02-27-19 Joint Health and Public Safety and Utilities

Home Browse Search

CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK that have climate and sustainability benefits for the community and the Global Covenant is just the way to bring all of those together. The global covenant guidance documents outline a dual- track approach, so both mitigation and adaptation are mentioned in the Covenant. As I said, we completed the commit step, which is step one (1). We've also completed the measure and report emissions step under the mitigation tract which we talked about last week. The Sustainability Office is going to be focusing first (1St) on mitigation, with the next two (2) steps being to set the greenhouse gas reduction targets and develop a Climate Action Plan. Adaptation planning is also very essential, but it is a different process that requires a different technical expertise and a different level of resources. We're going to start with mitigation, but we know that adaptation is important. Just a reminder of the planning scale,this is a circle visual that I used last week. We are talking about community facing strategies, recognizing that the government operation strategies are already in play. This is just what the Sustainability Office is planning, I mentioned that it is one (1) of my four (4) goals of 2019 as part of my Climate Action Plan. We're looking for community scale strategies to reduce emissions. I expect to do this in the first (1St) half of 2019 with the help of a consultant. She continued,The Community Greenhouse Gas Inventory that we completed will be the data that drives one(1)of the key pieces of data that drives the development of this plan. I want to point out that a lot of communities have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on their Climate Action Planning Process. I did not budget that much, if you recall, for this effort. Other communities have included it in their comprehensive plan updates, which is also an expensive proposition. So, my proposal is that by evaluating national and regional best practices from peer cities, and then mirroring that with feedback from our local stakeholders in reviewing a lot of the existing South Bend planning efforts that have been undertaken in the last couple of years,we have a lot of survey results,neighborhood plans,parks plans,master plans that we can rely on. I think that we can have a more cost-effective planning process by leveraging the work that has already been done by consultants and other communities and then layering in the South Bend specific context and the resources we've already developed that are South Bend specific. As I mentioned, we're going to be focused on adaptation. So, to keep within my planning budget, we're going to focus just on mitigation strategies for the Climate Action Plan. The deliverables,we're going to meet mid-range and long-range, we're going to have gas reduction targets. I've interviewed a number of cities our size that have done Climate Action Plans and this was one (1) of their recommendations, that we have interim goals so we don't feel overwhelmed by where we need to go and that we can show success early or we can know whether we need to get back on track. We're not all going to have the success that Notre Dame had in being able to sharply reduce emissions there. The second(2nd) deliverable is three (3) to five (5) year-term strategies. A lot of the plans that I've reviewed, communities created exhaustive lists of all possible measures and all possible areas,many of them pet projects of different organizations. It was difficult to prioritize and build consensus around, and therefore difficult to get moving. So, focusing on the highest priority near term strategies, we can get moving more quickly. This is all designed to be a quick start, cost effective planning process that really builds on lessons learned from other communities. She continued, Although we won't know which strategies will be recommended by the Climate Action Planning Process, we can look to other communities to understand what other types of strategies are common, and then we can also start thinking about the South Bend specific priorities and how we might want to implement these. Their typical strategy areas fall within these four(4) categories: transportation, energy supply, building energy use, and consumption and waste reduction. You may see some connections between these strategy areas and the areas of emissions EXCELLENCE ACCOUNTABILITY INNOVATION j INCLUSION EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 227W.Jefferson Bvld South Bend,Indiana 46601 p 574.235.9221 f 574.235.9173 I I L)574.235 5567 www.southbendin.gov 13