Menlo Green Ribbon Citizens' Committee

Energy and Materials, 4/18/2007

Notes from the April 18 meeting of the Energy and Materials Working Group:

Jeanne- changed focus and will take suggestion to keep MP Council/staff apprised of environmental tax issues and help them  lobby for the greater good.

Tom- working on Green Purchasing Power. He is looking at what PA did and wants to incorporate life cycle evaluations for purchasing.

Denise- plastic bag ban and styrofoam recycling. There are no places for styrofoam recycling in MP.

Kathy- looking at local food suppliers. Buy locally and save money and transportation.

Gail- talked to Sun about low energy computers and computers that power down. Maybe an opportunity for purchase citywide. She is also concerned about a dumpster at Phillips-Brooks that has many recycleables in it.

Eric- He is gathering data for a summary on renewables including
market information. Out soon. He also wants to know what would be
the impact if large roofs in MP went solar.

Sara- working with Mitch on lighting (CFL's and LED's). She suggested that MP people walk low income areas and hand out free CFL's.

Mitch- feels there is a lot of opportunity for LED lighting in MP and is looking at connecting with organizations to make the effect citywide.

Manfred- he wants a list of all PV/solar installations currently in MP. He went to a solar manufacturing conference in SF and found that Germany has huge installations and gives preferential rates to solar generators.

Mitch is working on what questions/topics we want the staff to present at the April 25th meeting. He will send out ideas so far and would welcome more specifics. He also wants specific ideas about what we want to recommend to MP that would be easy to do and cost effective in the current budget year.
 

Energy and Materials Working Group, 4/11/07

The Materials and Energy committee meeting met on April 11.  The members of the group are each focusing on different topics.   

Mitch Slomiak is researching LED lighting. He will contact at the city and see what, if anything is being done now. He will also research resources and post them to the
website.

Erik Fogelberg is focusing on options for corporate deployments of Solar Energy. Eric met with contacts at SRI and NetApp, and is seeking to contact Sun Power. 

Gail Sredanovic is working on E-Waste Recycling.  She found that Goodwill and Allied Waste will take e-waste for free. She will look into low energy/less toxic computers. She will also connect with PG&E for a possible listing of manufacturers of energy efficient computers.

Patti is looking into Residential Solar. She plans to review the Palo Alto GRTF materials for recommendations that might apply to Menlo Park.

Denise Sans is looking into "Recycle and Reduce" programs. She will look into actions of other cities, including San Francisco's policy to  banning non-recyclable plastic bags. 

Sarah Browning is looking into Compact Fluorescent lighting.

The group decided that to meet every other week at Stacks (corner of and El Camino) on Wednesdays @ 8am, beginning  on 4/18. These will be held on the alternate week from the main GRCC meetings.

 

Energy and Materials, 3/28/2007

The members of this sub-committee chose  topics to do research and get back to the group.  The research will look at  look at the highest impact with the lowest cost and the easiest to implement. Denise will look at recycling and reducing. Dianne Dryer, is Menlo Park's Environmental Staff person, has said a lot is being done and we are meeting the state target, but more can bedone. Erik is interested in pursuing commercial installation of solar Manfred will study promoting residential solar.Gail will help Manfred and also look at ways to improve disposal of electronic wastes. Mitch will find out how much of the city is currently using LED lighting and where we can add more. Mitch can contact the Transportation Department for more information as to what is being done now. Tom wants a city purchasing policy promoting environmentally friendly purchases and maybe reductions for residents by purchasing in bulk. Sarah will study how to encourage/require homes and businesses to use compact flourescent lighting, and will review current programs from PG&E. Marion will study reusing waste items. John wants to get low cost financing for green materials. Jeanne will study the application of a carbon tax.