. So to use a portfolio in 2025 apply by September 1st of 2025 and the same logic applies for ICS and short-term hardship compliance
plan. For long-term hardship we're also uh providing even more additional time and changing the deadline to July 1st of the same year. And you will see that we are al also proposing that the review board would have the discretion to extend these deadlines for a given year
at their discretion. Um you will notice that if we go through our tentative timeline on time, these regulation changes would be passed the earliest at September 11. So the September 1 deadline would have passed already for
2025. So our proposal is that if these regulation changes are adopted, we would ask the reviewer to extend the deadline for 2025 applications probably for October 1st, November 1st, depending on what the needs are at that point. But in long in the long term, we believe these
changes would enable building owners to apply for flexibility measures during a compliance year and thereby giving them more opportunities to course correct compliance, adapt to changes that they may have and just have a more streamlined logical application process.
Next slide, please. Um, the third change we're proposing is to enable building owners to extend voting timelines for flexibility measures. As a reminder, currently our regulations establish very specific voting voting timelines for
building portfolios, individual compliance schedules, and hardship. Those uh deadlines would still remain in place, but we are proposing that building owners should be able to um request an alternative date for that. uh we have encountered that in some
instances building owners actually request to delay their hearings to have more time for to prepare or to have additional time to discuss special conditions. So our proposal is that we grant the review board that flexibility to vote or hold a hearing on an
application at a later date if the owner requests to do so. Next slide, please. Okay. The fourth proposal is to remove the requirement to record decisions in the registry of dates for most flexibility measures. As a
reminder, all regulations currently require building owners to record any decision related to an approval modification, adding special conditions uh or termination of all flexibility measures. These recording requirements were originally included as a way to
provide um new owners that are buying a Verdo building the ability to understand whether a building's compliance is tied to a flexibility measure. Um however, we have found that a lot of building owners had been facing issues with complying with this requirement and for some
depending on how their deed is structured, it can impose additional higher costs for Berto compliance. And this process has been particularly painful for some affordable housing owners. So we are proposing that these recording requirements are removed for
all flexibility measures except for long-term hardship compliance plan and proposing that that recording requirement that would remain with long-term hardship to be exempted for did restricted residential buildings and city buildings. Uh we believe these
changes would lessen the burden of applying for flexibility measures especially for affordable housing owners. And to address this issue of giving new owners a way to understand if the compliance status of a building up upon change of ownership, we will
propose that previous and new owners could request the the environment department to provide a notice of compliance status for a building. Um and this is this would be in addition to the public annual disclosure process that we already have as part of Berto. Um, we
are proposing to maintain this requirement for long-term hardship because this is the flexibility measure that provides the most relief as we saw today and it has significant implications for a building's compliance with Berto. And we want to give new owners an additional avenue to learn
whether a potential building they they're trying to buy is dependent on a hardship to comply with Verto. Uh, we recognize that this recording process is still might be challenging for building owners. So this is a space where we are open to feedback on how to make Berto
compliance data more accessible at the point of sale of buildings. Next slide please. The fifth requirement is to enable the review board to grant exemptions on solar requirements without a hardship compliance plan. As a reminder, our regulations currently
enable building owners to take advantage of solar energy or solar net metering credits without massclass one recirement in two scenarios. if their solar is located in Boston or if their solar is located in eastern Massachusetts
uh provided that it began operation before 2024 and they began receiving their electricity or net metering credits before 2024. Um, this decision was made back then because a lot of owners relied on the state smart program
to be able to finance solar projects. But one of the key requirements of that incentive program is that building owners cannot retain the rights of the massclass one Rex that are associated with the solar power. So that requirement for Berto was built in conjunction with our community advisory
group to ensure that building owners who are doing the right thing by getting solar can still use that for Berto compliance regardless of whether they're participating on smart or not. But since then we have learned that there's been a lot of uh extenuating circumstances that have prevented building owners from
getting solar systems outside of Boston in operation before 2024. Often it has to do with utility issues or delays from the developer that outside of the building owner's control. And currently the only way that um building owners
would be able to still use that solar p power without wreck retirement is through a hardship compliance plan which is a very complex and lengthy process. So to respond to this, we're proposing that based on extenduating circumstances, owners may request the
review board to approve the use of this solar, electricity or generation credits um even if they don't meet these requirements. And this would provide basically a direct extension pathway uh that would streamline this type of requests and free up capacity for
building owners, for city staff and for the review board by reducing the number of hardship compliance plans that would be submitted to the board. And um the reviewer already has the ability to grant this type of exemptions for power purchase agreement. So this proposal
sort of mirrors that authority the board already has in the renewable energy realm. Next slide please. Um and finally our final key proposal is to delineate the roles between the APCC review board and
environment department more more clearly. As I mentioned earlier today, historically policies and procedures had been presented alongside regulations and adopted by the air pollution control commission at the same time. But here we are proposing that following this update
policies and procedures should be adopted by the review board. mo moving forward. This is because policies and procedures as Ian mentioned before are by design um in need of updates more frequently and they are updated to respond to le lessons learned during
implementation and to adapt to changes. And given that the reviewer is the entity responsible for providing community oversight over the implementation of Berto, we believe that giving the reviewer the authority to update those policies and procedure is a better fit uh for Berto. And then
another clarification we want to do is that the regulations often make reference to guidance adopted by the APCC and sometimes it says environment department. In practice, guidance is generally developed by the environment department on behalf of the APCC. So we're proposing to just clarify that
language to plainly say that guidance is created by the environment department. So this would mean that regulations are adopted by APCC, policies and procedures by the review board and guidance by the environment department and again some additional draft language delineating
roles between the commission board and environment department will be presenting in June as well. Next slide. And uh finally just a reminder of the timeline and that our next uh milestone is to go to the APCC in June
with draft language. Um, I believe that's all from me, but happy to respond any questions from the board. Thank you. Um, thank you so much, Claudia, for the presentation. Um, I will ask each board member if they have
any questions or comments. Um, I I I think all of the recommendations make a lot of sense as some course corrections for um improving the system that um that we're working on in this relatively um new process. So,
I'm going to um see my own questions for right now and I will give it to board member Ellis. Thank you, Chair Boltright. Um Claudia, can you go back to the um the third option, please? I just want to seek a clarification point here.
So, right here, um, please correct me if I'm wrong. It sounds like we would, you would be asking the board to vote if the owner is asking for a later application or a later presentation date. Is that what you stated earlier?
So basically, for example, for a building portfolio application, the board still has to vote within 45 days of the environment department's finding of completeness unless the owner asks for a delay in that in a later date.
Okay. So yeah, sorry. So if the owner in that scenario, if the owner is asking for a later date, does the board need to vote to say yes or can the environment department just approve that? It's not the intention of the language right now to make the vote for that. Okay, got it.
All right. So, I thought I misheard that. Um I I'm gonna keep the rest of my questions. I do I think I want to submit something um before the end of May. So, I'll turn it back over to the chair. Thank you. You um board member Farooqi.
Thank you. Um and thank you Clauddio for all the work on this and everyone in the environment department. Um, have you two questions? Have you uh re-engaged the community advisory group uh to solicit their thoughts on
these proposed recommendations? Um, not specifically as reconvening the community advisory group. This has just been um communicated generally to all of our Berto contacts at the moment. Okay, sounds good. Thanks. Uh, the
second is a question and suggestion. This may already be in the proposal, but I think it would be great if we um ensure that the recommendations uh I'm sorry that the regulations are consistent with the ordinance in terms of the provisions by which board members are uh approved by the city council um
or not approved by the city council to be on board. Thanks. Appreciate it. That will be included. Great. Thank you. I asked for no reason at all. All right. Thank you. Um Madam Chair, I yield back. Thank you. Um, board member Ferris had
to sign off. Uh, board member Latimore. Uh, thank you for staff um and Claudia and staff for all of the very thorough updates. Um, admittedly I I when I saw administrative updates on the agenda. I didn't I thought they would be more like
the typical administrative updates. This one is very detailed and so I'm not doing a service to you uh at this point. I would just ask if uh in the future if those administrative updates are as you know extensive and detailed as this one
that it be pointed out to the board so that we can make sure we pay close attention to those. So other than that I appreciate the work that you've done and um don't have any comments or questions. Thank you.
Thank you um board member. Yeah, I'm just just still trying to digest it. Um, I don't have any questions as of right now. Thank you. Um, Claudia, can you go back to the
timeline just um just for a board member's information to just it it sounds like we're presenting this right now, but there will be a few other opportunities for us to discuss them as
well as um as well as the public comment period. Yes, that is correct. So this is the first time we're bringing these to the board as straw proposals, but we will come back to you once we present direct language to the IPCC and in any
subsequent meetings if the board desires we can add discussions to the agenda. But yeah, there will always be an opportunity for the board to give feedback during a meeting um after we present language to the APC. Thank you.
if I Oh, I'm sorry. May I make a comment, please? Yeah, please. I I just want to add um because it sort of feels like it's this is reaching its end, but that um the I'm I'm glad you pulled up the um timeline to see the other
opportunities for this board to um sort of roll your sleeves up and ask more sort of detailed questions. I will say that um the overall theme on top of all of this is that um we're really trying to make
Berto a more predictable and easier process for everyone who's covered to engage with. And so um it'll be key as we go along this timeline for you to understand what's in these proposals. So rate that there's additional
opportunities to absorb it, but also um you know we are not going to get ahead of ourselves um and just assume that these are going to pass the way they're written. This is a we sort of definitely take the comment period and all the other engagement very seriously. But we're we are looking for
these things to be known if they're on the table and not on controversial because we do actually think they'll be so beneficial. as Claudia mentioned, they really do respond almost all of them directly to um feedback from um you know covered building property owners
and managers. And so um you know to the extent that we are getting information out there about how this sort of like please provide your feedback and this is coming that's also one of the things that we want um to make sure is known. It's just that, you know, we're making some um small tweaks that will hopefully
have a big impact on how easy this is to to work with. Thank you. You that's very helpful. Um are there any other further discussion or questions? Board member
Ellis. Yes. Thank you, Chair. uh very quickly. It doesn't need to be heavily explained, but I I want to find the section surrounding I and please, you might have to help me with this, but I think it's surrounding individual compliance schedules and how the energy
data must be before a certain time period. I I'm trying to remember if this is like a 2024 thing and whether or not this may need to be adjusted due to the issues that building owners that may acquire a building um but cannot get
that energy data because the utilities themselves are not storing that information and I I want to be able to like try to write up something for that. So, can one of you just point it out to me or shoot me an email about what the particular section is that states the
year with respects to what um those requirements are? Yes, I believe that requirement is in the ordinance, but I will check and send you the actual language. Um yeah, thank
you. Thank you, chair. Great. Thank you. Um All right. So, um it is 6:39. Um I know we had minutes on the agenda and um administrative
updates. Maybe we can um we can try to take I think we had said we go till 6:45. So, maybe we can try to take care of the minutes and then see where we are. Um so uh our our next agenda item
is to um approve the previous meeting minutes from May 12th. Are there any questions or comments regarding the minutes? Motion to approve May 12th minutes. I will second that motion. Um so um
assuming no comment um I think we can uh vote in favor oppose or abstain I I'll first call for the eyes and you can do that with a show of hands either your actual hand or your
Zoom hand. Um so uh those who vote I in favor of approving the May 12th minutes please let me know. All right. Um and oh, sorry, me too. Um and
um any nays and any abstensions? Thank you. Great. Um, it looks like we uh if we stay on
for one more minute, Ziggy, do you want to do a um a quick administrative update? Yeah, but I can do a very quick one. Um, also, sorry. Um, also I want to just highlight the number of reporting session requests.
Since the last meeting, the review board delegated that authority to the environment department. There's been 670 reporting section requests and all of them have been approved. Also just wanted to um send a reminder that May 30th is the deadline for the equable
admissions investments fund and so any interested applicants to get their uh application in before that deadline. And then also that the city has opened the nomination process for Jack's seat. So the nomination form can be found on the bird of review board website and this is
open to any organization or individual um can nominate someone for the seat. And then finally um looking at our timeline the city proposes forgoing the next review meeting on June 9th because we have no agenda items at this point. We don't have any like uh applications that need to be heard or any u bal
regulations updates that will be ready for that date. Um so then if we forgo this meeting the next meeting will be scheduled for June 23rd. Um, just want to see if that is okay with the review board. Lois, just a quick uh check. I know at the last meeting we were talking about
um learning about large steam system, central heating system. When I'm not trying to say we need to have the June 9th meeting, but did you have a thought of when you might be having that meeting? Just out of curiosity. Yeah, we were thinking for June 23rd.
Thank you. That's all. Okay. and board member Farooqi. Thank you. Um, do you know how many uh requests for funding we've gotten for the EIF? I checked today and we received we have two, but usually all the applications from last year came on like
the day the deadline was due. Sounds great. Thanks. And I'm uh happy to forgo the June 9th meeting as well. Thanks. Excuse me. Um, are there I I think um forgoing the June 9th
meeting sounds okay. Any I think I think we're good to move on from there and um call for a motion to adjurnn. Motion to adjurnn. Second.
Um All right. Uh, can uh we get the eyes? I I saw board member Soell. All right, great. Unanimous. Um, so the eyes have it. The meeting is adjourned at 6:43 p.m. Thank you um to everybody.
Thanks especially to the staff for all your work for supporting us. Um, and uh, yeah, have a good night everybody. Thank you everyone. Thank you. Have a good night.