Evansville Climate Collaborative Meeting – July 21, 2026
Evansville Climate Collaborative Meeting – July 21, 2026
The Evansville Climate Collaborative held its regular meeting on July 21, 2026, at 3:30 p.m. at the Civic Center. Members discussed multiple sustainability projects, including an urban forestry master plan, updates to the Indiana Climate Change Impact Assessment, an anti-idling campaign, city recycling expansion, a solar co-op, and a major solar installation on city facilities. The meeting also featured a discussion on data centers and their local impacts.
Consent Calendar
- Approval of Minutes: The minutes from the previous month (June) were approved unanimously by voice vote. Motion made and seconded; all in favor.
Discussion Items
- Urban Forestry Master Plan: Led by the urban forester and IU Environmental Resilience Institute intern B. Burton. A 20–25 person stakeholder group has met three times to identify needs, resources, and strategies for increasing tree canopy, diversifying tree species, and managing urban trees. A draft plan is expected this fall. Members discussed native species prioritization, invasive species (e.g., Bradford pears), and tree fears/myths.
- Indiana Climate Change Impact Assessment Update: Staff member Lauren Lynch was invited to a 30-member advisory panel for the update of the 2018 report. The panel includes local government, academia, health agencies, small businesses, and residents. Key climate threats for Southwest Indiana include tornadic activity, extreme heat, drought, and flooding. The panel discussed making the report accessible to the public via social media kits, fact sheets, and digestible messaging. Members emphasized moving away from “global warming” terminology and focusing on “instability and unpredictability.”
- Southwest Indiana COAD (Community Organizations Active in Disaster): Lauren applied for the agency to become an official member of the collaborative network covering five counties. The purpose is to streamline disaster response and recovery. Staff plan to attend meetings to learn and share resilience work.
- Anti-Idling Campaign: 120 temporary signs were placed across 13 public properties (including Mesker Zoo, Deaconess Aquatic Center, parks, and riverfront) from mid-June to mid-August 2026. The signs were designed by high school students through a WNIN contest. Staff plan to approach high schools and college campuses to expand the program.
- City Recycling Expansion: 34 city facilities will receive curbside recycling starting next year, using 96-gallon bins. The Civic Center and Courts Building already have recycling. This expansion addresses a gap where staff previously had to take recyclables home.
- Solar Co-op Update: Partnering with Solar United Neighbors, the co-op has 119 members as of the meeting date. The installer Morton Solar (local) has been chosen. Low-income households may receive funding assistance. Residents can sign up until August 31, 2026.
- Solarize the City Project: The city is installing solar on 17 facilities (reduced from 20) with an average energy offset of 35%. The project is managed through an interlocal agreement with Evansville Water and Sewer Utility. Total cost is $6.5 million, with expected savings of over $500,000 annually. The Clean Electricity Investment Tax Credit (50–60%) is expected to bring the project cost to $2.6–$3.3 million, with a six-year payback. Facilities were chosen based on high energy use or essential services. Battery storage is also being considered.
- Data Center Discussion: A lengthy discussion followed the announcement of an upcoming August 19 roundtable on data centers led by the Citizens Action Coalition. Members discussed water usage, closed-loop cooling, transmission upgrades, energy generation requirements, small modular nuclear reactors, and community concerns about utility rate impacts and rushed approvals. The consensus was to encourage informed dialogue before forming opinions.
- Upcoming Events:
- Super Saturday (Sustainability theme) at the Evansville Museum, July date? (Free day, 11 a.m.–3:30 p.m.)
- Market on Maine on August 5, 9 a.m.–1 p.m., distributing cooling kits.
- Roundtable on Data Centers on August 19, 1–2:30 p.m., at North Park EVPL.
Key Outcomes
- Minutes approved unanimously.
- Next meeting scheduled: August 18, 2026 (note: transcripts says August 18th; minutes/agenda not available). A group photo will be coordinated.
- Anti-idling signs will remain in place until mid-August.
- Solar co-op installer selected; sign-ups continue through August 31.
- City recycling expansion to 34 facilities is moving forward.
- Solarize the City project bids and design are being finalized.
- A motion to adjourn was made, seconded, and passed.
Meeting Transcript
Good. Call to order this meeting of the Evansville Climate Collaborative. Today, July 21st, 3 30 p.m., Civic Center. Introductions. If you could call roll. Yeah, Stacey Milheiser. Here. Robert Flores. President. Bryce Taylor. Present. Absent today is Shannon Begaman and Andrew Clark. Staff president is myself, Lauren Lynch. And Hannah Jones, our McKinney Climate Fellow. Great. Approval of the minutes. I know we we skipped last month, so it was the month before. I don't know if anybody even remembers the minutes from the last time, but if you have the chance to look at those and everything. So we need to go ahead and move through the approval process. Do I have a motion to approve? I'll make that motion. Okay. Second. Second. All in favor? All opposed. Motion passes. No appeals today, obviously. So moving into the staff report, we're going to zip right through this bad boy today, aren't we? Yeah. All right. So projects that I want to let you guys know are happening. We have, so um, Hannah is one of our um McKinney Climate Fellows, and our urban forester also has a McKinney Climate Fellow for the summer. And their project is to do, so she's conducting a um process to develop an urban forestry master plan. So basically this is being led by our urban forester and intern B. Burton from IU's ERI. And um Environmental Resilience Institute, guess about my acronyms. Um and so they've assembled a 20 20, 25 person team to go through that process. We've met three times, and um we're trying to identify needs and resources through maximized tree canopy and looking at what are our strengths and weaknesses, what are our opportunities and challenges, and how can we how can we push the envelope on increasing tree canopy and uh diversifying our tree inventory? And how do we manage that within the urban setting for maximum environmental gain and minimizing um you know tree damage and things like that? So what is this going in phases or where are you guys at in the plan right now in the plan? No, we've gone through our three uh engagement sessions with stakeholders. Um and um B, who's the intern, is doing a lot of um research um here locally, learning all about our tree uh inventory and canopy and species, etc. Um so I guess you know she said she's gonna put together a draft plan this fall. So I think she's being an intern into the fall as well. So I just wanted to let you guys in the community know that the urban forestry master plan is in the works. And that hasn't been done in a long time. This is great work, I'm excited. Yes. Pretty easy.
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