COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA JOINT COMMITTEES ON TRANSPORTATION AND PUBLIC UTILITIES AND THE ENVIRONMENT - - - Room 400, City Hall Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Tuesday, October 28, 2008 10:10 a.m. - - - PRESENT: COUNCILMAN CURTIS JONES, JR., CHAIR COUNCILMAN BILL GREEN COUNCILMAN WILLIAM GREENLEE COUNCILMAN BRIAN J. O'NEILL COUNCILMAN FRANK RIZZO COUNCILWOMAN JANNIE BLACKWELL COUNCILWOMAN BLONDELL REYNOLDS BROWN RESOLUTION 080508 - Resolution authorizing the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities and the Committee on the Environment to investigate and hold joint public hearings on the designation of zones or areas in which demonstration projects and sustainable strategies can be explored to increase the use of renewable energy... - - - V A R A L L O Incorporated Litigation Support Services Eleven Penn Center 1835 Market Street, Suite 600 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 19103 215.561.2220 215.567.2670 2
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. This is a joint hearing with the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities and the Committee on the Environment. I am Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr., Chair of Transportation and Public Utilities. Also with me is my Vice-Chair, Councilman Greenlee. Also on the Committee is Councilman O'Neill and Councilman Rizzo. We do not have a quorum, but we do not need one for a resolution. So we will move forward. Will the Clerk read the title of the resolution, please.
Resolution 080508, authorizing the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities and the Committee on the Environment to investigate and hold joint public hearings on the designation of zones or areas in which demonstration projects and sustainable strategies can be explored to increase the use of renewable energy, 3 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 green building design and construction, water conservation, urban agriculture, tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental strategies.
Also, we note for the record we have Councilman Green, no pun intended, is here with us at the hearings today, and thank him for attending our hearing. As an opening statement, I just noted that every time this great nation has an economic crisis, it is new industries that actually salvage the day. In the Great Depression, we were survived by the construction industry and public works projects. During the '80s, we saw technology come to the rescue. We're in a unique opportunity today to drive the future of our economy through the green industries. Today, we will hear about efforts both in our city and throughout our nation about best practices that can improve the quality of our lives while, 4 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 at the same time, protect the earth by moving towards a smaller carbon footprint. It might seem odd that we can live better and do more with less, but this is what we hope to learn today from case studies, from projects and from witnesses. I look forward to learning the lessons that we can learn from two communities that have actually established green zones, both Stamford, Connecticut and Richmond, California. Here are some of the questions that I'd like to hear considered today: Can Philadelphia be to the green development what the Silicon Valley was to California? Can we create out of the ashes of urban decay green jobs, green businesses, green economies, a greener city and a greener environment? Does the global economic crisis make sustainability and environmental strategies more or less important? What 5 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 synergy can we have with transit-oriented development and design? Does energy conservation and reducing of our carbon footprint have to cost us more with evolving technologies? What are some of the current barriers to creating sustainable communities and how can government remove some of those obstacles? What role should the federal and state governments play? These things do not happen by themselves. Change occurs with political will, active constituencies both in the private sector, the community and within government. Van Jones, an environmental activist and civil rights lawyer and author of The Green Collar Economy, says that we can solve two big problems with one good solution. "Government policies," and I quote from him, "can and must play a role in creating inclusive green economies by setting standards, by spurring innovation and by realigning 6 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 existing investments and making new investments." Both presidential candidates have aggressive strategies of assuring that the federal government remains proactive in providing incentives to the private sector, as well as directing federal investments. Governor Ed Rendell has been an outspoken proponent for Pennsylvania in taking the lead to promoting green policies. It is critical, I'll repeat that, it is critical that local government develop efficient policies both to encourage and stimulate growth in the greening of our city by creating green villages. That simply means we should intentionally create walkable, sustainable, mixed-use developments creating those urban villages. We are in a period of time that we've never experienced in the history of our country. We have a perfect storm, a perfect storm created by the energy 7 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 crisis, fiscal crisis and economic crisis that is crushing, crushing the middle class and the working poor. So similar to technological advancements, the green technology will evolve quicker than our ability to master it. So these aren't the end of these hearings. These are the beginning of a dialogue that we should have about this new economy, and we thank everyone. And with that, I'd like the Clerk to call forth the first panel of witnesses. Or excuse me. I'd like to get an opening -- I would like my Vice-Chair to have an opening statement.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. First of all, I want to congratulate you and everybody involved with these hearings. This is obviously an extremely important issue. I'm glad you mentioned in your opening statement the transportation-oriented district, which is certainly one of the things -- a 8 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 bill that I introduced a little bit ago, with your co-sponsorship. Obviously the whole idea of transportation and improving that and getting away from the cars and all that kind of thing is also very important. But all the issues that you talk about are very necessary. I can tell by the witness list that we're going to have some excellent testimony, and, again, I look forward to working with you on all these issues and again congratulate you on your leadership on this. Thank you very much.
Thank you. I'd like to also recognize Councilwoman Blackwell as joining this Committee hearing. And would you like to have some opening statements?
Then I would like to have the Clerk call the first panel. 9 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
The first panel is Joseph Manko, Laureen Boles, Dr. John Byrne and Dr. Franco Montalto. Starting in that order, Joseph Manko, Laureen Boles will go first and then the other two will go second. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good morning. Could you state your name for the record, please.
Joseph Manko. I am here today at the request of the Sustainability Director Mark Alan Hughes, who is in the District of Columbia this morning, to deliver his testimony. I would like to thank you as the Chair and Councilman Greenlee as the Vice-Chair and Councilpersons Rizzo, O'Neill, Blackwell and especially Councilman Green, who was my law student at the University of Pennsylvania.
Is that right? 10 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
Who got a very good grade in environmental law. Notwithstanding that, he's here as extra credit today, I think. But I no longer have any control over his success. But his name was Green, I will tell you that, when he was in law school, so it didn't change --
I'm glad you pointed out that you're not responsibility for anything else he does. That's a good disclaimer.
I guess you could take that in that context. Before I read the testimony from Mark Alan Hughes, I would just say that I think it's somewhat appropriate or fortuitous that he ask me to read the testimony in his absence, and that is because I wrestled with some of these problems for 27 years and you are joining a municipality in Lower Merion where I was on the Board and President for several years, and when Mayor Nutter came 11 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 into office, he asked me to serve on the Zoning Board of Adjustment. So for eight months I served on the Zoning Board of Adjustment, where I've seen a lot of your representatives, Councilpersons, and now I am pleased to be one of the two Co-Chairs for the Sustainability Advisory Board under Mr. Hughes. And I would -- my opinions, once I finish the testimony, will be mine. I can't really speak for the Administration, but I would be glad to try to answer any questions that any of the Councilpeople ask. So at that point, I will now read the testimony of Mr. Hughes, who says thank you, Chairs and members, for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Mark Alan Hughes, Senior Advisor to the Mayor and Director of the Mayor's Office of Sustainability. The Mayor's Office welcomes the conversation with this Committee and the entire Council on the important issues gathered under the 12 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 heading of, quote, "Sustainability," close quote. As you know, we are working hard to construct a sustainability framework that will guide and monitor our common efforts to make Philadelphia the greenest city in America by the year 2015. This effort is being advised by the Sustainability Advisory Board and realized by the Sustainability Working Group. Council staffers are valuable members of that team. We appreciate their efforts to date and are counting on their involvement in the coming months. " We are attempting to align efforts across all agencies and branches 13 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 of local government, as well as form partnerships with other governments and with the private and non-profit sectors. This work is all designed to meet the Mayor's challenge of making Philadelphia the greenest city in America. " I commend the idea for its commitment to learning more about what is possible through demonstration. In the spirit of working together to figure things out, I would like to raise three questions, which I suggest should be answered to our mutual satisfaction as we continue to consider this idea. First, what is the learning mechanism that would be designed and funded in the demonstration zones? Part of the usual rationale for zones is the opportunity they can provide to learn 14 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 about techniques and projects that we are not yet prepared to use throughout the City. In order to be consistent with that rationale, we would need to devise a way to learn from the innovative and experimental activities we would allow to or encourage in zones as opposed to elsewhere or everywhere. This requires resources, including a research and reporting entity that could identify and transmit what was learned back to government and disseminate those lessons throughout the City beyond the zone or zones. Who would be responsible for that learning and how would it be paid for? Second, what kinds of specific ideas or projects do we believe would benefit from being located solely within a zone rather than located anywhere in the City? Another rationale for the zone technique is the presumed benefit of having some activities aggregated with other activities in a single place. In other words, under what conditions would 15 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 we expect a number of good green projects to produce more benefits if they were bound together geographically than if they were available everywhere and to all?
And we cannot really answer that question without first addressing what size zones we would consider. Do we envision a streetscape of several blocks that might define a corridor of storm water management or a few blocks of row homes where solar panels could be installed? Or would we want to designate a larger set of blocks that might collectively create a microclimate amenable to, say, heat-island reduction or air quality improvements? Or is it an even larger area perhaps that might benefit from infrastructure, scale investments leading to transit-oriented development, as was mentioned, or distributed generation of electricity? Or is it any and all of these scales and others as well? The key question is why would it be important to have these 16 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 projects occur only in a previously designated zone? Third and finally, what would be the basis for choosing the zone designations? Would they dovetail with other targeted areas under consideration for specific programs or investments? Would targeted neighborhoods already enjoy strong anchoring institutions or existing community development corporations or would we focus on areas without vibrant civic stakeholders and where a City-initiated and managed program would try to fill an investment vacuum? Assuming we answered the scale questions, would we seek a portfolio of zones that varied by size or characteristic? Who would choose the zones and what would be allowed there? These are pretty tough questions, and as you might suspect, it remains unclear to me what benefit would arise from allowing or encouraging innovation only in specified zones rather 17 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 than anywhere that innovation might be proposed or feasible. Thank you again for the opportunity to comment on this interesting idea. We look forward to more conversation on this and other issues in the future.
What I'd like to do is allow all of the witnesses to testify and then my colleagues can question and answer. Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown has joined us. She is everything green, and we're glad she has joined us.
Thank you, Councilman Jones, also to the other Councilpersons, Councilman Greenlee, Councilman O'Neill, Councilman Rizzo, Councilman Green, Councilwoman Blackwell and Councilwoman Reynolds Brown. 18 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Thank you for this opportunity to present testimony on the designation of green development zones in which demonstration projects and sustainable development strategies can be explored. My name is Laureen Boles and I'm a Civil Engineer and Environmental Planner in the Philadelphia Water Department, Office of Watersheds. There I'm responsible for external partnerships. I've had the pleasure of working on partnerships between private industry, community development organizations and the City of Philadelphia on sustainable development, which have included water and wastewater management plans for the LEED-certified Comcast Center, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions at the Port Authority in partnership with the Clean Air Council and the Environmental Protection Agency, as well as the development of a neighborhood retail complex, the Park West Town Center, and community participation 19 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 education outreach programs for all ages in partnership with American Cities Foundation. Few would argue the benefits of sustainable development, most commonly referred to as development that meets the needs of the current generation without jeopardizing the needs of future generations to meet their own needs. Therefore, the purpose of today's meeting is to define sustainable development in practice. We must, therefore, explore opportunities to demonstrate the connections between local and global concerns, present and future needs; namely, sustainable environments, sustainable economies, sustainable energy and sustainable equitable communities. Again, what we call an E4 strategy: sustainable environments, sustainable economies, sustainable energy and sustainable equitable communities.
For the record, what was that again? 20 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
But what does E4 look like? We can, therefore, define E4 environmental, economic, energy and equity of sustainable development as that which preserves and enhances environmental equality, strengthens economies, conserves energy and promotes human and community health and safety. You will hear testimony today emphasizing various aspects of an E4 strategy towards sustainable development ranging from community development projects, natural resource preservation and enhancement, green job creation, environmental justice programs to renewable energy strategies. The challenge to all of us is to conceptualize and celebrate the nexus of these various aspects for the betterment of each. Our next steps: Every decision must be made with consideration given to 21 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 the environmental, economic, energy and equity impacts. Due diligence must be given to rethinking our current practices, policies, rules and regulations in order to realize an E4 strategy towards sustainable development. When we think about community development projects, I ask that you consider whether we are enabling the enabled. Consequently, we must provide opportunities to communities who are most in need of public and private support in order to make sustainable development a reality for them. When we think about community development projects, I ask that you give consideration to the economic benefits that nature provides in the form of desirable places to live, work and play. When we think about natural resource preservation and enhancement, I ask that you consider the resources that have been degraded in the adjacent communities that have a right to clean 22 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 air, clean water and clean land. When we think about green jobs, I ask that you consider communities disenfranchised by the traditional job market and provide them with equal access to the jobs in the renewable energy market. So as you listen to testimony today, please jot down the words "environment, economy, energy and equity" and make note of the connections that need to be made. And I thank you again for this opportunity.
Thank you so much. Please state your name for the record, please.
My name is John Byrne and I am Director of the Center for Energy and Environmental Policy at the University of Delaware, and I am grateful for the opportunity to appear here before the joint committee on these issues. I was asked to prepare a 23 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 general overview of the new direction in sustainable energy and to talk specifically to some of the examples of zones that are being used throughout the country and throughout the world. I was also asked to bring slides, but I'm not sure that that's going to work.
Do you want us to dim the lights? Can we do that? (Lights are dimmed.)
So I would like to just begin in this regard to echo the Chairman's opening remarks, that we face an energy crisis that is also an economic crisis. We have seen a roughly doubling in the prices in the first half of 2008 of our heating oil and natural gas. We've seen better than a 75 percent increase in the last eight years in electricity prices. While we are 24 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 currently seeing some dips in these prices, as we all know, those dips are largely the result of a worldwide economic downturn, hardly a way in which we are going to get affordable energy over time. So the existing system is expensive. It will get more expensive, because it depends upon non-renewable fuels, and as those fuels deplete in volume, we will have to pay more for continued use of these fuels. That is why the movement is afoot worldwide and in our country to shift to sustainable energy sources. And on the question that, again, the Chairman asked on the front end, he asked can we have both a greener city and a city that fulfills the economic needs of its residents, and I think the evidence is very strongly yes. I would offer in this regard in a period where we are seeing a lot of volatility in the financial markets, actually 25 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 investments in energy efficiency rank just above treasury bills in their risk. So they are very low risk investment opportunities. And their rate of return is better than anything that we have in the financial markets so far. They beat corporate bonds. They beat stocks of every kind. So investing in sustainable energy is better for us from an economic point of view and it's also better for us from a risk point of view. Also, investing in the sustainable energy options of energy efficiency, conservation and renewables bring us another economic benefit in the form of increased jobs. The Chairman quoted from Van Jones. Again, the evidence on this is very strong. Permanent job creation -- when I say "permanent job creation," I mean a job that's going to last for the full lifetime of one of our citizens, 40 to 50 years. That usually means you're talking about, in today's dollars, two and a half 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 million dollars. For every million dollars invested in energy efficiency and conservation in the residential sector, we create eight permanent jobs. That's a lot of jobs. In addition to all the construction that goes on, that's eight permanent jobs that stay in the community permanently. So you get a lot of job boost from energy efficiency. 7 jobs per million dollars invested, much higher than investing in the conventional energy system, where you're only getting four jobs per million dollars invested. And I think these -- this is important. I know Governor Rendell led an effort to create at the state level a new energy policy for Pennsylvania, and those efforts will drive you into a new 27 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 green economy where you will get these job benefits and you will get reductions in the long-term costs of energy. Well, let me now then turn to the question of the tools of how to capture these kinds of benefits, and I'm going to start first with zones. And, of course, Philadelphia has already begun this process and, of course, this hearing is perhaps a process in which you will build upon these early steps. The Navy Yard is being used now to develop a zone for attracting green tech and, in particular, for attracting solar energy. This is a very important step, I think, in the use of the City's distressed areas, and this will bode well. If you look at models around the country, I was asked to look at some of the best practices for the Committee. I would just like to offer some additional ideas on zones that the City could consider. 28 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES.
080508 In the case of Richmond, California, which is an industrial city, not unlike East Coast cities in this regard, it's built on an industrial base rather than on a high tech or service base. It has designated one of its public housing districts in the city as a solar district and it has invested one megawatts worth of affordable solar for these units. This is roughly 500 to 600 families that will now have the benefit of solar energy for this purpose. And I want to just mention to the Committee the advantage of investing in this technology. Once you spend the money on the up-front capital costs, you have lowered the monthly bills of everybody that uses this technology, because you no longer have to pay high fuel costs and so on for conventional fuels. So I think this is a zone idea that the Committee might want to consider. A second example is in 29 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Stamford, Connecticut, as the Chairman mentioned, which has created an Energy Improvement District. This district is specifically organized to create renewable energy-based electricity generation and heat for the city. This is not unlike the way in which the Navy Yard is now being used, but I would offer that in the case of Stamford, they are using a technology which is usually very competitive and could be very useful to the City of Philadelphia and, that is, combined heat and power. So this is another example. A third example that I would like to briefly mention is in the City of Berkeley in California. Berkeley has invented a very interesting idea called the Solar Financing District. It actually is not a spacial zone in the case of the first two cities. Instead, anyone in the city can participate in the Solar Financing District, and it works like this: The city will pay up front 30 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 for the capital cost to put solar or other renewable energy devices in your community and, in return, you voluntarily raise your property tax by a small amount in order to pay off over the long term, years, this investment. 8 This program has been 9 oversubscribed for three years in its 10 offering. And I just want to mention the 11 City of Berkeley is not a high-end, 12 high-income community. It's a rather 13 ordinary citizen kind of community, and 14 it is ordinary citizens who are signing 15 up for this kind of program. 16 I'm going to give you another 17 example I have in the packet that I 18 provided also, what the cities of New 19 York and Chicago are doing. They, like 20 the City of Berkeley, are using their rooftops as a method of collecting solar energy. But I'm not going to go into their programs here. It's in the packet that I provided. I instead want to give you what I think is the boldest example 31 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 that I know, and this will take you -- oh, I should mention before I do that that the City of Philadelphia has also been investigating for its rooftops a very interesting technology, the white roof membrane program. This is low-cost technology that can be installed on a flat row house roof, and this membrane will lower the temperature in buildings during the summer, making them livable, and particularly important for our elders, it makes it possible for us to avoid some of the problems that happen with heat stress during the summer to our elders. The Energy Coordinating Agency, which I think is a jewel of the City of Philadelphia, is pioneering this effort. And so Philadelphia is already on the radar screen of trying to use its rooftop real estate for this purpose. But let me now just give you an extraordinary effort that's now being considered. We have to travel outside of 32 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 the United States for this purpose. This is the City of Seoul, South Korea. There are million people living in this 5 city, crossed by a river that runs east 6 to west.
And what the City of Seoul has 7 done is a full inventory of its rooftop 8 real estate and then has estimated how 9 much of its full electricity bill can be 10 provided by cost-effective use of solar 11 technology for this purpose. With 12 existing technology and existing costs, the City of Seoul estimates that it can provide 25 percent of its full electricity supply simply by using its rooftop real estate in a more effective manner. So I would just like to mention to the Committee that as you consider zones, one of the things you might consider is your rooftop real estate. It is a zone opportunity in which you could collect effectively low carbon/no carbon energy for this purpose. Let me close with one -- oh, I 33 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 just wanted to give you a picture of what the city looks like. This is the City of Seoul in its current form, and with investment in solar technology, this is what a district might look like in the future. I'd like to close with a suggestion, because this is the Transport and Utilities Committee, that I think we also need to start considering the utilization of a new utility that is city based, that allows you to make the investments and decisions on the energy future of the city, that can be in all directions, whether it's transport or whether it's air conditioning or whether it's electricity or whether it's heat or whether it's industrial processes. And for that, I would just offer that you might consider what the City of Austin has done. S. the boldest program for making its city green while 34 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 capturing all of the benefits of a green economy and green development. And in this vein, I would like to then conclude with a suggestion that you might consider what my own State of Delaware recently passed into law, the creation of a sustainable energy utility. The City of Washington, DC followed us and created its law of a sustainable energy utility. It gives the reins of policy for this purpose in the hands of the political jurisdiction to cover all of the needs of its citizens and its businesses. And this is a depiction of what the sustainable energy utility looks like. It receives investment funds from a variety of sources, including from bonds. Cities have the authority to float bonds for a variety of infrastructure needs. One thing that the City could consider is floating bonds for the purposes of its own zones that it might develop or other purposes, counting 35 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 sustainable energy as a proper use of its bonding authority. It can then designate what are the targets that it wants in terms of less energy, how much it wants to reduce the use of conventional energy, how much it wants to see of green transport, how much it wants to see of renewable energy deployed in the City, and then it can put out for bid a performance-based contracting request for everyone to participate and try to help the City green itself. So that's my remarks, and I think this is a very exciting proposal that is coming forward in the City of Philadelphia, and I wish you all well in this regard. I've given you a website if you want to look at the sustainable energy utility further, and we would be happy to assist this Committee as it moves forward. Thank you very much.
Thank you for that valuable testimony. I hope you 36 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 will remain at the panel and aren't pressed for time. I want to get the last testimony of this panel in before we open up for questions, and I hear my colleagues chomping at the bits to do so. Can we turn the lights -- will you require --
We can turn the lights back up. It's nice that we're saving energy, but sight is important as well. (Lights back on.)
Good morning. My name is Franco Montalto. I recently joined the faculty at Drexel University in the Department of Civil Architecture and Environmental Engineering. My background is water resource engineering. I come to Philadelphia from New York City, where I've worked over the past few years in different capacities with Mayor Bloomberg's office of Long-Term Planning and Sustainable Development on the 37 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 developing of PlaNYC and most recently on the city's development of sustainable storm water management guidelines. And so I'm very excited to, having just recently moved here, have this opportunity to address the Council about this really important piece of legislation. I commend you on drafting it. My comments as an engineer are on infrastructure and sustainability as an infrastructure strategy. I believe and incorporate into all of my teaching that I don't think that we need engineering and infrastructure and then sustainability on the side, that actually sustainability is the way we should do infrastructure and the way we should do engineering. So my comments are about sustainable development as an infrastructure strategy for the City of Philadelphia. Sustainable development is a worthy social goal, it's a worthy 38 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 environmental goal, but it's also a worthy economic goal. And as it's implemented, the economic benefits of sustainable development when it's integrated into infrastructure planning can be formidable. So let me give you a few examples of that that are mentioned directly in the resolution. Renewable energy and energy conservation, if implemented systematically and if implemented in such a scale that it actually represents significant reduction in energy, can result in less power plants. So a conservation strategy, less energy being consumed, results in the need for less physical bricks and mortar infrastructure, power plants. In the water sector, which is the one that I work in most, reducing the demand for water that urban buildings exert reduces the need to provide water services to those buildings. Reducing the amount of runoff that is generated 39 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 from urban sites reduces the scale of the problem that needs to be addressed downstream by the Philadelphia Water Department in the form of sewer infrastructure. More urban agriculture, for example, addresses the transportation issues associated with getting food to Philadelphia. There are some who compute that the average meal in Philadelphia has traveled more than 1,400 miles before it reaches your plate. So in all of these ways, we've seen how sustainability is not just a worthy social and environmental strategy, but is also one that can be integrated into infrastructure planning of the City. Let me just make -- I guess I want to make four types of comments. These pertain to the scale of the zones, the penetration and participation of the zones, the timing with which these sustainability zones would be implemented, and quality control. So on the issue of scale, 40 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 sustainable development is interesting in our neighborhoods, but I think it's, from an infrastructure perspective, most interesting in our service areas. So, for example, the City of Portland, by disconnecting downspouts, the downspouts that take the runoff from roof surfaces and direct it into the sewer system, the City of Portland has reduced by over a billion gallons per year the number of sewer overflows that have occurred in that city. And that has translated into a reduction in the scale of infrastructure that the city needs to build to meet its EPA-mandated CSO abatement goals. So on the issue of scale, I think that the scale that should be addressed is the service area scale. And if we look in the different types of infrastructure that the City has, we could think of different types of service areas.
So from a water perspective, we could talk about watersheds, basins or 41 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 CSO sheds. From a social perspective, we could think about school sheds. We could think about employment sheds. We could think about food insecurity sheds and think about implementation of sustainable strategies within those particular geographic areas so that we're directing those designs to actually meeting particular goals. Similarly, in energy, as we've heard, we could implement sustainable energy strategies in relevant grid areas such that we're reducing quantifiable quantities of energy that need to be provided to specific areas. On the issue of penetration and participation, trophy green buildings and trophy sustainability projects are interesting, but they don't really help us with our infrastructure. What we need is high levels of penetration in our neighborhoods. That involves not just strategies that address new construction. In cities like Philadelphia, that means 42 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 strategies for retrofitting existing construction. We're not going to knock down the City and rebuild it. We need to make the City work better. So new and existing development need to address uniquely in a sustainability strategy. I also think public and private land need to be addressed uniquely and separately. In a typical watershed, for example, about 40 percent -- 40 to 60 percent of the surface of the watershed is privately owned lots. The rest is publicly owned spaces such as streets, parks, et cetera. So a zone strategy would need to have unique ways of dealing with the government agencies and organizations that determine the design of the infrastructure on public property and also deal directly with the real decisions that Philadelphia homeowners will make about how the systems that serve their property actually work. On the issue of timing, if sustainable development strategies are to 43 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 become parts of infrastructure strategies, the implementation of this plan should be cognizant of the timing of various compliance goals with infrastructure. For example, in the issue of CSO abatement, there are particular timeframes within which particular amounts of runoff and overflows need to be reduced. So for the various agencies that deal with these compliance issues, implementation of sustainable development strategies should happen in a timeframe that makes sense such that these strategies could then be used to offset some of the compliance needs and costs that these other agencies are facing. Finally, quality control and enforcement. When we think about decentralized implementation of sustainability strategies as a form of infrastructure, what comes with that is how do we enforce and standardize decentralized quality control. If we're 44 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 having people install runoff reduction measures on private property, who is it that's going to go visit those private property installations one year, two years, five years after they've been installed to make sure that those runoff reduction measures or sustainability strategies are still working the way they were intended? And if we have multiple contractors installing multiple renewable energy systems on multiple pieces of property, how do we ensure that all of those contracts are installing these measures to the same standards? So I would encourage the Council to also address decentralized quality control and decentralized enforcement such that these strategies can actually be considered a viable part of the City's infrastructure. Thank you.
Well, thank you. I want to thank this panel. I 45 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 mean, we have so much information. I should have broken you guys up into different segments. But what I want to do is do a couple of things. One, on the issue of whether it should be citywide versus zones, I'm going to say that measurement -- and I've heard it in a number of these testimonies -- is critical. So when you disperse something, it's more difficult sometimes to measure. When you concentrate it in a zone, in a geographic area, you can quantify what your savings are a bit better, whether it's an individual house or an individual strip or community. And one of the things that we are considering here today and I hear a macro approach and a micro approach, a macro meaning major systems such as water and rainwater runoff and developing our infrastructure to be sustainable over large areas, but also there's the micro of the community that we have to kind of do on simultaneous tracks, I think, where we 46 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 can demonstrate some of this. And I get this idea for a reason. In Washington, DC, they took the area from the Monument to the Capitol and opened up an area and encouraged home builders to come in and use all kinds of innovations, whether it was wind, solar, geothermal, and they put all these academic types and privateers and they put them all in one area, and they were competing to build a home from scratch that could be the most energy efficient. And they had to name one- and two- and three-place winners, but actually everyone who participated was a winner, because the dialogue between universities and individuals about technology and use of technology started to happen, and the buzz and the culture developed of sustainability that lasted far beyond that individual experience. So what I'm questioning in this hearing -- and my colleagues are going to ask questions after this -- is whether we 47 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 can create that kind of buzz here in Philadelphia that can make us the mecca of sustainability and for them to be incentivized through whatever means, whether it's zoning, whether it's TIFs, whether it's whatever financial mechanisms that I'm hearing about in other cities, using their real estate tax base as an incentive to do so, to create an environment here in Philadelphia that sets us apart from other cities. We see other cities that have tried it, but I'm questioning that. And I just wanted to answer your question as to why at large or why in an area, and I'm not saying to the exclusion of at large, but definitely I'll end with this: If it ain't measured, it ain't managed. I know the English language, but I emphasize it that way to say that we should measure and quantify these savings.
Again, now I'm speaking for myself, but with the benefit of the eight months on the Zoning Board and watching the provisos that come forth from community groups that address environmental, I was left in a position to trying to jawbone those kinds of concessions from the developer. Ain't the way to do it, but that's the way the Zoning Code is established now. By Earth Day, we would expect to have what's called the framework, the sustainability framework, which is sort of like the plans in New York and Chicago, which will set forth goals and, Councilman Jones, would include metrics. So there is measurement devices. The Zoning Code Commission is at work to develop new proposed amendments, which will come back to you folks. The Zoning Map would then follow or be done at the same time, which again is going to be up to Council. I think if the environmental provisions of 49 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 sustainability get built into the proposed Code amendments and the Map can then reflect them and the framework there is existing and the communities continue to put pressure on developers piece by piece to do so, I think it can all come together. And I guess sometimes the idea precedes the coming together of all the other kind of things. So I'm fully supportive that our zoning takes sustainability into account and, from my standpoint, paramount, but I guess I question when you have these things all happening at the same time, maybe they can come together as early as the spring instead of trying to come up with something relatively novel compared to what's going on in other ones. And I guess the only other thing I was saying is, the buzz that you want to create, it's there and it's loud, and things like the Navy Yard didn't have to happen by creating a zone. It 50 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 happened. And you could take into account tax -- all of the different zones that exist now, including equity in terms of our EJ zones, and put that all together and you have it in one pack. In a way, I guess I'm saying could you wait a couple of months to pull this all together? I think what you're doing is exactly what you should be doing by exploring another way to do it, as long as it fits into the whole quilt. And I think from speaking as a former Zoning Board of Adjustment, I can't wait until I could have something behind my "please would you put a white roof on or a green roof."
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 51 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 First, I want to echo the Chairman's statement of all the information all four of you gave. We really appreciate it. And I don't want to belabor this point. I also had a question for Dr. Byrne, but Mr. Manko, while you were reading Mr. Hughes' statement, the same kind of question came up that the Chairman just talked about, and just reading -- and I know this is his statement, not yours, but in the end, it says it remains unclear to me what benefit would arise from allowing or encouraging innovation only in specified zones. I don't think the idea is it would only happen in those zones. I think it would start there. I think that's more the idea, rather than that it's only going to be in the zone and nothing in the rest of the City is going to happen. I think, as the Chairman said, I think the idea is to use almost like test areas so, as you say, you can quantify it. 52 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 So, again, I know this isn't your statement, but I think Mr. Hughes may have been, without casting any aspersions, misinterpreting what I think the idea was or one of the ideas in talking about zones. Now, I don't know if you have any more comment on that.
No. I mean, in trying to paraphrase his testimony, it was how would you report back the information and how would you select what kinds of projects and then how would you choose which zones. I guess he's really asking you questions which you need to answer if you want to proceed in the pathway that you're doing. My comments were more my personal ones on timing, I guess.
And I understand that, and I think we're going to answer those questions. That's the idea, and that's the idea of all you folks being here. So I think we understand that there are those 53 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 questions. I guess -- and, again, I don't want to belabor the point, but the whole idea, I think the whole looking at it in zones, in my opinion, makes some sense, because, again, you can get a little better measurement on that. But, again, one other question for Dr. Byrne, if I could. Could you get a little bit more -- I know you gave us a lot of information there, and in the end you talked about Boston. Could you talk a little bit more about that? I wasn't real clear on what you're saying Boston is doing.
Yeah. I thank you. I was trying to both address directly the Chairman's interest in zones and so I tried to give models of what these zones are, and I think that your characterization is the right once. The cities are typically using these as test beds. They are trying new ideas; for example, in the low-income housing, providing solar in there to make housing 54 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 more affordable this way. But then you've got to go beyond that step once you have proliferated a good set of test beds, that you try to pull it together in some integrative way. And I think what the City of Austin has recognized as having done in the U.S. is that more integrated approach. PlaNYC in New York is an effort at that. I would just say Austin has been at an awful lot of what PlaNYC and what Chicago now have in their plans. It's been added for ten or 12 years. And it's found a way to integrate all of these things into a, if you will, to use my colleague's term, a sustainability infrastructure over the last ten to 12 years. It's happening in water, it's happening in energy. And so I was offering the city for that purpose and the sustainable energy utility, which Washington, DC, my state and other jurisdictions are now using as an example, of how you would 55 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 then take the zones and, if you will, knit them together to give you what would then be a citywide strategy.
Okay. I think we're on the same page here. Thank you.
Thank you, Councilman. Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown, please.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Good morning, everyone. I, too, need to go on the record and echo Councilman Jones' comments. The testimony is brilliant in terms of providing for us a context of the long view we need to take as we go down this, in many ways, unchartered territory for us as a city. So I thank you enormously for that. And I have learned in the 18 months that I've begun to look more closely at this issue as a student -- and I'll be the first to admit I'm a student 56 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 in this, but excited about in the long view, and I've learned from members of the sustainability network that it's important to do this slowly to get it right, that moving swiftly will create nightmares for those on the implementation/execution end of this equation. So I hear you when -- I understand completely when you say give us a minute to do what we need to do where you are, Mr. Manko, because that will in many ways inform how we roll this out. With that said, I did not hear -- and I came in late -- a discussion, comment about where jobs are infused in this process. And if not now -- well, I'm curious to know, has that been a part of the work that you do? You have to create the policy, best practices, but at some point, it hopefully boils down to J-O-B's, and I'm particularly concerned about jobs for 57 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 specialized populations, training that has to be required before we can even engage in those jobs, and then who ultimately or what collage of agencies should be ultimately responsible for the training in green jobs, the roll-out of green jobs, period. So any one or all of you can comment on that.
I would just add, if you could, a 5th E for E4, and that E would be employment. The green collar jobs present a tremendous opportunity, and I think that you'll find within the framework that we're working on, you're going to find the collaboration of the unions in terms of teaching laborers green jobs. You're going to find working with the Board of Education and colleges and universities in terms of educating people. But the jobs are going to roll out from these things. Not only will they benefit the employees and the 58 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 residents of the City of Philadelphia, but to the point where as a country we can start exporting the technology to do that. So I think that that is very much in mind, and I think that there was reference in the New York plan. I think one of the five goals there was employment, and employment feeds into economy. So you're absolutely right, and I think that that is happening now in terms of job retraining, and the more you have solar installation and wind turbines and things like that, everything about those is jobs.
You said New York has a plan that includes the fifth E?
Yeah. New York has five goals, which I think will be somewhat similar to Philadelphia's framework, and one of those is employment, is what I'm saying, and it's 59 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 certainly one of the benefits you get out of sustainability.
Okay. Let me hear the other comments and then I have a reaction to your observation. Please.
Thank you, Councilwoman, for your question. I am actually chairing the Funding Committee for the Green Collar Economy here in Philadelphia, and you will hear testimony in the next panel from the Sustainable Business Network. However, Van Jones was here last week or so and --
And he was signing my book. I said to him, Van, there's $125 million in the federal budget for the green collar jobs and training, and we've done a lot of work here in Philadelphia. How much of that money can we expect? Can I get my share? And he wrote in my book, Yes, we're going to get 60 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 you your share. And so Philadelphia has been designated one of the five sister cities, with Oakland.
So we're on our way to getting our share, but you will hear more about that today.
Oakland is indeed, again from what I've learned in the past months, is a leader when it 16 comes to green jobs. 17
Absolutely. In 18 fact, he said either this week or at the end of last week he was meeting with Nancy Pelosi to have a discussion about how funding would come to the five cities and he would be here in Philadelphia more often.
Okay. Please. Your PowerPoint was 61 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 terrific.
Thank you very much. I would just say in that spirit, just to repeat one point that was made, the green economy, the economy in which we invest in sustainable energy, will get you more jobs than investing in the conventional energy system. That is clear. That's established. It's empirical facts. So I think doing that is a very important step for the City. And I would just complement the remarks that were made on the front end. I've seen the jobs that you can get best in a city that will really give you lots of jobs are, for example, if you deal with what a city has in abundance, which is a very large number of buildings. If we weatherize these buildings so that people living in them can now afford to live in them, they can afford the energy services required to heat and cool those buildings and, at the same time, you 62 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 provide a job base for that, that's a lot of jobs, a lot of skills. The unions are involved in it, but also it means youth. There's an opportunity for entry point for new jobs, which, again, is Van Jones' very important point on this. If we're going to go green jobs, we have to have also where youth can enter and then move up. Very, very important. So I would just encourage that you keep weatherization and other sorts of things where you're dealing with your built environment, which is one of your biggest assets a city has, make sure that you keep that in the mix when you're trying to decide jobs. And typically, as I tried to show on one slide, focusing on residential buildings actually has the highest job intensity of any of the options that you would have in the energy sector. So that would just be my suggestion, and it's really good for youth-based programs. 63 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
Let me just underscore or echo, as Councilman Jones often hears me say, put it in capital letters, bold, with exclamation points. When you say that eight permanent jobs, if you capture young people at 18, 19, years old, then they 9 really have an opportunity for a career 10 and to grow in this industry. 11
I'll just echo 13 everything that's been said, being last 14 in the group here, but also I guess I 15 would go one step further and say that 16 when we talk about green collar jobs, if 17 we think -- if we take an infrastructure 18 perspective to this, they're the formal 19 jobs, the people who are building the 20 rain gardens, the people who are installing the solar panels, the plumbers who are doing -- so they're the formal jobs that this type of an approach can take. But then there's sort of -- I don't want to say informal, but there's 64 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 the non-traditional jobs. If every parcel of land in a demonstration shed or zone in the City is functioning from an infrastructure standpoint sustainably, the owner of that parcel of land is essentially working for the City, is essentially providing an infrastructure service to the City. So a lot of these places where incentive programs are put in place to encourage property owners to change the design of some characteristic of that site, that incentive is actually funding the decentralized infrastructure that could happen. So there's another way that we could think about these jobs, and it could be helping to incentivize the owners of private property to do things slightly differently such that there's less of a burden for infrastructure on the City agencies that would pay for it traditionally.
Such as? 65 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
Well, I mean, the one I can talk most about because it's my field is water. So if private property owners are incentivized to not discharge runoff into the sewer system, the City now has less of a sewer problem to deal with. And as I mentioned in this example with Portland, where the downspouts from these buildings are just disconnected and put into backyards or put into tanks and released slowly. Just by doing that, which is a very simple -- I think the City of Portland gave about a $55 incentive to private property owners to do that. If you do that, we'll give you 55 -- or I don't remember. I can give the details on that in my written comments. But as a result of that, the city at large reduced by over a billion gallons per year the amount of water that went into the sewer system. So there's a value to that. That's a service. That's something that someone you might say through an 66 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 incentive program be economically incentivized; a/k/a, paid to do to help the City. And, lastly, I just think that the job issue is really what marries the three E's of sustainability, because you're getting -- you're decentralizing the work, and that has -- that's a social goal. It's also an environmental goal, because you're making the City work better from a goods and services standpoint, and, of course, this is all for the environment, and it could be cheaper.
Mr. Manko, would the scenario just presented by Dr. Franco Montalto, is that a circumstance where it would be wise of us to push the pause button and wait for the document that you all are going to roll out? I guess what I'm trying to get my arms around is, what's appropriate for us to be mindful, wise and wait and 67 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 what's appropriate for us to act and do now?
Right. A limited comment with respect to the storm water. The City of Philadelphia has been successful in negotiating with the federal government and the state government that instead of spending something like $2 billion to separate all the combined systems to get the storm water out of it, so that the Water Department is way ahead in the integrated watershed management plan, and that ties into using open space and green space and a 9,100 acre park, et cetera, et cetera, to save $2 billion and to serve the environment. So a lot of that is happening now. That's a watershed issue. But, again, your watersheds are coming from your suburban areas through the City of Philadelphia to the Schuylkill or Delaware, so you don't have head water, so to speak, to deal with. With respect to other sheds, 68 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 you do have, I guess, air sheds and you have waste sheds, but it's harder to separate those within a city than it is to separate it in a larger region where those sheds are obvious. So I don't know how you would do all the other sheds, but they would all contribute to coming up with areas that have commonality, I guess you would say, in terms of waste and water and air and things like that to concentrate and say maybe they should be zones within the City. I personally don't know where they would be, but a lot of the factors that the Professor mentioned and a lot of the things in the framework, I think, are going to wind up back on your desk to do your Zoning Code amendments.
Macro versus micro. I just want to keep us moving. We have a number of panels.
Thank you for your testimony. 69 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
And I want to recognize Councilwoman Blackwell and then followed quickly behind by Councilman Rizzo.
Thank you. Thank you all for this excellent testimony. As you know, in the Sulzberger region, we're dealing with a program even with the students dealing with wastewater. I wanted to thank Mr. Manko for not only doing a great job on the Zoning Board, but we've had some green issues there that he supported us. So we look forward. We thank you for your work there and look forward to working with you here.
Well, thank you, Marty, for telling Councilwoman that. You've got a jewel there.
You notice Marty is one of the Council Committee members. 70 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
He's at every zoning hearing in the Third District. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I just want to follow up on something that you alluded to. I support the Water Department's effort in trying to relieve some of the water runoff in the combined systems. Just last night Councilman Green and myself went to a community meeting in South Philadelphia where -- I use my colleague's words -- I think in some of these projects, we really need to hit the pause button. What works in Portland doesn't necessarily work in South Philadelphia. What I saw last night at this meeting is trying to install a device on a public sidewalk where vehicles have to 71 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 park, and the quality of life because of the installation of these devices that will slowly release the water really are going to be an obstacle to people that are handicapped, people that need to negotiate those sidewalks. And I support the project, but I think that -- and Joanne Dahme kind of resented that I said the cookie-cutter approach, just taking something from Portland and trying to plug it into Philadelphia. Philadelphia is not Portland. South Philadelphia is a different community than Northeast Philadelphia. What will work in one neighborhood will not necessarily work throughout our city. And I'm going to do what I can do to get the Water Department to hit the pause button and go back to the drawing board to see what we can do to accomplish the goal, but in a different way. I would not want what they're planning to put on the sidewalks in my neighborhood. So that's my only comment on 72 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 that. And both of us attended, Councilman Green and myself, this meeting last night, and there is a lot of friction and resentment in that community over this project. So that being said, one of the things that I've noticed that this government has not done is moving into the area of solar. We haven't really experimented with, at least as far as I know, with solar street lights, a perfect application for moving at least into the direction and to get some experience with this technology. Areas where I go when I travel, we have electronic solar-powered speed limit signs that the minute you go over the posted speed limit, they start flashing. The biggest cost that we have in some of these installations of traffic signals is the infrastructure to support it, putting the electric service in, the cable, the conduit. We have, in my opinion, not done enough in not just this government 73 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 but I think in a lot of governments to start showing the public, hey, we're asking you to do it, we need to do it. So I don't know what we need to do, but the Streets Department and at least this Streets Department seems to resist it. And I haven't visited this issue recently. Maybe they have started to do more, but I just don't see enough in government doing what needs to be done. So I don't know if anybody has had some experience with those comments. I'd like somebody to comment about this Water Department project that I think really just needs to be -- I think we just need to put on the brakes here.
Thank you, Councilman Rizzo. I think you're right. I don't think that we can employ a cookie-cutter activity in Portland and just to a project here in Philadelphia. I'm thinking of a green infrastructure project in particular where you have on 74 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 the sidewalks those zones where water flows into a little area. I think that only works on blocks where the sidewalk is wide and, therefore, you're not taking up a majority of the sidewalk for this green infrastructure project. And you do need access, ADA access and all the other issues that come along with street passage. We're trying to learn from the mistakes in Portland. The first project, the green infrastructure project in Portland where they dealt with those infiltration basins, it was a problem with access. And then we went back to Portland and said, How did you solve this problem? There was a new design that came out, and I'm not sure if the new design is what's being introduced to your community, and I will check up on that, because it's important that we learn from the mistakes in Portland and not just apply those projects here.
Well, I 75 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 appreciate we reaching out to Portland, but one of the problems we have, we haven't reached out to the people in Philadelphia that live in the neighborhood.
When Mrs. Murphy comes home and she has to park her car and she has a walker and she's got an 18-inch piece of sidewalk between the curb and the infiltration device -- I'm learning all these neat words -- that is a problem for Mrs. Murphy. And the Water Department -- and let me tell you, I think you are the most professional organization that I've ever seen in government -- that they need to start listening to the people in the community. And, again, I don't want to kill the project. I don't want to be harsh on the project, but there's got to be a better approach to accomplish that goal. 76 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
We are going to take one more comment on that and then I'm going to move to Councilman Green, and then we're going to move to our next panel so we can get through the other three that we have.
Thank you. I'll just make this quick. I agree, you can't import cookie-cutter approaches to solving problems. And I think when we get back to this job question and if you could, this wouldn't really be a way of creating green collar jobs, because you would have one guy somewhere who knows how to do this. He could do it everywhere in the whole world and everything could be centralized, but the fact that a sustainability approach requires the consideration of local constraints, local factors, you have to work with the local community. The local community has to 77 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 be, in some sense, employed in the process. And on that specific issue that you talked about, we did recently address that in the New York City sustainability storm water management plan and ADA issues, and we looked at -- and I would try to find out if I can share that analysis with you, but we looked at typical public right-of-ways in different parts of New York City. You have a street that looks like South Philly where you have very narrow sidewalks, very narrow streets and you can implement a sustainable approach through, for example, porous pavements on sidewalks there that you wouldn't implement, for example, on Market Street. So you do need different strategies in different places, and there are ways of getting into that.
Thank you, 78 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Councilman Rizzo. And just for the record, you made my point on why we need zones, so that we don't repeat mistakes of South Philly versus West Philly versus North Philly, so that we do our beta testing in small areas before we replicate a mistake citywide. Just little mistakes. There you go. Councilman Green.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thank you everybody for your testimony today. It was really great. I learned a lot by sitting in on this committee, so I thank the Chairman for holding these hearings.
And I'm going to beat a dead horse for 30 seconds, but it's something I think that Mr. Manko should understand as they're putting together the plan, which will be general goals about how much emissions and runoff and other things that we're 79 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 going to commit as a city to try to do, but at the time the plan comes out, it won't be detailed as to exactly how we're going to reach those goals. We're going to look at the things we can do generally. And I think what we're trying to provide here as a body is something that Councilman Jones and Councilwoman Quinones-Sanchez and I spent a lot of time talking about during our nine months of preparation to come on to City Council, and, that is, what we want to do is create different areas where we can try different incentives and see what works. So we might go to two small areas in South Philadelphia or in South Philadelphia and Northern Liberties or similar areas and try two different things and then see what works. So I don't agree with some of the testimony, which seemed to suggest from several of you that we should know how we're going to address the decentralized quality control and we 80 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 should know how we're going to address the decentralized infrastructure and we should know all that in advance. I think what we need to do is try different things, not in a spaghetti-against-the-wall approach, but in a thoughtful approach based on what's worked in other cities and elsewhere, but try them in different areas and then see what has the most bang for its buck as we measure it. We have a very data-centric approach to the way government should make decisions. Have zones, gather the data, and then what works for specific types of areas, row home areas versus four-story homes with lawn areas, et cetera, then start to roll it out citywide and roll that into the Zoning Code. I don't think it's possible for us to have all those -- we can put incentives in the Zoning Code, et cetera, for other things in general, but they're going to be incentives, they're not going 81 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 to be mandates. And I think what we'll learn by having zones and experiments is what the best solutions are. I don't think that we're going to come up -- essentially, the market will tell us, the citizens will tell us what's working, and we're not going to be able to from here mandate to people what they are required to do or not do. That seems to me to not be a useful approach as a way to solve this problem. We'll test different things and see what really works. So if you want to comment on that, you can, but I just wanted to try to further explain our rationale and how we're approaching this. I also want to say -- and I can't remember who said this, but I think it was Mr. Byrne talked about weatherization. PGW has a subsidy for people who can't afford their gas, and one of my legislative aides, Sophie Bryan, was reading -- I can't remember. I think the Economy League did a report 82 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 on PGW yesterday or the day before, and one-third -- the people who have the subsidy use one-third or even more gas per month than homes without the subsidy on average, and the conclusion of that report, I think, was, one of the main reasons that they use more gas is because their homes aren't weatherized. They don't have the proper insulation, et cetera. That seems to me to be very low-hanging fruit with a direct impact on reducing the subsidy that we're going to have -- PGW is going to have to give. If PGW or the City, if we can find resources to make that investment, the return is going to be dramatic. And that speaks to the energy efficiency returns that you were going to speak to.
And so I had some specific questions about energy efficiency versus your green jobs comment, because I think when we're talking energy efficiency, we're talking about weatherization, sort of the things that are easy to do at the beginning. I 83 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 don't think we're talking about creating -- the investment for putting up solar panels is not percent, because 5 it's like a 40-year payback or something 6 like that, right? So it's two percent a 7 year. So we're really talking about, in 8 terms of what you're calling energy 9 efficiency, not implementation of new 10 technology, but things like 11 weatherization and things like changing 12 out the light bulbs, like we did in City 13 Council. 14 Could you explain the 15 difference -- what your definition of 16 energy efficiency with that 20 plus 17 return is, 20 plus percent return is, 18 versus implementation of new 19 technologies. I just wanted to make 20 clear that I understood if there is a distinction between the two.
We're going to have that succinctly done to allow others.
I think the 84 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Councilmember has it right. The weatherization is the way out of the unaffordability of energy services. And if you want to stop simply paying the subsidy and you want to deal with an energy justice question so that people can afford ordinary energy services, then weatherization is the way to go. On green jobs, it will create particularly entry-level youth-based jobs to get you started in a career that will then allow you to move up in the trades as well to move up in this regard. So the energy -- the green energy/green jobs linkage is there, but it doesn't require you to invent a new technology in order to do it. You're actually using the things that are on the shelf now, but they've got to be installed. As the gentleman said, they got to be installed properly. You got to make sure that things are certified and so on, and that's where you're going to get that green jobs bump from 85 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 weatherization. I hope that was succinct.
We need to take example in Council. Thank you so very much for your testimony.
May I respond to the first -- can I just succinctly respond to the first one? I understand macro versus micro. It's not a versus. It's macro and micro. And I think that what Councilman Green is talking about is a framework that is going to have lots of implementation methods and is going to be looking at the diversity of the City as well. And that, plus the Zoning Code, plus the Zoning Map is going to be a bit of a top down. But from a bottom up, if there's anything I've learned in the year I've moved into the City and serving on the Zoning Board, it's that we are a city of neighborhoods and our community groups 86 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 are very active and they are filtering from the bottom up as well. So you wind up having bottom up happening and top down happening, and I guess the question is whether zoning is the way to push the bottom up or do you -- without pushing Councilman Rizzo's pause button, without pausing, because things are still happening when we do it in the next six months, and that's really going to be your decision.
This is new territory for all of us and that's why the dialogue is important. Thank you very much.
Just to add really quickly, in the conversation we had with Van Jones, he said the tools of the green collar economy are work boots, a hammer, nails, all the things that we already work with, and he's talking about weatherization. 87 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
There we go. Thanks again. Thank you so very much. Will the Clerk introduce the next panel.
Panel 2 is Thomas Knudsen and Steven Hershey from the Philadelphia Gas Works and Leanne Kruger-Braneky from the Sustainable Business Network. Will you please come to the table. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Good morning. Would you please state your name and title for the record.
I'm Steven Hershey, Vice-President of Regulatory and External Affairs at PGW. With me is Tom Knudsen, who is President and CEO of PGW. He's in the audience and would be available, if needed.
He should come up and join us. 88 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Don't be shy. We knew who you were.
Thank you for repaying that million. We wanted 8 to give you proper respect. 9
I'm Leanne 10 Kruger-Braneky, Executive Director of the 11 Sustainable Business Network of Greater 12 Philadelphia. 13
Mr. Chairman and 15 members of the Committee, Councilwoman 16 Blackwell, Councilman Rizzo, Councilman 17 Greenlee, thank you for inviting us on 18 this issue of sustainability. PGW addresses the issue of sustainability in two aspects, both environmental sustainability and economic sustainability, and urges the City to take that same approach. And in the last panel, we heard the discussion of micro versus macro economic sustainability, and 89 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 I think they're very much integrated, and I'll get to that a bit later. PGW, as was alluded to earlier, runs a number of programs that address the issue of economic sustainability or survival. We have, as Councilman Green mentioned, a customer responsibility program which provides very significant discounts to 80,000 low-income families. That is a program that goes back almost years. It was the first in 13 Pennsylvania to function this way, and it 14 is coupled with a low-income conservation 15 program, which costs -- which we spend 16 over $2 million each year to weatherize 17 homes of low-income customers. 18 For the last several winters, 19 we have provided weatherization 20 workshops, coordinating with the City of Philadelphia to provide approximately 100 such workshops in various neighborhoods in the City, teaching people how to weatherize and why they should weatherize, showing them how to apply 90 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 plastic window covering, caulk, weather stripping, and then literally handing the materials out to the participants in those workshops. We support the state Energy Loan program, as well as the PHIL Loan program here in the City, and each fall and early winter we mount a very aggressive media campaign to encourage conservation among our customers here in Philadelphia. PGW is currently looking at the possibility of combining several of its facilities into a single building, and in the process of doing that, we expect that we will likely create a new green building, which will address issues of environmental and impact the carbon footprint, energy efficiency and how to make all that comfortable for the people working there. We're dramatically expanding recycling within the company at all of our locations around the City. We're 91 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 proposing to the City itself how it could reduce its carbon footprint and save money by converting a number of its large buildings to natural gas. We also expect that in the near future we will be proposing to the Public Utility Commission a dramatic expansion of our own conservation program so that it would reach not only low-income customers but non-low-income residential customers and small business customers at least. We expect that hopefully by Thanksgiving, and there will be a dialogue that follows concerning the impact of that program and how it might integrate with what you're doing. We are very pleased that you're holding this hearing. We're very pleased to participate in anything that you come up with in terms of a sustainability program within specific zones or citywide. There are certainly aspects of it that -- of any program that have an impact citywide, and let me just call 92 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 your attention to the one aspect of the jobs in energy conversation that you began with the last panel. When you consider that more than half of the PGW bill is for the commodity and that commodity is produced in the Gulf Coast area of the United States, you realize that more than half of every bill is a way of sucking money out of this economy and exporting it to the Gulf Coast or other parts of the country. If with a good energy conservation program you reduce those bills, you're reducing the consumption of energy that must be -- that comes from another area. You're stopping the outflow of dollars to another region.
You're allowing people to spend money that otherwise would have been exported on local goods and services, and that by itself creates jobs, because you're stimulating the local economy. At a different level, energy conservation has a different job impact, 93 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 and this is more the micro level. Some of you may remember Frank Kensell, who years ago in the '80s had a very small program that administered the Heater Hotline for the City. When low-income customers had problems with their heater in the winter, he was the person or his shop supplied people to go out and repair those heaters. His shop was at 10th and Brown, and he took kids from the neighborhood and trained them how to repair those heaters, how to fashion new parts. There was a handful of people who were trained in very real job skills. Today those people whom he trained are out there installing energy efficiency equipment, insulation, and they're the core of many of the programs that we work with both in Philadelphia and beyond. So you look at the potential on a macro level and a micro level just with those two issues. When there's more demand for energy efficiency, you're going to get installers and contractors 94 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 in the local region. You're going to get people who may start manufacturing some of that material. It doesn't all have to come from Texas or someplace else. We can make a lot of it here. Perhaps I should address the question that Councilman Green raised earlier with regard to the energy consumption of our low-income customers. The Pennsylvania Economy League study did identify that people on our CRP program, the low-income discount program, used substantially more energy than the average residential customer. I think there are several reasons for that. One is that under the current design of that program, which is approved by the Public Utility Commission, the customers pay a percentage of their income regardless of their consumption, regardless of the price of energy. And we try to manage that with expenditure and conservation in those homes. We frequently find that you 95 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 can't weatherize a home that has significant structural problems, and the City's Basic System Repair program is designed to address some of those problems. You're not going to insulate the attic if the roof is severely defective. You're not going to install a new heater if the chimney flue is defective and at risk of putting carbon monoxide in the house. But that program is woefully inadequate. The funding has never been adequate. And when you're looking at weatherization of homes, particularly low-income homes, you have to take that kind of issue into account. The other point is that even if those customers kept their thermostat at 55 degrees, they would probably use more energy than anybody else, because that's the worst housing stock in the City. The energy escapes from every direction. And so when we look at weatherization, we have to keep that, in effect, that 96 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 problem in mind and look at the broader issues that come with energy conservation. Well, I'm happy to answer questions.
Frankly, this has been the discussion for the 25, 30 years that I've been working on these issues. We've talked about better coordination of the various energy efficiency programs, conservation programs, whatever you want to call them, so that there's not a disconnect, so that there's a single feeder line for particularly low-income customers, but others as well, to go to get help, to get information with weatherization, to get help with the structural problems in their buildings. And there's lots of talk, and it hasn't happened yet. So it does need to happen, and that's part of the nexus between economic sustainability and environmental 97 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 sustainability.
We're going to hold questions until we get all testimony, but just to take the prerogative of the Chair, Van Jones says that the Star Wars of greening is connected to the old conservation efforts that need to take place. One without the other is foolish. You're absolutely right.
Good morning. I want to thank Councilman Curtis Jones, Jr. for his leadership in holding today's hearing to investigate strategies for green zoning and for his support for sustainable businesses and practices in the City. I was here exactly five months ago today when Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown convened the hearing on green jobs, and today's hearing complements her efforts to make Philadelphia a center for green collar jobs and green businesses. 98 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 My name is Leanne Kruger-Braneky and I'm the Executive Director of the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia. I represent a business organization that brings together local leaders who share a common passion to grow successful businesses that are socially and environmentally responsible. We cultivate socially and environmentally responsible commerce in the Philadelphia region by providing our members with assessment, education, advocacy and business development opportunities. Our 425 members represent the future of the green economy in the Philadelphia region. The Sustainable Business Network is also the convener of the Green Economy Task Force, which has pulled together numerous stakeholders to plan for a comprehensive green collar job strategy for the City of Philadelphia, and since its inception in March, 70 people from 50 organizations are actively 99 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 involved in this planning effort. So I'm excited to hear all of the talk from Council this morning on green collar jobs and appreciate your interest in this important topic. When we brought Van Jones to Philadelphia in February to talk about his work with Green For All and green collar job initiatives around the country, he issued a challenge for Philadelphia. We should beat Oakland to create the first green enterprise zone in the country. The idea of a green enterprise zone is simple: First, identify an area with existing economic development incentives, like the keystone opportunity zone or an enterprise zone. Choose an area that is large enough to accommodate new industry. Second, designate that zone as a green enterprise zone through branding, developing supportive infrastructure, attracting existing green businesses to the location, and developing support 100 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 systems to start new locally based green businesses. Local government needs to be forward thinking when creating zoning for this project, making it easy for resident companies to use new green technology. Companies would benefit from this great enterprise zone by being co-located in the same area. Not only will they be able to share ideas, they may be able to share inputs and outputs. In a closed lube manufacturing system, for example, the outputs of one manufacturer, like heat and steam, could be used as the input for another manufacturer. Though no other cities have yet developed a green enterprise zone, the concept of clustering green businesses has proven effective. In Chicago, for example, the city decided to stimulate a local solar panel manufacturing industry through their decision to purchase solar panels only if they had been manufactured in Chicago. Though one manufacturer 101 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 became the main beneficiary of that contract, their success stimulated the development of other kinds of businesses as companies that manufactured related products decided to set up shop in the same area. Today's climate is ripe for a new kind of economic development policy. First, Philadelphia already has a strong green business sector, demonstrated by the nearly 1,000 companies who are currently members of the Sustainable Business Network and the Delaware Valley Green Building Council. The right kind of public policies would make this sector even stronger. Second, we are clear on the urgent need to replace manufacturing jobs.
Thirty-five percent of Philadelphia's population worked in manufacturing jobs in 1950, but the percentage is less than nine percent today, and in many cases, those workers could not find better employments once 102 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 their jobs left town. Most importantly, we have leaders at the state and local level who have voiced a commitment to supporting green economic development. Our City Council, our Mayor and our Governor have all recognized the potential of the green economy to revitalize Philadelphia's local economy. By paying heed to Van Jones' challenge to create the first green enterprise zone, Philadelphia could be thrust to the national forefront of the green economy movement. Thank you.
I want to recognize -- first of all, thank you. And, again, good information and food for thought for this committee as we develop public policy. I want to remind my colleagues that we have about 45 minutes left before we have to make room for the other committees, but I would like to ask two quick questions and then open it up for 103 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 the rest of us. One, it was important for you to make the link between the Star Wars conservation and actual brick and mortar stuff we can do right now to get a bit more green, and particularly for those who need it most are poor, and thank you. By way of future thinking -- and everybody is talking about wind versus hydro versus all kinds of other options, solar. Where does gas fit in in all of that, and particularly the question of hydro fuel being used in the same infrastructure as natural gas. I've raised this before and we had some conversations with the engineers. And I say that for the record because it could take us into a whole new direction with whole other kind of utilities, whether it's hydro cars or other kinds of use for that fuel, and are we investing a little bit of R&D money to look at the possibility.
Well, 104 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 specifically, Councilman, the natural gas industry views natural gas as the transitional fuel from where we are now to what the society is ultimately going to decide is sustainable over time, whether that's nuclear or wind or whatever. Natural gas will be around a long time. There have been substantial discoveries of gas in the lower 48 in the last several years, so that I think we will not see as much price pressure as we have seen recently. To answer your question specifically about hydrogen technologies, it is recognized that you can feed a certain percentage of hydrogen into a natural gas stream, essentially to do what ethanol does for gasoline. That would be the analogy. There is not a lot of activity in that arena right now for a whole host of reasons. One, it's expensive. But it is something that's out there in time, but it would be a Star Wars kind of application for the 105 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 industry. And I sit on the Board of the American Gas Association, which is all of the investor-owned utilities in the country, and there is no specific effort at this time, although it is recognized as a possibility.
We can put a pin in that, but I'd like Philadelphia to look at that again, all things innovative, all things green, if in fact we can improve our efficiency, because I am not a scientist nor engineer, but I understand that even natural gas when compressed with that makes it move quicker through the infrastructure that we've already invested in, that it can carry that same --
There are a number of opportunities like that that we're exploring.
Councilman 106 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Green.
I think in addition to just adding it to the fuel that people burn, there's also the possibility of using your pipelines to transmit hydrogen that will then be separated at the other end; in other words, using some of the pipelines to transmit hydrogen rather than burning it. So that it goes from one place to another, essentially on your highway and that you can charge for that.
Well, that's a major technological change to the way we use the system. It would require no 17 small amount of investment and investigation, but right now the best that we can even think about is to blend the fuels.
Well, one of the things -- Councilman, if I may piggy back on your question. As we look at resources coming from the next Administration federally, 107 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 as we look at opportunities to research and development, I would not want us as a utility to not be in that discussion or in consideration for grants that might be made available to explore that option. And that's my only point.
And to pick up on that, you're reading my mind, we do have an $850 million new package that's statewide. I don't know what, if any, of that you would be --
-- entitled to apply for, et cetera. But as we think about the gas company, there has to be some things you could do that would be environmentally friendly that we could now get state money for, and I hope that you're looking at that.
In fact, if you could -- I mean, rather than you go through it all now, because we have to get out of the room, if you could provide 108 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 to the Chair what you are applying for from the $850 million with specificity, I'd like to see that.
Thank you. I'll open it up. Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown.
Sure. Thank you. An addendum to Councilman Green's request -- and I'm not sure of the appropriateness, so I'll ask and then you can tell me. Would it be appropriate for City Council to actually have a look-see at the internal energy audit you talked about? Because there's an opportunity for us as a government to learn what you're doing with that particular utility. Please.
Energy audits are a very useful tool to diagnose how to use energy more efficiently in a particular 109 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 building, and you can -- some of it you can eyeball just by walking around the house. For others you need pretty low-tech equipment, but it is low tech, and learn a lot about where heat is escaping, where cold area is entering, and then with very low tech, tried and true technology, have a tremendous impact on energy consumption. And let's not overlook the availability of conservation as the most cost-effective, quickest impact tool that we have to make bills more affordable for low-income customers and to have -- and also, of course, for all other businesses and residential customers, and also to have a very green impact on the City both environmental and the economy. As people are saving money that sustains them, it means they're less reliant on City services. They are recycling money that would have left the City back into the City economy. That's creating jobs. That should be our first 110 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 focus. I think the other issues are important. We shouldn't overlook them, but the first focus has to be the audit and what that leads to in terms of implementing, and we have to make sure that we have the money to do that. The City can play a significant role in that. The State can have a significant role in that, federal government and the utilities. PGW will ask the PUC to recover the cost of the program that we will implement. We are recovering today the cost of our weatherization program, as do all utilities. So when you're selling a commodity and you pay for the operation out of those sales, you have to be able to recover the cost of reducing that consumption.
Your response goes exactly to the two communities I've listed here on my sheet, and, that is, seniors and some might call 111 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 underserved, others would call disadvantaged, others would call underemployed. So to your discussion about -- not installers. Heaters, would you require -- should you require certified installers? Because then what you get into, jackleg artists who take advantage of seniors and the underemployed. And so is a system in place that you know of where certification is required before you can go in someone's home and install a heater? Is a system in place?
There is a system in place to certify the energy auditors, because the first step is to go in and to evaluate where the inefficiencies are in that building and then determine which steps need to be made. The Energy Coordinating Agency was mentioned on the last panel as a jewel in Philadelphia, and I would agree with that statement. They train low-income people 112 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 to go into the homes of other low-income people to evaluate what measures need to be taken to make those homes more energy efficient. They do have a certification process in place and they have a facility in the Kensington section of Philadelphia that they are in the process of turning into a training center. The problem right now with energy auditors, solar installers and many of these other industries is that we don't have a training facility in Philadelphia or really even in the area right now. And so when I talk to companies about the biggest need they have to improve -- to grow their business, it's finding a place to get their people trained. I spoke to a solar installer a few weeks ago who told me he could hire 15 more people if he didn't have to send them to California every time they needed to be trained. So there is a process in place right now. I will caution, though, that 113 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 the program from the Energy Coordinating Agency is only for low income.
Which goes to my next question. Citizens who are not low income but want a home energy audit, what's available for them? And Councilman Jones has alerted us the clock we're on now. So in no way to be disrespectful, just try to keep your answers brief so that I can take notes and move on to my next question.
There are for-profit entities that people can hire to come into their homes and to do energy audits. Right now the demand is much greater than the number of companies we have who can provide this service. House Bill 2200 on the state level will create additional incentives for energy conservation. I see the real market here, though, is public buildings. We haven't talked about that. In Boston, the city decided to stimulate green collar job 114 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 development by requiring energy audits of all existing public buildings, not just residential buildings, and I think that's an issue that this committee should consider.
And what does PGW offer with regards to energy audits for citizens who can afford or low-income citizens? Anything at this hour?
And is there -- an amendment, friendly amendment, to her question. Is there a conflicting issue between conservation and consumption by way of your business model?
I'll answer the last question first, and the answer is yes, and 13 states have addressed that conflict. It's a real barrier, a disincentive for utility-sponsored conservation. And they've changed the mechanism, so that a utility can recover not just the cost of putting in the 115 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 insulation, doing the energy audit, et cetera, but also recover the lost revenue that occurs, and they find that both fair and a real economic advantage to the customers as a whole, as well as the individual customers, and it, as I say, it breaks that barrier to utility investment and conservation. To your question, Councilwoman, PGW currently does not have programs to address conservation for any but the low-income customers, and we don't have nearly an adequate program for that. We will propose an expansion to address both the low-income issues and beyond to the rest of the residential customer class and small businesses. And tune in during the winter and we'll see how the PUC treats that, but we hope to address exactly the problems you're raising.
Thank you all for your testimony, and let me just go on the record to acknowledge the good work that the Sustainability Business 116 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Network does and the manner in which, the very strategic manner, in which you've approached this huge issue we're trying to get our arms around. And you have the commitment from members of this Committee to continue to work with you, because in -- I mean, you're the experts living and breathing this issue nine days a week, and this is one of several we want to become fluent in so that we, again, do this right. Thank you very much.
I would echo my colleague's comments in the fact that I had no idea and didn't think of it outside of the box, the business to business ramifications of the greening process, and by strategically locating businesses that could feed off of one another's both waste and recyclables is an incredible concept that we want to put forward. I'm still stuck at the previous panel finding out that my food travels 1,400 miles on average. That's in my 117 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 head. So thank you all very much. Can the Clerk bring up the next panel. And I would tell people for time, not to penalize people, that we --
Councilman, I just have one question I'd like to ask the gas company to get --
Thank you. There's no need to answer this right now, because we are trying to move along. If you could just provide to the Chair what the average yearly cost is in some kind of mean and also average for the people who are in your CRP program in terms of the annual amount of the subsidy per year, whether it's $600 per household or whatever the number is, and then the average cost to do the Basic Systems Repair that is needed in those. I know you only do weatherization and not the other side of it, but I'm wondering if we 118 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 can use that savings for bond issuings or whatever to put money in the Basic Systems Repair, is the reason for the question. In other words, how much of a payment on a bond would it make. Thank you.
Again, thank you all for your testimony. Will the Clerk call up the next panel.
Panel 3, we have John McDonald, GP Caminiti and Pamela Sodi. Will you please come to the table. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Okay. We're in the afternoon, so would you please read your name for the record, and if you can condense your testimony, all of your written testimony will be on the record. So if we can get the main ideas out in the discussion portion, that would bode well. And can we turn down the lights 119 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 again. We have a PowerPoint. Thank you. (Lights are dimmed.) MR. McDONALD: Apparently, I have to get a handshake connection. I have to turn the computer on in order to be found.
Okay. As we deal with technical difficulties, can we have someone start so that technology can catch up to us.
My name is Pamela Sodi and my company is called Conscious Investments. Conscious Investments consults with early-stage companies to position them for angel investment for their projects. We help with business plans, presentations and connections to get these companies on their feet. I am passionate about these companies, particularly about bringing them into 120 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Philadelphia, because they are our future. These are the companies that will create the technologies that will ensure our future. These are the companies that will create jobs in Philadelphia that will strengthen our local economy, while fighting global climate change, reducing energy usage and improving the health of our communities. Today I will talk about two entrepreneurs with new technology for sustainable agriculture that are interested in locating in West Philadelphia, and I will talk about two suggested demonstration projects. On October 9th in a New York Times article entitled "Farmer In Chief," Michael Pollan makes the strong case that the health of a nation's food system is a critical issue of national security. He makes the point that we in this country will not be able to make significant progress on the healthcare crisis, on energy independence or climate change 121 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 until we make the reform of our food system our highest priority. We in Philadelphia have been lucky to attract leaders who in the last decade raised our awareness about growing organically and buying locally. Today there are highly efficient technologies that can provide consistent, high quality, nutritious food that can be grown eight to months a year, reducing 12 the cost. These facilities use alternative energy technologies, making them low or zero cost to run, and purify and reuse water and use approximately ten percent of the amount of water used in traditional agriculture. I have included some pictures, if you have a copy of my testimony, of what some of these facilities look like. The first technology I'll be talking about is called The Sun Curve, Micro Farm, and it's the first picture that's attached at the back of my testimony. It was developed by a company 122 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 called Inka. The Sun Curve is an aquaponic food-growing system. Powered by solar panels, a wind turbine and batteries, The Sun Curve grows plants vertically using water from the fish pond as a reservoir and a nutrient source. The plant roots grow media, and a colony of microorganisms act as a biological filter to clean the water. The system, again, uses about ten percent of the water consumed in traditional farming and gardening. The Sun Curve can store enough power in its battery bank to run a built-in water pump, ultraviolent filtration system and a computer phone. This model was originally designed to support remote medical clinics, schools or refugee camps. This system is a cluster of several devices connected together that interact with each other in a symbiotic closed-loop cycle. By combining solar panels, wind turbine, battery array, inverter, ultraviolent filter, fish pond, 123 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 microorganisms, hydroponic grow media, computer and drinking water filter, a closed-loop system was created that can be run on recycled water.
Let me ask you a question. Is that going to be shown, that picture? Because looking at this, it's important for people who are actually watching this on television.
The Sun Curve is an invention generator. The first prototype has spun off many new inventions that are designed to help people be more self-reliant and sustainable. By growing a small amount of food, generating a small amount of power, 124 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 recycling and filtering wastewater, it is able to take care of some of our basic needs. Micro farming is growing food in a small area. It can be set up on a rooftop, a lawn or a wall. Barriers to entry for this product would be, first of all, finding a suitable location and, secondly, funding. I would suggest that the Horticultural Center in West Philadelphia, which is a true gem of our community and a very underutilized resource, would be a perfect location for a demonstration project. It is in keeping with the intent of the original glorious historic structure called Horticultural Hall originally on those grounds. The Sun Curve would be available to the community to view and examine. The second technology for sustainable agriculture comes from a company called Saladacres, and there is a picture also of that on the back. It's the third picture in at the end of my 125 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 testimony. Saladacres is ready to commercialize a new operating system for greenhouses that generates its own energy and operates in all climates year round. Saladacres will provide nutritious food for the general population at a reduced cost and, in the process, create much-needed jobs year round. Because this is a year-round operation, the profitability is very high. The produce and herbs are grown in clean, pure conditions in environmentally controlled greenhouses. Irrigation water is filtered, sterilized and infused with 52 minerals, making the produce dark green and rich in nutrients. Renewable fuels such as biomass, geothermal heat and hot water from solar panels are used for electricity, cooling and heating. The hot water provides the energy for a turbine that generates electricity on site, making the facility independent of the grid. 126 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Pollution and land degradation is zero. A lower amount of water is used for irrigation, about one-tenth of that used in field agriculture. Municipal waste can even be burned as fuel with zero pollution. The Saladacres prototype will generate fresh produce for the market. It can burn landfill for energy with zero pollution, export electricity from their generator to the grid. Burning garbage with zero pollution creates an opportunity to become involved in carbon credits, which is an additional revenue stream. By burning a renewable carbon fuel, an income could be collected by trading carbon credits with a burner of fossil fuels such as an oil company. The barriers to entry for this demonstration project are, first of all, finding a suitable location and, again, funding. I would suggest that a small demonstration model be put up at Sweetbriar Mansion. We've already had 127 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 preliminary talks about this. Samuel Breck, the original builder of Sweetbriar, was an avid horticulturalist with many greenhouses on his property from which he grew his own food. A demonstration model at this location would not only be in keeping with the original use of the property, it could be a model for community interaction with children through local schools and adults through community groups. Both of these projects are interested in locating in West Philadelphia. Both are cutting edge. Both would be a catalyst for new technologies and would help distinguish Philadelphia as a leader in sustainable agriculture. And I'd like to thank City Council for taking the lead to make Philadelphia a model sustainable city. We appreciate it.
Thank you so much, and I really wish you'd have 128 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 brought a picture to illustrate some of these engineering designs, because they are right out of Star Wars. And one of the reasons why we wanted to consider zones was for innovators just like this that work out of their garage to come and provide a place for them, a fertile soil to test and beta test these designs to see if they have economy of scales. Now, just so that people outside of this Chamber kind of get a sense of this, there are interlocking mechanisms that feed one to the other, providing vile waste, solar and wind power all in one machine.
These are the kinds of innovations that you need to put in a location to measure to see if they are manufacturable in mass quantities. Now, a couple quick questions. This deviates from what rules I set up, but I want to try to move quickly through 129 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 it. How much acreage on your Salad --
He could work it on two or three acres. At Sweetbriar we don't have that much available flat property that's in the right location for the sun, but he was willing to come and put a smaller demo unit there just so it would -- people could see how it worked, and I think that's a good first step. His goal is to create these Saladacre growing units in a community such as Philadelphia and locate them in different regions of the City, so he can literally feed the population wonderful organic food at a reduced cost. So that's his goal.
No. Saladacres is 130 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 just a growing facility for salads and herbs. The Sun Curve includes -- and that would be more for a community garden. I think I've talked to many community gardeners and they're asking, is there any technology we can put? We certainly can't put a big greenhouse on our property. But this because it's vertical would fit really nicely in a community garden, but it would be on a much smaller scale.
Yes. I have seen one installed. This technology comes from a gentleman in California, and I have seen it installed on a rooftop. But I will find the weight out for you.
Thank you. We're going to move quickly along, but 131 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 thank you so much.
Thank you. MR. McDONALD: My name is Johnny McDonald. I'm one of the principals in Onion Flats, LLC. We're a real estate development firm, architectural firm and a construction company based here in Philadelphia. I'd like to thank the Council for including us in being here, specifically my brother Timothy, who is my business partner, who is also on the Mayor's Sustainable Action Council. He couldn't be here today, so I'm indulging you.
Thank you. MR. McDONALD: To begin with, Onion Flats, we have a very, very simple basic mission. First, that good architecture, good design and good buildings do not need to be more expensive. Good development must absolutely, whether it's residential or commercial, incorporate sustainability. Every home that is built in the country 132 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 truly and without question in our minds in the City of Philadelphia has to have both an environmental component to it. So from the time you put a shovel in the dirt, what happens to that dirt, what happens to that construction waste through the process, and then on the back end, how efficient does the building actually operate. And then the final point is definitely energy efficient and environmentally conscious buildings, specifically homes, do not have to be only for the wealthy. We are committed to that in the neighborhoods in which we develop to maintain a beautiful mix of the urban landscape. With that being said, I think Council invited us to be here today because Onion Flats is actually, as several articles locally and internationally have referred to us, we're literally walking the walk. We've done it. It exists here in Philadelphia. 133 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 It isn't a space odyssey. It isn't Star Wars. You can actually come and walk through some homes that have been sold right in Fishtown and Northern Liberties. And, finally, as an overwhelming kind of idea what we're about, is, we believe, just being Philly guys, being born and raised here, committed to the City, raising our families here, that hopefully we'll become a catalyst as a small development firm to have other developers, large or small, whether it's a two-unit duplex or a 50-unit high rise -- 500-unit high rise, be able to say, hey, if those Onion Flats guys can do it, they're no bigger, they're no smarter than us, we can do it, too. So, again, truly being a catalyst for other sustainable development happening out there, and it's a word that we use all the time, and it's co-opetition. We're not afraid of the competition out there, because if we're 134 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 not always cutting edge and if we're not always progressing and pushing the envelope, then, frankly, the category of sustainable buildings will never develop, and if it doesn't develop -- in other words, we'd rather be a smaller part of a larger pie than -- what's the other analogy -- a big fish in a puddle. So with that being said, I have a PowerPoint display that I will roll through as quickly as possible. Again, because these things do exist, they are built, and that's, I think, why I was asked to share my experience and expertise here with the Board. And then in summation, I was also asked to come with some ideas for Johnny plumber.
Joe. MR. McDONALD: No. We were raised -- my brother is a master plumber, my dad is a master plumber, I plumb. We were asked to bring some ideas that could help developers, large or small, really get through some of the challenge. 135 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 So really quickly, education is a real big thing and, frankly, questioning is another big thing. So kind of our tag line is, How big is your eco? Like truly, how big is it? Ask yourself. com. I'll explain what LEED is, but it's part sales to show that these buildings actually exist and part education to say what actually goes into these buildings. The LEED certification system stands for Leadership in Environmental and Energy Design. I heard it referenced earlier today. The United States Green Building Council is the federal entity that monitors this. It's essentially the report card of how green a building is. We build to the LEED certification starting in 2007, and every project that we move forward in, that is our base level of construction. Inside of the LEED certification process there are several categories. One is 136 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 commercial. The Comcast Tower obviously falls into the commercial category of LEED. We build residential units and, therefore, we work inside of the category of LEED for Homes. There are eight categories within that that need to be demonstrated through the design/construction process and even after the building is living in order to attain the different -- one of the four different levels available in the LEED certification. You can read them here. I've summarized them a little bit. Locations and linkage: It's just about where do you put a residence. Do you put it on a 50-acre farm 40 miles from shopping and work and churches? We believe -- we're urban developers. We say no. Put it within public transportation, put it where people can bike and walk and get to work, church, et cetera. Sustainable sites: How do you 137 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 use the property? We know in the urban environment that parking, for instance, is a bear to deal with and often times controls and mandates design. So we've gotten -- we've worked our tails off to figure out how to get new engineered parking systems in place. Mechanical parkings is one of those. Green roofs, community gardens, really important parts to our projects. Water efficiency. Obviously Philadelphia has a combo sewer system, sanitary and fresh water. So, again, we, on the front end, limit the amount of water that we use through low-flow faucets, dual-flush toilets, and then we control the water that falls onto our sites through the use of green roofs. Incredibly helpful, important part of sustainable construction. Indoor environmental air quality: Through the process, we're mandated and we do it anyway to seal all the HVAC vents so that you're not recirculating saw dust, Sheetrock dust 138 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 for years to come. In addition to that, we've gotten -- being originally born in Canada and being plumbers, muddy, snowy boots are something that we were always told to take off at the door. So in doing so, we've created mudrooms essentially in every one of our units to call people to take off their outdoor shoes, which track in 80, 90 percent of allergens and things that cause sickness in homes, which ultimately affect the workers' productivity in the workplace. We've designed specifically into our buildings a place to call you to take off your outdoor shoes and put on your house shoes. Energy atmosphere: We've talked about weatherization, but bottom line is, insulation -- oh, insulation, insulation, insulation. That is -- framing and insulation, actually, because if you frame it correctly, then you can insulate it to a higher R value. Then when you put the appliances and 139 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES.
080508 mechanicals that are efficient and/or Energy Star-rated mechanical systems, they just operate that much better, use that much less energy and ultimately cost the homeowner that much less money. Awareness and education: The LEED Philly thing is big for us. And then this is something that we do. It's part of the LEED process, and I'm positive there's only two people in the City that have ever seen one of these, because they're the folks that bought the first two LEED-certified houses that we built. This is your homeowners' manual. It's a detailed account of everything, from what goes into your walls, your insulation, your framing, et cetera, to how your electrical system -- and it's legitimate. Everything that there is to know about your house, you put it on a shelf. Frankly, you keep it on your e-mail, because save as much paper as we can, and it's a reference guide forever to how your home operates and how you can 140 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 operate it most optimally. And then, finally, a category inside a LEED is innovative design, and that's when you kind of think outside of the box of traditional development. I mentioned the mudroom. That was something that we've gained points because the LEED system didn't account for it, and we created it and, therefore, we got some credit for innovation. Another thing that we're doing is smart home technology, kind of Star Warsy, but really significant because it let's you control your electricity, your lighting, your heating, your cooling, as well as your audiovisual security systems from in the home, at work or from an iPhone or any web-based telephone. So this becomes the roadmap to what we do in home building. There are four categories of LEED certification: Certified, which is better than any other new construction out there; silver; gold; and platinum. 141 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 In 2002, we built an 11-unit project with parking spaces in 4 Fishtown called Rag Flats. LEED for 5 Homes did not exist at that point and, as 6 a result, we just went ahead and built it 7 anyway to the way that we knew how to 8 build a project, which was the best of 9 our ability. Again, didn't exist, this 10 certification, didn't give us something 11 to literally designate us in the 12 marketplace, but what we did on our own 13 was took on installing a solar PV system. We experimented with green roofs. My brother Pat the plumber designed and engineered a 6,000-gallon rainwater harvesting system that was then pumped back up to water the green roofs and internal garden spaces. High-efficiency in-floor radiant heat. You can read what's up there. And maybe as importantly, it was -- this development was a combination of both new construction and adaptive reuse of an existing warehouse. So 142 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 there's an existing warehouse.
And it looks good. MR. McDONALD: Again, it's all about the design. It's all about the ideas. So that's the existing warehouse on Berks Street in Fishtown. It was an old rag factory. We save our -- I was going to make a silly joke. We save our creativity for our projects, not for the names of them, is what I was going to say. So that's a warehouse that we renovated. And then inside tucked behind the veil is a brand new construction. You can see in the image on the right where the warehouse runs into a new construction contemporary row home. Next to that -- that's an image of two row homes right through, an image of permeable surface in the parking area, all the planted areas in both images. A relationship of community. 143 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 From looking out one window, you have neighbors. You're not separated from the urban environment. The image on the right shows you just how in fact close you are. Those are two separate second-floor stories of individual homes. Looking down on, again, permeable site, green parking and then the solar PV system that flanks the roof of -- it's our solar farm on top of it and you can see the brick on top of the renovated portion of the project. And then green roofs. The image on the left exists at Rag Flats. That is the first -- well, actually, the fifth green roof that we did in the City. The image on the right is a view from my cousin's house in South Beach and it is a parking garage with a green roof over it. I think it's important to take a look at that for you to understand that green roofs can be anything. That's a pool deck with -- 144 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 actually, there's a little coy pond there and we nicknamed the bridge The Bridge Over the River Coy, because it just -- I mean, just the possibility that exists out there is incredible. So quickly getting to Philadelphia's first and second LEED for Homes, gold-certified project. This is here, guys. It exists. People live in it. Two unit in-fill project. Two row homes called The Twins, on the same block of Berks Street and around the lot that goes street to street to Hewson. Difficult to see this. I can provide Council with this and testimony.
Please. MR. McDONALD: But just some images. It doesn't need to be -- there's a traditional row on the right, traditional row on the left, in-fill project. That's your backyard. Lots of natural light. Internal we use some -- that's the mudroom, as you see the image on the left. Calls you to rack your 145 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 shoes, rethinking interiors to provide more natural light. The image on the left, all of the vanities we handcraft in our warehouse in Kensington made out of bamboo. Another bathroom. Skylights to bring in more natural light so that you use your electricity less, and a green roof so that you can exist and you have some peace and privacy in an urban environment. Some floor plans. Not all that important. This one is kind of the one that we're most excited about this week, I guess. Inga Saffron just wrote a really beautiful article on this project in last Friday's paper. But this is the first project in the United States of America to achieve LEED for Homes certification at the platinum level, the highest level possible in the country for a residential duplex project. It's 146 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 called Thin Flats. It's today. We can walk you through them. Feel free to come by, on Laurel Street in Northern Liberties. A little difficult to read.
We're going to take you up on that. MR. McDONALD: Please do. This is it. Thin Flats in the context of an urban block. On the left you see a row home. On the right you see a row home. Thin Flats is clearly the image in the middle. On the right, that orange deck that's popping off, that's a project that we did back in 2000 and 2001, a renovation of a 15,000 square foot meat packing plant into eight residential units. But you can see that contemporary can co-exist with traditional and it can be new and efficient. Streetscape. Thin Flats with the NEV, neighborhood electric vehicle. 147 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 I actually was here about six, eight month ago with Councilman Kenney testifying to help promote the parking, on-street parking, for NEVs, which is a phenomenal program that needs to really be rolled out and marketed. So this is the entry to your home. Cross section of the duplex. So bi-level duplexes. All three-bedroom, three-bath. All have off-street parking with electric plug-in. Some have either backyards -- the garden units have backyards, private. The upper units have private green roofs. This is the interior. Again, the mudroom, the entry to one of the units, custom fabricated in Kensington, buy local, make local, bamboo mudroom, and then this just very cool floating glass bathroom. There's your kitchen. Open. Again, this is a prototypical row house that we just pierce as often as we can to bring natural light and air through it, 148 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 so you cannot use your electricity and not use your heating and air conditioning, because you maintain your house through its insulated envelope and through cross ventilation. Kitchen, living, dining. Again, this exists. Highest level in the country. Right down to the treads on the custom steel staircases that we make in our warehouse, the treads we fabricate and mill out of bamboo in our warehouse.
In Philly? MR. McDONALD: In Kensington, 19122. Yeah. Front and Norris. Bedroom. Again, operable doors and windows for cross ventilation. The flooring in this unit is FSC certified, Forest Stewardship Council certified, which means it comes from a certified, stamped, regulated, sustainably harvested forest. Again -- and you don't have to sacrifice anything. It's nice. I would live here. 149 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 The vanity, again, custom made we make in Kensington out of bamboo. The bowls, we connected with a local potter. There's only -- there's nine units in this project. There's sinks and 7 there's 24 of those bowls that exist in 8 the world, handmade ceramic sinks. A 9 woman by the name of Liz Kinder, who 10 happens to be my sister-in-law. So it's 11 a tight connection. 12 And then green roofs on this 13 project. You guys saw pools and the 14 River Coy. You guys saw turf. This is 15 another adaptation of a green roof. And 16 our simple mantra, Who says your backyard 17 needs to be on the ground. 18 To the point about Saladacres, 19 green roofs is where it's at, guys. 20 Councilman Rizzo's points, what may work 21 in West Philly may not work in South 22 Philly, well, everybody has got roofs. 23 We can put green roofs on every building, 24 new construction. Frankly, we can mandate it, new construction moving 150 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 forward. That will do many, many things, including control storm water management. There's already a tax credit in place for commercial construction. It can be in place for residential construction. I'll get off my green roof soapbox, but we can then begin to harvest organic foods and buy local. And not unlike you, Councilman, that's after lunch and talking about food, it sticks in my head, too. So this is a green roof. This is what it is. You got a fire pit up there. You have a beautiful area, beautiful views. You have total privacy. Just nice. There it is at night. And it's not like people don't live on it. This was shot at the opening reception of Thin Flats that 1,400 people showed up to to check out what this project was about on October 3rd. The next LEED platinum project that we're working on -- again, don't be 151 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 mistaken, it's in Philly -- is Duck Flats. It's a project that we're working on completion for for next year on 4th Street in Northern Liberties. Again, a little bad image, but on the left is the Duck Flats. Well, it used to be where the Duck Boats parked. That's about how creative we get there. So it's Duck Flats. That was actually there on -- the image on the left was their shop. It's a garage. We are reusing it. All of the parking for this project goes inside of that with mechanical parking systems, three up. So we can fit 30 cars in the area that ten cars would typically take. What that does is significantly opens up the possibility for the site design and, as a result, creates community gardens, exactly like these images show, to the tune of 4,600 square feet. So we're about density, but we're not about cramming folks together. To finish, this is a site plan. 152 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 This is an interesting image, because all the green you see, and then the green here is green roofs. And then maybe this next project, Stable Flats, you may or may not have heard about it. This is the project that has a lot to do with incorporating -- well, here it is right here. We believe this project, 70-unit residential project, again, in Northern Liberties, is a model for sustainable development, not only for the City of Philadelphia but also for all American cities. It will incorporate solar PV, green roofs, geothermal heat exchangers, harvesting of rainwater, mechanical parking and 14 to 31 percent affordable housing units, in addition to 10,000 square feet of community garden space. And, again, I have to emphasize, this is real, it's happening.
Some of it exists and the others are within the next 24 months. Here's some images. This image 153 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 on the bottom left shows how the mechanical stack unit works, used all over Asia, used all over Europe. Actually, there's a couple here in --
We're going to ask you to condense this because -- MR. McDONALD: I'm done.
We have to have copies, and we are going to take you up on the tour. One of the reasons why you have hearings is because you don't reinvent the wheel when you know about things that exist. And we are excited. Although it's not in the Fourth Councilmanic District, we are going to have to encourage you to come to the Fourth Councilmanic District. MR. McDONALD: If you don't mind, Councilman, just maybe two more minutes to actually get on record some of 154 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 the things that I think could be looked at to help more of these processes take off in the City.
I will agree to that if you incorporate in it did it cost you more to do it and how did you break even through incentives and other government-sponsored things, what helped you to be a good business model that actually wasn't -- MR. McDONALD: What helps us and a distinct advantage that we have in hitting the same construction price points as every other builder out there is the fact that we are the developer, we are the architect and we are the contractor. So we trim the fat right out of the business. Now, why we have to do that, especially in these economic mortgage times, we can't put our projects out at a more expensive rate because the banks won't finance them. There's things called comps out there and appraisals, 155 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 and without being -- so we need to put a $300,000 house in the heart of Northern Liberties -- you know, we need to have a house at a comparable market price, or nobody will be able to get a mortgage on it. Our really kind of secret to our success -- and I throw it away all the time, I give it to people, and please take it on, is, people -- consumers take a look at what -- they go shopping for houses and they say, Well, two bedrooms, two baths, with parking, same neighborhood, same price, no sustainable features. LEED-certified platinum. Chocolate, vanilla, choose. I mean, you can have either one. The recipe to our success has been, they choose ours, and that's how we build our business model. The education component is incredible because we're still on the forefront of this category, if you will. So for us to be able to let consumers know that this exists, they can have all 156 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 the benefits that go along with it, things that I really would love to -- this is just a few of them. We can talk more, but an extension or a preferential tax abatement for these projects. The utility companies with -- it's that consumption/conservation question, but to be honest, we should have them put their money where their mouth is, and if you're living in a house that saves you 50 to 60 percent in your utility costs over a year, why can't PECO, why can't PGW and especially the Water Department, who now are having green roofs not tax their systems, offer a thousand bucks a piece to a homeowner if you buy a green house. And not only green, because green can mean a hundred different things. I have people calling me all the time saying, I just built a green house, I want you to look at it. What's green about it? Energy Star microwave. Well, that's not a green house. 157 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 It's about LEED certification in my life. We should expand the commercial green roof tax credit to include residential and/or mandate it for all new construction. We should make an example of this city like Chicago, New York, Boston and other cities in the country to have all of the -- start with City Hall, municipal buildings, schools, public schools, put green roofs on them. It will create jobs, without a question. The federal government offers a federal tax credit for homes that are built -- and this is how you distinguish between green and green washed. Certified homes by companies like ECA and McGranna & Associates, that homes are more than 50 percent efficient than another new construction home, why can't the City or the State match some of those tax credits? Those go to the builders, and they're a couple grand. They're pretty easy. Another huge opportunity is, 158 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 the former Mayor's Administration has created a wealth, a wealth of land through the NTI program for new development. Should be a bold line in the sand. They need to be sustainable developments that happen on this. We need to rethink the NTI. In addition to that, expand the EV parking initiative by advertising it by actually -- I have an EV, and the Parking Authority still, they don't know how to deal with it.
I have everything in line, but I still can't get it put in place. And then, finally, education again to the consumer, to the world, in my book, equals use. So you educate people that these things exist, they'll begin to use them, they'll begin to demand them. And maybe fundamentally most important for the City and any city around the country is the economy. With demand comes jobs. And then my last point, zoning, 159 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 permitting, L&I, fast track it. If a developer is going to take this on and go through this learning curve of figuring out how to build LEED-certified homes, throw them a bone. Put them to the front of the line. Don't make them pay five, six hundred bucks for an accelerated zoning hearing. Again, leading by example, have that developer get to the front of the line, do a successful project, be a catalyst for the next developer. So thank you. I know I've overstated it. I'm available, my brothers are available, my partners are available.
Thank you so much. MR. McDONALD: Because we're passionate about this.
And it comes through. Wonderful. MR. McDONALD: Go Phillies.
I'm going to 160 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 remind you that we are going to get kicked out of here, so we have to --
We don't have that much. We have about 8 minutes, and I have another panel. 9
I can be very 10 brief. I can be brief and succinct. 11 I'll try to -- tough act to follow. 12 I applaud both of your comments 13 and your projects. 14 I would like to introduce 15 myself. My name is GP Caminiti. I am a 16 Principal and Co-Founder of Renewable 17 Energy International. We currently 18 operate out of New Jersey. We are 19 leading edge renewable energy technology 20 integrators. We design turnkey systems from start to finish for residential, commercial and industrial applications, scaled from small to medium to large, including the use of hydrogen for storage capabilities, and I'll get into more 161 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 detail on that in a few minutes, and subsequent fuel cell reconversion back into electricity. That's an important point, and we'll get into that in a little bit. What I'd like to do in the next few minutes through the comments that I've prepared, the testimony, is, I would like to start at a somewhat higher flight level and then narrow the focus progressively down to show what this could mean, this technology could mean, right down to an individual level, going through industrial applications and municipal benefits. So I'd like to start with a broad focus and narrow the focus as we go forward. Okay. I'd like to start with a statement that's somewhat controversial. I'm sure you've heard it before: We do not have an energy crisis. There is no 23 energy crisis. So those of you who aren't familiar with the concept know that there's more than enough energy 162 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 around. What we have is, we have a crisis of harnessing electricity and harnessing equipment and putting the equipment into service to provide for electricity needs. That's where we have our problem. We have enough energy hitting the planet in the form of solar radiation in one hour to power the globe for a whole year. That's not even taking into account other resources like hydro, tidal energy, geothermal or wind. So we do not have an energy crisis, period. So if we can get over that for a second, we can think about what steps need to be taken going forward so that we can make a transition. And I think that's important to underscore, the concept of transition.
Do you have an extra copy so our Sergeant-At-Arms could --
I do, yeah. I have handouts here of all of my comments, and be happy to provide them. I also 163 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 have PowerPoint slides, but John is a tough act to follow, so I thought I wouldn't even try. But I will make the PowerPoint slides available to the Council and, of course, any members of the public who are interested. Okay. Let me start with another statement that's somewhat obvious. As clean tech entrepreneurs and innovators, we're in a pretty exciting place. To say that there is interest in clean tech is probably the understatement of the century. We have a situation which is very, very serious, and market forces are responding. Let me just put a statistic out there for you. We know that over nine percent of all venture capital and equity funding going out in 2007 went to clean tech investments. That's up dramatically. The overall space is growing at a stunning rate. We have seen growth of 60 percent from 2006 to 2007 up to a total of about $148 billion in clean 164 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 tech investments. Now, that having been said, the question is, where does it go from here? We see no indication that the level of investment and economic activity in the clean tech sector is going to subside in the next ten years. On the contrary. We expect it to grow to over a quarter of a trillion dollars in the next ten years. That means that we have to think about how we can be a part of this in all of our respective communities to get a slice of that pie. I'll get into some specifics about what that investment could get for us going forward, but for now, let me say that the situation is serious in terms of energy supply. We know that the energy consumption is projected to go up by 50 percent by the year 2030. So that's the fact. Fifty percent more than our generating capacity will allow for right now. We will respond by doubling electricity generation by 2030. So the 165 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 question is not is this going to happen. The question is how is it going to happen. Carbon-based fuels, all of them, whether natural gas, coal or oil, are under increasing pressure. We know this through international agreements and also the pending carbon tax and cap and trade schemes, which are a part of both major presidential candidates' platforms as we go into the election. So we know this is coming. What is the solution? Well, we regard ourselves as pragmatists. We're not fundamentalists in any way. We understand that any solution, long-term sustainability solution, will represent a mix of various technologies as we transition from a carbon-based energy supply into a clean tech or renewable energy supply. You'll probably see natural gas come up first. That's the low-hanging fruit as we replace carbon-intensive 166 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 fuels like coal with natural gas. But in this mix, the role of renewables is not to be underestimated. Let's just say this as simply as possible and get it right out there: Renewable energy is free. It's free. It's a gift. The wind does not cost us anything. The sun does not cost us anything. Tidal flows don't cost us anything. The heat from inside the earth's mantle costs us nothing. What costs us something is the equipment to harness it, harness it and capture it. Those are capital costs, but the fuel costs are nothing. So as we move into a mix for transitioning into an energy future that's sustainable and predictable, overlooking the value of free fuel is something that no one can afford to do. We also need to look at reducing costs in terms of transmission and distribution. In other words, if you're generating your electricity from a 167 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 remote site and you have to transport it hundreds or even thousands of miles to get it to destination, there are obviously going to be costs associated with that and efficiency losses.
The previous panel did an excellent job in outlining how important efficiency is. We know that efficiency is the low-hanging fruit. John made a number of examples in building technologies. Obviously the return on investment on efficiencies is greatest, because a dollar you don't spend is, of course, going to give you an immediate return. But renewable technologies are right now, absolutely viable and doable to service active system needs. So wherever you need to generate additional electricity above and beyond which you can save through efficiency day-lighting strategies, cross-flow ventilation, things like that, renewable energy technologies can address. So wherever possible, if we can 168 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 simplify transmission and distribution, we're going to cut costs and increase reliability. Not coincidentally, we also have a national security component to this. I had an interesting conversation not too long ago with James Woolsey, former head of the CIA, who is really the hawk's hawk and your spook's spook, and he is about the farthest thing that you can find from a tree hugger I've ever met, and he minces no words. He says this is a national security issue. So having distributed generation; in other words, on-site generation as close to destination where the energy is going to be used as possible, makes sense on a number of different levels. Not only financial, but also national security. So what are the challenges going forward with renewable energy systems? We talk about capital costs and we talk about capital cost parity. Is it 169 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 equal to just drawing from grid sources, traditional grid sources, like coal, natural gas and nuclear right now? And the question -- the answer is no. Right now we are not at cost parity for capital costs.
I just want to state for the record what my colleague brings to my attention. I meant that the whole hearing had minutes, not that 12 your testimony would be 20 minutes. 13
I'm sorry. Then 14 I will cut to the chase and try to 15 abbreviate this very quickly. 16 So we know that it's an 17 exciting space. That goes without 18 saying. Lots of investment going on. 19 Let me just give one last 20 example out of the financial sector what this could mean, the investment in a clean tech economy on a local basis, what the yield is. Let's just say, for example, for purposes of illustration that we 170 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 invest $150 billion in the next ten years in clean tech and energy efficiency technologies. What does that get us? What it gets us is a reduction of Middle Eastern oil needs, imported oil, by between 40 and 80 percent. It gets a reduction of CO2 emissions between 460 and 923 million tons in that ten-year period. That translates to $13.8 to $27.7 billion at current market value of tradable CO2. This does not take into account other greenhouse gases; for example, nox or sulfur oxide. And, most importantly, investing in the clean tech sector would create three million new jobs, which translates to approximately two percent of all current employment in the U.S. So, in other words, any region, any city, any municipality is going to overlook clean tech jobs and development at its own risk. Okay. Now, how does this translate into business activity on a 171 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 more local level? Let me give you some examples. We work with businesses, we work with homeowners, and we work with industries to talk about renewable energy solutions. What we do is, we provide a solution to what has traditionally been the Achilles heel in renewable energy production, which is variable production or intermittency. In other words, what do you do when the sun doesn't shine or the wind doesn't blow. You need a way to store it. What we do is, we take excess that's not being used, excess wind power, excess hydro power, excess solar that's not being used to satisfy loads, and we use it to generate hydrogen from a water source. We do that through the process of electrolysis. So we split the water into its base elements, hydrogen and oxygen. We put the hydrogen into storage. The hydrogen then -- it sounds scary, but it's not, because we say hydrogen, people think Hindenburg. We 172 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 have information on that to show that that's also a misconception, but I don't want to digress.
Hydrogen gets reconverted into electricity or used as a fuel for vehicles. Yes?
Let me just do this. A, I went to your house in New Jersey and it is the most remarkable thing I've laid eyes on, until I get to Kensington. So what I'm saying is, you use thermal, hydro, solar all in one system.
And it was a beautiful home that heated hot tubs and dishwashers.
My question -- and we're going to go to the question portion, because I have to go to the next panel -- could these things co-exist in one zone?
All of the things that you guys testified to. MR. McDONALD: Positively.
And would you feed off of one another, where we talk about the agro portion of this and --
And so my point in this hearing is that we should pick areas where you can use density, where you can use access to one another to create a synergy that is cost effective and beneficial to the public. So that's what we want to do.
I'm telling 174 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 you, I went out there, I rode in a hydro car. I didn't get in the hot tub, but I enjoyed all of the aspects of that complete home, which didn't produce a solar -- I mean, a carbon footprint at all.
Sent rebates back to the grid and made the electric company pay them money.
Which are salient points I think we need to put on the record. The question becomes, we need a beta testing zone so that we can do this again. You say it exists. I'm going to go take a look at it. But I want to put it in areas, not scattered out into the Hinterlands, but in neighborhoods in West Philly, East Falls, Roxborough, all over our city, so that we can look and measure these things over a period of time. 175 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
It's eminently doable. And let me just add to that very briefly, that all of the systems that we put in, all of the equipment we use, is UL listed and is governed by existing building codes. We've done the heavy lifting in terms of inspection and permitting. So these systems can be put in anywhere at any scale desirable. You can scale it up or you can scale it down, right up to the utilities scale. In other words, I was at a PJM conference not too long ago and they were pulling their hair out trying to figure out where they're going to get additional generation to meet forward markets. Okay? And the question came up, Well, what about renewables? Because, of course, the renewable portfolio standard. How about we just expand the renewable portion of the energy mix? And here's the buzz word that came up: Asset reliability. In other words, if you put in a hundred megawatts of solar, you've 176 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 got to put in a hundred megawatts of natural -- I'm sorry; simple cycle natural gas to back it up, because the storage component is not there. With a hydrogen generation and storage, now you have load-leveling capabilities, storage capabilities, you can meet base load. Let's go back to something John said very briefly as an illustration of how you can use this to generate a revenue stream.
Very brief. Very brief. Smart metering. You take your stored hydrogen, you reconvert it back into electricity, sell it back to the grid at peak rates and then fill up your hydrogen tank in the middle of the night at off-peak rates and capitalize on the differential. It's a revenue stream that's generated.
And I think 177 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 what the -- and we're going to, if my panel has questions, we're going to move to the next panel. If not -- the thing that it was, integration. I think the one word --
-- that made sense. That's what I want to take a look at as we do these zones to figure out what the subtle right combination of solar, wind power, thermal and all of that working together in systems that can be mass produced.
But the point of it is, not to make that assertion and assumption citywide at first.
We're not only -- just one last sentence and then 178 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 I'll be quiet, I promise.
We not only provide custom solutions for multi-family units or things like this, but we're also looking to commercialize exactly the way you're describing, Councilman, so that we can mass produce and create the clean tech jobs that are connected with that. That's where we're going with our company.
Thank you, and keep doing what you're doing, because we're going to try to catch up with you by way of government. Thank you. Can the Clerk introduce the last panel.
We have Dennis Lee from American Cities; James White, the Policy Coordinator for Philadelphia Association of CDCs; Vanessa Brown, West Philadelphia Coalition; and Lindsey 179 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Gilmour from --
We are going to ask this panel to condense and codify. Now, I'm going to say it again. Make short your testimony. So we can keep the written testimony on the record, but we want to get it in and be out by the next committee's hearings. Thank you all. Please come up and state your name for the record. (Witnesses approached witness table.)
Thank you, and thank you for your patience. I appreciate -- we've gotten so much good testimony, and it's food for thought, but we want to make sure everybody gets on the record. Who is going first? Mr. Lee?
I guess I am. Good afternoon, and I will make my comments brief.
Your name again for the record. 180 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508
Good afternoon, Councilman Jones. Good afternoon, Councilman Greenlee. Good afternoon, Councilwoman Blondell Reynolds Brown and to many friends, partners who are here with us today. Thank you for the opportunity to participate in today's hearing on sustainable development initiatives and strategies. My name is Dennis Lee, as I stated before, Director of Project NEAT, an environmental program of American Cities Foundation. American Cities Foundation through the Project NEAT --
Okay. -- (continued) focuses on educating the public about 181 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 environmental issues through the implementation of best management practices designed to revitalize and uplift Philadelphia communities. As a catalyst for addressing issues facing minorities, American Cities Foundation has created programs that combat those issues ranging from educational programs for youth, urban transportation issues and entrepreneurship to urban environmentalism, including environmental justice. I appreciate having this opportunity to comment about American Cities' contributions and its support for the City's sustainable developments and strategies. As a community advocate for over a decade, I've had the opportunity to be confronted firsthand with many issues from community residents about the need for more impactful revitalization and sustainable efforts in their communities. Since 1992, American Cities 182 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Foundation has addressed this need. What differentiates American Cities Foundation from other community-based organizations is that we have actually developed a green workforce known as NEAT Team, comprised of residents who live in our inner city neighborhoods. These NEAT Teams are trained to implement physical improvement projects throughout communities in the Philadelphia region. These physical improvement projects include, but are not limited to, tree plantings, concrete cutting, rain barrel installations and debris removal. Through our outreach and survey efforts, we learned that residents were willing to incorporate some storm water best management practices in their communities in conjunction with other physical improvement projects being performed by Project NEAT. These green projects have now become the cornerstone for revitalizing communities. They have made a positive impact on the community 183 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 on so many levels. They have enhanced the physical appearance of these communities. They have encouraged residents to develop their own unique urban greening initiatives, and they have sparked an interest in the economic growth of the local business community. Like the Sustainable Business Network, ACF encourages communities to engage in the triple bottom line by creating community wealth through education and environmental responsibility. We've done this, and it works. ACF's promotion of environmental initiatives coincides with and strongly supports the objectives of the City of Philadelphia's sustainable development and strategies. With regards to creating green districts in the City of Philadelphia, we would like to suggest that neighborhoods that have demonstrated and encouraged greening initiatives, such as storm water management, green businesses, recycling, 184 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 green collar jobs, green building and educating the community on ways to increase their green footprint, should be given special incentives towards continuing these efforts. There is a need to continue to grow concept awareness in these communities. We have learned that in any community, one segment of the population will be quick to value the benefits and attributes of environmental initiatives. However, creating awareness among those who are not actively seeking knowledge and information in this area or are reticent to change behavior is vital to improving the urban environment. In the long run, this will allow such entities such as community groups, businesses and schools to spread the environmental message and expand their constituencies. It works. In our targeted areas, West, Southwest and North Philly, we have planted over a thousand trees with our partners. Trees enhance the physical 185 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 appearance of a neighborhood while reducing the amount of storm water runoff entering Philadelphia's combined sewer system.
In the areas where we have planted trees, the results are visible and remarkable. We would also like to suggest that according to this resolution, these areas are a great fit for being classified as green districts within the strategies presented in this resolution. Classifying them as designated zones would illustrate environmental measures that promote sustainability in our city. One important example of a community which could have benefited from being a green district is the West Parkside community, which welcomed the construction of the Park West Town Shopping Center to their neighborhood. This construction project has encouraged economic growth in the West Parkside community and transformed the neighborhood's appearance. What you may 186 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 not know is that the shopping center is a 341,000 square foot center that has a rain garden basin that captures 70 percent of the storm water runoff. Let me say that again. It has a 341,000 square foot center that has a rain garden basin that captures 70 percent of storm water runoff. American Cities Foundation through Project NEAT, along with other partners, was instrumental during the planning of the Park West Town Shopping Center in getting this project to incorporate a storm water management plan in its design. Today, this project has become an outstanding educational model to community residents and students for its green building designs and water conservation initiatives. The Business and Technology Center, which is adjacent to the Park West Town Center, has begun to incorporate green initiatives in their 321,000 square foot building. Building managers are recapturing water from one 187 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 of their roofs, and they have container gardens in the parking lots, and there are plans to develop one of the largest green roofs in the City. This process has been slow because of costs and lack of incentives, not because of lack of desire. Another project that American Cities Foundation helped cultivate in the Philadelphia area is the Triangle Park project, not in Overbrook, but in Wynnefield section of the City. This will involve transforming a triangular-shaped lot into a beautiful mini park, enhancing the beauty of the neighborhood as well as incorporating several storm water best management practices, such as a porous walking track, trees and flowers and solar lighting in the design. These are just two of the many demonstration projects in Philadelphia's inner city neighborhoods being carried out by American Cities Foundation. We 188 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 believe that any one of these neighborhoods could be considered a designated zone for sustainable development. There is an urgent need for an expansion of these demonstration projects. Therefore, there should be some special interest and incentives given to those residents and businesses that look to explore and implement environmental measures that promote sustainable change in our city. We suggest a few recommendations. The creation of residential green districts such as neighborhoods the American Cities Foundation, community development corporations and other organizations have already worked with. Identifying and targeting communities for energy conservation and weatherization initiatives. Areas where there is a high ratio of vacant, abandoned properties to occupancy would 189 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 be prime targets for energy conservation and weatherization initiatives, given the row house structure of most neighborhoods. Creating green business districts in commercial corridors and provide tax incentives and low-interest loans and even grants through the creation and capitalization of a green fund. These incentives would encourage neighborhood businesses to recycle, practice storm water management and weatherize their retail establishments.
American Cities Foundation strongly supports your efforts and this timely resolution. Thank you again for the opportunity to present our testimony and to further the environmental sustainability of neighborhoods in Philadelphia. I believe that was within four minutes.
I just 190 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 wanted to point out that we grew up in the same kind of neighborhood together and I always was afraid of you. That's why I didn't cut you off. So I just wanted to state that for the record. But in sincerity, I want to thank you and American Cities for all you have done, not just in West Philly but throughout the City. I don't think short of Johnny Appleseed there are more private citizens and non-profits that have planted more trees than you have in the recent months, and we appreciate that. The first I ever heard the concept of rainwater runoff, I heard it from you and American Cities. So we applaud what you do. We want to encourage you to be a part of that. What you guys in this panel particularly represent are the bottoms-up approach to what this green thing will be. Not from the federal government but from communities, and so we appreciate 191 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 what you do.
Who is next? I didn't grow up with you, so you're going to condense that.
Good afternoon and thank you for the opportunity to testify. My name is James White. I am the Policy Coordinator of the Philadelphia Association of Community Development Corporations, PACDC. PACDC is a citywide association of 80 community development corporations and other organizations that have extensive experience working to revitalize neighborhoods and meeting the community development needs of local residents. We would like to applaud the Committee on Transportation and Public Utilities and the Committee on the Environment for providing a public forum to discuss the proposed creation of designated areas in which demonstration projects, environmental tools and 192 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 sustainability strategies such as renewable energy, green building design and construction can be advanced. PACDC believes that there are many opportunities for green infrastructure practices to be applied to revitalize and enhance our neighborhoods and provide benefits to our residents, and look forward to the opportunity to work with Council and other stakeholders in the development of pilot programs and incentives to advance sustainable development in Philadelphia. I would like to focus my testimony on the need to build a green infrastructure in Philadelphia and connect it to the work of CDCs, such as transit-oriented development and green affordable housing development. Transit-oriented development, TOD, is growing in popularity, but often the focus of such projects is on the environmental benefits and the innovative design. In addition, we need to look at 193 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 how TOD can serve the needs of working families by expanding access to affordable housing and/or jobs for community residents and providing a better transit linkage for community residents to commute to job opportunities elsewhere. In many cities across the country, TOD projects stimulate new higher density, mixed-use real estate development. However, such projects do not maximize their potential to benefit the community if all of the housing is upscale and the jobs are polarized between well-paying professional positions and minimum-wage service jobs. In order to ensure that Philadelphians reap all the benefits of transit-oriented development, the City needs to put zoning and other measures in place to support appropriate TOD. For example, the City should link proposed TOD projects to the City's affordable housing goals and initiatives, emphasizing investments in designated 194 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 areas where private sector resources and public affordable housing funds can be maximized when combined with sustainable development initiatives. Furthermore, TOD projects should be developed as gateways to communities and designed to increase local access to goods, services and products in communities. Several CDCs are currently working on such TOD projects at rail stations in their neighborhoods, such the Asociacion Puertorriquenos en Marcha, the Enterprise Community CDC/Enterprise Heights Real Estate Development Company, and the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation. My other point that I want to focus on here, and I'll be brief, is green building. A number of our CDC members are currently undertaking green affordable housing development in Philadelphia. This summer PACDC convened a working group with some of these members and the Pennsylvania Environmental Council staff to examine 195 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 barriers and solutions to advancing green building in Philadelphia, specifically as it relates to affordable housing development. CDCs recognize the benefits of green building both to the future residents of these homes and the environment and are working to integrate these practices into their development.
However, they are grappling with the issue of how to pay for very real additional upfront costs of the green building given the limited public resources for affordable housing development and the difficulty in accessing private sector green funding. As a result, they must value engineer some green building features out to make more affordable developments financially feasible. The working group researched what other cities have done to foster green building, including the City of Chicago. In the late '90s, Chicago 196 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 adopted a number of green infrastructure practices to facilitate sustainable development and encourage smart growth. The City Administration led by example by implementing new construction standards for all public buildings. The City's Department of Planning and Environment developed green building initiatives such as green rooftops on municipal buildings, including City Hall, and sponsored pilot projects such as the Green Homes initiative. Green Homes for Chicago demonstrated how energy-efficient and environmentally friendly practices can be incorporated into affordable housing design and construction. In 2000, the City of Chicago's Departments of Environment and Housing held a competition to solicit green single-family home designs. The purpose of the competition was to generate the most creative and resourceful applications of existing green technology and simultaneously make it affordable. 197 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 These outstanding pilot programs paved the way for Chicago to become recognized as a model city and an international leader for sustainable development. Like Chicago, we believe we need to put a more supportive infrastructure in place if we want to significantly advance green building and sustainable development strategies here. The proposed creation of green zones and related incentives would provide Philadelphia with an opportunity to pilot such initiatives and help create the environment to advance green infrastructure practices locally. PACDC and Pennsylvania Environmental Council invite you to join us for a workshop and discussion that we are sponsoring on advancing green building in Philadelphia on Wednesday, November 12, 2008. And I have attached to my testimony a flyer for that. Also attached you will find a description of what APM is doing around green building 198 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 on Sheridan Street. They proposed affordable homes that are costing us, due to the constraint of public funding, about 300,000 a piece to develop, but will be sold, because they're affordable homes, through the Housing Trust Fund at between 150 and 175 thousand. But what we need and what we hope that the Committee moves forward in doing when they make these designated areas is to consider to link them to existing community development projects and to bolster and provide incentives for all of green development in the community. Thank you.
That was the sound of the next Chairman saying they're going to get me if I don't move this along. No. Thank you for your testimony, and I really did underscore, as Councilwoman Brown talks about, linking it to existing projects, linking 199 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 this zoning to affordable housing and making sure that also a third link would be to green job opportunities at the community level that aren't all high-end jobs. So I took that from your testimony, and we'll make sure that's a part of the record.
Good afternoon. Thank you so much for this opportunity to address the joint committees today. My name is Lindsey Gilmour. I'm a Founder and Co-Chair of Green Village Philadelphia, and Green Village is a coalition of local business owners, socially responsible investment specialists, sustainable design professionals and business development experts whose purpose is to create a vibrant model of sustainable urban renewal and revitalization, developing underutilized land adjacent to an economically sensitive residential area 200 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 in a neighborhood near Central Philadelphia. The heart of the Green Village strategy is the development of a green business marketplace built around public common spaces that will be a diverse community of sustainable local businesses, mission-aligned non-profits and mixed income residents. The Marketplace will incorporate green public open spaces, house an incubator and accelerator for clean technology, green retail and triple bottom-line businesses. It will foster and support urban farming initiatives, but, most important, it will cluster in one accessible destination the goods and services and jobs of a local green economy. Now, you've heard a lot about the kind of development that we want to create and the benefits that it will provide to the City and to the City residents, so I don't really need to go 201 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 into great detail. But I will just point out a few quick things. This kind of clustered urban business marketplace development will benefit the City in the following ways. Not exclusively these ways, but it will include public transit-oriented urban development that reduces the need for personal transportation and dependency on fossil fuels; living landscapes on, in and around buildings that significantly absorb storm water and reduce urban heat-island effects; easier access to locally produced goods and services, keeping wealth circulating in the communities that need it most; local jobs and equitable land ownership, preventing displacement of marginalized residents. We're very concerned about this kind of development not simply being the typical gentrification effect on a community -- having the typical gentrification effect, and a safer, healthier and more beautiful urban 202 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 environment that encourages people to feel more connected and responsible to their neighbors and to their environment. Right now in terms of location we are looking for a vacant site approximately one acre in size for the Marketplace. The plan is to build and/or rehabilitate several buildings surrounding a central public marketplace utilizing 75 percent of the total footprint, and percent of the 13 available footprint will be reserved as 14 open green space for the community. 15 Total building square footage 16 of the development will be approximately 17 127,000 square feet. The built space 18 will likely comprise three or four 19 floors, divided between commercial and 20 residential space, with retail businesses 21 occupying the first floor, other 22 commercial tenants occupying the second 23 floor and residential tenants on the 24 third and fourth floors. 25 At this time, we are looking at 203 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 several different neighborhoods, but Green Village Marketplace would ideally serve as a bridge between a high poverty zone and the affluent business and residential zones closer to Center City. Locating the Marketplace on or near commercial corridors that create the borders between these communities would ensure a sustaining customer base for the businesses, while providing economic development opportunities for workers, entrepreneurs and residents in the less affluent neighborhoods. And the particular point here is that it will be very difficult for this kind of marketplace to survive in a very poor neighborhood.
It needs to have access to more affluent -- a more affluent community and provide services and jobs and so on for the less affluent community. Examples of such bridge locations include South Kensington and its connection to Northern Liberties and 204 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 Fishtown, Francisville and its connection to Fairmount and the Art Museum district, and Mantua and its connection to the Powelton neighborhood. As you've heard today, in the long term this kind of development will decrease the financial burden on City government for public infrastructure and services, as well as the cost to City businesses and residents. A crucial goal of this project is to ensure affordability, and we're hoping that we can work with concerned members of City Council to explore ways to expedite this process. Now, I have more in my testimony on suggestions for how this could -- suggestions for ways that City Council could expedite the process specifically from a developer's point of view. You've heard today about ways that City Council could help residents incorporate green design into their existing homes. This will be how can 205 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 developers creating new developments and rehabilitating existing buildings and infrastructure cut down on their pre-development and development costs and reduce the cost of the total development so that we can make a more affordable -- create more affordable spaces for people. So I'm going to stop there, because I know we have very little time. The pictures that I added included with this testimony are simply illustrative. They're not specific to this project. Thank you so much for your time and attention, and please don't hesitate to contact me about the project.
I really think some of the illustrations, we have to figure a way technologically to make sure people out there that are watching and looking at these can see some of these --
I actually have a little travel drive with some really crazy-looking pyramid farms and all kinds 206 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 of things.
Okay. We're going to get to our final testimony, Ms. Brown from the West Philadelphia Coalition.
It started good morning, but now good afternoon, and I'll be very brief. Actually, I just want to say I'm looking forward to bridging a very strong relationship with our Councilmembers and especially my Councilwoman, Jannie Blackwell. And I'm here today to really speak from my heart about what I feel is happening in the community where I live as far as our engagement in sustainability and the whole green culture that's coming very 207 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 soon and very quickly. What I realize is that the people who live in my neighborhood that come from low-income communities bear the burden of the crisis. When the crisis hits -- or for many of us, it has already hit -- we have less options when it comes to paying our utility bills, repairing our homes. We don't have as many options as many other people do who are participating in a lot of the initiatives and the tax credits that are available right now to build the infrastructure of their home, to include solar panels, to do the geothermal, waterless tanks, all of the different improvements that are on the table right now. We have the least options to retrofit our homes. So it's important that we give a voice to those communities when we talk about this process. Often I see when I attend the conferences that we're very underrepresented in those venues, and as 208 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 we move forward and we talk about creating legislation, I hope that we would just think about how do we inspire those communities to not only participate, but some type of mandatory reforms that would level the playing field for those communities, because in the near future, I would like to see more of the folks that I represent being the presenters and coming up with these innovative ideas and technologies, and the only way we're going to do that is as we move forward, we put the incentives in there and make sure that we have minority participation, make sure that we have programs that inspire young people today to be a part of this process. I'm not going to sit here and take a lot of your time, because we will be working together for a long time on a lot of these initiatives, and just to know that this is where I'm coming from. I always want to make sure that we're inspiring the next generation to come up 209 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 and make sure that we're there. So I just want to say thank you so much for that opportunity.
Well, Ms. Brown, thank you for that testimony, and you were the only one who followed -- no. I won't say that. You also followed instruction. I don't know if it's a sexual orientation thing, but I'm just glad you did. But let me say this: I am encouraged by the possibility of you at the Harrisburg level taking this interest there, and it is only through state, federal and local synergy that public policy will have an ability to impact what's already going on around us. And if we learned anything from the testimony today, that things are happening around us, and sometimes it takes government a little longer to catch up to what the private sector and non-profit communities are doing, but what we don't want to be 210 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 is obstructionists. We want to figure out ways to get out of your way to help you along and to facilitate more resources, not less, but more resources so that you can continue your good works at the local level. So I look forward to working with you in the near future. Now, do my colleagues have any questions?
My only closing comment -- a couple of things. I want to first commend the Chairman of this Committee for the breadth and mix of panelists that came before us, number one. Number two, it is important to have those in the trenches, like some of you are, on the front line who are aware of the issue. Number three, you should know that I called for hearings on how we indeed educate consumers across the board on this new phenomena called green jobs 211 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 and the green economy. And then, lastly I will say, government can't do it alone. Government shouldn't do it alone. It's going to take all of us that have participated here today to reach to the constituencies that we represent and care about to share, pass on, educate, inform, enlighten and then let them know where the opportunities are around this. So we have to do our part, but CDCs have to do their part and non-profits have to do their part, the elected officials have to do their part, and the experts, the gurus on this issue, have to do their part as well. Government cannot do it alone. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, I will follow your lead and be brief. I just second everything Councilwoman Brown said, and thank you for everything you did.
Well, with 212 10/28/08 - TRANS & ENVIRONMENT - RES. 080508 that, I again thank you. All of this will result in -- we will compile a report taking the salient points out of here, things we've learned, and also if there is an opportunity to propose a bill 7 that will create these green zones, it will be based on this testimony and shaping it and guiding it. So I want to thank you all for your contribution and your patience. This Committee will stand adjourned -- recessed. I'm sorry. I'm new. I'm still new. We're at recess. Thank you very much. (Joint Committees on Transportation and Public Utilities and the Environment adjourned at 1:30 p.m.) - - - 213 CERTIFICATE I HEREBY CERTIFY that the proceedings, evidence and objections are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me upon the foregoing matter on October 28, 2008, and that this is a true and correct transcript of same. ______________________________ MICHELE L. MURPHY RPR-Notary Public (The foregoing certification of this transcript does not apply to any reproduction of the same by any means, unless under the direct control and/or supervision of the certifying reporter.)