Well, uh, good evening everybody. I will I'll call to order this, uh, this meeting of the Climate Action Planning Committee. Um I'll just repeat for the recording. Um we're we're still sort of working
through the transitional bureaucracy from the fiscal year 25 to fiscal year 26 term and we don't we don't have a quorum of members who've been sworn in. Um so we cannot vote on anything
tonight. Uh but the uh the work of climate action is still worth discussing and we can we can do it in a in a public way uh so that the uh residents of Milton can
um follow along with this work with us. Uh and we have two of those residents here uh Tucker and Bale Smith. Um and uh
yes. So before we um dive into agenda items, any any anything folks want to share from uh this is it a month and change since we were last together? >> I'm eager to hear how your presentation
went. coming here to tell you about it and hopefully my my notes can uh be pulled up here. Yeah, I was expecting to have uh
internet. I don't really. So, I'll have to do it for memory and you'll see how bad my memory is. Um, okay. Yeah. So, uh, on Tuesday I, uh, was on the agenda for the select board meeting.
Um, I gave them, uh, kind of an updated version of the, the report I gave in September. the, you know, the introductory material I think was relevant to the new members and and uh the even the returning members have
had quite a bit on their plate uh since they last heard from us and got it for repeating. Uh but the the new the new content was really um kind of slides on the the key near-term actions for the
four emission mitigation topics. Uh in interest of time, I did not u go into the um adaptation topics. Uh although those did come up a bit in Q&A.
Um and I tried to really um uh crystallize and ask of them and make it a little um a little um clearer than it was back in September. Um so I told them you know one that we
we are now that we have a draft plan uh we're really ending the ending the phase where this group working in isolation can be uh can make the kind of progress that it needs to make. I ask for their um support with funding but also like a
moving um in an engaged way towards endorsement and adoption. um and that um we needed their help uh you know organizing for implementation and and coming up with
the resources both financial and um in terms of sort of staff bandwidth. Um, I think another another um sort of new new angle that was even sort of new to me as I was um preparing
preparing to speak to them was a sort of focus on the um the process for getting certified as a climate leader community. The more I've learned about that, the more I think it provides a a sort of structured process uh that has,
you know, dedicated materials and technical support available from DOER and the consulting community um that overlaps with some of the key recommendations like um electrification and energy efficiency roadmap studies
for municipal facilities. It's actually a requirement to um uh qualify for climate leader communities um and is in our sort of two-year action list for building emissions.
Um it also requires that the town to be become eligible towns have to um adopt a zero emission first vehicle policy. Uh and so
thinking working towards that would be a really um a sort of focusing activity for town staff in terms of thinking about electrification of town vehicles uh and what are what are the opportunities and obstacles in that department.
Um, so, uh, it there was also a, um, a lengthy Q&A. So, the I would say the select board was, um, was pretty engaged, uh, and asked more and
more thoughtful questions than last time. Um and there's sort of an interest in identifying some near-term next steps I think for um for fall town meeting actually. So you know our charge uh is
is worded that um to develop this action plan for the consideration of town meeting. Uh oh, and and also because one the third um eligibility criteria for climate leader
certification that we haven't met yet in Milton is is a a municipal commitment to eliminate on-site fossil fuel combustion at municipal facilities by 2050.
Um, and so there was some discussion of what what does that mean and and should there be a town meeting article behind that. Um, so that that was something they they were interested in in taking on as a next step and also discussing um what it
would take to begin working on the climate leader community certification. And I I don't know if we've talked about that certification much in this group, but the uh the grant opportunities associated with it are
significant. Um there are two kinds of grant opportunities uh that climate leader communities become eligible for. Um planning and technical assistance grants up to $150,000. Um
and and then like project grants for specific projects that can be up to a million dollars. Um so is a really potentially sign significant source of funds to um
get the ball rolling on implementation. Um is there anybody else who watched it who remembers more things that I've forgotten? >> A couple of comments. Yeah, there were >> yes. >> First, I I just want to compliment our
chair in that Alex did a very nice presentation. Um, very substantive, to the point, crisp, clear, and wood responded accordingly. They were
engaged from my perspective and viewing it. I had a conflict that night with the conservation commission, but did view it the following morning. and uh thought that uh their advice was well taken. Uh two of the salient points um want to
reiterating something that Alex just said was uh to be preparing and putting forward for each of the town meeting members a warrant out article from the work of the climate action committee and that will engage town meeting um and the
broader community hopefully in the upramping of climate action planning for the town of Milton. The second was um the willingness to establish a dialogue on staffing
>> to support um the final action plan and you're going to be having if I remember correctly um meeting with the chair um the tenant administrator and yourself as to next steps in that regard. Alex.
>> Yeah, I don't I don't remember a sort of specific commitment to >> details to be determined to get back on, but they they took that step which I thought was >> extremely positive. And a third point that they brought up was charging stations in the town
>> being expanded so that there'd be, you know, visible support throughout the community for movements for electric vehicles. That was the the the question that Megan Hagerty asked
because in her work um at Mass DOT they they are um she sort of exposed to the uh her agency's version of this plan. Uh, and I think actually she could be a very helpful
uh partner in in refining the transportation um sections of the plan. So, yeah, I think I was hoping this evening to have kind of a an open
discussion with all of you about how how to um make the most of this moment. I think uh the meeting on Tuesday went well. Uh but it'll be important to follow up. Um and
yeah, I'm I'm not sort of crystal clear on what the right sequence of next steps are. So I think an open discussion would be very helpful. >> Ron, would you like to >> Yeah. So um so it seems to me based on
what you said I mean I have not known about the climate leader someone's call climate leader program but it does sound something that would really boost our engines so to speak if we were to get
that and if there is a push to come up with some kind of action plan by the fall town meeting. I would think that maybe we should devote most of our energies to
trying to put that together and to deal with the two or three goals that you mentioned about um putting uh town cars first in terms of
zero emissions. I forget what the second one was, but if we could maybe channel the work we do around prepping for that and getting that in gear. I think that might really boost
us. >> Matt, I see your hand up. >> Yeah. Uh I I agree with Ron. Um how how much overlap is there, Alex? I know that's, you know, an impossible question to to answer without. Can you guys see
hear me? Okay. I think I'm getting some lag. Sorry, my my Wi-Fi. >> You sound good in here. >> Okay, good. Let me let me keep trying. Um, yeah. So, how much overlap is there between our plan and the climate leader certification? In other words, if we can
knock, you know, 50% of our near-term objectives by achieving that certification, that would seem to be, you know, a pretty good a pretty good path. And and then the second question would be about
our way there, right? These may be two parallel parallel paths. never even thought about count town articles as a way to, you know, essentially commit the town, you know, by by law to to achieving some some of these objectives.
So, I I'm all for those, too. It'd be nice to be able to just go through our plan and be able to say, okay, you know, legislatively, through articles, we get this, this, and through climate leadership, we get this, this, and this, and then see where we're at.
Yeah. Um, so I think it's it's worth repeating just uh for familiarity. So there are three there's six eligibility requirements for climate leader certification. Milton has completed three already. Those were um
the building code, specialized building code, the um being a green community uh and having this committee. Those are three of the six eligibility criteria. The the remaining three are a municipal commitment to eliminate fossil
fuel use at municipal facilities by 2050. U a zero emission first vehicle policy and completing a municipal decarbonization roadmap study.
Um so the overlap is uh I mean the high level purpose of the plan is zeroing out emissions in town. So that includes municipal facilities. So some kind of endorsement of the plan I
think could qualify as that commitment. Uh but I think we have to be thoughtful about what we put before town meeting. I I just put myself in the shoes of a town meeting member. Uh well, first of all, I don't think the plan is like that close
to being final that we could finalize it with a robust public engagement process and familiarize town meeting members with the whole thing and ask them to approve all 50 pages of the meeting. They're not going to read the warrant
and and this whole document, right? So asking them to approve it as written in every word feels like a stretch. Um and I think that's not necessarily what we have to ask of them. Uh some creativity
would be good. And then I think the overlap is really you know the the transportation plan definitely calls for uh decarbonizing the municipal fleet. Um this policy would be a co you know coherent step in that direction. I think we have to understand what it really commits the
town to financially because um zero emissions vehicles are not available for every every kind of vehicle that the that the town operates. Um and even where they are available,
they're not always cost competitive. So I think people will be very low to sort of commit to unknown expenses over time, right? And same with plan. So
>> yeah, but what it what it what it is is it's now turning it into a business case if you see what I mean. This this is why I like it. >> The plan is written today. you know, we know we would have to start putting dollars and cents behind some of these objectives at some point. And to the
extent that, you know, this plan or Yeah, I mean, maybe just stick stick on this plan commits us to these business cases, um, you know, just keeps getting us closer to making it tangible for people.
>> Yeah. So again, it sounds to me like, you know, get vehicle >> fleets being transitioned, you know, even a massive part of our overall plan. Be nice if there was more overlap with uh with our near-term objectives, but at least now we're getting into, okay,
let's put our money where our mouth is. If we do X, it's going to cost us Y, and it gets us a little bit further down the road on our on our plan. Um, that that sounds that that that sounds interesting. So, couldn't we between now and the fall
have two meetings, one with the transportation people that are in charge with um policy for the vehicles and one with the building people that are in charge with the energy issue to try and talk through
with them what it would take, what it needs, develop something more concrete. >> Yeah. Um, just in terms of timeline for a town meeting article, I think the warrant needs to be finalized sometime in
August. So it would really be between now and our next meeting we'd have to u align on final wording for something that would be going to town meeting and then then we would have to com commit to go working through the process with the
warm committee and all you know any other stakeholders that uh depending on what we put in there that would sort of need to be at the table um and uh bring them bring them in on it and And there's a a kind of town
meeting member, >> but it seems >> outreach uh comes on to that. >> It would seem that um our recommendations would have more cache if we actually met with some of these people
>> that are in charge of this. >> Yeah, that's going to be an expect that's very important because it would be an expectation of town meeting. >> Yeah. Um my between the lines um takeaway from the meeting was
um that the suggestion of rolling this out over time in successive wars beginning with the November town meeting would be also an educational and community inculturation
process. So that for example um because most people on town meeting let alone most people in the community don't know much about um the committee or its work let alone the substance behind it. So if we would have
cherrypicked something meaningful for November that was um going to have a positive response. We work it out in such a way that the warrant explains
to the media members and others what the article is about and where it falls within the plan leading them through the plan so that they can gradually get to look at the bigger picture while they're also working on whatever it is that we
isolate for the November town meeting. And then we do the same thing for the uh Maytown meeting assuming there isn't one in February which there could be um if there are budgetary amendments. So there may be one in February another one in
May and um that would give us another opportunity if if there is recognizing as was pointed out that there'll be new town members coming in in the May town meeting after the April election.
Both Tucker and Hal have reached out to me um with with thoughts on this topic. So I want to invite them both to to speak at at will and on that >> ladies first.
Thank you um Alex and all uh Hail and I both attended uh Tuesday night's meeting and I my personal perception was um
a a a noticeable difference kind of in in vibe. Um, I think the the the grabber that made them, and I was paying attention to body language, uh, you know, watching the board was the sentence very early on, I think page six
in in your draft plan, that, um, Milton's greenhouse gas emissions have increased by 3.6% since the baseline of 2017. And I saw, you know, eyes, you know,
And it was, you know, it prompted lots of comments about now now is the time, you know, there is momentum. Um, there needs to be and I think the metaphor you struck of a it's a a climate action plan is a long uh a long journey. Um, but you
have to start somewhere. Um, and I think there was, you know, very very much, you know, receptiveness to that. Um, I I won't go into it now, but I sort of offered to Alex um in terms of public
outreach or being able to have um sort of a a cadre of climate action plan allies, sort of general citizens who would be willing to um schedule themselves for citizen speak. But before
uh you know doing that, you know, really needing to know kind of what what your you know what your strategy would be. I think that the next town meeting is octo
in October, late October. Um and I think they said that the deadline for the warrant is pretty early August. So, there's some time pressure, but kudos to
the committee. I'm so um grateful. Um and I have done a couple of pages of specific comments that I've shared with Alex. Um but it's they're not concise enough to share tonight, but um I'll
help in any way I can. to Tucker's point, Alex, about um outreach and also the notion of creation and education, we might just sort of following up with the connect Milton.
>> Yeah. >> Which is poised now to be doing that type of work on a town basis. >> Yeah. that I just wanted to share something that impression from the um select board
meeting that coming back into my brain now. I think that a theme across multiple members comments was um you know is very comprehensive. It's daunting. What's the road map? What's the priority? Right? And I know I've
heard actually that theme from you guys as well, right? I've always I've always kind of pushed to make sure that the we put together a plan that's fairly comprehensive. Um, but not because I think we're going to then sort of make linear progress on
all of it at once, but because we need a menu. We need a something that demonstrates that you can't do one thing and and declare victory. But you also need options because uh it may surprise
us whi which of our sort of key action recommendations uh gathers some buy in and momentum first, right? And then I think on once we get to that phase um where I think there's a lot of value in having the
plan and and sort of meeting the sort of broad-based planning requirements to be eligible for significant amounts of state grant funding hopefully. Uh but then we do want to get
something specific and meaningful done. Um, and that'll be one, two, three, depending on how many people um start leaning in and rolling up their sleeves. Um,
all right, I'm rambling. So, >> yeah. Did you want to Kim want to go? >> Oh, Kim, did you did you have your hand up? >> Okay, you're good. >> Yeah, I'm good. I'm sorry. just uh scratching my face. >> All right.
Well, um I guess I would echo what both Tucker and Alex have said is that uh the Tuesday night presentation was positively received by by the select
board. Um and uh my sense is they they have really offered to this committee to um what's the expression I'm looking for?
Sort of grab grab the prize and put something for the town that can um jumpstart this whole effort. Um and this is a you know it's a 25 year
effort. So um I don't think um uh the committee has to be overly concerned with scaring down members because things can be done
incrementally. Um, and so sort of going back to, you know, what Ron said, um, uh, I think it would be very helpful to, um, have, um, draft up a motion from this
committee that that would, um, number one say, let's become a climate leader community. And I think that's an easy lift, be honest with you. I mean, it's it's almost requires you to do nothing other than a couple of approvals
at town hall. Um, uh, they'll make a make a suggest that town make a commit a commitment to transition to, you know, EVs um, over the next 15
years. And you can start small. You can start with the police department um cruisers as they know >> that's actually not the easiest place to start. >> Well, I know I know that >> that was Richard Well's first comment in September
that it's difficult to do um police cruisers because they don't run. >> They're like running almost all the time. >> They don't. Maybe that was a bad example, but you know, um there's got to be a few town. >> There's a bunch of u
administrative vehicles out here building office, you know, aggregate those individual departments and put them together as a group. >> And you know, um and those cars probably get replaced every five years. So I
wouldn't be surprised if one or more of those is coming up for for replacement. And then um as a third step uh addressing the facilities and I I can tell you that my main interest um
personally uh is that I'd love to see the town accelerate decarboniz decarbonization um and you know the two big pockets are are uh transportation
which the town only, you know, controls its own fleet. So, it's really the whole, you know, the rest of the town, which is going to be somewhat beyond the capability of of the town needing to dictate um
and uh and buildings. And again, um municipal buildings represent a small percentage of total, you know, total buildings in Milton. But um I think that if if this committee asks the town
meeting for a small budget to conduct um a study to decarbonize one or more municipal buildings, I would be a bit surprised that they would, you know, jump at it and say, "Yeah, you know, make a start. Let's get going."
>> Can you get budget at the fall time meeting? Is that only a daytime meeting? I don't know if maybe you don't can't get budget but you know maybe can get approval for a budget something like that probably would be something to build into the FY27
budget process that would be probably made 26 May yeah May 26 we just missed the vote in May >> and I think that gives a little bit of a cooling off period after the proposition
to >> also this this budget >> the bills >> process was one of the one of the more contentious and broad ones I've I've seen not that I've been around that long >> think yeah
a good point for us to uh to pursue and >> all right do you facility. >> Yeah. >> Um to do that with and to explore whether or not it's economically advantageous to do them one at a time or
maybe a couple of them at a time. We don't know the answer of that. >> Yeah, that'll probably be in the in the you know facilities consolidated facilities department. They'll do that planning and they already do that kind
of planning normal course of business. We're getting the energy manager. I I I heard in in the meeting on Tuesday that the the joint energy manager role with Randolph had been posted. The job description is
out there and I looked it up yesterday. It is indeed out there. I was a little concerned. It seemed the salary range seems a lower than I was expecting and I think there was an issue with the funding requests not that was
granted not including benefits. So it kind of looks like they got stuck with that total amount and and adjusted the salary down accordingly. That's tough because um you know there's there's a a very public
kind of salary ban for people who are doing these jobs in municipalities that it's higher what they're offering. >> We have to look at our regional resources. At the present time we don't have a town engineer that's a vacancy. >> Yeah. >> I think the building department has a
temporary administrator. the director of planning and community development position is vacant and recently the assistant director of planning community development announced for another part of the country for
personal reasons. So some critical positions are open and I think as Alex adequately and accurately pointed out during his presentation uh some of the departments like DPW are really understaffed and
overengaged. They have a lot on agendas right now. So we have to be sensitive to that too in terms of identifying where we're going and have them with us as Ron is pointing out. Yeah. So to I mean it has been hard
to um uh get slices of their time because they are so overstretched and I I really don't know what the um uh the right strategy is. I just keep
>> I thinking Nick will be very helpful that meeting that um you all talked about having they they actually recommended having >> Yeah. Well, you know, um
I I think it would be helpful if the town could get some quick wins in this area, >> you know. >> I agree. >> That's where they were. >> And you don't always have to spend a lot of money to do that.
Do do you want to uh sort of float the the specific project idea that you've been putting energy into or >> Sure. If you think it's appropriate, you know, there's a a brainstorming component of these meetings. So, just inspirational.
>> Well, um where to start? Um uh Tucker and I are members of First Parish Church, which is one of the two churches that are either side of the town hall. And um I was very involved in getting
the church to put up solar panels. And um we actually did that in 2019 uh using a a sort of a combination of um one pay one-third from um from donations
from current parishioners, one-third from the endowment and one-third as a loan from the endowment which has really been paid back now. And um no after that successful effort
uh the the parish voted the 100% um buying in to the concept that the parish would go net zero by 2035. Now this was in 2019. Didn't have a clue
how it's going to get there. And you know to some extent we still don't uh but it's it's a commitment the parish has made uh because you know it's um that's part of its faith
faith orientation. Um, so it occurred to me and I, you know, I've I've been sort of brainstorming trying to figure out, well, how do how will first parish get to net zero? And, um,
Tucker and I have experience with geothermal um, and solar. We've installed both in our own home. And um one of the most practical ways today to
for any building to reach net zero is a combination of sufficient solar and geothermal. Geothermal is even more efficient than airto-air heat pumps particularly in this this bonnet. So the thought
occurred to me, boy, if we could get the two churches and the town hall to partner on a geothermal wealth field, it would probably be less expensive to do it as a group rather than, you know, individually. Um
so um I approached um RG at at uh United Congregation Church and I've actually uh met with uh Nick Connors
and sent sent him a proposal to do exactly that to have a a public private partnership to put in geothermal. Um it's now this would be expensive. Um it probably be around a million dollars.
It's cost estimate I have right now. Um but on a on a life cycle basis, it's the cheapest way to eat and cool
equipment. Um, once you put the equipment in, you know, it's it's cheaper than much cheaper to proc and that's that's kind of my pie in the sky idea. Um, and I'm still trying to continue
conversations with with the town to see if they have any interest in in part with the other other churches. And you you've managed to get uh the um the facilities sort of strategic planning group at United Congregational Church
thinking about this seriously as well. Um I think I can't remember which number it is but our plan does call for you know exploring opportunities for distributed energy resources and uh um
you know projects like this within the town to improve uh energy efficiency and resiliency. And a good project like this um would do a lot to sort of spread awareness
um hopefully hopefully in a positive well there are you know um I don't know I I commented on Tuesday when I uh participated in citizen speak with the
select board that there are Um some examples of towns and institutions that have have done exactly this. Um Eversource has put in a utility scale geothermal system in Framingham
which is I think heating and cooling something like 50 buildings. Salem, the town of the city of Salem is in discussions right now. They've received um funding for consulting to um put in
geothermal for 21 buildings in downtown San. And the last example I shared was uh the first village congregational church in Welssley. has um just decided to
geotherm their HVAC system. We wouldn't be the first, but we'd be certainly one of the early adopters instruction. And oh the the last point I guess I'll share is is u um I consider myself kind
of a a student of climate change. Um I've been involved in it one way or another for over 25 years and though I have no special expertise. Um, but I there's an organization called
Climate Exchange, which is a nonprofit that studies um policies and um laws that are being passed in all 50 states. And you know, they they create
dashboards that well on almost any subject you can imagine. um will tell you what's know what cities and states are doing for each kind of uh area involved with climate change. And they
had a um a zoom earlier this evening where they were reporting on the impact of the big beautiful budget that just got passed on on climate efforts. um throughout the
nation and I mean one of the few few areas that has been preserved for climate in that bill is geothermal that's funding federal funding you know
30% funding is available through um I think 2034 and then it starts in the mid chapter so that you know there just there there's money out there to do this kind of stuff.
Any any comments from uh the Zoom panel? Any thoughts? Uh, well, I just was thinking, but basically what Hail was saying, just to like look to see what other towns, what laws they've passed that are sort of
like uh similar to what we're talking about for town meeting for the fall, like what, you know, so we could uh sort of just use that as a template and see what sort of uh support it got from the town meetings.
Yeah, I'm I'm familiar with um a sort of suite of towns passing um declarations of climate emergencies in kind of the 2021 2022 time frame. Uh it
it was it always struck me as a little symbolic. >> Yeah, that's not very tangible, right? Like >> I love I'd love for it to be something tangible. I think the the quality of the discussion will be better if it is about something tangible.
>> Um >> yeah. >> Yeah. >> Just to tie in on this. Um you can contact the Mass Municipal Association and see what they may have as a way to solve maybe an inventory of articles
that >> I was just wondering on my way here. There was a database of articles I could search somewhere and contact them. >> The idea of going to every town website and and pulling up past time meeting articles made me want to
>> made me want to cry. So I mean I think that u we have a hook in terms of this climate leadership status that we should grab onto and try to focus
to present something by the October meeting whether it's when you described you know a kind of general statement of application for wanting to be
or something that's more specific focused on EVs or buildings or one of the recommendations that we need to meet to become a climate leadership town. >> I just think that's what we should do.
Yeah, I I think it will be a lot easier to get out town meeting to uh you know direct town staff to do something actionable like complete a municipal decarbonization roadmap study >> right from the beginning I thought you
can't endorse a plan where like commit the town to doing everything in here when we have no idea what it will cost. uh so I think what you can commit to is uh you know always considering the climate
friendly pathway when you're doing when you're getting quotes right so I don't think a zero emission first vehicle policy uh and I need to go do some research to determine whether my intuition here is
actually true but I doubt commits you to buy the battery electric vehicle if it costs 100 times more than the fossil fuel one. Right? The the language that Welsley used in their policy is that when commercially
available and practicable, so I don't know what how that plays out in practice. Um, but I think asking people to commit to getting a quote for the battery electric vehicle, then that should be a policy,
right? We should at least uh uh sort of do the leg work to try to make um the climate solutions numbers work. Uh you know, and if the market gets away from us, the market gets away from us, right? The the town can't solve climate
change on its own. and government commit to doing doing its best. Some sort of commitment that is clear that what we're committing to is the business doing doing the business case, right? Actually,
um trying to make the numbers work for the climate solutions. Uh but not necessarily. I don't see how town meeting could commit taxpayers to sort of unlimited spending.
>> Yeah. I mean making an end and any commitment is not as important as responding >> to the need to do something, >> right? Uh so do we want to
crystallize any any next steps? Uh I think we by the time we meet again uh we may be sort of getting getting close to the deadline on on warrant articles. probably before we meet again,
I'll try to have this meeting that you reminded me that they mentioned. I'll bring this into the jelly. I my uh my wife has been on an international trip for the last week and
doing uh I'm I'm really appreciating everything she does right now. brains falling apart. Um, yeah. So, maybe how can I best sort of include this
group in in uh those discussions? Do >> you want to call a meeting after you leave with the town? You >> can try. Yeah. Couldn't
couldn't you or someone create an outline of what we would submit to the board in October and we all could contribute to that. >> Yeah, I guess I I'm still hearing quite
a few different sort of possible directions for that. um could use uh more discussion offline maybe one-on-one from from the committee about um what direction to take there. It sounds
like the leading idea is some kind of push towards completing the climate leader certification requirements. One or >> I mean they're basically three and we could we could aim a town meeting article at all three or one of the
three. >> Yeah. And I think a next step for me is to reach out to DOER who we have a points of contact of the DOE uh who worked with us on like the the building
code. I think it's the same person for this and say okay really talk me through the the sort of nitty-gritty eligibility process. What what is a
zero emission policy vehicle policy that is going to check this box and what what has to be in and what what does that mean? Same with a um decarbonization commitment. How does that what forms can that take? Does it have to be a town meeting
article or a select board vote or both or >> Hey, Alex, just one really practical next step could be to upload our draft plan and upload the requirements or
certification for climate leadership and have Gemini or Chat GPT say, "Look, where's where's the overlap? what's the, you know, what dominoes are we knocking down here? And, you know, at least we'd have some some progress towards, you
know, where where what where does this get us in terms of our in terms of our plan? I mean, I I can take that out. That that that's an easy one. I again, I'm looking for the overlaps here in terms of, you know, we we we go for leadership, we get things off our off
our plan. So I'd be happy to take that as a next step if that could be helpful. >> Great. Please. Yes. Look to hear the output of that. >> What uh what it actually gets us
pleasantly. >> Yeah. the the municipal decarbonization roadmap study I think overlaps most with the uh this item two in in the near-term action recommendations for buildings which was to do energy efficiency and
capital energy efficiency and electrification pathway studies for all municipal buildings and incorporate that in capital planning >> and I from what I understand the municipal decarbonization roadmap study is a fairly specific specific process
that DOER has created uh with like spreadsheet templates and and um data collection requirements. Um and when I was at the mass energized commu uh climate community leaders
conference in March it March recent um I met some consultants who specialize in providing technical assistance on that process to towns um don't know what the costs there are
but I think there's some free technical assistance available as well through through the OEER. So that's just one thing. I mean, now I'm remembering another thing that happened in the meeting is that we talked about coaching programs a fair amount and that's that's one of my
favorite recommendations. So like that's not in the climate leader certification process. Uh but I thought the select board seemed enthusiastic about the idea of having programs that make life easier for residents.
You know, I think often um when you start talking about climate change, people start tensing up because they think you're gonna take something away or force them to do something. So something that's focused on helping you do something and be successful
on something you already plan to do be very positive. >> Sure. >> Well, I think in the the plan also, right, it's it's a living document. So if we find out that, you know, as we we do this comparison or start getting into some of the details that it's missing
from our plan, then we just go back to the climate action draft plan and, you know, enhance some of some of those next steps, right? I think uh which which may get us f further down the path. So um yeah, makes makes a lot
of sense. >> Steve, I see your hand up. >> Yeah, two uh two quick things. one um I really like Ron everyone's idea about this cl pursuing this climate leader I
think people like goals they like to understand that it's a a goal that means something outside of their own organization or community and uh it leads to a sense of achievement and so I I think that that's a a good wagon to
hitch yourself to um living in a space uh where don't always hear positive things about climate and climate change these days. I'm wondering, have we received any feedback
to date from either the committee you were on or from community members uh about just what you were talking about that feelings of things being taken away or being pushed on them, just being sensitive to the current climate
uh per se? Uh of are we are are we hearing the the whole story here so far from the community? we are we're not hearing that kind of feedback. Uh and I think that's because
we that's a sign that we have not yet uh made the community sufficiently aware of what we're doing. Right. So I'm I'm sure that um when we do uh that that will we'll hear we'll
hear that. I mean we heard a bit of it on the building code. um uh article process, but you I I definitely worked very hard to strike a um a non you no unnecessary
controversy, right? And I I think we can we can be careful and strategic um on the rest of the things that we we bring out to the community. But to a certain extent getting a little a little bit of that that kind of resistance will
be sign that we're that people are hearing about us, right? >> Yeah. I just think we need to be strategic in >> spending any money on us in any way from somebody. But if we pick our battles wisely and that's another reason I like coaching, right? it it'll cost a little
bit, but I think a lot of a lot of companies, a lot of um towns can go a long way on grant funding in terms of setting something up that really helps um building owners uh voluntarily decarbonize and have a
better experience. Uh and that's not a huge capital investment for the town. So stuff like that could could be relatively uncontroversial. Um there is a reciprocal to Steve's
important point and that is going out and making sure that people are educated as to what the savings are going to be for them, what the protection is going to be for them. Um what it is that we do
in town infrastructure that saves us millions of dollars down the road. There are some properties at risk in many instances in many locations in the town and flooding. >> We cite that in the plan, but
>> people need to know all of this information and maybe there are ways at which we can say, "Yeah, um there are these points and there are those points and we have to put them into balance and figure out what the best course of action for the community as a whole is."
>> Yeah. Definitely, you know, there's always uncertainty when you talk about projecting costs into the future. So I think I definitely felt that when when we were going through the process for the building code. You know that there was a lot of
study um results available and said that you know for most people in most cases building the um the specialized energy code building is going to be lower cost overall. But we were going through an
inflationary period and and both electricity prices and fossil fuel prices are rising rapidly. So you know anybody who tells you they know for sure what the relative price of electricity and natural gas is going to be 10 years from now >> these days
>> selling you something right. So um you know for me as an individual I sort of fall back on what do I think is the right thing to do for my for my children and if I can if I can come up with
reasonable projections and make make it the numbers look reasonable uh reasonably responsible then I'm willing to do that personally. Um, I got to believe that um that most citizens have a some level of anxiety
about climate change to stay at home. And um I think that if the town could demonstrate a few examples of success where it has actually done something to
address those concerns, that would pretty well received. >> Well, great. Now I Right. Is there anything else we should talk about? I'm definitely planning coming back to the recording of this
meeting and getting all your good recommendations written down so that we can focus them on them over my coffee with a clear head. >> Um, >> can you send out the climate leadership specifications? Yeah.
>> We have to meet. >> Yes. So, I added a section to the draft climate action plan um in the last few weeks on the climate leader certification and uh there's some summary slides in the select board presentation. So, I
sent an email out to all of you today that had a link to uh my presentation, a separate link that starts directly at the Q&A. Um, and then a link to the presentation materials as
well. Um and yeah and the the climate action plan now has a a short section on climate leader certification which I think links to the sort of DOER documents about it and I think that's
the next step at least for me is started to starting to dive in more detail. But rather rather than reading more of their documents, I think I just want to talk to somebody over there to see practically um what do I what do I need to be aware
of here? What also um Welsley I think is one of the first towns to achieve climate leader certification. So we should maybe try to um connect with folks who are involved in that and find out
first mover's uh learnings that they so and I I found I think I put this in the Google drive. I found their zero energy zero emission first vehicle policy on their website um and put that in our
Google Drive. It's like a three or four page shot, but it only it only went into force in fiscal year 26. So, I don't know how many vehicles they've purchased since since they've had that policy in place.
>> What it is over time, maybe >> that'll be everybody's question, right? what's this going to cost the town if we commit to battery electric vehicles? Although the their policy um sort of created a hierarchy of low emissions with battery electric at the top and
then hybrid battery electric and then hybrid fuel at the bottom. Okay. Well, um, anything else folks want to talk about before we wrap up? Oh,
um, so Arthur, I'm sorry that for the second meeting in a row, we are unable to vote on your letter to um, uh, support the wetlands conservation law. >> We'll get it.
>> Uh, but >> thanks. I have distributed the draft to folks. I was wondering if there's any any discussion of it. Um, we can't vote on it tonight, but if you had feedback director, it would save some time if you gave it to them now.
>> Or email me, that's preferable to you. >> Just wanted to give people the opportunity. motion to adjurnn. >> We're not allowed to vote, but I'll take the spirit of that. And thank thank you
everybody for coming. Oh, and I also meant to um um just share words of few words of appreciation for uh our our committee members who are stepping down this year. Um
feels a little empty with them not in the room, but maybe they'll watch the recording later. Uh it's been it's been a lot of hard work and I think we made a lot of progress last year. Um totally understand how how uh life commitments and changing circumstances um can't
allow everybody to keep uh serving on the committee. But I hope that they will all um stay engaged with the work on some level uh and uh uh if only with their cheerleading. Um, but again, thanks to all of them and
thanks to those of you who stuck around for another year of this nonsense. All right, have a nice evening and see you next. >> Thanks. >> Thanks everyone. >> Have a good night.