Last night, the CAC held its monthly meeting. We will be posting the official meeting minutes soon, but I thought I would point out a couple of things from the meeting that I think Farifaxians might care about:
Between now and the end of the current fiscal year, the CAC is working on a couple of specific things:
1. Most important, we are working with Sustainable Fairfax to host an OUTDOOR (to prevent coronavirus spread) meeting to promote Earth Day. We are thinking about a number of things we might do, and everything is a bit iffy, but stay tuned, and we will let you know more as it develops. We are hoping to have an overview of the development of our next - now till 2030 - Climate Action Plan.
2. We are going to be working on the next iteration of the Climate Action Plan. This is extremely important. The Town Council has passed the Climate Emergency Resolution, and our plan is going to focus on things that will be intended to get us from here to there. We very much want to work to learn from the people of this Town as well as from the Town Council and Staff. We will launch this process during the Earth Day event, but we are planning to have more extensive meeting over the course of the year at the library. Please help us! We need as much creativity and innovation as we can muster.
3. One thing the Town wants to do is to "Walk the Talk" by getting its own operations to Carbon Neutral as fast as possible. Last year, we were able to get a pro bono energy audit performed, and the Town Council budgeted $20,000 towards the first steps of its implementation. Right now, the CAC is working with the staff to figure out the best way to use these funds for upgrades to the Women's Center. In doing this, our goals are to make most effective possible use of our funds; reduce energy costs where-ever possible; improve the indoor environment of the buildings involved; and remove all on-site combustion of natural gas or other fossil fuels. You will be happy to know that the Town already uses 100% renewable energy from MCE Deep Green, so the more we electrify, the more we will be reducing our carbon footprint.
4. We are working with the Town Council and Staff to align around our budget and our plans for the next fiscal year.
5. We are starting work on a plan to supplement the existing solar panels for the Town buildings with battery storage systems. This has the opportunity to secure grant funding, reduce our energy costs (by load shifting), reduce our greenhouse gas emissions (by eliminating some amount of diesel generator fuel) and improving our ability to operate during extended power outages, such as those we experienced last summer.
We are working hard to make Fairfax the leader in saying NO to climate change; and in saying YES to using this crisis to bring us together in service.
Thank you, and help us where you can.
Walt
Between now and the end of the current fiscal year, the CAC is working on a couple of specific things:
1. Most important, we are working with Sustainable Fairfax to host an OUTDOOR (to prevent coronavirus spread) meeting to promote Earth Day. We are thinking about a number of things we might do, and everything is a bit iffy, but stay tuned, and we will let you know more as it develops. We are hoping to have an overview of the development of our next - now till 2030 - Climate Action Plan.
2. We are going to be working on the next iteration of the Climate Action Plan. This is extremely important. The Town Council has passed the Climate Emergency Resolution, and our plan is going to focus on things that will be intended to get us from here to there. We very much want to work to learn from the people of this Town as well as from the Town Council and Staff. We will launch this process during the Earth Day event, but we are planning to have more extensive meeting over the course of the year at the library. Please help us! We need as much creativity and innovation as we can muster.
3. One thing the Town wants to do is to "Walk the Talk" by getting its own operations to Carbon Neutral as fast as possible. Last year, we were able to get a pro bono energy audit performed, and the Town Council budgeted $20,000 towards the first steps of its implementation. Right now, the CAC is working with the staff to figure out the best way to use these funds for upgrades to the Women's Center. In doing this, our goals are to make most effective possible use of our funds; reduce energy costs where-ever possible; improve the indoor environment of the buildings involved; and remove all on-site combustion of natural gas or other fossil fuels. You will be happy to know that the Town already uses 100% renewable energy from MCE Deep Green, so the more we electrify, the more we will be reducing our carbon footprint.
4. We are working with the Town Council and Staff to align around our budget and our plans for the next fiscal year.
5. We are starting work on a plan to supplement the existing solar panels for the Town buildings with battery storage systems. This has the opportunity to secure grant funding, reduce our energy costs (by load shifting), reduce our greenhouse gas emissions (by eliminating some amount of diesel generator fuel) and improving our ability to operate during extended power outages, such as those we experienced last summer.
We are working hard to make Fairfax the leader in saying NO to climate change; and in saying YES to using this crisis to bring us together in service.
Thank you, and help us where you can.
Walt
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