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Town of Lexington
Sustainable Lexington Committee
Minutes of Meeting of March 25, 2014
A meeting of the Sustainable Lexington Committee (SLC) was held on March 25, 2014
at Cary Hall. A quorum of four was present.
Members Present: Mark Sandeen, Chair
Todd Rhodes, Sheryl Rosner, Dan Voss
Members Absent: Rick Abrams, Rick Reibstein
Other Attendees: Joe Pato, Pasi Miettinen
The meeting was called to order at 7:05 pm.
Presentation by Sagewell
(P. Mietteinen)
Overview of trends in market-based energy efficiency
Case studies
Belmont: 15% of homes completed Home Energy Assessments (HEAs) in
o
2013
Wellesley: 5% of homes signed up for HEAs in the first month
o
Proposal to create an “Efficiency Spot” for Lexington.
The Sustainable Lexington Committee would need to set up a website and
o
work to drive traffic to the site. Sagewell would provide customer service to
residents that access the site.
Benefits:
o
One-stop-shop for energy efficiency services
Sagewell would serve as an independent broker of services – not tied
to any one provider.
The committee agreed to get references from Wellesley, Westport, and
o
Belmont before committing to an agreement. There was general agreement
that working with Sagewell would be valuable, but we would need a concrete
understanding of what Sagewell will provide beyond the website
Solar Task Force
(D. Voss)
The RFQs are coming back from potential suppliers.
Six companies toured both the compost facility and the municipal buildings to gather
information for the RFQs.
Solarize Lexington
(M. Sandeen)
To date:
600 residents have expressed interest
o
238 have had assessments
o
18 have signed a contract for installation of panels
o
With 15 more contracts, the program would achieve Tier 5 pricing ($3.15/W)
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Water
(T. Rhodes)
There were no updates on activities related to water.
S. Rosner recommended that we review the MWRA contract to identify whether there
would be money available from MWRA to support the feasibility assessment to
determine whether Burlington could serve as a backup water supply.
Green Communities
(M. Sandeen)
Funding is available for Green Communities projects. The ideas for potential projects
included:
Cogeneration system
o
Hybrid car for municipal use
o
Funding for the Climate Action Plan
o
Funding for HEA marketing
o
White/Green roofs
o
Repairing mid-life roofs to prepare them for installation of solar panels
o
Green Historic Buildings
(M. Sandeen)
The Historic District Commission (HDC) is supportive of working with the SLC to
establish energy efficiency improvement guidelines for homes within the historic
district.
Next Step Living has been contacted, but are not interested in supporting this effort.
The committee discussed what other communities have done with historic buildings:
S. Rosner may have access to the Portsmouth report
o
M. Sandeen may be able to get a copy of the Boston report
o
D. Voss recommended that draft guidelines be developed and then hold an event with
the HDC and residents of the historic district to promote the guidelines.
Community Center
(M. Sandeen)
M. Sandeen described the recent changes being planned for the Community Center
and identified that opportunities to improve the energy efficiency of the building are
being missed.
The committee discussed the early engagement is essential and that without other
direction, the Department of Public Facilities and the Permanent Building Committee
will build to standard.
M. Sandeen recommended establishing a “Better Buildings Task Force” of members
from the relevant departments and committees. He also announced plans for a “Better
Buildings Community Conversation” meeting to be held on May 3.
The committee discussed:
Establishing incentives for commercial buildings (i.e., linking energy
o
efficiency implementation to TIFs).
Establishing Task Force goals in June to have output to review in the fall.
o
The meeting adjourned at 9:00 pm
Respectfully Submitted,
Todd Rhodes, Scribe
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