Sustainability Advisory Board - Regular Meeting

Let's see, roll call. Let's do some introductions.

I'm Nicholas Saterevich, and on the board a couple years now, appointed by Vince Lago.

Deepak Joshi, appointed to the board by Vice Mayor Matteson.

Hello, everyone. This is Jasper Brock coming to you live from Vermont. I was appointed by Commissioner Richard Lara, and I'm happy to be looking in and listening to your fine meeting today.

Jasper, your days must be counted in Vermont, right? Are you getting some chili or what?

I've got a fire in the fireplace and a flannel shirt on.

I think none of us envy you. A pool of July meeting minutes?

make a motion and motion to approve seconded all in favor all right yeah perfect so uh we'll do uh public comments two minutes uh each guest you want to start it joe well i don't know that's part of the problem yeah there's nobody from the public yeah okay that's number nine okay

There we go. How about the underline? How nice is that?

That's in the car's part here. It's not two offices, it's two jobs. Yeah. Let's put it into perspective.

Can I just interrupt? What time scale is this? In six years.

And maybe to piggyback on Dave's question, how's that compared to last year and whatnot?

Yeah, yeah. I hate to be that person always asking those questions.

I know Frank had that question too, right? It puts it in the perspective. Correct. It puts it in the perspective to see that it's...

And it's progressive, so it's good to have it out there.

So there was a lot of... There was a lot of showers that... There was a lot of weight.

I was going to ask you that like remember we did it in 2023?

Just a quick point here. Last time, I think it was almost, would I use the word oversubscribed, but there were still queues there past 12.

So my point was, would it be worth extending it to 1 p.m.? If it's a one-off and there are a lot of people.

No, no, I completely understand. I'm just trying to accommodate this because we are trying to do this. People are going back, you know, if they've... Yeah.

Well, like I said, the police comes along and the people do turn up.

There's no way to do maybe the afternoon before, drop off only, and anything like that. You can store it overnight in the afternoon.

Actually, this might be a good time for me to just give my thanks to you because you've been sending the PDFs as part of the notifications, which has made it really, really easy for me to forward it on to. So please continue to do that. And that'll be the same for you, actually, Isabella, because they will send a PDF copy of what's happening. So you can just forward it on to your body.

I really was very impressed that I saw Teddy's name at the end of it.

I don't have the incinerator. For the green waste?

I make a motion to accept and the two edits for the date and the biochar. And then adding the biochar.

Now we have to take a... Approved, seconded.

I think they get a sticker. They get a decal, like a songs to business. They get a...

Do you know, it's just going to, the weather is going to be... For three years. And just to make a subtle suggestion, just stop there. Other cities do the same thing. All they do is they make it continuous. So in other words, it's not a competition. It's you hit these criteria, the city will recognize that you are maintaining it. It could be like Mission Start 21, 22, 23, 24. So what it does, it tells everyone that, look, we're keeping it for you and we'll recognize you. Then it doesn't become a competition as such. It becomes a continuous recognition.

I want information. Yeah. Just a quickie, the dentist there, I support what you're doing, putting everybody in. The dentist there is an amazing location. He actually has irrigation on public right-of-way trees that keeps his orchids watered at all times. It's just a real showplace corner. And if you haven't seen it down on Ponce, you need to take a look. It's all about women, by the way. Absolutely. What is this thing called?

You can see they're very proud of it. Even the rear is kept really well.

The Rotary encourages it and they call it Trashercise.

So, but that was really what I talked about. Can I make a point as you're on that subject? So I didn't know that we had that initiative to keep things out of the landfill. But I always wonder when my neighbors put plastic bag, especially black plastic bag on the swale, I'm always wondering, okay, what is in that bag, you know? So, you know, maybe pass something where you cannot put things in a bag, in a swale.

Or that, but then again, you're putting a plastic, right?

Yeah, but I kind of disagree with you in the sense that I think in the detail, once you go granular, that's, I think, where you make the biggest impact. You know, I mean, I know what you're saying and I kind of agree with it, but I mean, you, and many things in life, you know, you have to go granular to really understand what's, I think you can make a bigger impact in the long run. Yeah, you are. You're saying that might not be a big impact, but I think it is really.

And I think you're on to something too with the construction, right? Because there's so much construction going on.

But you know, you think about all the cardboard and everything that they dispose of.

Yeah, I just wanted to ask a question. So Matt, a question for you. When they do an application to build Is there a clause in it that says that they have to deal with all these elements? No. I don't think there is, but I have to check. Just a moment, let's ask. I speak from experience. Well, have you done an instruction? Yes. This is business. Okay, and so there's no clause in it.

So maybe this is quite a big thing that you've just uncovered to say that part of the granting of the permit will include that these elements are taken care of.

That's a very powerful thing that we've just suggested.

Rather than going down that route, we could just ask a question to say that is there... It's a simple question today that, you know, they're creating a lot of waste. Yes. Is there a segregation and recycling?

Just curious, what's pan and broom block faces? Remove 2,600 pan and broom block faces?

I noticed that they said there was no graffiti removal, so that's a positive thing.

I think we talked a little about it last time. Ideally, I know we talk about how much trash we're picking up, and all that is great. I hope at some point we'll be able to see how much less trash there is. So there's a way to identify, I know you can't do that Right across the entire city. But you say there's some hotspots who identified in this area consistently to have to separate out waste or in the country club Prado. Gosh, it's a nightmare. And then we have some initiative and over the course of six months.

It's education, right? Yeah. People are too lazy to learn this enough.

In Europe, they did something interesting with the paper. All the bins have got different slots on it. Because you can fold your newspaper and put cardboard through, but it doesn't allow you to put anything else. So they do make a little effort to say, you know, can't throw trash in here. People still manage to find a way, but... One thing we already did.

But you know, the point that both of you made, which is granular, I mean, you're doing that every time you walk. Yes, I think that's very powerful because then people talk and it comes from a media where people will relate to you because they're listening to you. It's not someone...

Just to that point, we were engaging with, there's a charity, we're going to have to put their name now. and I was talking with them, they actually go into schools and they educate all the junior schools on recycling. And the impact has been phenomenal because the three, four, five, six, seven, eight-year-old kids are bringing glass and cardboard to school because they're telling their mum, mum, we are recycling. And they're actually growing up doing this now. So that's become their DNA. So I think that to introduce recycling, I'll have to reach out to them again. Was it Jamie Green? Yes, Jami

By the way, just to let the board know that Diego here was part of the very original team, so...

But you were there before you were here, right?

Do you want to let the board know, by the way?

Sure. Let's give an overview. I think it would be great because I think talking about education, if someone is already doing it. Yes, I've spoken with Barbara before actually. So why not just invite them? I know. Yeah, it's part of the audience. It's a good idea. Because it was very successful. I went to the award giving. There were so many schoolchildren there. You know, I mean, they might be talking to teachers, but schoolchildren there who were given all these awards, and they were very aware of it. Yeah.

It's a great organization. I'm going to stop out there. There's only also one. Oh, yeah.

Yeah, that's what I thought. And there's no financial incentive for them, right? Well, the incentive. I mean, what's in it for them, you know? I talked to them and, you know, I had a good discussion with them about the environment.

If you make it easy, that's the key. If it's there and you can throw it, they'll do it. So once you educate them, it's there. So the idea is just to streamline that process. And you've done it. You've given them the stuff. And if they have to throw it there, they'll throw it there. It's easy. So they come to my house now. They're two people.

You're going to have to go? I'm going to have to go.

Madam, I'm going to email you something.

Yeah. I like your idea, and I think it has more impact coming from a resident, right? But, you know, something that occurs to me that, you know, that come in block by block, like, you know, why are we only focusing in the downtown? I mean, yeah, it's probably the most visible, right, but why couldn't they go into the neighborhoods, right? Yeah.

I mean, right now, they're... No, but I mean... Maybe that's better. You know, they're not really doing much in downtown because there's... Oh, no, no.

I'll just mention that, you know, I don't know how large the board is, right? But I was in the Chamber of Commerce board for many years and we were 40 at one point. So, I mean, if that, you know, possible.

I just want to say great job on the, you know, the 2027, you know, the report. I know you guys are adding some things to that. The beautification awards, I personally don't like the thing that, you know, it's every three years, you know. I think if you do it every year, you can create a lot more excitement and a little bit more competition, you know. And, you know, why does it have to be every three years?

But why do we have to recognize that? I mean, does that mean that maybe they're going to stop, you know, being that beautiful or whatever. They're going to wait until the third year to like, you know, increase their visibility.