Ten ideas and many more in the Policy Greenhouse

Sustainability

Ten ideas and many more in the Policy Greenhouse

by David Alpert • July 10, 2009 10:01 am

This morning, the DC Policy Greenhouse discussed innovative ideas for making DC more environmentally sustainable.

Photo by bods.

GWU President Steve Knapp, Councilmember Mary Cheh, and District Department of the Environment Director George Hawkins introduced the event. Hawkins told us that he grew up in Cleveland, and went downtown on a school field trip in the fourth grade. That's when the ~~lake~~ river was burning, and triggered his lifelong commitment to the environment.

Steve Offutt was first up. We discussed his idea yesterday for a market-based Portfolio Standard program for tree canopy. All of you brought up many good, specific comments and suggestions, and many worried that unless properly implemented, this plan would discourage denser development. I think we could tweak the system by making the rules account just for the non-built land, for example, or create a combination of FAR and tree canopy formula.

Richard Layman ran through a long list of suggestions:

Implement a "transportation withholding tax" to take money from paychecks given in the District, and dedicate that money to transit. DC can't charge a commuter tax, but might be able to do this. Oregon does, for example.
Develop a comprehensive transportation plan.
Build a unified regional passenger railroad system.
Take another crack at streetcar and light rail planning. Previous plans were too "parochial" and focused on DC.
Charge more for the privilege of storing vehicles on public streets. Residential permit fees are only $15 a year, and he suggests we also raise vehicle registration fees.
Put HOV-2 requirements on major streets into DC during rush hour, like Alexandria does.
Provide better bus service within neighborhoods.
Tunnel New York Avenue from New Jersey Avenue to the DC line.
Chop up and reuse trees when they come down.

Kristina Van Dexter, a GW student, suggested a policy to create a garden at every school. This would educate children about food issues, reduce child obesity, improve students' relationships with the land and community, stimulate students' minds to think outside the classroom, and could be an integral part of the curriculum.

John Christmas of the Energy Efficiency Partnership of Greater Washington presented a policy to stimulate more energy-efficiency retrofits. Most retrofits come from the Federal Government or "MUSH": municipalities, universities, K-12 schools, and hospitals. The other 85% of buildings have no real financing mechanism to raise capital for green retrofits. His solution? "Tax lien financing," aka "property assessed clean energy financing." A building owner could go to a bank to get a retrofit loan. The District would create a property tax assessment to pay back the loan, which ensures that banks get paid back. The loan would also be recorded as a tax lien, meaning that the lender comes at the head of the line if the property is sold. Bekeley, CA, Boulder, CO, Babylon, NY, Palm Desert, CA and other municipalities are using this system to catalyze energy efficiency.

John Lasky suggested giving every secondary student (grades 9-12) a free bicycle. The student would have to take a course on bike safety, maintenance, and locations of bike trails. Students would have to maintain good academic standing and complete an annual safety course. He suggests that the funding could come from a public-private partnership, though he didn't have anything more specific. This would reduce traffic congestion, child obesity, and emissions from automobiles.

Mark Buscaino of Casey Trees presented "Tree Suitability" technology, a Web site that shows a home, the lot, the open space and the trees and shrubs. The homeowner can virtually drag various trees onto spots in the lot, and see the effect on stormwater retention, energy savings from shading, and so on. The homeowner can move the tree to another location or try a different tree, and see the effect.

Three presenters from the "Emerging Green Builders," professionals and students in the USGBC passionate about sustainable building, discussed their idea for a "self-sustaining hotel for the homeless," a hotel that employs homeless people and whose profits sustain training programs for the homeless.

Chuck Cushman and other presenters from the GW College of Professional Studies talked about creating a Sustainable Community Development masters' program at GW, a certificate in Sustainable Urban Planning, and a follow-on certification in Sustainable Climate Change Technology and Policy. They also talked about adding green projects to the existing DC Neighborhood College community organizer program.

Anacostia Riverkeeper Dottie Yunger suggested "linking what you drink to your impact on the river." Each jurisdiction should footprint their water use and output of stormwater, sewage outflows and runoff into the river. Each should make this information public, and use the numbers as a benchmark to improve upon. Potomac Riverkeeper Ed Merrifield introduced the issue by talking about how much of our bodies include material from the water in our rivers, and the importance of clean water.

Lily Russell talked about ways to improve individual properties' carbon footprints.

The first step needs to be computing your carbon footprint, then understanding specific methods to improve it.
A special excise tax on the sale of electricity and natural gas would cost about $1/month for residential customers. In Boulder, that raised about $1 million a year for energy programs.
A loan for homeowners to implement energy efficiency.
An ESCO Guaranteed Program would have the city guaranteeing loans for smaller commercial buildings to improve their energy efficiency.
The city could also recruit smaller buildings to bundle together to get better costs on retrofits.
A residential energy conservation ordinance would set energy performance standards for sales or rentals.

After the formal presentations, members of the audience got to give shorter pitches for their ideas.

Law professor Deborah Jacobson gave a list of solar power ideas.
Developer Michael Keefe made an interesting suggestion of helping condo boards band together to get good information and vet potential contractors for green improvements.
Cindy Olson, from Eco-Coach, suggested the "extreme neighborhood makeover," to completely green a single block or neighborhood.
Recent Statehood Green Council candidate David Schwartzman suggested congestion charging in downtown DC. He also recommended making sure revenue sources are progressive and not regressive; some in the earlier presentations would have disproportionately impacted lower-income residents.
Karen Greenwood went back to the basics and suggested recycling bins across the city.
Pat Schriers talked about water resources research.
Reese, whose last name I missed, suggested the DC government organize workshops to reach out to people and educate them on ways to be green and save money at the same time.
Tdani Mbukce (whose name I've almost certainly misspelled) talked about community-based partnerships with government. Much of the funding for green programs goes to people no familiar with the local communities. He's from Ward 8, which has the most environmental needs, and the government needs to do more to work with and involve people in the community.
Mike Alonzo, also from Casey Trees, talked about their program to use bikes more and trucks less as they go around to water and maintain trees.
Tim Mason runs 350 Green. (350 is the level of carbon in the atmosphere we need to reach to stop global warming). They're installing electric car charging stations in California right now.
John Johanson is with the Energy Efficiency Partnership. He praised John Christmas's tax lien program to generate capital investment. He also suggested policies to allow tenants to pay the costs as long as they get the benefits of retrofits; right now, property owners pay, and have fewer incentives to green their buildings since tenants pay utility costs.
Andrea Dean, a Ph.D. student at UCLA, is working on a "Green Business Certification Program" for businesses. Certified businesses can better reach customers, and create a network to learn from each other.

George Hawkins praised the "embarrassment of riches" of all the ideas presented today, and showed off the new reusable grocery bags DDOE will be distributing to needy residents, calling DC's the "greenest council in the entire world."

The biggest challenge, Hawkins said, was how to "operationalize" these ideas, to make sure they actually can work. He told a story of going to a building with new, green technology, only to see maintenance workers taking a new part out and reinstalling the old system. They were doing that because they knew how to maintain the old technology but not (yet) the new.

Which of these ideas do you think have the most merit?

21 comments — Share	— tags: big ideas, DC, environment

Policy Greenhouse proposal: Urban canopy and market mechanisms (Jul 9, 2009)
What are your big ideas for the environment? (Jun 24, 2009)
The growing classroom (May 21, 2009)
Live chat: DDOE Director George Hawkins, Tuesday at 2 pm (Apr 20, 2009)
Wheeler Terrace: a step in the right direction in River East (Jan 23, 2009)

Comments

Don't you mean that the "river was burning"?

by Justin on Jul 10, 2009 10:39 am

David: Well, it would be good to know what was in the "laundry list of solar ideas". Can you be more specific about the ideas and the presenter? My sense is that DC could become a Capital Solar City if it put its collective mind to the task. I think this could include both innovative funding mechanisms to make solar funds available to DC residents and organizations and both DC and GW could demonstrate the smart use of solar energy on a number of their more high profile buildings. Thanks for being there and providing information for this blog! I'm on the West Coast and couldn't attend (nor get the Planet Forward program on our PBS station), so I appreciate this cyber-link!

by Mark Starik on Jul 10, 2009 10:49 am

howabout dedicated, separated bikeways being put in on ALL OF THE MAJOR STREETS so that we can encourage practical everyday cycling for all age groups, and women , too ,
[ most cyclists in DC are youngish men] and get people out of their cars to buy groceries, go to work, and run errands- instead of catering only to bicycle racers who all want everyone cycling in the roads with cars?

by w on Jul 10, 2009 10:53 am

You ended with the most practical suggestion: put recycling bins on streets! So easy, and widely implemented around the world. what's the deal, DC?

@John Lasky: Great idea! if you are looking for a way to source bicycles, it would not be uber difficult to try and partner with a national bike retailer (or even wal mart) and set up a deal where a consumer get's a 10-20 percent discount on a new bike when they bring in their old bike to be traded. Then, using the power of DC's burgeoning bike coop scene , rehab the bikes with student participation. As a reward for their work, they get a free bicycle. Getting a program like this off the ground would not cost a lot of money (I would say no more than sub 20k to getit started). The coops could even come to school for a bike afternoon or etc. This has a lot of promise, and is easier and more fiscally sound than its inevitable detractors would have you believe.

by JTS on Jul 10, 2009 11:05 am

Because of the time constraint, I didn't make the linked point that the idea of a transit withholding tax makes more sense than a congestion charge. The withholding tax could generate upwards of $200MM annually.

The problem with a congestion charge is that mostly, the worst congestion is in the suburbs. But it'd be easier to assess in DC.

Even so there are plenty of uncongested streets in downtown, throughout the day.

Plus, I don't think the suburbs can be trusted to not use a congestion charge in DC as yet another justification for businesses to leave DC in favor of suburban locations.

Only if a regional congestion charge can be instituted, would I be willing to support one. That being said, there is plenty more DC needs to do in the interim, such as increasing residential parking fees and automobile registration fees, before worrying about this.

(E.g., my biggest concern about the implementation of performance parking, which I do support conceptually, is that the residents are getting a free ride, plenty of additional access benefits, at a price less than 1% of the real cost.)

by Richard Layman on Jul 10, 2009 2:20 pm

@David Alpert: Not sure if you'll come across this, but my name is Josh Lasky, not John Lasky, for the record. (Though I'm sure John is a great guy...)

@JTS: Thanks for the kind words. With only five minutes, I chose to leave out costs, but I agree with you. At the start, a program like the one I proposed could definitely take shape as a coop. Even in it's full form, I argue that this program will provide a simple payback to society over a very short time. The economic benefit of a healthier generation of young people will easily pay for itself through long term savings in health care costs borne by the taxpayer. Though difficult to quantify, the prevention of emissions offers an immense benefit to DC residents in terms of climate change impact mitigation and air quality improvement. I would also argue that less cars on the road means less time lost during the commute at the cost of business productivity.

Overall, this event was well done. The ideas presented were all very innovative and the audience was a good mix of private, non-profit, and government. There are thousands of ideas worth sharing in forums like this one, and I hope that there continues to be an outlet for all the visionary types who want to share.

by Josh Lasky on Jul 10, 2009 3:24 pm

Our College of Professional Studies was pleased to present today on several curricular initiatives underway to create programs in Urban Sustainability. We welcome citizens' expressions of interest in these programs: one which would be community-based and non-credit, offered through DC Neighborhood College, and another which would offer graduate credit and, potentially, a master's degree. Let us know what you think, DC!

by Kathleen Burke, Dean, College of Professional Studies, GWU on Jul 10, 2009 3:53 pm

I offer an internet-based round of applause to the organizers of the Greenhouse because they made sure there were multi-media methods of sharing the meeting (radio, blog, TV). The attendance head count was great, but could have been greater. Were the necessary stakeholders present at today's meeting? Who are the necessary stakeholders? Maybe the multi-media methods used during and after the meeting should have been used before the meeting. I write about this and other questions here: http://thepumphandle.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/environmental-healths-role-in-sustainability/

by Kas on Jul 10, 2009 4:20 pm

Note to Dean Burke, CUA created a planning program last year (it's going into its third year for accepting students), so you can't say in presentations that there aren't any extant planning graduate programs in DC.

FYI, one of the things that bugs me about the "urban" universities in DC is that the last I checked, none are members of the major national coalition of urban-oriented universities:

http://www.cumuonline.org/membership/directory.htm

and most universities in the region have pretty weak urban studies/urban sociology programs.

While I agree with the importance, one of my criticisms of the Neighborhood College is that it is pretty ANC-centric, and doesn't teach people very much about how power works in the city (i.e., Molotch and the Growth Machine, _Dream City_) and deeper work on participatory democracy and the challenge of developing a radical planning practice (the work of John Friedmann).

by Richard Layman on Jul 10, 2009 5:09 pm

Just to clarify, the program we are developing is not an Urban Planning program. It is a multi-disciplinary program in Urban Sustainability. We know that, in fact, there are graduate programs within the city and the region that do a fine job in planning, and policy and planning areas.

by Kathleen Burke, Dean, College of Professional Studies, GWU on Jul 10, 2009 5:17 pm

* Implement a "transportation withholding tax" to take money from paychecks given in the District, and dedicate that money to transit. DC can't charge a commuter tax, but might be able to do this. Oregon does, for example.
* Develop a comprehensive transportation plan.
* Build a unified regional passenger railroad system.
* Take another crack at streetcar and light rail planning. Previous plans were too "parochial" and focused on DC.
* Charge more for the privilege of storing vehicles on public streets. Residential permit fees are only $15 a year, and he suggests we also raise vehicle registration fees.
* Put HOV-2 requirements on major streets into DC during rush hour, like Alexandria does.
* Provide better bus service within neighborhoods.
* Tunnel New York Avenue from New Jersey Avenue to the DC line.
* Chop up and reuse trees when they come down.

Put provide better bus service within neighborhoods. - first!

Chop up and reuse trees? But what if they have Dutch elm disease? Or any other disease for that matter? I agree wholeheartedly with the plea to reuse our compost-able waste, to not truck it out of our areas, our parks, only to truck it back in from somewhere out of state on clean up day. Stronger leadership (MUCH) in corralling volunteers and ensuring people stay committed in efforts like these is what is key.

by Jazzy on Jul 11, 2009 10:43 am

Dutch Elm isn't spread by mulch. It's spread by beetles that live in the bark, but only of live trees. Elm mulch will not spread the disease.

If mulch is ground finely enough, the Emerald Ash Borer can't survive there either.

by Alex B. on Jul 11, 2009 11:32 am

I'm no expert, but a quick google search turned this up. Also, that DED fungus is spread by beetles AND the roots of the trees.

"The bark beetles breed in standing dead or dying elm trees and piles of elm wood with the bark attached. Therefore, trees that completely wilt and die are suitable for beetle reproduction and should be felled. Destroy the infected wood and bark by chipping and composting (chips must attain temperatures of at least 120 o F), or at a minimum, remove the bark from cut logs and let the logs dry out. Cut logs from diseased trees should not be kept for firewood unless all of the bark has been removed and there is no evidence of bark beetles. Transporting diseased elm firewood may spread DED to otherwise disease- free areas. Covering and sealing cut logs and chips in clear plastic during the summer will allow the sun to heat up the wood and is another way to kill the beetles and fungus. Prolonged sunny weather and high temperatures are necessary, however, for this method of sanitation, called solarization, to be effective. "

by Jazzy on Jul 11, 2009 12:08 pm

Well, the point is that they can be easily and properly disposed of. Minneapolis had a huge problem with DED and still to this day aggressively cuts down trees at the first sign of sickness - including legal authorization to do so on private property.

If you properly mulch the trees - strip the bark, etc. The mulch is perfectly safe and useful. Minneapolis basically gives it away free of charge.

Anyway, the point is that you can use those remains without aiding the spread of the disease with only a minimal set of precautions.

by Alex B. on Jul 11, 2009 1:05 pm

I like Layman's ideas, generally, eliminating some of the invisible subsidies for owning and operating cars, especially where there are no comparables for using other modes. Public parking at meters and by "permit" is seriously underpriced, as is vehicle registration. Clearly, poor drivers are not ticketed or warned for infractions that could but do not result in a collision(can we confiscate the vehicles too?)

by Lisa on Jul 12, 2009 11:22 am

Anything that has the words 'plan', 'study' or 'crack' in it is useless. We don't need plans, studies or attempts. We need action. It's clear what needs to happen. So, get it done.

Personally, I don't like big plans. I like the littles ones that can be done.

Start collecting batteries everywhere. Implement motion sensors in buildings. Get green roofs. Outlaw watering between one hour after sunrise and one hour before sunset. Replace the Congressional Coal Power Plant by one that lives on green waste from the city, and releases ethanol.

@ David: What happened to the long list you collected from the comments here? I thought you were going to bring those up?

by Jasper on Jul 12, 2009 12:08 pm

Jasper, you are quite the demanding commenter! Laughing.

Green roofs are in progress, as I am sure you know. Not everywhere, but it's a start. I think the Cong coal plant is going to shut down, and might have been in the works for a while now anyway. Watering comment probably applies more to suburbs where it's (probably) done during the verboten hours you complain of on a much larger scale than within the confines of Washington, DC.

by Jazzy on Jul 12, 2009 7:05 pm

@ Jazzy:

I am not demanding. I just don't like all the good momentum being tabled, and filed in the circular archive of study groups.

On the watering. Yes, it applies to the burbs, but also to all the buildings downtown that "clean" their part of the sidewalk by watering it. That's wasteful. Very wasteful.

And the coal plant may be on it's way to being shut down, but it is being replaced by something useful, and hence just moving the problem of dirty power going to Congress.

by Jasper on Jul 13, 2009 9:37 am

Very interesting innovative ideas.
I wish I could be involved with this DC Policy Greenhouse, but because I live in the West Coast, I can only participate in writting.

I saw your site through "The Pump Handle" blog site. The text mentioned that no Public Health or Environmental Health or Occupational Health and Safety officer were present or part of your group. The way I see it is that we are in the periphery. Lets take for example garbage recycling bins. Public health gets involved when someone gets an infection from a cut on a bin, environmental health gets involved if the bins become odorous or infested with pest and occupational health and safety will get involved when a bin collector is injured when handling bins. This can be apply to trees planting and pruning, outdoor air quality, vegetable garden in schools etc.

Sorry I for not being able to contribute more. I am doing a bit of research about climate change and tree planting. Apparently not all trees are suitable for planting. Some species are not recommended because they emmit there own pollution. I cannot give you any more information at the moment because I am still doing research.
Well keep me posted and if i can be of anny help , just get in touch.

by Rosemary Stephen on Jul 13, 2009 10:23 am

This doesn't apply to DC residents, but Montgomery County will be starting a home energy audit/lax lien-backed loan program this fall. This program will complement the existing energy efficiency tax credit program, which is limited to $250. We don't need to look all the way to Berkeley, Bounder, or Babylon; we'll have it in Bethesda.

by Stanton Park on Jul 13, 2009 1:49 pm

And the coal plant may be on it's way to being shut down, but it is being replaced by something useful, and hence just moving the problem of dirty power going to Congress.
by Jasper on Jul 13, 2009 9:37 am

Sorry, I tried hard to understand this, but could not.

by Jazzy on Jul 13, 2009 5:38 pm