From: Marcel Harmon
To: Cynthia Boecker
Cc: Sarah Hill-Nelson
Sent: Sun Mar 29 00:31:14 2009
Subject: Climate Plan for the City of Lawrence
Dear Assistant City Manager Boecker,
As a Lawrence resident and sustainability consultant, I am writing you to express my support for the City of Lawrence’s Climate Protection Plan. I greatly appreciate the effort put into this by the Climate Protection Task Force and laude their efforts for producing this document and allowing the rest of the Lawrence community to comment on it. I know that other community members have provided recommendations to improve the document, and I offer the following with the intent of improving the effectiveness of the plan that is hopefully adopted by the City in the near future.
With regards to Strategy 2: Strengthen Energy Conservation Policies and Building Standards, Strategy 5: Establish Outreach and Education Programs on Emissions Reduction Issues, and Appendix H, I would make the following recommendations:
1) Add evaluation/verification as part of the enhancement of the current building codes, as well as a requirement for all incentives involving building energy efficiency enhancements. It is an unfortunate reality that buildings often do not perform as predicted during design. This is due in part to a lack of systematic evaluation within the building/construction industry to verify what works, what doesn’t, and why within a given circumstance, and then make the necessary modifications to obtain the intended design performance levels. I recently wrote an article on this at Science Progress.org – Every Building is an Experiment, which also includes several references I think you would find useful.
2) Energy audits must be comprehensive and take the whole building/occupant system interface into account. The reciprocal relationships between people and the built environment strongly impact the performance of each (including energy performance), and understanding the relevant physiological, psychological, and social/cultural factors in play here is critical. I gave a presentation on this at a UNL symposium on Climate Change that you can view at http://www1.unl.edu/mediahub/media/726. And I have expanded on this some below my signature.
3) As part of the collaboration with local utilities and development of additional incentives programs, consider ways to increase transparency with regards to resource consumption. One example would be the creation of online resource consumption “virtual worlds”, where everyone’s energy and water usage would be visible for the entire world to see. Such visibility would likely result in social pressure to reduce consumption as well as competition among peer groups, particularly if incentives and penalties were structured to take advantage of such an environment. This is also applicable to your Strategy 5 - insuring the rapid adoption/implementation of energy efficiency and conservation strategies.
4) Relative to Appendix H, number 5, I urge the city to consider all of the ongoing research/pilot installations in progress with regards to LED street lights. I am a big proponent of LED lighting technology, but it may be prudent to wait another year before adopting such a fixture as the city’s standard. Within the next year we will see the results of several on-going studies, as well as the release of many new LED street lighting fixtures from several manufacturers that look to better address some of the lighting quality issues surrounding LED street lights. And having more options to select from will better ensure finding the best LED fixture for the job. In the meantime, a standard using pulse start metal halide lamps may be the best short term solution. Though I would certainly recommend some pilot installations of LED street lights (if you haven’t already done this).
Best,
Marcel Harmon, P.E., Ph.D.
LEED® AP
Built Environment Analyst / Electrical Engineer
Green Services Division
ME Group, Inc.
3101 Broadway, Suite 570
Kansas City, MO 64111
T: 816-531-2121, ext. 3119
F: 816-531-1838
To expand on numbers 2 and 3 above, for any "best practices" policies/programs regarding energy efficiency and conservation to be effectively adopted and implemented over the long term, for sustainable, energy efficient design/construction to be successful, it is necessary to account for the relevant behavioral factors involved (physiological, psychological, and social/cultural). The overall continued success of such construction and/or policies/programs will not be possible without this. Load growth will not be minimized, overall energy consumption will not be reduced to targeted levels, and local/regional economic and environmental benefits from adopting alternative energy production strategies will not be fully realized, unless behavioral specialists, such as anthropologists, sociologists, and psychologists are involved. I thought this a weakness of the task force – to not have a professional behavioral specialist participate (at least that I could tell).
For example, to effectively increase the use of energy and water saving devices in homes and businesses, and effectively write and implement new energy related building codes (particularly in reference to residences), we need to conduct ethnographies of energy and water use. This is the only way to get a handle on how people actually use water and energy on a daily basis and why they use water and energy the way they are. By getting a handle on the local and regional social/cultural factors that underlie water and energy usage, we can better address how to persuade people to adopt these technologies (and/or behavioral changes) and continue using them over the long term.
And we obviously cannot adopt other states' codes and regulations without adjusting them for appropriate local Kansas social/cultural/economic issues and values, and such adjustments cannot be superficial modifications to another state's codes, or to generally written codes/regulations/standards. Energy/Water use ethnographies will help determine what incentives will work to encourage the adoption of energy saving technologies, whether the incentives be financial (income/property tax), social/cultural, etc. Such ethnographies will also help determine what people really know about alternative energy generating technologies (wind, solar, geothermal, etc.), and how they feel about them - this includes the source of their information, or mis-information as the case may be. Local attitudes toward issues surrounding alternative energy, sustainability, etc., are often associated with intellectual traditions revolving around existing technologies/industries (agriculture, coal mining, coal-fired power plant, fossil-fuel industries, etc.). Understanding these local intellectual traditions and how they are embedded within local communities will assist in the focusing and fine-tuning of energy education programs at a local/regional level. It can also help determine what alternative energies (ethanol, wind, solar, etc.) have the best social/cultural fit for a given community and how to integrate them. In the same sense, these energy and water ethnographies will help determine the most appropriate sustainable technologies/techniques as applied to our built environment, in a given context.
How effective are utility assistance programs or low interest loan programs? Do low income home owners take full advantage of these programs? If so, why are they successful? If not, why? Any evaluation done of these programs must include an ethnographic component to fully get a handle on the relevant social/cultural factors involved. What can be done to either replicate success stories or improve programs that need help? Where do low income renters who reside in marginal housing (particularly with regards to energy consumption) fit in here? Do taxes or other incentives/penalties have a significant effect on persuading landlords to improve their properties, particularly where it is most needed - those renting to low income tenants who typically have little social/economic power?
For businesses and organizations, is there an effective means of cultural transmission regarding the maintenance and use of energy saving and conserving technologies? In other words, as the turnover of facility occupants and maintenance personnel occurs over time, is there an effective means of preserving and transmitting the general and technical knowledge associated with a facility's high performance, green, sustainable technologies. Such transmission can be disrupted for a variety of reasons, negating any long term savings or other benefits. For example, shortly after the construction of the first LEED school in New Mexico, the principle, angered at what he perceived to be a waste of money on LEED certification that could have instead been used for books and teacher salaries, had all of the LEED education plaques removed from around the school. As teacher/administrator turnover occurred, the knowledge among the teachers of LEED and how it pertained to the school was lost, eliminating the use of the school itself as a teaching tool for sustainability. In addition, when the first head maintenance person at this school abruptly left, there was the potential of losing much of the technical knowledge associated with the school's high performance/energy saving/sustainable systems. However, the contractor had the foresight to make detailed videos of these systems, as well as leave detailed manuals, minimizing the problems that occurred in this potentially problematic maintenance personnel turnover.
In addition, the power and social relationships within the maintenance/administration elements of organizations affects the smooth running of facilities and their continued maintenance, and transmission of information. In another New Mexico school, the head custodian maintains a cordial relationship with the district's maintenance office (and ensuring she gets what she and her school needs in a timely manner) in part by baking them cookies. The effective operation of a facility depends upon the associated human relations as much, if not more, than the building itself. And the only way to effectively determine these relationships is via some form of “built environment ethnography.”
3309 Riverview Rd.
Lawrence, KS 66049
March 26, 2009
Lawrence City Commission
City Hall
6 E. 6th Street
Lawrence, KS 66044
To Members of the Lawrence City Commission:
Please accept this letter in support of the recommendations of the Mayor’s Task Force on Climate Protection in its Climate Protection Plan.
I write to you as the chair of Plymouth Congregational Church’s Social Justice Class, which spent two sessions reviewing the report. While the philosophy of Plymouth is that each member is autonomous and no one speaks for us all, I think it’s fair to say that the strong consensus of opinion among Social Justice Class members supported the report’s recommendations, particularly its first recommendation: “Provide dedicated staffing and adequate funding to support climate protection and sustainability initiatives.”
As a member of the Mayor’s Task Force on Peak Oil, I also see the advantages of having such dedicated staffing. I urge you to accept the report’s recommendations, particularly the staffing request.
This certainly is not an ideal time to be considering a staff expansion. I do think, however, that Lawrence is particularly fortunate right now to have a Commission with a wealth of experience; I’m hopeful that you’ll find a way to implement the recommendations. Perhaps staff reallocation or federal stimulus money might provide options.
As always, thank you so much for all you do for Lawrence. Whether we’ve agreed or disagreed, I’ve always been impressed by and grateful for your courtesy, patience, good humor and shared love for our city. I do believe that moving forward with the Task Force recommendations would be an outstanding legacy for this Commission.
Sincerely,
Charles Marsh
749-4080
23 March 2009
Cynthia Boecker
Assistant City Manger
City of Lawrence
Lawrence, KS 660444
Dear Ms. Boecker:
I write to support the Climate Protection Plan developed by the Lawrence Climate Protection Task Force. CEP commends the City of Lawrence for its timely attention to this critical issue. Lawrence has an opportunity today to safeguard the health and well-being of its citizens while ensuring sustainable economic prosperity and attracting the jobs and knowledge workers of the future.
The CPTF report succeeds by starting with the goal in mind. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urges greenhouse gas emission reductions of 80% by 2050 – Lawrence does well not only to adopt that science-based goal, but to set an ambitious and achievable glide path of 30% reductions by 2020, building to 50% by 2030, 70% by 2040, and 80% by 2050.
To reach those goals, CEP strongly supports the creation of a full-time staff position. Coordination among departments and agencies, schools and neighborhoods, utilities and Lawrence businesses will be vital. Cities like Portland, Oregon, have attracted corporate, foundation, university, and government funding to transform their communities into some of the most livable and appealing in the U.S. – that kind of success is possible only when one person is steering the community steadily toward the goal.
We applaud CPTF’s energy efficiency goals. Reduction in electric use is the most immediate, powerful – and easiest – thing Lawrence can do to reduce its carbon footprint. Adoption of 2009 IECC codes for new residential buildings and ASHRAE codes for new commercial buildings will protect Lawrence residents and businesses from inevitably rising electric rates while making our future building stock more valuable.
Additional opportunities abound. The state’s FCIP program provides performance contracting – retrofits for energy efficiency with no up-front cost and guaranteed savings – for any municipal building from City Hall to schools. The state’s weatherization program improves structures rented or owned by low-income residents. The state’s KEEP program provides low-interest loans up to $10,000 to any homeowner for energy efficiency improvements. All of these programs could be fully deployed in Lawrence.
Finally, CEP supports ambitious, creative, peer-to-peer outreach and education. Our polling, focus groups, and program work across Kansas show that regardless of personal convictions (or lack thereof) about climate change, Kansans want to be “part of the solution.” Helping Lawrence residents to understand exactly what they can do – and how those efforts collectively contribute to reducing our carbon footprint – would seed real and lasting change.
Sincerely,
Nancy Jackson
Executive Director
-----Original Message-----
From: Daniel Poull [mailto:dpjp8@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, March 16, 2009 3:11 PM
To: Cynthia Boecker
Subject: Mayor's Climate Protection Plan
Cynthia,
First of all, I want to congratulate all of the volunteers and staff who have put their efforts into creating the final draft of the Mayor's Climate Protection Plan. All of you should be proud of this document and your hard work.
I am writing to give my support to the goals set out in this document. Please let me know if there is any way in which I can help fulfill the promise of the Mayor's Climate Protection Plan.
-Sincerely,
Daniel Poull, Chair
Sustainability Advisory Board
From: Jane Gibson
[mailto:janegibsonis@gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, March 11, 2009 11:15 AM
To: Cynthia Boecker
Subject: Climate Plan
Dear Ms. Boecker,
I am writing to urge support for the proposed Climate Plan for the City of Lawrence.
Thanks very much,
Jane W. Gibson
1845 Learnard Ave.
Lawrence
--
If Hegel was right when he said we can never learn anything from history, maybe
that's because history overlooks the quotidian. Delicious food grown,
harvested, and shared; the comfort of friendship and love; giggling children
and cooing mourning doves; a walk in the woods and a soft breeze; a sweet
memory and an epiphany; what makes our lives worth living every day never makes
history.
From: Lynate Pettengill
[mailto:lynate@sbcglobal.net]
Sent: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 3:50 PM
To: Cynthia Boecker
Subject: In Support of the Climate Plan
|
I am writing to express my support for the Climate Plan
for the City of Lawrence. I hope you will adopt the plan as written by the
Climate Protection Task Force. |