Environmental Services Division - Regular Meeting

Alright. It's 05:30, so we're called to order. Roll call. Member grow, member s Blair, Member Lekel, and Member Barnes, and Member Hampton, and Member Chandler Online. And we're still missing Member C. Blair.

Oh,

Carly is gone. Yeah.

Thank you. Alright. Public comment for items not on the agenda? None? Does anyone have any changes to the agenda?

Agenda's approved unanimously. Does anyone have any changes to the minutes? Minutes approved unanimously. And with that, we're ready for our New Mexico climate action plan.

Okay. Good evening, board. Tonight, we have Amy Rose Rosebrough with us. She's the climate action planning coordinator for New Mexico environment department, climate change bureau. And following the release of this climate action plan back in December 2025, she's began transitioning and leading the plan's development and implementation. So her current work focuses on putting these strategies into practice to meet the state's climate goals. And tonight, I'll hand it over to Amy.

Thank you, Angelica. Yes. My name is Amy Rosebrough. I work for the New Mexico environment department. I'm just gonna go ahead and share my screen really quick.

Okay. So I am the climate action planning coordinator for the New Mexico environment department climate change bureau. And like Angelica said, we're going to be presenting on the New Mexico climate action plan for you all today. We'll just kick it off by talking about climate change. So what causes climate change is human activities such as burning fossil fuels, which emit greenhouse gases and in turn warm the planet and drive climate change.

And as New Mexicans, we feel the effects of climate change every day. We feel it in our health, our security, and our wallets. We experience more heat illness, respiratory illness, infectious diseases, and mental health issues. We also, as you all know, experience more wildfires and drought and floods and lack of home insurance availability. And lastly, we really feel this in higher food prices and home insurance premiums, utility bills, and more health care bills.

But in order to further understand green or, climate change in New Mexico, I wanna give you a little background on what the top greenhouse gas emissions are within the state and where those are coming from. And so, a greenhouse gas emissions inventory is how we, at the state and governments across the world assess, the types of emissions that are happening and where they're coming from. They enable us to evaluate progress towards our climate goals as well. And we recently have done one for twenty twenty three greenhouse gas emissions reductions. And what it showed us was that oil and gas industry was the top emitting sector in New Mexico, as it has been for quite a while, and that came in at 45% of our state's emissions.

And then following that is transportation at 23% and agriculture at 15% and then electricity generation at 9%. So you can see in this pie graph here the dominance that the oil and gas industry has over the emissions in New Mexico. You see transportation, agriculture, and electricity generation taking up a big chunk of that graph as well. And then buildings, other industrial sources, and waste of materials are more of a nominal impact, but still important as we're trying to lower emissions across the state. And I just wanna touch upon the fact that we've made progress already.

We, if you look at this graph, can see that from 2005 to 2021, we've decreased emissions by 14%. And then moving forward, we further decrease these emissions from 2021 to 2023 by 8%. And that is good progress. But what we really want to be able to say is that we're going to meet our state's emissions reductions targets. And the targets for the state of New Mexico are, first of all, to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030, and that is compared to levels in 2005.

And then we also wanna reach net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, also compared to 2005 levels. And within the climate action plan, we've determined, or set a goal of 80% of those reductions to be, greenhouse gas emissions reductions through policy projects programs, and then no more than 20% of those emissions reductions will be through carbon offsets. But we are going to strive for as much of the emissions reductions to be through mitigation as compared to offsets. And the offsets will be driven by what community impact locally can happen as opposed to offsets in areas that aren't close to New Mexico. And so the plan is the New Mexico climate action plan, and it is developed in order to help us reach these targets.

And if you look at this graph here, you can see, the greenhouse gas emissions over time. The blue single line is our emissions and how they've reduced up until this point. And then as it continues, the blue line is at the top still, and that's if we do nothing else. If we continue business as usual, our emissions will not reach our targets. And our targets are there on this graph is the yellow diamonds with the red dotted lines connecting them, which we will reach through the New Mexico climate action plan.

And if you recall me saying that oil and gas industry is the number one emitter, you can also see that we will reduce the most emissions from industry, specifically oil and gas through this plan. The way that we developed the climate action plan was through two key methodologies. The first of which was scientific research and the second of which was iterative and community responsive engagement. So we had five main measure selection criteria as we were thinking of what projects, programs, and policies to include into the plan. The first of which was feasibility of implementation.

The second was the cost, and is there any funding available to, make these measures happen? How much greenhouse gas emissions can be reduced from a given measure, the transformative impact that a measure would have within communities via workforce and economic development and health and environmental impacts. And also community values were really important part of this process. And so those last two criteria, impact and community values, were largely informed by the coordination with communities that we did. And we held 12 public meetings.

Seven were in person all over the states, and then five were virtual, and more sector based to get into the details of what would be included in the plan. And those were really informative. We heard people's ideas and priorities in the very diverse communities across our state. You know? What an ideal climate action plan looks like in Gallup is not the same as what it looks like in Tucumcari.

So we needed to think that through and, try to integrate community, priorities across these diverse opinions. We also really coordinated with state government. So I am part of the state government government at the New Mexico environment department, but there are so many other agencies that are responsible for the programs and policies and projects that can reduce emissions. And so coordinating with all of them is a really big piece of this plan. We also talked to tribal governments, of course, and we spoke with the Intertribal Resource Advisory Council a few times and got good feedback from the nation's tribes and Pueblos that are involved in, in that.

And then also held some monthly calls with folks who, are at tribes, nations, Pueblos who are doing the same types of climate action planning as we are. And lastly, we offered one on one meetings for any tribes that were interested. We also met with municipalities and, workforce stakeholders, And all of these stakeholders were essential into the development of the plan. And so by the time you guys are done listening to me, I want you to be able to know if you look at the plan, what will you be able to get out of it? And so this slide shows what is included in a measure.

And a measure is say a program or a policy or a project that will limit greenhouse gas emissions at the state level. So if you look at a measure in the plan that you are interested in, you'll see the title on the description, and then you'll see what authority is required to implement a measure and what responsibilities the lead implementing agency has in order to implement. You also see the timeline and the milestones associated with implementation and metrics for tracking those progress the progress. And so those three items in the white box there are where lead agencies, if it's not an MED, it could be New Mexico Department of Transportation, or it could be the public education department. That's where they step in and take ownership of a measure.

But it's also where you, as a municipality or community member, can look and see how to hold a state agency accountable and know how to, push them to start implementing a given measure. You also see the emissions reductions associated with the project, the costs, and available funding, as well as benefits, which would be economic, environmental, and public health benefits in your communities. And we have actually specifically done an analysis for low income and disadvantaged communities to make sure that benefits and dis benefits are assessed for each measure and we're maximizing benefits in low income and disadvantaged communities and mitigating any potential disbenefits to them. So all in all, when the New Mexico climate action plan is fully implemented, we will have prevented $294,000,000,000 in health care costs, property damage, and other air and climate impacts that are caused by pollutants. And we will have developed workforce and economic opportunities around the state and diversified our economy, which is really important.

But most of all, we will have reduced greenhouse gas emissions to reach our state's targets. And more specifically, if you're interested in a subset of measures within the plan, you'll be able to see, industry measures, primarily oil and gas measures that will improve air quality and visibility, and that will be through, cleaner oil and gas production processes. And increasing revenue and productivity by keeping methane in the pipeline and limiting any leaks We'll create jobs to help diversify, the availability and opportunities in predominantly oil and gas industry areas. And for transportation, we're looking to expand electric vehicle tax credits and rebates, expand safe, healthy, and effective transit, walking, and biking options, deliver cleaner air with less vehicle exhaust overall. And for agriculture, forests, wilderness, if you're interested in that sector, we're looking to protect natural resources and reduce wildfire risk, incentivize smart land use practices, and increase local food systems and food sovereignty.

Electricity generation, we're looking to diversify electricity generation to ensure energy security, expand community clean energy access via financing grants and rebates, and lower utility costs through grid independence and sell back incentives. For buildings, we're looking to remove to reduce building costs through efficiency and electric vehicle charging integration, improve indoor air quality through electric appliance incentives, lower utility bills using weatherization rebates and tax credits. And then for waste and materials, we're looking to recover and redirect precious resources through landfill diversion and increase food access through self reliance and mutual aid. And lastly, recover methane from waste for potential clean fuel credit opportunities. And I understand that this can feel overwhelming.

I know that there's a lot to be done to reach our targets. I know there's a lot to be done within each community, but I wanted to focus a little bit about how New Mexico has immense potential and has already been working on these things. We've already made good progress. We have an abundance of sun and wind and geothermal resources. We are second in the nation for solar generated electric power production potential, sixth for geothermal, and tenth for wind energy.

And when you add all of that up, New Mexico has more renewable energy potential than any other state in the country. So that's an amazing resource to have and something that we can capitalize on as we transition. Our state energy transition act brought in $10,000,000,000 in private investment and largely because of the 2019 ETA or energy transition act. The electricity sector in New Mexico is really rapidly decarbonizing and has been, for some time now. For example, in 2015, coal and natural gas comprised 88% of in state electricity generation.

But today, wind and solar are now leading the charge at 65 percent of in state generation, and natural gas contributes 35%, while coal within the state contributes 0%. And that doesn't include the 4 Corners Generation Station on the Navajo Nation because that's their sovereign land. Lastly, the state has done a lot around clean transportation already. And I don't know if you've heard about the clean transportation fuel program or the New Mexico vehicle emission standard, but combined, those initiatives will cut gases by the equivalent of up to 1,600,000 cars in New Mexico, and they're really generating $1,800,000,000 in an economic benefits and up to above 1,500 jobs in the state. And so I understand that there are a lot of plans at the state government, and there you might be right to, be concerned that this plan might just sit on a shelf somewhere and not gain any traction, but we are doing the most to not have that happen with this plan.

We're really trying to prioritize moving beyond the plan and into action. New Mexico environment department and the energy minerals and natural resources department are already identifying further identifying our priorities and how what we will try to tackle first and how, and we're really going to aim to include stakeholders and community in that process. We'll also track greenhouse gas emissions reductions as we do start implementing to ensure that we are being held accountable and we're making equitable progress. We'll do the same for, other agencies who are implementing projects, including, you know, New Mexico Department of Transportation and all of the other very important agencies here at the state. And lastly, we want to, increase accountability and visibility of our progress through a status update report, And it's to be determined how that will be embodied, what form that will take, but we want it to include updates on measures and what implementation we've been able to do, the reductions we've been able to accrue, benefits to communities, availability of funding, workforce, and then next steps beyond the status report to keep implementing.

Let's see this last slide here. Lastly, we really can't do this without you, without all the stakeholders around the state, municipalities, community, tribes, businesses. So, ways in which you can get involved in this work are to stay informed, to look at our website for any updates or any upcoming events. We can, you can look at the plan itself and see if any measures are really interesting to you and think about how they might be implemented in your communities. Just like you've done with this event, you can invite us to any appropriate events that you think would be great to have us at.

And then lastly, you can advocate for the future that you want to see in your communities and in New Mexico. Overall, you can contact your legislators and let them know which aspects of the plan are a must have for your local community. And you can also reach out to us if you think that you or your organization can be a good partner in any of the measures you see. And so that's all I have for you today. I just wanna say thank you so much for having me, and I'm very open to any questions if there are any.

Thank you. Any questions or comments from the board?

I have questions. Okay. Thank you, Amy. I have just a few questions, and I don't know if you'll be able to answer all of these. But I'm curious first if there is any, like, policy efforts, measures, at the state level to address some of the, like, home insurance issues.

I know people specifically in Los Alamos have been having a hard time getting homeowners insurance because of, like, wildfire concerns. I know other people in Santa Fe who have been, like, fully dropped from their insurance because of that. So I'm just wondering if that that is even something that, like, we could address at a policy level and if it is being addressed or being considered.

It isn't being considered under the plan. It's I mean, it's being considered in a way of trying to reduce the risk of wildfires, but I'm not too sure, if it's being considered at another agency for the insurance availability itself.

Okay.

But I can ask around for sure and try to get back and, let Angelica know to if if it's important to y'all.

Yeah. I mean, I mean, I don't know. To me, that just seems like something our state legislatures could get involved with. Like, I don't know how that would look. But, yeah, thank you. Thank you. Okay. I do I have two other questions. Okay. And this one might be way in the weeds, so you could just tell me if it if I should go through and read the plan in more detail. I have looked at it before, but I guess I'm I'm a little curious about the boundaries of the the inventory. So did it did the inventory include, like, everything in New Mexico? So every sort of, like, business that we have, basically, anything that's produced within the state is included in the inventory.

Yes. With the exception of, the four corners generation plant on the Navajo Nation, I believe that's exception.

Okay.

We did include emissions from nations to tribes in Pueblos other than that, I believe.

Okay. Cool. Okay. And then my final question is, is this plan pretty on par with other states that have climate, action plans? Or yeah.

Well, our plan is actually much more comprehensive than most of the other plans that I've seen. We've developed this plan through the climate pollution reduction grant that the EPA dispersed. And, almost every state in the country participated in that grant program and developed their climate action plans. Many of the states, this was their first time creating a climate action plan, and that's us too. This is our first climate action plan as a state.

Some states like California are really above and beyond to most states already. But through this process, what I've seen, our climate action plan is really comprehensive and, I I would say more comprehensive than most other states.

Okay. I have one more question. Okay. Thank you. So did you guys, like, coordinate with Inhelica for our climate action plan? Like, was there any overlap? I feel like I should know the the answer to this. But

Actually, we already said

There wasn't any overlap, but I did attend a lot of the sector based meetings that the state had Okay. To provide input.

And there so before we developed this comprehensive climate action plan, there was we we developed a priority climate action plan. And, within that, we identified organic waste diversion as a priority partly because of our conversations with Angelica, and included them so that they would be able to apply to the implementation grants associated with the climate pollution reduction grant program. And, unfortunately, the state didn't get, awarded funds for that, and I I don't believe that, Los Alamos County did either. But it it was a good practice in collaboration.

Okay. Thank you. I

I can't see remember Chandler's hand? Is he?

Let's see. Let's see if he has anything to add. He's not online. He was having trouble hearing.

Alright.

Hey, thanks again for presenting to us. Just real quick question for you. You mentioned wildfire reduction as part of the plan. Can you speak to some of the things that you guys are doing at the state level? You know, one of the big things that we have in Los Alamos County is we're adjacent to a lot of federal property, whether it be DOE, Fed, or, you know, Santa Fe National Forest. So that I suspect is kind of outside your realm, but maybe you're working in conjunction with them. Would you mind just speaking to some of that?

Sure. Yeah. The well, it is a little bit outside my realm, but we worked with the energy, minerals, and natural resources department, which has the forestry division to develop the measures in our plan that were relevant to forestry. And we did do quite a big emphasis on, you know, mitigation of wildfires through taking care of our forests and giving funding for that at the state level. I'd have to go back in into that section to read more, to get more specific.

But if that's a section that you're super interested in, then you can you can definitely look and ask you can email me, or I can point you to the right resources for those.

No. That sounds good. I can absolutely look it up. So I'm excited to see that that's in there. That's that's a big deal here. I've seen Los Alamos. And so that was the one that caught my eye. I appreciate it.

Yeah. Thank you.

Alright. Thank you. And we look forward to hearing updates as you know, periodically.

Yes. You

can. Yeah. Thank you so much for having me.

Alright. Our next item is Firebrand.

Alright. Well, I'd like to introduce Firebrand Creative. And with us tonight from that team, we have Amanda Larignaga and Lignell Chacon. She's online as well. She didn't wanna be promoted, but she's here listening in.

And Helga Lust, who's not with us tonight, she's also on the team. I just wanted to share a little background about this. So it's it's in the climate action plan to have ongoing climate marketing and engagement with the community. And it's actually a big way that the board participates in the climate action processes through education and outreach with our community. And since it's such a big task, it's such a big umbrella, big scope, the county council has set aside funding, allocated funding for this initiative.

So you probably remember Sue and myself and a few other people working really hard to get, select a contractor, and we've done that. And we're a couple months in now of you know, we've done some groundwork. We've done some community visits, trying to get a get firebrand acquainted with our community. We're very unique. And, we spent a lot of time, talking to the schools, to different members of the Llano team, the county council team, count county staff, and different members of the public.

So tonight, what Firebrand is going to present to you all is just a basis of what our approach will be based off of studies and and research and how you know, what what types of best practices move forward and how to change behavior. So we've been doing this a long time. Right? We did it for recycling for many years, for food waste prevention, and now it's just like changing gears to do, like, all of the above. So I'm happy to have Firebrand's help.

This week, I don't know if you've seen, we had the survey to pick the tagline and the brand name, and that was selected. And we launched that yesterday. You might have seen things through social media, but the community picked give a shift. So you'll see some of that in that tagline, and I got some smiles. And I I love that because it makes me smile too, and we really want to target the you know, our demographic, young families, people who need to start taking action in in their daily lives.

So excited to keep this to kick this off. We're starting with Earth Day this weekend. You'll see some of the assets that Firebrand created for us. But to start with, we'd like to present some of the research and the basis for what the next steps will be. So, Amanda, you have a all of our mostly all of our members are here tonight. So you it's gonna look like you're just talking to yourself, but you're not. There's other people listening. I promise. So I'll hand it over to you, and I'm you have the slide deck.

Yeah. I'm gonna go ahead and share my screen. Maybe not my desktop. Nope. That's right. You can see this slide? Yes.

We can see it.

Perfect. So I'm gonna minimize so that's not in the way. Thank you, Angelica. Thank you, members of the board. I'm excited to be here. And while Helga was not able to join us, she's out on honeymoon. And for some of our staff, it's quite late. I'm I'm very excited to be here, and I know Lignell is as well despite being on mute. So a little bit of background about Firebrand Creative. We're a strategic communications organization that works predominantly in behavioral science.

And so really thinking about how do we shift behavior. And, most of the work we do tends to be the really technical and challenging to move the needle on. So that can be public health. That can be things like environmental health, or climate action in this case. And we work across the board from federal, state, and local government clients like yourself or adjacent, sometimes in nonprofit space.

And one of the key things that you'll hear throughout this conversation and you're gonna hear again and again from us is that, the core of when we're thinking about education and marketing specifically is what really causes people to act and working to create programming that does that. So building on this, all of the campaigns that we build is really, you know, we're not coming at this from a from a scratch from scratch perspective. So we spend a lot of time not only is there a significant amount of research around behavior science, stages of change, how to influence to transition communities or individual family members for Janice, but there's also then the overlay of local insights of, what does it mean inside of your community and what can how can we combine those ingredients, to make it not only per personal and place based, but really based in, best practices. So the first part of this conversation is gonna be about the high level research. So we're gonna be talking about, so we analyze not only the public feedback from the CAP.

There's also been other community surveying instruments. We also, did a pretty simplistic survey, but, as well as larger large scale, national nationwide surveying. So things we know, we just heard in the last conversation. When we talk about climate action and why it matters locally in Los Alamos, the risks are really clearly identified. Right?

Whether that's wildfire, extreme heat, drought, the really thinking about the increased strain on our water and energy systems and what that means. So that, sort of that ingredient of urgency, regardless of where you live on the the spectrum of what causes climate change, that part is very real and alive in Los Alamos. So things we know that we're hearing from the community. So we know, there's strong engagement, but there are some mixed priorities. The high level of that, though, is that residents generally want practical cost effective solutions.

They want really clear actionable strategies and the importance of equity. Oftentimes, the equity play is really tied to, financial equity, but socioeconomic, and that there is a general concern about climate impacts, and then questions live inside of the space of implementation and enforcement. So high level is, you know, residents are generally open, but the idea of, like, clarity, practicality, and fairness are gonna be pretty are critical here. Engagement is very active. So this is something we heard, and Halika mentioned, we had a site visit.

We had over nine different meetings with different stakeholder groups. You also saw that we also saw this in, open ended responses to our survey as well as the CAHPS. Residents want to be involved in how the, climate action is being communicated. Sorry. And, as well as this idea of, like, hands on, engagement with activities, learning opportunities, etcetera.

So it's really not a passive community. And so when we're thinking about, programming that we're developing, that's gonna be a big part of, the mix pretty consistently is, like, how do we not only have the community voice participating in our cocreation of campaign materials itself, but also some of those in person real life experiences. So taking a look, at a higher level, so each year, Yale and George Mason, do a series of, surveying and research around specifically this issue. And so in this case, in their six Americans report, the population is ranges from alarmed to dismissive. Important to note nationally that the dismissive group is actually quite small.

It's 11%. There's a lot of indicators as to why this group is small, And I think Los Alamos in some ways is an indicator of this, like, feeling and seeing the, the physical urgency of the issue. So while that's at the national level, we also know that education and higher education, also tends to, move make this, spectrum look a little bit different. So high level for us is really thinking about, yes, we're gonna have different audience groups that have different pain points, different motivators, but really that we're really living in this space, right, of the alarmed concern alarmed, concerned, cautious, and disengaged, and that the doubtful dismissive side of the population is actually quite small. And that most people are persuadable, not just around the issue itself, but around the action we want them to take.

But depending on where they live in these audience groups, they need different messaging. And so when we think about what moves people from, really, you know, concerned to alarm to actually taking action, High level findings. So the alarm group has, more than doubled over the past decade. People are really moving towards stronger concern concerned, not away. And for this program, luckily, this is a seven year program, so we have the opportunity to really be, you know, beating the drum and consistently working on moving the needle over time.

The movement is incremental, and we're not the having really big dramatic shifts in not only public opinion, but also behavior change, it takes times. And so change happen, but it's gonna be small. It's gonna be cumulative, and it's never just one specific message as far as, like, what the particular behavior changed. And when we look at the cap, there's obviously we're really trying to be holistic, so there's a lot of different messaging with for different audiences built into that. So some of our local advantage, thinking about the national indicators.

So we're uniquely positioned. So, one of the most highly educated counties in The US that helps some of those data points, as far as that concerned sort of space. There's also a very high level of civic engagement, site literacy. What that means for us is that when we're thinking about narratives, when we're building messaging, data is gonna be very important. Technical credibility is going to be very important, and that we bake into the work that we do evidence and transparency about what's working, what's not working, and really moving that needle.

So when we think about, audience segmentation, these are national trends as far as, like, what works, but these are gonna be ingredients that you're gonna see pull through into the work that we're doing Los Alamos. It's very important that we, stay away from doom and gloom. That really puts people in sort of everything from analysis paralysis or just full blown paralysis. So instead, what can we do? Solutions.

Again, thinking hyper local. So what are these things, that I can do in my community, and what does it mean for my community so that I can actually, you know, feel it's it's tangible. I can see it. And, again, from abstract to that personal relevance. People respond most to things like, and this was mentioned in the last presentation, cost savings, health benefits.

When we talk about resilience and energy independence, those can be really strong motivators and storylines, again, regardless of sort of larger conversations about, climate action. So key here is that the messaging that we work through the campaign, it really needs to connect to everyday life. So when we think about those findings both at the community level from the CAP feedback, you know, our community listening sessions as well as, like, the national trends, what does that mean from, like, a behavior change science perspective? So the keys are we need to make it easy. We need to make it visible and socially reinforced.

So the more something appears normal, the more likely they're going to do it. And that can be, you know, your neighbors are doing it. While solar may not be the one of our bigger focuses right now in the community, there's lots of great examples of, like, one house puts up solar, and then in a few years, like, the whole neighborhood is electrified. Right? But it can also be normalizing bus use, riding the your bike, composting, things like that.

The idea of default options. So assume participation. Assume, sort of, again, the staying away from doom and gloom and more of the adding some joy, some fun, some, you know, people are wanting to participate is gonna change be helpful in a lot of conversations and help move the needle in some of those conversations of behavior change. Again, thinking about small first steps and as behavior ladders. So inside of the different segments, particularly when you're in the community listening sessions, like, there's opportunities for, let's say, restaurants, for example.

There's so many things that our private business could be doing related to food waste, recycling, energy consumption, etcetera. But where is what is the smallest thing we could maybe ask them to do so that it, again, is easy. They can start to see it work and then over time start to build momentum. So it's k. So maybe it's starting with normalizing, on-site recycling or even just cardboard recycling, but then it grows over time.

Again, as it normalized, you have customers asking, customers engaging, then it becomes easier to have conversations of, you know, what about food waste? And then the idea of using trusted messengers. So this piece is going to be really important when we talk about the different messages for the different audiences. The, as a general rule from, you know, institutional trust is not super high at the moment. And so identifying whether it's partner groups, volunteer groups, nonprofit, private industry, etcetera, who have strong connections and relationships inside of our community, even if it's very niche, serving as a, essentially, a messenger, for some of the campaigns, some of the programs, some of whether it's volunteer opportunities, new initiatives that we're deploying, etcetera, and really using the trusted messenger network.

So what this means for our campaign, we're segmenting audiences, so not generalizing. While we have built a container of give a shift for the program so that it's that consistent messaging regardless of what kind of lane we're in. Inside of those, there's gonna be different messaging for the action and also some different messaging depending on who we're talking about. We're gonna really focus on local relevance, less on the global threat, emphasizing solutions, office sacrifice, focusing on actions that are easy and visible, really trying to tie that to community identity and pride, and this idea of co creation with residents, which I'll talk a little bit more of what that means. So when we're building a campaign, particularly when we're talking about long term, behavior change, it's really, it's an ongoing process.

So it's not like we bake the cake once, and then we can never look at it again and hope people like it. It's you know, we're working through community testing of messages, then we're measuring and seeing if it's working. We're iterating the framework we've built inside of that. Our circle's the wrong way. We're piloting those engagement strategies.

And then, based on the feedback and iteration, we potentially go back and are either potentially re workshopping, messaging or camp programming, or, you know, we got recycling nailed. That was really successful. People really engaged with it. What were the ingredients in that that we can apply now to transportation or to electrification or to, alternative transportation? And that we're, at some level, continuing to work inside of this space.

The other piece of this is that, the reality is seven years is a long time, and a lot of things can change. It's also when we talk about something being hyperlocal, the concerns of the community, the needs of the community, they can also change. And so this gives us the opportunity to have a some flexibility to pivot to immediate needs or opportunities. So in the last presentation, you know, I was making notes of, their how can they incentivize alternative transportation, like some of these things that maybe doesn't exist yet but could. Those will be big opportunities as the state potentially unveils some of these policy changes or, rebate opportunities that we could really deploy across the community.

So for today's goal is to you know, we talked a little bit about the research. I, high level. I mentioned we spent a number of days there on-site and had some great community conversations. We did do a a pretty low level message testing surveying instrument for, the campaign naming, so that's where the Give a Shift piece came from, as well as creative look feel, and some of the current behaviors people are either taking or willing to take. So those local priorities that's and how that can bake into the larger, cap priorities.

So for campaign direction, as Anhelka said, give a shift was our winner, so it was selected by a community vote. There was over 320 participants. It was selected by 38.7% of the vote. So it works for a lot of reasons. It's memorable. It's a

bit

funny. It's flexible. Again, it's staying away from, like, guilt framing. And that being said, the other two were also very, popular, obviously, based on the vote and just some of the open ended questions. And so we will be baking them in.

So this idea of, like, small shifts, big impact, when we talk about give a shift, you know, we're thinking about, you know, I recycle, and that's how I give a shift to my community. And, you can too. Like, what small shifts are you making today? And using trusted messengers, leadership potentially to help storytell around some of that, as well as, every bit matters was the other. Again, these are things you're gonna see baked in, throughout campaign, materials, and pro programs.

So visual direction, these are very, intentionally abstract characters. We're gonna be working to make them much more, less abstract and, more really tied to action and tied to, sort of the idea. The piece that really, did well with the community was, one, the sort of nod to the scientific background of Los Alamos, but also using community imagery, like, real place based photos of people we know, places we know, and then we know from behavior science of actions of the action we wanna take. And so working to particularly when we're talking of with the youth, having some animated characters that are representing more of the the actions we wanna see that, sort of a tighter, tie in to climate. But in this case, for essentially surveying and initial, purposes as, playing with something a little fun as far as, like, family of characters, this will be something we further deploy and work through.

So the last part of our survey, in addition to how people felt about messaging and positioning and then creative, was then what are the behavior actions people are ready to take inside of the community? By and large, the the actions were low to no cost. And so examples included reduced single use of plastics, buy local food, reduce food waste, or walk and bike more. What is great about that, those are you know, we talked about behavior ladders. These are all easy.

It's stuff that doesn't require, significant, like, infrastructure work on the county's behalf, for example. And, it's stuff it's behaviors that also align with the cap itself. So, we really saw, an overarching sort of match between things that the community was interested in or concerned about as well as, county priorities. And so when we're thinking about our priorities for the campaign, we're talking about alternate alternative transportation, energy efficiency, and electrification, and zero waste. Again, these are directly tied to the cap.

They're tangible. They're measurable, and they're applicable to everyday life. So what this looks like in practice in year one, so essentially now through April, our focus is really gonna be on visibility of the campaign itself, participation in early wins. So that's going to include things like launching the brand. We're doing a bit of a soft launch for Earth Week.

You may have seen, as Angelica mentioned, social content, the bingo card, things like that. That's where, that is really just a taste as we further build this out. Working to identify the community events. That was something that came up again and again and again. The community is very active, and there's lots of in person events that we can use as leverage and touch points.

And so building brand recognition for the campaign brand itself in fun and engaging ways in those community pieces. Working to provide simple tools and resources. So based in some of those areas of focus, that could be things like modifying a cost savings calculator for calculator, for example, of determining, purchasing an EV versus not, particularly as we have, like, increasing gas prices. Like, that could be a tool and resource that we develop. Alternatively, energy efficiency things that you can do in your house, whether that is as an owner or as a renter.

And, again, with a big focus on first easy actions. So I'm being mindful of time. I'm gonna, inside of these buckets, you know, when we're talking about alternative transportation, we're gonna be looking at two things. So when I what we're or the goal of what we're doing, so it's gonna be inside of the campaign. And examples is really when the KPI, so the key performance indicators that it's working.

So alternative transportation, normalizing non car options, promoting the existed transit routes we have, as well as things like new EV charging locations coming online, Showing up at high traffic community events so we can storytell around that, and then making some of that for those first steps of starting to ride your bike, take the bus, potentially consider an EV EV, low barriers to action. Examples of how we would track if, campaign programming is working is things like, bus ridership has increased increased, how many events we participated in, and developing, content that is really promoting bike and walk encouragement as well as things like EV showcases and transit information at community events. For energy and efficiency and electrification, so this is, you know, connecting county to, utility programs. Yes. There's when we talk about rebates, some of that is not relevant in the moment, particularly locally.

But depending on administration changes, those may become, and also some of the state level cap, rebates or other incentives that exist outside of the county itself. Working to demystify just what electrification means and using, low level entry points. So if we know that, for example, people are working to add air conditioning to their properties, it's a great opportunity for us to start talking about, you know, energy efficient units as well as could they also be updating their panel so that for other, electrification opportunities in the future. So it's a cost savings in the long term. So using natural touch points, so this could be utility, sufferers, for example, and then really building awareness generally, of the importance of this issue, what it means before we're asking for those change.

So, again, examples could be messaging and inserts, storytelling around data usage, and, energy tips, and zero waste. So, in this case, we know that there is high compliance around recycling at the individual home level, but we know that there's issues with contamination. We also know that there's opportunities for restaurants' participation. So how can we start to build clear and repeated education around these things so that we have better compliance and so it's an overall better experience? You know, education awareness of what it actually mean why why this is an important issue and what it means.

And, you know, one thing that came up is really combating some of the myths or misinformation around, recycling, specifically the programs that exist in Los Alamos. So, like, where do these things go and, you know, what does that mean? That this action is actually not only does it feel good that, you know, dot there's a the downline, work around it. And then working to establish baseline data diversion tracking. So this exists.

And I I would say across the board for a lot of the KPIs, the the tracking there's levels of tracking that exist, and then we're going to be overlaying with additional, points of tracking that we're going to embed. And then for you year two, really, it's gonna be working to deepen and sustain this programming. And so not only is that going to be, the messaging and education programs, we're gonna be looking at additional pilots and partnerships and really thinking about, I think, this idea of results and progress. That's going to be a big part of building the infrastructure for that in year one so that as we move forward the remaining six years of the program, we can really show, you know, that the dial is moving so that it's not just that it's easy for people to do. It's visible and they can see it, but it's also visible and they can see it at a community level.

And I mentioned, measuring success. So we're gonna be looking at things like web, some there's some of these are soft. So when we think about behavior change, the final action is the behavior change itself. But there's things that happen when people are on that spectrum moving down the line. So that could be website visitors, downloads, pledges, participation in our events.

And then all the way over to, you know, what is happening around bus ridership data. Like, how is that increasing? What are our recycling contaminations looking like? How many restaurants are participating in blank as examples. So, again, year one is really to establish those baselines and the mechanisms for capturing that data, and then year two is that we're really reporting in pub publicly.

So what that means, moving forward. So we're going to be deploying for year one across, the three priority areas that I mentioned, and then we're also going to be developing a formal monitoring and evaluation plan. And so sometimes you're gonna hear that referred to as an m and e. Sometimes we're gonna say KPIs. But, essentially, it's what does success look like, how do we measure it, and then how do we put the instruments in place to ensure that we're measuring it on a consistent basis so that we can, in very public ways, not only in conversations like this, but, you know, on the county website, for example, show that movement, both because it's obviously, this is really mission critical for the community, but also to give us some of that feedback of this is working, that's not working.

You know, what else can we do? Where are there opportunities for us? And, you know, just to pose some potential questions, I realize, just being mindful of time. I did try to stay within my window, and I appreciate the, the opportunity to chat. But, whether it's in this conversation or as we're moving forward, you know, things that we're going to be looking for feedback from the community in an ongoing basis.

And, again, in some of those, subset parts of the when we're talking about, like, trusted messenger networks and cocreating is, you know, are we focusing on the right priorities? What kind of activities are going to be resonating locally? Where should where are there partnership opportunities that we should be considering? And then are there really important barriers? I would say, we definitely had a fire drinking from a higher fire hose experience when we were, visiting on-site.

And so, we definitely have a lot more insight and transparency into this. But, again, these thing communities are always changing opportunities, challenges. And so this would just be something that, you know, as we move forward in the next seven years, that you're you're thinking about and feeling free to share with Angelica or with us. And I think that is the end of yep. That is me.

Thank you, miss Saranaga. Alright. Input.

I have a question. This is more for Angelica, but is do we have funding, like, guaranteed for the next seven years to finish everything?

Well, we have year to year funding for this program, but, I

mean Okay.

The contract is for seven years.

Okay. Yeah. Cool. Okay. And then I just I I have one more thing. I think a good place that we could start is telling people that there's a state EV tax credit because a lot of people don't know that. And when I went to the dealer and I bought my EV, the dealer was like, no. You don't qualify. I was like, I'm pretty sure I do. So maybe we try to help people with that. But yeah.

Thank you. I still yeah. I'm still we're still working out how we're gonna roll out these campaigns, but I think transportation seems like a great place to start right now, especially with the price of gas and alternative transportation like biking, you know, walking, taking the bus. Those are all great things to promote and then really in line with what's happening in our community. So but, yeah, that's a great suggestion, and we'll include that.

All right. So I'm sure Ms. Kuglerlaid told you about our new green paint on the street for bike in the bike lane?

No, I haven't. Just happened today. Right?

So we I mean, that's slow hanging fruit because it's already you know, it was done yesterday. So

Yeah. I'm but really writing things down.

And there's I I think there's a lot of people who support expanding that. And we approved a redesign of an intersection at West Road and Diamond that they haven't done yet. So might be stuff out from there. Another thing I I thought of is people to partner with. So I just saw a presentation at Citizens Climate Lobby.

And even though it's a the state chairman lives in our community, And another person lives in our community gave a presentation on electrification and this person has become a an electrification coach. And they a lot of what I heard at that presentation sounded like what you did is take the small easy steps to get people moving. Like for instance, instead of saying you need to put in a heat pump, you say, well, how about if you weatherize your doors first? Right? So the heat pump works better and stuff like that.

You should probably put that one slide back up for input.

Oh, the question. Yeah. Sorry. I just wanted to see your faces. Here, I will. Too many things. There we go.

So we're kicking off basically Earth Day? Yes. It's a

soft launch at Earth Day with the brand. And, yeah, climate action bingo. Cool. So join us.

I'll note that the Facebook posting today celebrating the new green bite lanes ended the description of what was going on with small shifts, big impacts. So somehow you all have arranged to get that messaging in or it's just been picked up. But that was great.

Yeah. Our PIO, Dave Krueger

Yeah.

Added that. Excellent. Oh, there's Joe.

It's Joe. Joe. Hello.

So I think it sounds like the right priority priorities are being focused on.

These align with the climate action plan, and two of the things that weren't mentioned under zero waste are also, like, food waste prevention, composting, but we'll flesh out some of those details. And this is an ongoing process. So as we do message testing and the cocreation process with the community, you all will be included with that.

I have a question. Can can we if possible, could we see the responses or what was said about the single use plastic bag or single use plastics?

Yeah. Mhmm.

Okay. That might be helpful for us.

Yeah. We can get you that.

Okay.

We could share the survey results. Yeah. That'd be There was also another category, but I'm not sure if we got much write ins with that.

Okay.

Thank you. Sure.

Yeah. There's there was at least one, I feel like more than one, write in about banning plastic bags specifically. One of those might

have been.

Yeah. Talk about timely. Right?

Yeah. Yeah.

It's perfect. When I read the agenda, was like, oh, interesting.

We're also gonna do a presentation next week on Ridwell for the

Oh, yeah. I saw that. So Yeah. That'll be interesting. That's in person. Yes?

Yes. So what barriers should we address first? Any thoughts?

Barriers?

Barriers. Yeah.

Barriers. I mean, the the engagement barrier, I think. I don't think 552 people is enough to represent what our county or our population is thinking. Right? So to me, a big one is not necessarily just stuff online, but can we get flyers out? Can we put things in the newspapers? You know, how else are we going to get the word out about what we wanna do for this and and kind of publicize it a little bit more?

Yep. Any

other thoughts for this evening?

I feel like we'll after we see for Earth Day, like because I haven't seen anything of what we what's been produced. I feel like maybe we'll have some more feedback and, like, after we interact with people too with with the new stuff.

So where where should we partner partner more deeply? Now the county itself, when it comes to waste, we we take out all the waste from the laboratory. Correct?

Yes.

But is a partnership there just to do we it's just too difficult, like, to I mean, we have our climate action goals, and waste is one of them. Waste production being a big thing from the laboratory side of the house. I know the laboratory probably has its own policies for that as well, but, like, is there any way we can do any outreach there to reduce our waste there? Because it's one thing for our county to do it when we have 20,000 people. The laboratory is, what, 12,000 people on-site? That's an insane amount when you think of our our entire production of waste. So is there any way we can couple that up with the I know this is always an ongoing thing about talking about if we can work with the lab or not, but I'm not sure if that's a partnership worth looking into or not.

Yeah. Continuing to build on that partnership with Lanol is one of our, like, our goals unstated goals, but we recognize that the, you know, the that all the small shifts that can make a big impact at the lab. So just kinda figuring out how to work into that network. So if you all have strategies on who we can talk with and how we can get out messaging, I think those are, like, the the hardest pieces, right, right now.

We did have someone. It was from their sustainability office now.

But I was

just forgetting it. It?

Yeah. Yeah. The the eco team doesn't handle waste that that I work No. Work with them. So but, yeah, that'd be more, like, the EPC folks probably. I can I have some thoughts? I can I can look? Yeah. And I Yeah. But we'd

love to partner with Lattel in any ways, obviously, in with all of the campaigns and the focus areas.

Yeah. Just like education outreach is, like, part of it. Right? Like, just like I don't know if the laboratory does much to educate folks on, like, on waste reduction. I mean, there's internal programs, of course, but I don't know if there's, like, the immediate it's I don't know if it's in lockstep with where we're trying to go with the county.

Right.

And it seems like why why would it not be in lockstep with the county? Because energy, waste, right, there's so many things that are going hand in hand. Our water use that all need to play into this. Why are we not including the same messaging over on the laboratory side of the house? Because it's

Well, I

I think I think and the county work really closely on energy and waste or energy and water reduction. I think the piece that's missing is probably the waste reduction. And yeah. And I just think because I used to do some of that, and, like, we got nowhere. And it was like, are we and maybe our approach is wrong.

I think people have a a different mindset when they're at work versus, like, they're at home and, you know, it's, like, in their house, in their space, and it's their money they're wasting. You know what I mean? Like so, yeah, I definitely I think there's opportunities for that. I just yeah. I I think I I think I know who we can talk to.

Great. We'd love to

That would be great. And then Yeah. Jesse and the eco team would be the folks for energy and water efficiency and reduction stuff. So

We just need to have them give a shift.

That's all. Yeah.

I will say one interesting, like, qualitative story that came out when Jesse was on when he came for one of the listening sessions is that after like, during COVID, they moved back to Styrofoam trays and that it was like a they had to work with a the third party vendor that does the food and whatever else, but the the employee base was really the one. So, like, created the groundswell to force that to go to get rid of the Styrofoam trays and to go back to traditional trays. So there might be a level of appetite for some of this. So

Yeah. Have

we have we had any of the local businesses try and do the green business certification yet?

I think Abby's still working on rollout for that.

Okay. So that's but that should be soon probably. Right?

Yeah. We can definitely help with that. Yeah.

I just wanna say that when as far as the partnership aspect goes, one of the things that we've discussed with this team and I think would be really a way that people on this board could help out is there are a lot of community organizations in this town, whether they're civic or churches or moms getting together for coffee or whatever. There you know, we all have various organizations, more or less organized, that we're part of. And how do we partner with those kinds of organizations to implement some of these? How do we engage our faith leaders, for instance, in taking on some of these things as part of earth stewardship? How we get some of our civic organizations to take, to incorporate some of these actions or at least give us a voice or an opportunity to speak to their membership.

So as far as partnering, in the community with those organizations, if you all could think about where you plug in, what those groups are that you contact, and how we might talk to them, get them involved, that would be really helpful.

Yeah. And I I think an extension of that is that sometimes it's not a clear, like, how that could maybe work or what that could maybe look like. And so that's when we talk about cocreation, that's what we're talking about. So an example, that has come up as, like, a potential project to do cocreation with, like, the art council or maybe it's the school district, like like an art contest or an installation piece. Like, I don't it's very ethereal of, like, what that could look like, but having conversations where, those community groups have the opportunity to say, like, our group really likes this, or we get really motivated by that, that we can start to kind of marry some of these things together of, oh, we just we can overlay some cool educational stuff, or we can help elevate something that's already happening so there's more participation and that that can be a really effective way when there's not a clear sort of that clear bridge.

And I'll just add to that, like, you all are trusted messengers. Right? Like, you all have these little niche groups that you're part of. And if if you think about ways that we can, you know, wiggle into those groups or collaborate or partner, let us know. Maybe you don't have to be the one to lead it, but if you introduced us and figured out a way to partner.

Right? Like, this Hemis Mountain Trail Run is completely out of the scope of things. And I really haven't told you about this, Amanda, but there's a big giant run where there's, like, hundreds of runners that are coming into Los Alamos to do these 50 k's and things like that, and we're partnering by providing zero waste services to the runners at the end. So if you think about those ways, you know, we can help with that lift, with the introduction, with figuring out a way how to partner. So

Yeah. And, like, make it fun. Right? Like, we've talked about, like, it could be film showings. It could be like, we've done stuff that it's like live music, art installations, like like, there's it I think sometimes when we talk about climate action, I can feel very, like, nose to the grainstone, But where we can add a little bit of play and fun or community event baked in, makes these conversations a lot easier and helps bring that visibility and that, like, oh, this is easy. Right? Like, it's easy to just make sure that I'm recycling my bottle at the end or whatever.

It seems like the library would be a good partnership. Yeah. I feel like, well, I I go to the library, and I feel like everyone they know who's, like, youngish and has kids spends a lot of time at the library. And I feel like that's definitely a demographic we would need to target to your point. So, like, the kind of the niche the niche organizations, I guess. So and then that makes me think we need to do a presentation at the boards and commissions meeting,

which

would be another way to do that.

That's an excellent idea. Yeah. Captive audience.

Yeah. They're stuck there. So

Yeah. Because they they are all trusted partners

Yeah.

In their own groups. Right? So those are great ideas.

How did the tree the, like, ornament thing with the trees? I feel like that went really well this winter.

I heard a lot of really great remarks about the recycled ornaments that we made and partnered with the schools. So mostly, I think I think for me the what showed the positive impact was all the kids that showed up. They were like looking around for their ornament and Yeah. Of course, they brought all their proud parents and, you know, family members with them. So to me, that made it all worthwhile.

Yeah. I feel like that's something to that you could, like, build on. I don't know how. But yeah.

Great. Keep thinking

about everyone's time. Yeah. And, please, this is obviously a long term project. So, we're here and excited to be working on it, and, our door is definitely open as far as if there's ideas, introductions, things like that.

Thank you, miss Larnaga.

Thank you. Take care.

Hi. Bye.

Alright. Our our next item is council has decided to send the bag ban down to us again. And so this time they asked for a proposal in ninety days and we have eighty one days left. So I think when they said proposal, I've talked with Ms. Gurley, we think it's probably they want an ordinance.

So what we're thinking is maybe establish a work group. And I think the work group's lift is going to be fairly light initially because legal is going to have to craft the ordinance. And there'll be some sort of public outreach, and it could be either a survey again or public meetings or we can have a public hearing during one of our meetings. And those seem to work pretty good. So with that, if it's okay with everybody else, I'll establish the work group. And who would like to be on it?

I can continue.

Excellent. So Member Lekle? Member Blair?

S Blair.

S Blair. And we can put C Blair on there since she's not here as

No. Don't do that.

Alright. Anybody else? Yeah. I'll help out. Excellent. So, yeah, that's three.

I think that's that's it. No. That's the We can't afford than that. Okay.

Yeah. And I also talked with Jason Chappell. He's the manager at Smith's. I asked him if he'd be interested. He he serves on transportation board with me and library board also. Because it if we have a bag ban, it'll impact Smiths the most, so he'll be able to represent even if we don't even we do something that that goes against what his corporate wants to do. So

Okay. Cool.

Is that okay with you guys?

Yeah. So are you gonna be on the working group as well?

I can't.

Okay. Yes. Yeah. I just wanted to verify. K.

So you guys can select a a chair if you want one, or I think it could be collaborative. I don't whatever you guys wanna do.

So Okay.

And so the the idea is Yeah. Trying to figure out how to say this. So there's a lot of there's a lot of county ordinance existed, and I know that from your presentation, the council. So we could select one of those, but I'm hearing mister Leipart might wanna tweak them at least. So

Yeah. That's the county attorney. Right? Yeah. Yeah. He came up and talked to Angelica and I after and had some suggestions for ways that implementation would be easier, I think, from their standpoint as well as, like, county staff standpoint.

So

Is Ordinance the typical driver for plastic single use plastic ban? Okay. That's, like, the starting line. Okay.

Yeah. I mean, we could propose and then they could ask staff for one Mhmm. For an ordinance, but this kind of short shortcuts it. So we can just say, here's an ordinance based on what you guys said you wanted. One of the things they also said is preferable not to have a bag fee for single use paper bags. But they said preferable, not absolutely prohibited. So we'll see what you guys come up with. And then the person who kind of got it rolling, Councillor Herman, she had mentioned excluding small businesses. So I think there's a preference for that, but there's also constitutionality issues.

Yeah. We can I think some of the ordinances specifically have some of that language in there as well, so we can look and see if that is good? Another thing that I think we had or, yeah, I had presented on was, you know, like, excluding doctor's offices and that kind of stuff. So lots to consider.

Alright. Anything else?

I have a question. So in this case, council also wants us to do some sort of community outreach Yes. On it. What does that look like? We're we're not gonna be asking them if they want this or not, right? Because council has already decided that there that there's an ordinance that they're going to consider and we're not gonna vote on it. So what what are we doing in the educate in the outreach portion?

I think when when the ordinance is written, we'd be asking the public what they think about it. So we'd be taking the blows, which I don't mind doing it here. I I I've done it on transportation and but it's it it it's good because people get all all the, you know, opinions out so

I actually don't see this that I don't I don't see the good in that. I I actually think having been around this bush with it on this before, having known that the ESB itself voted it down but was divided on it, it's actually has been a very divisive issue in this community. And I don't know if that's changed or not. We'll find out. But it comes at a time when we're working really hard, the ESB, the Sustainability Alliance, our consultants, Abby Hayward, the DPU and BPU to some extent, to bring the community together on environmental issues.

And whatever we can do in this process that we have to undergo to bring the community together is really important. It's not we don't want to rile them up. We really don't. That's not productive in my opinion. We and it has the great potential to blow back on the other things that we're working on. So I hope that as you go forward with this that you can find ways to bring people together instead of divide them further on a topic that's been very divisive in the past.

Yeah. Thanks, Sue. Well, we might run stuff by you. I think that's a really valid concern, though. And perhaps our consultant can help with some of that. I don't know.

Yeah. But I'll just say for the community or off for a few things. So the working group will come up with an ordinance or recommendations for an ordinance, and then the attorney's office will help craft the ordinance and do a legal analysis and make sure that it's, you know, constitutionally allowable and, you know, go through that whole look at it through the lens of legalese. And then the recommendation would be then at that point, we would gather public input. And then there would be a vote from the board as to whether or not, you know, they they vote on that ordinance.

So, yes, council did ask us to craft an ordinance. So with that, you know, we're we're able to shape it in a way that would be, I don't know, like you say, the community together so much and not hopefully, not such a divisive topic again. And then I think I mentioned the community engagement. So

And do we have any public comment?

Thank you. Here. Jody Benson, 3547 Pueblo Drive. There are many people in the community, as Sue Barnes pointed out, who are really interested in this. And they could help the committee or the sub team to try to craft this.

We have ten, twelve years actually of working on a bag ban, and we know what doesn't work. And we know that others, even whole states, have banned the bag. We know what does work in New Mexico. So we can we would like to be have some input too if you'd like to invite some normal people. And the ordinance, as Sue Barnes was talking about, the ordinance did the attempted in ordinance definitely split the community.

So in the end, what the eco club and this was this was before COVID, I think. The eco club brought to the council was just to ensure that Smiths, if if we're worried about the small businesses, like Rin Herman counselor Herman was saying, that Smiths charged for a single use plastic shopping bags. And David Reger was the one who said in White Rock, they were charging. It's a no brainer. People just accepted it.

I understand people got mad because Smith's up here wasn't charging. But if we make it county wide, that could be helpful. And I am noticing that small businesses, maybe not restaurants, but other small businesses, they're kind of, you know, not giving you a bag unless you ask for it. So I think and I absolutely know what you're talking about, Ms. Barnes.

Absolutely. Because we were there and threatened and painted and but I think people are paying attention to the bag and and nurdles and PFAS and their children's health. So I think this is time. I think we're ready for this. So if you'd like to invite the Sierra Club or the League of Women Voters or somebody like that, the the eco club, we would be available. Thank you.

Thank you, miss Benson. Alright. Next stop.

Oh, counselor Hand has her name done. Here.

Go ahead.

Thank you. I would just like to make a comment. This seems like the perfect opportunity to do that because I was pretty actively involved in that conversation about the plastic bag bag ban that was presented. And, you know, I I just like to give the ESB some of my perspective if you weren't listening and and also maybe put it in a different framework than than the way that I was, discussing it at the, council. So, basically, you know, after listening to the presentation today by Firebrand and where, you know, we have a new logo or motto.

I don't know what we're you know? But, you know, the give a shift. So if we're going to give a shift, you know, and we're talking about plastic bag ban, what I would really like to see from the ESB is instead of presenting this as something that people can't do anymore, that they're restricted to do, that we have some viable alternatives and not necessarily just going backwards, you know, saying, well, we're not going to let you use plastic bags anymore. And, you know, first of all, is it all plastic bags? What kind of plastic bags are you talking about?

You're talking single use. Well, are there different kinds of materials that plastic bags are made out of? You know, are there alternative materials? Some of them that are okay versus some that aren't okay. You know, can we provide some recommendations so that people have alternatives other than going to like a a paper bag again?

Because, you know, I think that's, you know, one of the issues that I brought up is, you know, you barely even get one single use out of a paper bag. You know? I've had plenty of experiences with that myself, and, you know, you can barely get the paper bag out of your car, you know, without having it rip and and everything falls, you know, onto the pavement before you even get it in your car. So, you know, we you know, I think we'd be much more successful if we were able to provide some alternatives that really made sense for more people in the community. And maybe, you know, go a little bit further than, you know, just these discussions that I've heard, you know, which is, you know, could we possibly have, you know, bag donation centers where where people could donate appropriate types of bags for others to use.

Those could be distributed or people could pick those up if they don't wanna have to buy, you know, a bag, from Smith's, you know, every time they they go in there, you know, the the old to use, bag. That would be, I think, very helpful. I know that, counselor Herman showed me a product that a restaurant was using here in town that was, yeah. I mean, it had advertising on the bag that talked about how it was a better, more eco friendly bag. And this restaurant voluntarily used this type of bag.

It was probably even more expensive than some of the other single use plastic bags. But they they voluntarily use this type of plastic, that would, you know, meet some of the the needs of, you know, not being a single use plastic that that is, you know, a detriment to the to the ecology, you know, of of our community. So, you know, I I'm hoping that the working group can maybe take some of that into consideration. And, you know, when I heard Amanda Laranaga's presentation, she talks about giving solutions. You know?

And and so, you know, when this ordinance is drafted, where we're saying, you can't have these bags anymore. Well, define specifically what the bag is that you don't want to be used and and somehow, you know, how can people find out the information of what other bags are acceptable and and aren't necessarily just paper? Because, you know, paper also, that's killing trees unless you're going to say, well, you know, it's gotta be a recyclable paper or, you know, it's it's already, something that has been recycled. So I I I appreciate, you know, some further thought on that before it is brought back to council. And and hopefully consider all the people who are impacted by this, the businesses that are impacted by this, and, you know, how we can make it easier for them, how we can make it, you know, more of a a cost efficient solution, you know, so that we have a more of a win win.

And and maybe then we won't have such a divided community on these issues.

Alright. Thank you, councilor Han. Alright. Next item is chairs report. And so we got a lot of stuff going on going on.

We need there's a event we talked about during the previous presentation about next Wednesday at the Unitarian Church at 2PM. It's the Ridwell people coming to talk about plastic recycling. And a lot of us are are tied up that day. So is there anybody who has bandwidth to go and then let us know what happens?

When is it again? Can you say? Two.

2PM. Tuesday?

Really intense.

Wednesday. Yeah. And if if everybody's tied up, that's okay too. They're online everywhere anyways, but So someone can think about it. If not, it's okay.

And I don't have anything else. Board of Public Utilities.

It was me this month. Okay. I have a lot of notes. I will do my best to go quickly. So the working the working meeting was April 1. They had a quite a few presentations. One was the annual update on the electric light reliability plan for FY '27. That's also called the ERP. There was the biannual update of the integrated resource plan. Of particular note to us was a presentation on plug in slash balcony solar systems, creek key information.

Those are essentially almost like bootleg PV systems that people, like, just kinda plug in. You'd and it plugs straight into a one twenty volt outlet. I would take a look at the presentation. It was very interesting. They there's a lot of things that the county, like, was considering in that or just kind of, like, informational.

They yeah, there's a lot of, like, safety considerations with that as well because it's not, like, right it's not, like, a regulated electricity source because you're basically just bootlegging it, and it's not hooked up to your meter. So I don't I'm I don't know if people are doing this. I'm assuming they are if it's being brought up. But a few things they were considering or the county needs to, like, consider is, you know, do they require an interconnection agreement under existing DPU rules? Do you just, like, do registrations so people have to register if they have something like this?

Do you just, like, waive the internec interconnection agreement? So it was kind of interesting. Definitely worth looking at the presentation. There's also a presentation on the American Public Power Association or the APPA financial and operating ratios. And the board of public utilities does have a vacancy opening 07/01/2026, and that would end 06/30/2031.

So if you know anyone interested. And then the normal meeting was last night. There was recognition of Thomas Wyman who is the current assistant county attorney, and he's retiring. And then there was the annual Lantel presentation by Jesse Friedman. So talking kinda Eric about some of stuff that you were talking about.

So I'll just give, I guess, some of the highlights. So Jesse talked about the electric forecast, the current utility projects, and then e efficiency projects that we're doing at Lantel. So with the elect the electric forecast, there's basically been no major changes. He did note there's two new supercomputers coming online, but we're not expected to exceed the import lines with those online even before the EPCU project, which is the electrical power capacity upgrade project. And then he also discussed, the Lance modernization project, which or LAMP, if you guys have heard of that.

And that's supposed to be coming online around, like, '20, but that's not gonna increase any electrical demand. It's just an upgrade.

And

then they are also exploring flexible turbine operations with the CGTG with to support Foxtail Flats. So when that solar comes online, making sure that we can kind of meet the highs and lows of electricity. Utility projects, the EPC project is working right now. We also finished the SVC upgrade project, which was actually my project, so go me. We finished or they finished a primary control center upgrade at the PCC.

So it used to be, like, strings and wires, and you'd move things around. And now they've got actual TVs in there. So it definitely makes the operators' jobs much easier, which allows us to use our electricity more efficiently. Let's see what else. There is they just finished a substation replacement study at Lance, and then lots of metering and skid upgrades across the site.

And then in terms of efficiency projects, there's a conceptual design project for a data center heat recovery loop at TA 3, a conceptual design for a water treatment plant at Lance. So Lance has several cooling towers. And this the conceptual design or at least the study that was just completed, would shows that we can reduce the usage to a by a third up to half of the current amount of water being used. So this would be very similar to SURF, which is the sanitary effluent recycling facility, and that feeds the the super the CCC the SCC. And then there's quite a few new EV chargers on-site.

Interestingly, Jesse pointed out that Landau has about 900 registered personal EV drivers, which accounts for about 45% of the total state EV drivers. So lots of EV drivers in this area, which kinda tied into the next presentation, which was the final fleet conversion plan and EV charging plan that Enhelka did. So they that plan, if you guys recall, was accepted by council on March 17. So this was really just a an update meeting. And they did address feedback and then some of the comments into the final plan and including some of the feedback and comments that we gave as a board.

And then there was a water rate ordinance presentation. I did not write down the numbers, but if you are interested in that, your water rates are probably gonna go up. So take a look at the the breakdown. And then few other things. I think last time, Sue mentioned the the Elkridge gas project.

They have about four homes left, so they're almost done with that. And then they'll purge the old gas line, and they can start using the new one. The Jemez Mountain Fire Protection, which is the fire protection line going up to the ski hill, is still they still have not received the last $3,500,000 funding because FEMA is under Department of Homeland Security, and they are still without a budget. And they are trying to acquire about six sites from the US Forest Service to get to, like, water tanks, open space. The one that really caught my attention was an evac route down Rendia Canyon.

So and oh, and then the last thing is the groundbreaking for the county fiber is May 12. So yeah. And then I went to bed, so I did not hear the end of the meeting. It was 09:00.

Wow. Any questions? Or alright. Next one is transportation board. We didn't meet this month, but at our meeting next month, we'll we'll be getting the county pedestrian safety presentation. So it should be good. Parks and Rec.

I didn't get an update on that one.

Alright. Bee City's not here, but I know they have a work party on April 28 to pick weeds at the golf course plot. And they're looking for more people to water as usual, probably, so if anybody's interested. Sustainability Alliance. Or do you have a question? Sorry. Okay.

Yeah, we met this past Tuesday in person. It was very pleasant and we got a lot done. Mostly we focused on coordination for Earth Day at the Nature Center and the Municipal Building. There'll be one actually on Earth Day, and volunteers are encouraged for all of those events. The Jemez Mountain Trail Run that Angelica mentioned also could use all of these could use volunteers.

So and they're super fun. The water festival, which will be May 18 and May 19, the DPU water festival held peak runs this nature. All the fourth graders come in and learn about mostly about water, but they've given us a slot to do other sustainability related education to the fourth graders. And it's usually tons of fun because fourth graders are fun. In other highlights, Kok Yong mentioned that her group of volunteers are working hard to reduce food waste and feed those in need by collecting and packaging meals from various hotels and restaurants around town and distributing those through Gaia's pantry at the Unitarian Church.

She needs more volunteers for that. That's actually an amazing effort. The amount of food that they collect and save and rescue and give to people, it is amazing. So speak with her if you'd like to help with that. David already mentioned that the High School Eco Club Summit will be happening at Taos High School next week.

David and other members of Citizen Climate Lobby will help out there, and it's terrific that schools from around New Mexico participate in this High School Eco Club Summit on Environmental Issues. We already talked about this Ridwell presentation. It would be great if someone could go. And our next meeting will be on June 16 at eleven in person. And I just wanted to remind our board members, since we have some new ones, that we can have at least two more ESB members join the Sustainability Alliance if you're available for these meetings. And we would love to have more participation.

Thank you. Any questions?

Did the meetings get moved to eleven instead of nine?

It is 11:11 to Okay.

Yeah. That maybe works much better for my schedule.

Oh,

great. I'll kinda look and see what I have coming up.

Okay. Thank you.

That'd be great.

I was just gonna mention, Joe, if you want, I could take over Parks and Rec in June if you need somebody to take it over. Okay. But it has to be June.

Are you in there?

No. It's just soccer practice gets in the way. So

Alright. Staff report.

Okay. Let me see. Oh. Oh, I I apologize. We can make room for councilor Han to give an update, though.

Alright. Councilor Han?

My apologies.

I already spent quite a bit of time talking today. I think that probably the the, item that is most relevant, to ESV was the plastic bag ban. And, you know, there was some discussion. I think, you know, we've discussed it a lot tonight. So I don't have anything else to report.

Thank you, councilor Hand. Alright. Staff report.

I'll go quick because some of you all shared some of my updates. So let's see. Oh, so this should say so for the March sustainability newsletter, it's celebrating Earth month, and our subscribers continue to increase slowly, from one thirty to a 137 subscribers, and we have a 66% engagement rate. The new EV chargers out front are being used continuously, and we also are continuing to see an increase in usage month over month. Let's see.

The chargers that we're planning to install at Mesa Public Library, Everything is lining up for that. We have our we've ordered the equipment. The task order for the construction piece was signed, I think, last week, and we're on track to get that installed. So you'll start to see probably a little bit of noise at the library in the next couple of weeks. Food composting program still on hold.

We asked EPA if we could pivot and utilize the grant for in vessel composting instead of just open air composting, and we're still waiting on a response from them. And then Earth Day planning. So like Sue said, we'll be at peak on Saturday. From ten to two. We'll be playing the climate action bingo game, making fresh popcorn, which is always a lure to any anywhere who doesn't love popcorn.

And we have some other fun prizes. And then if you didn't have a chance to play, like, the big bingo, we'll have little mini bingos so you can still participate. And they're all, like, action focused items, like attend an ESP meeting, subscribe to the newsletter, visit, you know, the Gaia's Pantry or donate leftovers to Gaia's Pantry. So it's kinda just more of a getting acquainted with all the things that we're doing. So let me know if you'd like to participate.

If not, just pop in and and stop by for a while. We'd love your help on Saturday. And then also, we're the county, we have a Earth Day festival with our own employees, and we found out during the recycled ornament crafting party that our employees really like to craft. Just a chance to, like, scribble and glue and cut and chitchat with your other colleagues. So we're we're gonna have a a recycled craft table over the lunch hour, so we'll be there from 11:30 to, like, 01:30.

So we'll catch the people who take lunch on either of those ends, and then popcorn again. And then we'll have, of course, environmental services with doing recycling. We'll have our wildfire firefighters available talking about defensible space and white you know, wildfire prevention, Atomic City Transit, Peak, Bee City, the library, hopefully showcasing library of things. We'll have the induction stove out so employees can make, like, a grilled cheese if they want to, really just to get it acquainted with the induction stove. So those are a few of the activities we have planned.

So if you're interested in either of those, pop in. We'd love to have you. And then in March, Josh did say that recycling has gone way up. So, again, this is, like, year year over year. So it was a 25% increase, which is in tonnage, it's it's quite a bit. It's almost 20 tons more. So a full truckload of recycled more. I think he was trying to figure out why that happened, but, nevertheless, there it is. Trash also increased, and then yard trimmings increased. So just so you remember, for our newer members too, all of our waste is either shipped to the Valencia Landfill.

I think on Saturdays, we're able to take it to the Rio Rancho Landfill. So Valencia is, like, a 120 miles one way. And then Rio Rancho is 90 miles one way, so it takes a lot of energy and money to ship our waste across the state. That's why we're looking at alternatives, like they've done a landfill feasibility study. I'm hoping the board will get to hear about that soon.

That's why we heard about Mozart DevCo, the waste to energy facility, and that's why it's really important for us to divert waste. It's not the biggest, like, impact on greenhouse gas emissions, but it does have a big impact on on operations. Right? It's it's a huge expense for the county to manage our waste, and we're land prohibited. So anything we can do to divert is really imperson really important. And that's it.

So GMTR.

Oh, I'll be I'll be there.

What? Oh

Say it say that again? The Jemez Mountain Trailhorn. Oh. Oh. Sorry

about you call it?

GMTR.

JMTR? Okay. I was like, what? Yeah. So if anyone's interested in that, I've already heard from a few of you, but please

I just emailed the lady that you told it.

Okay. Perfect.

We have bragged my sister too. So

Awesome. So we have seven volunteers so far. Even if you could pop in for an hour, that would be helpful to

And it's by the posse shack?

Mhmm. That's the end of the race, so we'll be at the end.

And do you have a what hours do you think?

It's all day. It's like

Well, I mean eight

eight or 9AM till, like, 9PM.

The last runners get in pretty late. Oh.

So Yeah.

Okay. Because they have the 50 miler. Sounds horrible. But

Yeah. That's what I'm saying. If you have even if you could come by for an hour, that'd be really helpful.

Alright. Thank you. Mhmm. Alright. Next meeting is May 21.

May 21. And you all gave me a whole list of presentations that you wanna see, so we'll I'll keep working on that lineup. I know I did talk about m s four. We're not even ready anywhere near ready to been working on that to present anything. So but I have a list of other things you asked for. So, hopefully, we'll lock in some of those for me.

Alright. Thank you. And with that, we're adjourned.

Thank you.