SC 03-21-2019 CITY OF CUPERTINO SUSTAINABIL,ITY COMMISSION
Environmental Education Center 22221 McClellan Road
Thursday March 21,2019 4:00 p.m.
MINUTES
PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
ROLL CALL
Commissioners Present:Anna Weber,Gary Latshaw,Angela Chen,Vignesh Swaminathan
(arrived @ 4:05),Meera Ramanathan(arrived @ 4:10)
Staff:Misty Mersich,Sustainability Manager,Brian Babcock,Public Information Officer
Guests: Emily Fan,Hermione Ma,Carissa Chou,Sanjeev Gottipati,Molly Culton,Sierra Club,
Bruce Karney,Silicon Valley Climate Reality Project,
1. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Action Item:Draft minutes of February 21,2019 meeting were reviewed. Motion to approve
the minutes was made by Commissioner Chen and 2nd by Commissioner Latshaw.Motion
passed 3-0 with Commissioners Swaminathan and Ramanathan absent.
POSTPONEMENTS
None.
ORAL COMMUNICATIONS
Bruce Karney from Silicon Valley Climate Reality Project passed out a handout,which
compared Santa Clara cities on frequency of GHG inventory reports. He would like Cupertino I
to join other cities in committing to conduct a GHG inventory every year.
WRITTEN COMMUNICATIONS
Sanjeev Gottipati, student at Monte Vista High School presented his air pollution monitoring
model and related research.He answered questions from Commissioners.Commissioners
recommended that Sanjeev meet with Public Works Director and Councilmember Rod Sinks
and invite him to the Earth Day event.
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Chair Weber reordered the agenized items as follows: Item#5 moved up to be after agenda Item
#3.
OLD BUSINESS
2. Subject:Update on Buy Clean and Consider Resolution Language
Misty passed out a handout with an update on the Buy Clean effort at the State of
California.Misty explained that the state effort has been delayed a bit, and they are
currently collecting EPP's from contractors for eligible materials, and will come up with
standards and thresholds for carbon content of materials in 2021. The Buy Clean Act does
not include concrete as an eligible material.There is also an effort related to carbon content
of concrete that is being led by the County of Marin and Alameda County's Stop Waste,
funded by a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality Management District.Staff is closing
watching and participating in this effort as appropriate to determine if the work products
could be scalable for adoption by the City of Cupertino.Molly Culton from the Sierra Club
stated that she would like cities to pass a resolution in support or possibly to start requiring
EPP's on Public Works contracts.There were also a few students in attendance in support.
The Sustainability Commission discussed the Buy Clean effort and directed staff to give
them quarterly updates on the State process,which is an item that will be included in the
cities Work Program.Since the Commission and staff is already closely following this
process,they felt that it was unnecessary for Council to pass a resolution at this time to just
support an effort,they would like to bring something to Council when there is something to
take action on.
NEW BUSINESS
3. Subject:CREST Awards: Selection of Sustainability Champion of the Year
This item was moved in up the agenda.Brian Babcock,PIO let the Commission know that there
were two nominations for this award.Member's discussed the nominations and overall felt
disappointment that more community members were not nominated.Commissioners had a
discussion on ways to improve the outreach to the community and encourage more people to
submit applications next year. Would like to see better applicants and marketing next year.
Awards ceremony will be held May 30th,6-8pm in Community Hall.Voting for nominations
went as follows:
Commissioner Swaminathan moved to nominate Grassroots Ecology,2°d by Commissioner
Latshaw, Vote 2 in favor(Swaminathan,Latshaw),3 opposed (Weber, Chen,Ramanathan).
Motion Failed 2-3
Commissioner Chen moved to nominate DeAnza College,There was no 2❑d motion made by
any Commissioner.Motion Failed
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Commissioner Swaminathan moved to nominate No Recipient,2nd by Commissioner Weber,
Vote 2 in favor(Swaminathan,Weber),3 opposed(Latshaw, Chen, and Ramanathan).Motion
Failed 2-3
Commissioner Ramanathan moved to nominate both DeAnza College and Grassroots Ecology !
as Co-Recipients,2nd by Commissioner Chen,Vote 3 in favor(Chen,Ramanathan, and
Latshaw),2 opposed(Swaminathan,Weber).Motion Passed 3-2
Chair Weber requested that we move the Student Essay contest to the next item in the agenda.
Motion made by Commissioner Weber,2nd by Latshaw,Motion passed 5-0 a
4. Subject: Student Essay Contest: Selection of Awards
Commissioners each discussed their top nominations and came to a consensus on the winners.
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• Janani Karthik-Grade 6, Essaytitled: "How You Can Stop Climate Change B py Altering
Your Eating Habits"
• Mela Lin—Grade 7,Essay Titled: "How Can We Change Our Habits to Lead to a More
Sustainable Environment?" I
• Iris Chou—Grade S,Essay Titled: "Our Environment"
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Motion made by Commissioner Chen,2nd by Commissioner Latshaw.Vote unanimous in favor.
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5. Subject:2019/2020 Workplan
Commissioners quickly reviewed the draft Work Program,and determined that
Commissioners Latshaw and Swaminathan will give a presentation to Council sometime in
June.
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STAFF AND COMMISSION REPORTS
Staff updates:
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SCENE for the month of April will be Sustainability&Environmental themed.
Earth Day is April 13th-Commissioners will have a booth,and Misty will send out a schedule to
staff it.We are also taking applications for a Lead Volunteers for the event,so if you know of
anyone let staff know
Volunteer Fair is May 5th,there is a Commissioner table, co-staffed by all City Commissions. If
you can take a staffing shift,please let Misty know.
Next meeting:No meeting in April.Next meeting May 161h.
ADJOURNMENT-6:36p.m.
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