Royal Oak Sustainability and Climate Action Plan (S-CAP)

Energy and Buildings Work Group Meeting #1 Notes

City Hall - Room 122

September 2, 2021

6:30 PM - 8:00 PM

Topic: Introduce the S-CAP purpose and process, the expectations of the work groupmeetings, and the current context of the Focus Topic.

Facilitator: Woody Gontina, Julie Lyons Bricker

Computer Notes: Rachel Bush

Number of Participants: 11 (Michael Daly, Edna Lorenz, Coco Bruner, DarianNeubecker, Mike Keith, Kathleen Duffy, Amanda Herzog, Zachary Moul, Anthony Offak,Paul Vial, Woody Gontina, Julie Lyons Bricker)

SUMMARY OF TOPICS DISCUSSED

● Welcome/overview, introductions of work group members

● Review of the sustainability and climate action plan (S-CAP) purpose andprocess, review of the deliverables/expectations of the work group meetings

● Brainstorming exercises

○ What are participants’ highest priority related to Energy and Buildings?What is Royal Oak doing well? What is Royal Oak not doing well?

● Review draft vision and objectives

● Next Steps

DETAILED NOTES

Review of the sustainability and climate action plan (S-CAP) purpose and process

● Plan framework

○ The sustainability vision statement needs to align with the CityCommission goals:

○ 1) to operate the City of Royal Oak in a sustainable way supporting thecommunity, economy, and environment, and

○ 2) achieve a 40% reduction in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by 2030(from 2018 levels) and achieve net zero GHG by 2050

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○ Plan topics (6): energy & buildings, mobility, water, waste, green space,quality of life

○ Building energy is the focus for greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction andenergy conservation targets

■ In the overall greenhouse gas emissions, the city contributes only afraction of the total GHG emissions - 1.4%

■ Commercial electricity contributes about 25%, residential electricityand gas contributes about 33%

○ How do we create a plan that makes it easier for residents to engage inthe activities that meet the City’s greenhouse gas goals?

Review of deliverables/expectations of the work group meetings

● The groups will make recommendations to inform the draft plan presented to CityCouncil in January 2022

○ Suggest revisions to vision/objectives

○ Brainstorm and prioritize actions and targets

○ Evaluate actions for suitability

○ Recommend objectives, targets, and actions for plan

○ Act as ambassadors for the Plan

● Timeline of work group meetings:

○ Meeting 1: (September) define and review the vision and objectives

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○ Meeting 2: (September) review data, draft targets and actions to reducegreenhouse gas emissions

○ Meeting 3: (September/October) confirm targets, metrics, and actions

○ Meeting 4: (October/November) Finalize recommendations

○ December 2021: Draft report published for community feedback

○ January 2022: Revised S-CAP presented to City Council

● When a vote is needed, only Royal Oak residents, property owners, or businessowners may vote.

● After the work group meetings end, you can take our collective sustainabilityefforts beyond these meetings to be an ambassador and advocate forsustainability initiatives in your neighborhood

● It would be helpful if when the draft plan is presented at the City Council meetingin January, that ambassadors/work group members attend and voice theirparticipation in the work groups during the public comment hearing.

● The City is also in the process of updating the community Master Plan, theseworkshops will be critical in informing the Master Plan update

Brainstorming Exercises

● Participants’ top priorities about Energy and Buildings:

○ Getting the majority of the public and business owners to not only buy-inbut to also take action

○ Keep maintenance standards for commercial/residential buildings high, inorder for the city to be a leader in sustainability and continue to work tofind ways to take action

○ The plan needs to actually be used instead of just existing. There need tobe different plans for new construction vs. old build and increasedenforcement of energy codes. There’s statewide energy efficiency codesbut nobody enforces them, so if Royal Oak wants to go above and beyondthe Michigan codes, they need the staff and compliance to enforce energyefficiency.

■ “Spark spread”: the cost of natural gas furnaces are cheaper thanelectric, Royal Oak or the State need policy and/or incentives toenforce electrification/heat pump

■ Heat pumps are cost comparable to gas furnace - 27% more costannually for electric than gas

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■ Gas is burned at the source - there is more heat loss usingelectricity

■ It’s hard to tell DTE we want them to sell less of their product

■ When the grid goes down for as long as it did during the Augustpower outage, solar would be great, but how do you advocate for arenewable energy/electrified grid if a natural gas furnace is morereliable (wouldn’t go down in a power outage)?

○ We need to make sure this is a nimble, adaptable plan. Don’t get tied totechnology or a certain time frame because things are bound to change(example: a few years ago nobody was considering electric vehicles, butnow they are everywhere)

○ How do we get the message out to residents to reduce their carbonfootprint and conserve energy?

○ Plans should prioritize improving thermal efficiency in our existing homesand apartments vs. new builds

○ Keep efficiency in mind, in terms of how much we build, optimize energyusage in terms of efficient and appealing lighting, maximize heating andcooling to be comfortable and efficient.

● Key themes of priorities and concerns: efficiency, engagement, buy-in fromthe community, enforcement, adoption, affordability

● How do we make the buy-in easy for everyone regardless of their highestpriorities?

● How many people responded to the federal grants for energy efficiencyimprovements (179D Commercial tax deduction)? Were those tax creditprograms successful?

○ This information is not publicly available but could be found by survey. Notto mention the infrastructure funding for energy efficiency updates that’sabout to come through by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).

● DTE and Consumers have utility rebates, there are opportunities to collaboratewith them

○ DTE has micro-grants for EV-ready and re-routing in homes

○ “EV-ready,” “solar-ready,” incentives

○ Incentives should be more/higher for residents, commercial buildings getincentives thrown at them

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○ Is there a way to create a residential buying power? By going in on this asa group, can residents “bulk buy-in”?

● Rental market: how do we tap in? How do we make energy efficiency accessiblefor tenants who don’t own the building?

○ If the owners aren’t incentivized, they’ll pass the costs of energy efficiencyupgrades onto their renters

○ Could Royal Oak Civic Foundation sponsor a grant to distribute funds forefficiency upgrades to renters, seniors, and low-income residents?

● What is Royal Oak doing well?

○ Its leaders are committed to progress, the fact that this group is here today

○ (The City’s) LEED (for Cities certification) education are a good thing andneed to continue

○ Getting builders and designers to follow new codes and standards

○ Benchmarking where we are at today, “you can’t measure what you don’tmeasure”; LEED for Cities Certification

○ The City is making progressive efforts and all of the steps in the June 29thmeeting; LEED for Cities Certification

○ As a new resident, seeing the new efficient buildings (i.e., City Hall,commercial spaces) is great

○ The fact that we’re doing something

● What is Royal Oak not doing well?

○ Demanding more from interested parties - business owners, developers,residents who want to live here/move here

○ Building owners are not involved in initiatives like District 2030, “Battle ofthe Buildings”

○ All street lighting should be converted to LED

○ Stronger enforcement of energy codes

○ High usage of electricity in the commercial sector, but we’re talking aboutelectrifying more things citywide, so how does that balance out?

○ There always seems to be road construction, no construction ofrenewables or energy alternatives when there is opportunity to do so (ifthe road is already torn up, why not bury the power lines?)

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○ There’s not a citywide plan of what the city is going to accomplish andhow, but the fact that we’re working on it is great

○ Not enough marketing or education

● Parking Lot for Ideas○ No bike parking/bike racks at City Hall○ Reduce water consumption/increase efficiency through HVAC (specifically

at Beaumont)○ Green space preservation in terms of new buildings/development○ Are tear-down rebuilds more wasteful or more efficient in the long run?○ Go-to list of grants, rebates, for homeowners, etc.

Draft vision and objectives

● Vision:

○ This feels static and like it is unchanging, where it should be ready tochange with the circumstances

○ The question should be: does this vision statement hold true no matterwhat, regardless of all future changes?

○ What is meant by resilience?

■ Making sure that our city is developed and has the tools in a weatherevent, power outage, the ability to help our residents survive

■ An overarching guiding principle that isn’t specific to just energy

○ Is ‘embraces’ a strong enough word?

○ The task force will workshop the vision statement and bring back the newstatement to Meeting 2.

● Objectives:○ Objective #1: reduce consumption, but increase efficiency too

○ Encouraging electrification of commercial and residential properties as anaction of objective # 2

○ Objective #4 (resiliency) applies to all of the topics

○ Does emergency management need to be stated in an objective?

■ Cooling stations, disruptions to the grid

■ Develop redundancy across energy utilities to reduce vulnerabilities

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■ Resilience may be too jargony, should rephrase to something aboutemergency plans for outages

○ How are we going to educate and connect people? An objective shouldaddress that

○ Where do funding and budget come into the process?

■ We hope to get the S-CAP in front of City Council in January 2022,before the City Council starts strategizing for the next fiscal year’sbudget

■ This is going to be an annual commitment for them and for the Citystaff

■ Be specific when you’re speaking to the Commissioners aboutsustainability, because everyone has a different idea of whatsustainability means

■ Establish a running list of grants, similar to Detroit’s Residential Loanand Assistance Programs grant list

● Public comment:○ Darian Neubecker: Great meeting!

○ Anthony Offak: Hopefully we will leave Royal Oak in a better place thanwhen we started

NEXT STEPS

● Identify date, time, and format for Meeting 2

○ Thursday, September 16th, from 6 PM - 8PM at City Hall (203 S. Troy),Conference Room 121

○ Reminder: Face coverings are required at City Hall.

● Visit The Agenda Center to view meeting agendas and minutes.

● Keep an eye out for a follow-up email which will include: an attachment of themeeting notes, a link to the notes uploaded to the website, and the agenda forMeeting 2

● Feel free to conduct your own background research on what other cities aredoing related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions through Energy andBuildings improvements and bring your thoughts to Meeting 2.

● Questions? Please email julieb@romi.gov.

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GROUP PARTICIPATION: Responses to ‘My top priority or concern about Energy& Buildings’

From top left: Ability to get public and business owners to action; Buy-in; How to get mass adoption/howto make this attainable/affordable as it relates to new construction; Enforcement of energy codes anddecarbonization/electrification efforts; Maintain commercial properties and stay ahead of the

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infrastructure, be a city leader in sustainability; Conserve energy, reduce carbon footprint; Setfoundation for future progress (transition will happen quickly), lots of other elements of sustainabilityare based around a building; Communication, urgency, education (and dealing with the naysayers); Howwe help encourage the adoption of efficiency and renewables; Efficiency in terms of how much we build,optimize lighting to make it efficient and appealing, reduce unnecessary lighting use, optimize heatingand cooling for maximum comfort, as well as efficiency; Improving thermal efficiency of our existinghouses and apartments.

GROUP PARTICIPATION: Responses to ‘What is Royal Oak doing well related toEnergy & Buildings?’

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From top left: Commitment to progress, this group; Trying to get education about programs out anddoing things like LEED and this task force; Benchmarking where we are today, and LEED certification;Building upgrades (City Hall, Police Station, other commercial properties, road construction); Haveupdated “new” buildings, incorporating new codes; This process, we need to plan and identify how toaccomplish; Progressive efforts to date at dealing with GHG reduction in general, high commercialelectricity usage - necessary? A good thing?; Is doing something about sustainability.

GROUP PARTICIPATION: Responses to ‘What is Royal Oak not doing well relatedto Energy & Buildings?’

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From top left: Demanding more from interested parties; Getting (commercial and residential) buildingowners involved in energy efficiency programs like 2030 Districts or MI Battle of the Buildings, nothingsimilar for residential homeowners; Convert all street lighting to LED; Enforcing current energy code;Renewable energy is not as well marketed, need to make progress visible and advertise it; No currentplan on what the City is trying to accomplish and how it can be accomplished; Not marketing education.

GROUP PARTICIPATION: Responses to ‘Parking Lot for Ideas’

From top left: No bike racks at new City Hall; How much available land can be developed, what is theobjective for our open space; Solar on top of parking garages and surface lots, Bulk buy-in for residentsfor solar, energy efficient upgrades, and other sustainable, Incentives for builders to build net zero or netpositive, Change ordinances to allow for more sustainable design, new elements, faster, like pervious

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pavement, green or blue roofs, ability to turn in inefficient water items instead of landfill, DDA leveragefor solar and other energy efficient changes for build education and modification; For water group, HVACuses a lot of water; All the tear-down rebuilds, not deconstructing, is it wasteful or more efficient in thelong run?; Go-to resource for list of rebates, etc. for homeowners.

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