dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA COMMITTEE ON THE ENVIRONMENT Remote location using Microsoft® Teams Tuesday, November 16, 2021 10:00 a.m. PRESENT: COUNCILWOMAN KATHERINE GILMORE RICHARDSON, CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN CINDY BASS, VICE-CHAIR COUNCILWOMAN KENDRA BROOKS COUNCILWOMAN JAMIE GAUTHIER
210862 dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 - - -
Good morning. Before we begin the public hearing, I will make the following announcement: Due to the continuing threat to public health from COVID-19 and the Delta Variant, City Council Committees are currently meeting remotely. We are using Microsoft Teams to make these remote meetings possible. Instructions for how the public may view and offer public testimony at public hearings of Council Committees are included in the public hearing notices that are published in the Daily News, Inquirer and Legal Intelligencer prior to the hearing and can also be found on PHLCouncil.com. I now note that the hour has come. Eliza, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance will please indicate that you are present when your name is called. Also, please say a few brief dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 words when responding so that your image will be displayed on screen when you speak.
Good morning, Madam Chair and colleagues. Present.
Good morning, Madam Chair. Good morning, colleagues. I am present.
I am present. Thank you. A quorum of the Committee is present and this hearing is now called to order. This is a public hearing of the Committee on the Environment on Bill No. 25 210862. dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 Eliza, before you read the title of the bill, I would also like to acknowledge the presence of our colleague Councilmember Allan Domb.
Okay. Thank you so much. Eliza, will you please read the title of the bill.
Bill No. 210862, amending Section 17-111, entitled "Energy, Efficiency and Environmental Design in Construction of Buildings," to update requirements and make technical changes, all under certain terms and conditions.
Thank you. Before we begin to hear testimony from the witnesses we have for today, everyone who has been invited to the meeting to testify should be aware that this public hearing is being recorded. Because the hearing is public, participants and viewers have no dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 reasonable expectation of privacy. By continuing to be in the meeting, you are consenting to being recorded. Additionally, prior to recognizing Members for the questions or comments they have for witnesses, I will note for the record at this time that we will use the chat feature available in Microsoft Teams to allow Members to signify that they wish to be recognized. In order to comply with the Sunshine Act, the chat feature must only be used for this purpose. Before I ask Eliza to call the first panel for Bill No. 210862, I would like to make very brief opening comments. We all know, colleagues, that the built environment and industry make up 72 percent of Philadelphia's carbon emissions. In 2017, the Office of Sustainability released a Municipal Energy Master Plan which laid out the following goals: One was to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from City dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 operations by 50 percent by 2030. The second was to reduce City operations energy use percent by 2030, and 4 generate or purchase 100 percent of all 5 electricity for City operations from 6 renewable resources by 2030, and four, 7 maintain or reduce the City's 8 operational cost of energy. 9 City Council passed the 10 original municipal LEED, which is 11 Leadership in Energy and Environmental 12 Design, ordinance in 2009. Life is so 13 full circle because the LEED bill was 14 one of the very first bills I worked on 15 in City Council as a legislative aide 16 for Councilmember Blondell Reynolds- 17 Brown, who was the Chair of this 18 Committee. And over the last decade, 19 there have been significant changes that 20 have made the implementation of this requirement challenging and through conversations with the Office of Sustainability, it has become exceedingly clear that it is now time for us to update this legislation in dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 order to meet the City's stated goals. This bill, this updated municipal LEED ordinance, would make three main changes to the current requirement. First, it would shift the responsibility and management for this requirement from the Department of the Planning to the Office of Sustainability. You have to remember back in 2009 when this legislation was first passed, our Office of Sustainability was not a permanent part of City government at that time until Councilmember Blondell Reynolds-Brown introduced a Charter change, which was then approved by the voters to make a permanent Office of Sustainability here in our City. And with its Energy Office Division overseeing the implementation of the Municipal Energy Master Plan, many of the project teams have looked to the Office of Sustainability for guidance to comply with the LEED ordinance. Second, this bill will update dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 the required certification level from LEED Silver to LEED Gold. The 2018 International Construction Code is aligned with LEED Silver-level building requirements. So in order for us to achieve our ambitious goals here that have been set forth by our leadership and to be an example, right, to the private sector, all of our City buildings should be built above code. And then finally, the legislation clarifies the need to certify and notes that regulations will be developed to address projects that are not able to meet these requirements, and certification will help create more clarity around best practices and really align all of our project partners upfront on their design goals. So we are hopeful and know that this legislation can and will make the difference.
Eliza, before we call up the first panel, I note that City Council Committee on the Environment Vice-Chair dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 Councilmember Bass is present. Councilmember Bass.
Good morning. Good morning. Please excuse my lateness. I was having some difficulty connecting this morning, but thank you so much.
No, no problem at all, colleague and Vice-Chair of this Committee. We thank you so much for being here. Now, Eliza, will you please call the first panel we have to testify this morning on Bill No. 210862.
Excellent. Good morning. Are you connected and ready to proceed? Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Good morning, Chair Gilmore Richardson and members of the Committee. My name is Christine Knapp. dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 I serve as the Director of the Office of sustainability for the City of Philadelphia. I'm here to testify this morning in support of Bill No. 210862, which updates the City's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design or LEED requirement for City-owned buildings. The Office of Sustainability is responsible for implementing Greenworks, the City sustainability framework, which includes work around food and drinking water, air quality, climate change, natural resources, transportation, waste and sustainable stewardship and economic opportunities. In the face of the ongoing climate crisis, Mayor Kenney has committed Philadelphia to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. In Philadelphia as you noted, Councilman, 72 percent of our carbon emissions come from the built environment. So in order to achieve the carbon neutrality goal, we must use every tool at our disposal to reduce energies in buildings. dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 The City's is committed to leading by example. The Municipal Energy Master Plan sets out goals to reduce energy used by percent, reduce 5 greenhouse gas emissions by 50 percent 6 and move to 100 percent clean 7 electricity in municipal operations all 8 by 2030, all while maintaining or 9 reducing our costs. 10 In 2009, City Council had the 11 foresight to pass legislation requiring 12 that new or major renovations of City 13 buildings should aim to achieve a 14 Silver-level rating based on the LEED 15 rating system. The goal is to help 16 ensure municipal buildings became more 17 energy efficient and sustainable when 18 investments are being made. And while 19 this still was a major step forward at 20 the time, 12 years later we recognized that to meet our new and more ambitious energy and climate goals, we must go farther. In fact, we know we can challenge our building to go further. dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 In 2018, the Barry Playground project achieved LEED Gold certification. And just last week we confirmed that the Police District 2 project also achieved LEED Gold certification status as well. That's why we want to update this ordinance. Most importantly, this update would require the Gold-level LEED rating to reflect our increased ambition of the City achieving carbon neutrality. The update also assigns the responsibility to our Office of Sustainability for updating the regulations that support the implementation of this legislation. It is our hope that by updating the regulations we can make a simpler and more streamlined process for City departments to comply with the ordinance. Thank you for the opportunity to testify, and I'll be happy to answer any questions you have at this time.
Thank you so much, dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 Christine. We'll hear from LeAnne and then we'll circle back for questions for this panel. LeAnne.
Thank you. Good morning, Chairwoman Gilmore Richardson and the rest of the Committee. My name is LeAnne Harvey. I'm the Programs and Policy Director at Green Building United. And today I'm representing Green Building United to express our support of the processed bill, Bill 13 210862, amending The Philadelphia Code to advance municipally-owned building standards beyond the current code. Last winter Mayor Kenney announced the City's commitment to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. To reach that goal, the City's entire building stock including municipally- owned buildings will need to achieve net zero emissions. This requires a planned transition away from burning fossil fuels for heating and energy. Although this transition will occur over two to dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 three decades, the City has a responsibility now to lead by example, building case studies, sharing lessons learned and helping to build the workforce to facilitate the city-wide transformation. As a nonprofit organization that promotes sustainability and the built environment, we support legislation to grow Philadelphia's clean energy economy, improve building performance, lower costs, benefit public health and address the climate crisis. The architects, engineers, builders, product manufacturers, building owners and managers and other professionals in the Green Building United community support the proposed amendments to ensure municipally-owned buildings are adopting and implementing energy and environmental performance requirements, striving for increased performance as the market advances and carving the path towards carbon neutrality. As outlined in Green Building dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 United's program Crosswalk, Philadelphia's current energy code is more stringent in its base energy performance requirements than some beyond code standards. As such, it's imperative to review and assess the efficacy of existing policy and draws on previous iterations of building certification programs on a regular basis. It's clear that the previous ordinance suggesting Silver-level LEED be achieved without verification was not resulting in the expected targets. These amendments require that Gold-level LEED rating be verified through formal certification of the building standard. This improvement and certification level will maintain momentum towards improving the building stock in Philadelphia through leveraging reputable sustainability building programs. The actions described in this legislation are only the beginning. We encourage the City to update and prepare robust building guidelines to assist dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 with RFP development as well as the coordination of architects, engineers and builders and more as they begin the design process. The City should use these guidelines that encourage design strategies that go even beyond meeting LEED gold and towards net zero energy, advancing the City's goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, as well as the goal set out in the Municipal Energy Master Plan to cut energy use by percent by 12 2030. 13 By positioning the 14 administration of the City's Green 15 Building work and Office of 16 Sustainability, City Council is 17 providing the City with greater tools to 18 guide this effort. In order to meet the 19 goals of this ordinance, increase staff 20 capacity, training and resources should be a key consideration. Green Building United is prepared to lend support such as education and resources to ensure staff understand the value of an integrated design process, sustainable dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 design standards and performance tracking. We encourage your support of these amendments given their potential to improve and extend the lifespan of Philadelphia's owned and managed buildings by creating healthier working conditions for staff, improving safety and enhancing resiliency. Thank you for your time today.
No, thank you, LeAnne. Christine and LeAnne both, thank you for your testimony and for all of your work. Before we address any questions or comments from my colleagues and fellow members of this Committee, Christine, I just had one question for you. We've received some feedback since we've introduced this legislation that we need to implement a higher standard for our City buildings, and you know our building stock and the age of our building stock in our City compared to other large municipalities. So can you dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 talk about why this particular legislation is the right strategy at this time for Philadelphia?
Sure. Thank you. I would say that there's a setting of a floor and not a ceiling. So as I noted, we already achieved LEED Gold despite only needing to achieve LEED Silver. So I think this is raising the floor up to a minimum standard that we know is increasing the ambition, but it's achievable, but that does not prohibit us from going even further or going beyond that floor for projects where we think we can do that and we want to do that and we can do it. So I think we want to keep increasing our ambition and raising up that floor as appropriate every so often. And I think we would also like to pilot things out and test them and see how they work before making it mandated. So showing that we can do LEED Gold in some buildings now means we can make LEED Gold as the floor. If we dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 can do a net zero building in the future, we can sort of demonstrate that buildings can do something more ambitious, go further and show that it works, show that it is cost-effective, show that we can maintain, that we can kind of go even further from there. So I would say this is both not the floor, not the ceiling but also not the end, right. We want to keep updating and get more ambitious as we go along.
No, thank you so much for that response. It's just another positive step in the right direction for Philadelphia, so I agree with you and couldn't agree more with your response. So thank you very, very much. And, LeAnne, you mentioned that the City needs to ensure proper implementation through resources and education. So could you just briefly share with us for the record how GBU has been involved in network previously and what you think additional education or dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 resources will be most important to ensure successful implementation of this legislation? And of course before you answer that, I have to give a shout-out to Alex Dews who used to work with us in the Office of Sustainability. And, in fact, Alex was an intern in City Council years ago, that's a little known fact, and he was at GBU. So could you just talk to us about what you think that that successful implementation would look like?
Absolutely. So Green Building United has worked with the City in the past and will continue to moving forward to provide training specific to LEED requirements. So we have held LEED Green Associate trainings to help people learn about the requirement and take the exam so they can become credentialed as well as LEED AP trainings as well. And so, through these trainings staff become more knowledgeable about dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 the integrated design process and all of the environmental and energy performance targets that need to be met through this standard and they're more prepared to design and build to the standard, ensuring that when it comes to verify whether or not the building has reached the Gold level, they could be more competent that it will. And better maintenance throughout the careers of these buildings as well through LEED is definitely something that ongoing training and support we can provide, and it's already being worked on through the City's Office of Sustainability's Building Energy Performance program. That will ensure we're maintaining and operating our buildings sufficiently moving forward, so this is just another step as Christine said to get us there.
Great. Well, that's excellent. Once again, Christine Knapp, our Director of the Office of Sustainability and our partner, I have dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 to say, Christine, you're on the Local Government Advisory Committee with us. I'm so excited about that, with the USCPA. And, LeAnne Harvey from Green Building United, thank you so much for being here and thank you for your testimony. Before you depart, colleagues and members of the Committee, are there any questions or comments for these witnesses? (No response.)
Any questions or comments for these witnesses? (No response.)
Okay. Seeing none, is there anyone else here to testify on the bill whose name has not yet been called?
Councilwoman, we have one member of the public. Mr. Michael Heeney.
Okay. Excellent. dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 Excellent. Mr. Michael Heaney, please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony. (No response.)
Mr. Heaney. COUNCIL TECH SUPPORT: Mr. Heaney may have to press star 6 to unmute his phone.
Okay. Mr. Heaney, press star 6 to unmute your phone. (No response.)
Yes. Now, we can hear you. Please state your name for the record and proceed with your testimony.
Hello. My name is Michael Heaney. I'm representing the Southeastern Pennsylvania group of the Sierra Club to express qualified support of this bill. The Sierra Club commends dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 City Council for proposing to require LEED Gold certification. However, this bill will not bring Philadelphia to the level of best practices of other American cities or even to the carbon reduction goals of Philadelphia's Climate Action Playbook signed by Mayor Kenney earlier this year. The timeline on of this playbook calls for sourcing 100 percent clean energy for municipal operations by 2030. Under this bill, new municipal buildings built this decade such as the planned replacement for the Carousel House Rec Center could be heated by natural gas, which most Philadelphians would agree is not clean energy. If City Council is serious about its commitment to 100 percent green energy or clean energy in these buildings, it does not make any sense for the City's new buildings to install natural gas boilers that would need to be scrapped a few years later. (Pause.) dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995
To uphold City Council's clean energy goals, this bill 5 needs to include a requirement that all future and municipal buildings be all electric. Pittsburgh, Seattle, San Francisco, Los Angeles and other cities have already enacted legislation requiring that new municipal buildings operate without fossil fuels. Many cities have developed building electrification plans for municipal facilities. Philadelphia needs to develop such a plan to augment its Municipal Energy Master Plan. Municipal buildings can be heated with electricity economically using readily available technologies such as heat pumps. They're in use today in thousands of buildings in Philadelphia. So including this requirement for new buildings would cost very little. Installing natural gas boilers in new city buildings only to replace them with dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 heat pumps in a few years would be far more expensive. 2030 is almost here. It's time for City Council to pass legislation to back up the commitments and timelines Philadelphia needs to meet our climate action goals. Thank you.
Thank you. And thank you so much, Mr. Heaney, and thank you very, very much for your testimony. Know that we are continuing to take a much-needed step towards a cleaner, greener Philadelphia. So thank you very, very much. Before we recognize anyone else who may have signed up for public testimony, for the record Katie Bartolotta Vice-president of Policy and Strategic Partnership at Philadelphia Energy Authority did submit testimony for the record. Is there anyone else here to testify on the bill whose name has not yet been called? (No response.) dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995
Hearing none, I want to thank all of the witnesses for their participation today. We value your opinions and I now invite all witnesses to please disconnect from the hearing before we go into our public meeting. We will now pause the proceedings briefly as multiple participants leave the hearing. Thank you.
Thank you so much, Christine. Have a good day.
Okay. So this concludes the public hearing of the Committee on Bill No. 210862. We will now go into a public meeting to consider the action to be taken on this bill. We will now convene the public meeting. Eliza, will you please call the roll to take attendance. Members that are in attendance will please indicate dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 that you are present when your name is called. Also, please say a few brief words when responding so that your image will be displayed on screen when you speak.
I am present. Thank you. The Chair recognizes Councilmember Bass for a motion on Bill 25 No. 210862. dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995
Good morning, Madam Chair. I make a motion that the -- I make a motion that the aforementioned Bill No. be moved from this Committee with a favorable recommendation.
Thank you. So it's been moved and properly seconded -- Councilmember Bass, may you just amend your motion to state that you further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council.
Yes. Pardon me, Madam Chair. I make a motion that the rules of Council be suspended as to permit first reading of this bill at the next meeting of Council. Thank you.
Thank you. It's been moved dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 and properly seconded. The motion was seconded by Councilmember Gym that Bill 3 No. 210862 be reported from this Committee with a favorable recommendation and further move that the rules of Council be suspended to permit first reading of this bill at the next session of Council. All those in favor of the motion will signify by saying aye. (Aye.)
The ayes have it and the motion carries. This concludes the business before the Committee on the Environment today. Thank you all so very much for your attendance. Have a great day. Thank you colleagues. Thank you so much.
Thank dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 you. Have a good day.
Thank you so much. Have a good day. (Committee on the Environment concluded at 10:28 a.m.) dec73f93-3c1b-424c-975c-d7eb2f951995 C E R T I F I C A T I O N I, hereby certify that the proceedings and evidence noted are contained fully and accurately in the stenographic notes taken by me in the foregoing matter, and this is a correct transcript of the same. ______________________________ TANEHA CARROLL