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SC 04-21-221 CITY OF CUPERTINO SUSTAINABILITY COMMISSION Cupertino City Hall, 10300 Torre Avenue Thursday, April 21, 2022 4:00 p.m. MINUTES At 4:02 p.m. Chair Swaminathan called the meeting to order. ROLL CALL Commissioners Present: Chair Vignesh Swaminathan, Vice Chair Anna Weber, and Commissioners Sonali Padgaonkar and Steve Poon. Absent: Meera Ramanathan. Staff: André Duurvoort, Sustainability Manager; Karen Chen, AmeriCorps Fellow; Gilee Corral, Climate and Utilities Analyst. Guests: Members of the public. APPROVAL OF MINUTES 1. Subject: Minutes from January 20, 2022 meeting Vice Chair Weber moved and Commissioner Poon seconded to approve the minutes. The motion carried unanimously with Commissioner Ramanathan absent. POSTPONEMENTS None. ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None. Gilee Corral, Climate and Utilities Analyst, answered clarifying questions about receiving public comment during in-person meetings versus hybrid or teleconference public meetings. WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS None. STAFF AND COMMISSION REPORTS - Vice Chair Weber gave a brief update from the Mayor’s Meeting in which the CREST Award recipients were selected. A reception is being planned for the end of May. - Chair Swaminathan reported that the Valley Transportation Authority Advisory Committee is still accepting applications for new members to serve on the committee. NEW BUSINESS 2. Subject: Earth and Arbor Day Festival planning Karen Chen, AmeriCorps Fellow, gave a general update on the festival on Saturday and reviewed the event webpage. The festival planning team has recruited five lead volunteers, and over 90 day-of volunteers. The event will have a record number of sponsors, with over $10,000 in sponsorships pledged to date. Cupertino- VIA shuttle is offering free rides to and from the festival. Chen noted a new exhibit, the Museum of Tomorrow via UC Berkeley, will be featured this year. For safety, the City is providing hand sanitizer and disposable 2 masks, and encouraging all to wear masks, and encouraging vendors to go “touchless” with QR codes to digital content rather than paper fliers. Gilee Corral, Climate and Utilities Analyst, gave a brief overview of the Commission table, the Environmental Jeopardy Game, and confirmed Commissioner tabling shifts. Commissioners gave feedback, ideas, and asked questions, including: - Suggest displaying a QR code to the Climate Action Plan (CAP) survey, plus a link to the Sustainability Commission’s work (Swaminathan, with Padgaonkar supporting). Corral: noted the Sustainability Division table will promote the CAP video. She encouraged Commissioners to use this opportunity to receive feedback and to talk about their work program projects. She answered other logistical questions about tabling details. - Staff noted that Environmental Programs and almost every City department will be tabling at the festival. There will be no Eco Passport, to reduce touchpoints (response to question from Weber). The first in person City event this year was Big Bunny, was well attended (response to question from Swaminathan). 3. Subject: Staff update on Climate Action Plan 2.0 project André Duurvoort, Sustainability Manager, gave an update on the release of the Public Review Draft of the Climate Action Plan (CAP) 2.0 and reviewed the cupertino.org/climateaction portal contents: - Draft CAP released on the cupertino.org/climateaction webpage yesterday. - Released a short video highlighting the key measures and a companion survey to gather feedback on the draft CAP. Survey will remain open through mid-May. - Staff continuing engagement in this last phase of public comment via a “roadshow” with pop-up events at the Library, Senior Center, and other locations planned, to direct traffic to the survey. - Request the Commission to schedule a special meeting in early June to provide Commission recommendation to Council on the draft CAP. - Next steps: California Environmental Quality Act formal review process initiated. Environmental Review Committee presentation on May 19. Council Study Session tentatively scheduled for June 21 to receive any feedback. Aiming for July to bring CAP to Council for adoption. The Commission asked clarifying questions and made comments, including: - Good content in the draft CAP, could be daunting for people to go through, suggest displaying info online with clickable topics and how measures are tracked (Swaminathan). Duurvoort: the City plans to create a highly visual, more user friendly version of the CAP with a digital component in the next budget cycle. - Suggest making it clear what the City is doing and what actions a citizen can take (Padgaonkar). - Staff pulled up the digital version of the draft CAP on and off during the discussion. Duurvoort explained that the measures will get the City through the 2030 target and most of the way to carbon neutrality by 2040. The plan will be revised with new information at a later date to address the gap to carbon neutrality. He noted a City Work Program proposal to begin a plan for electrifying existing buildings for next fiscal year to start implementation of the new CAP. The greenhouse gas emissions inventory was revised with more recent protocols and transportation sector saw a jump in emissions as a result. He gave a brief overview of measures to decrease emissions in the transportation sector. He noted adaptation and resiliency was added 3 as a chapter, written by the team’s AmeriCorps Fellow, Karen Chen. He reviewed the adaptive capacity and hazards matrix chart in Chapter 12, noting that adverse air quality impacts will require additional work to prepare for that impact. The Commission asked clarifying questions and made comments, including: - If adverse air quality as a risk is related to the Lehigh plant (Weber). Chen: explained how the adaptive capacity and risk was assessed, noting that effects from Lehigh was part of the calculus, but also increasing wildfire smoke trapped in the valley, how the City can adapt its approach considering the diffuse nature of the threat. - By request, Duurvoort reviewed how the actions under each measure are structured under pillars, with partners, timing, and high-level cost as elements. Actions will be operational or work program items. - Appreciation for the project team’s hard work, Commission’s role is to champion the CAP, brief history of the Commission’s role in the original CAP development and implementation (Swaminathan). - The City has gone further and more aggressive on climate action because of these efforts, but not as aggressive as we would like. Asked about the CEQA analysis (Swaminathan). Duurvoort: the team considered more aggressive targets, e.g., 2035 carbon neutrality, in response to public feedback. The CEQA analysis sought to answer what is feasible and defensible based on current evidence that we can meet the CAP’s targets with capacity, funding, and political will. Couldn’t provide this evidence for achieving carbon neutrality by 2040. o If targets are too aggressive, do they need to be more “reachable” (Swaminathan). Duurvoort: carbon neutrality goal is a strong target, more aggressive than the state’s. It is more important that we meet the short-term 2030 target. Would not recommend backing down the target; however, the target may change if measures are revised. - If measures are mostly focused on emissions reduction (Poon), if drawing carbon from atmosphere can be a measure (Swaminathan). Duurvoort: most of them are emissions focused, but also include measures to explore carbon sequestration options. Can assess and bring opportunities for options of interest to the Commission for input. Public Comment: Gary Latshaw (Cupertino resident) noted that overall, poor air quality will be reduced with the increased use of electric vehicles, though air quality will worsen in the summer with wildfires. The Commission continued the discussion. Topics and issues raised included: - How Vallco and new development will affect emissions (Padgaonkar). Duurvoort: explained analyses required under CEQA, how the Green Building Ordinance, the CAP, and CEQA flow together in the development process. - Desire to get Cupertino school districts and students involved in climate action locally, would like to see more involvement with schools, e.g., give presentations around Earth Day to schools (Padgaonkar, with Swaminathan supporting). Duurvoort: noted increased effort to involve school representatives and De Anza students in the CAP 2.0 planning and on the stakeholder group. - Suggest driving survey input to specific measures, rather than open format comments, link the GHG bar chart with clickable measures (Swaminathan). - How has Rincon been to work with, noted that the CAP implementation will be a huge effort for every City department, want to make sure it is carried through (Swaminathan). Duurvoort: Rincon has been great to work with on the technical aspects. Staff have done most of the presentation work, has been challenging. Noted different staff roles in the project, desire to have more people involved to table and 4 conduct outreach. - If there is capacity to meet the needs of the community with full transition to electrification (Padgaonkar). Duurvoort: acknowledged the challenge, discussed this with PG&E in 2019 and PG&E responded that there is enough electricity but there are issues with the grid. Noted power shutoffs in 2020, but fewer in 2021, not an immediate issue of reliability for Cupertino generally. Part of the electrification study will be to surface these issues and explore how to support vulnerable people to transition to electricity. - Question about emissions content of electricity (Poon). Duurvoort: explained PG&E current power mix and Silicon Valley Clean Energy’s (SVCE) provision of carbon-free electricity for Cupertino. Noted SVCE is a major sponsor of the Earth and Arbor Day Festival. o Brief history on how SVCE was started and why, importance of SVCE to CAP (Swaminathan) - If any big moving parts will need to be clarified, reviewed by the Commission (Swaminathan). Duurvoort: suggest spending time reviewing transportation measures, will be a critical topic. The Commission discussed scheduling the draft CAP 2.0 discussion. Commissioner Padgaonkar moved and Vice Chair Weber seconded to schedule a special meeting of the Commission for May 26 to discuss the draft CAP 2.0. The motion passed unanimously with Commissioner Ramanathan absent. Duurvoort noted that the engagement portal has a list of links for Commissioners to access past presentations, summaries, and other important meeting information related to the CAP. Chair Swaminathan gave closing remarks on how this project will advance the work of the first CAP; he expressed pride in the City for its climate action work to date and excitement to continue this leadership. FUTURE AGENDA SETTING Chair Swaminathan asked Commissioners to give brief introductions and state their interests. Each Commissioner gave a personal introduction and shared their topics of interest, including: - Looking at our actions today to benefit the future, investing in individuals to make a difference (Weber). - Ensure people from Cupertino can stay in Cupertino and live sustainably, interest in equitable, safe transportation, excited about Via Cupertino, Single Use Plastics ordinance work (Swaminathan). - Want to work with local schools and educate children, interest in biodegradable items, prevent pollution, work alongside knowledgeable and passionate people on this Commission (Padgaonkar). - Want to give back, housing and sustainability, leave the community in a better place (Poon). The Chair expressed interest in organizing future tours for the benefit of new Commissioners, e.g., tour of the Sunnyvale SMART station. The Commission did not make any adjustments to the Future Agenda Setting list. ADJOURNMENT A motion to adjourn was made by Vice Chair Weber and seconded by Commissioner Poon. The motion carried unanimously with Commissioner Ramanathan absent. Meeting adjourned at 5:56 p.m.