Good afternoon.

Welcome to the regular meeting of the Climate and Infrastructure Committee for October 16th, 2025.

I'm Katie Cashman, chair of this committee committee.

Before we call the meeting to order, I want to offer a friendly reminder to all the members, staff, and public.

These meetings are broadcast live to enable greater public participation.

Please moderate the speed and clarity of your comments so that the captioners can transcribe your comments for the broadcast.

Thank you so much.

At this time, I'll ask the clerk to call the role to verify that we have quorum.

Councilmember Rainville.

Present.

Present Osman is absent.

Present.

Vice Chair Koskey.

Present.

Chair Cashman.

Present.

We have five present.

Let the record reflect we have a quorum.

And a note for the members.

If you are here and the public, if you're here for a public hearing, please go ahead and sign up over here with Clerk Michael to participate in the public hearing.

And for committee members, please sign in to speaker management.

All right.

So we'll get started with our consent agenda.

Items four through eight.

Item four is setting a public hearing for November 13th to consider an ordinance related to the gas franchise fee.

Specifically amending appendix C2.

Item five is setting a public hearing for November 13th to consider the ordinance related to the electric franchise fee, specifically appendix D2.

Item six is authorizing a construction easement at 2225 West River Road.

Item seven is authorizing a grant application for the local road improvement program.

Item eight is passage of a resolution for the Ret West River Parkway phase two project for the Upper Harbor Terminal.

Adopting the report and cost estimate related and setting a public hearing for December 4th.

Colleagues, is there any discussion on the consent agenda?

Seeing none, I'll move approval of these items.

All those in favor, please say aye.

Aye.

Aye.

And those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

The motion carries.

Next we'll take up our public hearings.

So starting with the hearing related to municipal consent for the Department of Transportation's University Avenue Northeast Improvement Project.

We opened the public hearing at our last meeting and have continued the public hearing until today.

So we have already received a presentation on this and we have received public testimony.

But I will ask now to if anyone else has signed up to speak on the item.

Madam Chair, there was no one signed up at this time.

Going once, going twice.

Thank you.

So seeing no one else who wishes to speak on this item, I'll close the public hearing and ask if there's any comments or discussion from committee members.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh uh the last time this item was before us.

I had asked uh staff to come back with this issue of timing.

Uh Central Avenue, University Avenue, uh Marshall, they're all scheduled for roughly the same time frame and to cripple the traffic patterns uh to me is unacceptable.

And you have said that you do have a plan.

I'm wondering if you could share that.

All right.

Thank you for that question.

I'll welcome up.

Uh Nathan.

And please start by introducing yourself.

Yeah, uh Chair Cashman, members of the committee.

Good afternoon.

My name is Peter Bennett.

I'm a transportation planner with Minneapolis Public Works, and I'm also joined by uh staff from the Minnesota Department of Transportation, Christina Perfetti.

Okay.

Uh our last CNI meeting.

We uh shared information that the three projects are coordinating as project teams, and the years of which sections of each street uh to be constructed has not been determined by any of the one single project team yet.

Uh so that coordination will be ongoing through the final design process.

And so with that, I'll turn it to MINDAT to share any further information.

Okay, thanks, Peter, and welcome, Ms.

Perfetti.

Thank you.

Mindot is actually working on putting together a value engineering study that we will conduct this winter, which will look at the different modes of traffic, the traffic patterns that would need to change due to construction, which would also help us put together a construction phasing plan that will be the least impactful for the Northeast Minneapolis community.

Well, I thank you both for the answers.

Could you maybe give me the plain English version?

I really not understanding what you're telling me.

Certainly.

So construction, uh traffic, all of our different areas of expertise, along with working with the city of Minneapolis and Henpin County to look at all of our projects that are planned for the next couple of years and look at figuring out how to phase them appropriately based on what we're learning from each other.

Okay, so you so again.

I just want a plain answer.

So there will, are you telling me you will not close down all those streets at the same time?

We are definitely not going to be closing all the streets at the same time.

There are quite a few projects that will be going on at the different corridors that uh based on the fact that we know that we need to be doing detours as well as coordinating with each other on making sure that people can actually get around in this area.

We will not be closing them all at the same time.

Okay.

So will you close two out of the three?

You know, what happens with Lowry Avenue construction?

What I I want answers and I keep asking for them, and I'm not getting them.

Director Hager as well, who can jump in here?

Director Hager.

Thank you, Madam Chair, committee members, uh Jenny Hager, interim deputy director and city engineer for Minneapolis Public Works.

I I want to help with this response because Mindot has a project in the area, but Hennepin County has projects in the area, the city has projects in the area.

And so what we are doing internally is we are forming a work group led by our own traffic and parking services division that will bring uh representatives from all of these projects together to talk about where they're what is uh what the timing is for their projects, what the staging for the construction is looking like, how these projects come together and put together a cohesive plan for traffic control and staging in the area so that we can ensure that there is flow for the residents and businesses in the area.

We're going to be doing this now in the hopes that we can build in some of these requirements and expectations into bid packages and specifications for these projects as they go out to bid so that the contractors are aware of the limitations and restrictions that we might place on their ability to stage construction before they bid on a project.

Okay.

Thank you for that answer.

That that is reassuring, but I I get I'm struggling here to have to vote on something that I really can't see or touch.

And it's gonna have great impact in my ward, tremendous impact.

You're already seeing uh uh restaurant close on Lowry Avenue because of the construction up there and received style on the other ones.

So I'm just why why did it take this long to uh address this problem?

Uh Madam Chair, Council members.

Um we will we will be happy to sit down with you and and map out uh specific concerns and and reach out to businesses that have specific concerns so we can build those into our work.

Um but we do know that this list of projects is on the map, they're not all in the same year, and we will be working to ensure the coordination of those traffic detours and the construction staging.

Thank you.

For the for the record, I'm not gonna vote for this.

I I just think you should have done this a long time ago.

You're a daylight and a dollar short.

All right, uh recognize Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Chair Cashman.

I'd like to thank staff for all the work on this project and would like to move this for approval.

All right.

So we have a motion.

Does anyone else wish to speak on this item?

I'll just say that uh, you know, I appreciate that it's really difficult to manage three different jurisdictions doing transportations in an area at once and understand Councilmember Rainbow's concern here.

And I think it is something that you know the three partners at the table with the city, the county, and Mindot should be taking really seriously because it can deeply deeply disturb a neighborhood to have so many projects happening at once and the ways that people move around and and just the culture of Northeast that is really on the line here.

So I know that you'll take it seriously, but I hope you're really hearing him on this concern.

And in the South side, we have similar concerns about upcoming Franklin Avenue and Lyndale projects happening at once, and we're trying to have those conversations too about how to stage and make sure that people can still get through their neighborhoods.

So thanks for taking that into strong consideration here.

Vice Chair Koske.

Thank you, Madam Chair.

I just had a quick follow-up question of just accountability and maybe communication, what that could look like from your team or what you think that could we could propose.

I think that Councilman Rainville brings up a lot of concerns.

I mean, this is a lot of action in a small area.

And I think having you know monthly briefings or something.

So I'm just wondering if there's you know something that can be, you know, I don't know if promise is the right way, but accountability so that he can be informed and um going forward here.

Yeah, Director Hagar, do you have any thoughts on the best way to do that?

Thanks, Madam Chair Committee members.

Um we will work with our project partners to follow protocols similar to what we do on our own projects, like what we did on Hennepin Avenue this summer, where we have weekly construction briefings for businesses and residents along the corridor and and including the uh council members' offices and additional briefings as needed.

So uh we can ask our project partners to build that into their uh project schedules and um staffing expectations during construction.

Okay, thank you.

All right, next to recognize Councilmember Vita.

Thank you, Chair Cashman.

I just kind of had a similar question about the um you said they're you're bringing together a coalition of folks who are going to uh oversee uh the coordinated projects.

Have you set up like a timeline for when you all will be meeting and how you'll be reporting back to um residents and businesses or whomever about like you know where the plan is going and and timelines for things?

Sure.

Uh Madam Chair, committee members.

Um we are forming the work group now.

Um so a lot of these details that we need in order to map out construction staging and detouring.

Um, we know once the designs are in place, and these designs are just starting to come together now.

So I understand these projects are are all in the map, and and we do take the concerns around the construction impacts very seriously.

Um, and we will be working very hard to put these plans in place before the construction begins.

Um, and and having these designs and knowing what is being constructed, what the scope of work is is informative for us in putting those plans together.

So we're just on the front end of this work.

Uh we will be working with our project partners and we will be engaging community and elected officials through that process as well.

So could uh council member Rainville possibly be on the work group or someone, you know, someone representing the wards that are going to be impacted by these projects.

Uh Madam Chair, uh committee members, uh, let me take that back for uh consideration, and we will definitely get back to you, Councilmember Rainville.

We understand you have significant concerns around the construction staging.

We'll we'll work with you on that.

Thank you.

Thank you.

All right, next to recognize Councilmember Chavez.

Uh thank you, Chair uh Catherine.

I'd like to hear from staff like some of the benefits of the project because I want to of these projects.

I think it would be good for the public to hear it.

Um, Mr.

Bennett, would you mind providing us a brief summary?

Yeah, Chair Cashman, members of the committee, thank you for having us to share some information about the benefits of the project.

Uh there's a slide presentation that we shared at the last CNI presentation.

Um but this project uh started with the goal of safety.

This is a four-lane undivided roadway today that has high level of crashes due to turning movements from one or both of the two travel lanes.

This converts a four-lane roadway into a three-lane roadway.

It narrows the roadway, encourages slowing down, and it adds green boulevards to the walking sidewalks today.

Additionally, it adds medians and RRFB crossings or flashing beacon crosswalks at uh key locations going across University Avenue.

It adds curb extensions at the intersections, and there's a segment of added bike lanes from central to first.

Uh those are some of the features of the project.

Thank you very much.

All right, yeah, I appreciate that summary again.

It's helpful to know why we're making all these investments and what the community can expect afterwards that will be big improvements to the area too.

So thank you so much.

On the motion to approve this, all those, or I'll ask Clerk Michael to call the role.

Councilmember Rainville.

No.

I.

Osman.

Excuse me.

Osman is absent.

Uh Councilmember Chavez.

Aye.

Vice Chair Koske.

Aye.

Chair Cashman.

Aye.

We have four ayes and one nay.

All right.

Thank you so much.

That motion carries.

Our next public hearing is a resolution adopting 2026 proposed services and service charges for the legacy special service district.

So I'll invite David Bauer, project manager with Public Works to provide an overview before the public hearing.

Thank you, Chair Cashman, members of the committee.

I am David Bauer, project manager to the city's special service districts for public works.

I was before you previously on September 18th to present the 2026 services and service charges for the city's 428A districts.

A 428A refers to the Minnesota State Statute that grants municipalities the authority to establish special service districts by ordinance.

All special service districts before you today are legacy districts.

These districts predate state statute 428A.

Um but regardless of the district's enabling legislation, all special service districts allow property owners in a commercial area to collectively impose service charges on themselves each year to create a pool of funds.

These funds are directed back in the form of enhanced services and special amenities.

These enhanced services and special amenities are over and above what the city would normally provide with a focus on cleaning, greening, and snow removal.

Each special service district is guided by an advisory board that is comprised of property owners or their representative within a district.

Each advisory board recommends the services, service frequencies, estimated budget, and the service charge method methodology for their district.

Before you today, we have the 48th in Chicago, Central Avenue, Dinky Town, Eat Street, Linden Hills, Lowry Hill, Stadium Village, and Uptown Special Service Districts all seeking approval for their 2026 proposed services and service charges.

Over the summer, public works staff worked with these advisory boards to ensure that each district had the opportunity to collaborate on service priorities, budget development, and assessment methodology.

Each affected property owner was mailed a notice of this public hearing and the service charge amount 10 days in advance of this public hearing.

Also included in the mailing was a copy of the proposed operating plan and budget.

Staff therefore recommends passage of the resolution approving the 2026 operating plan, special services, cost estimates, service charges, and the list of service charges for the coming year for 40th in Chicago, Central Avenue, Tinky Town, East Street, Linden Hills, Lowry Hill, Stadium Village, and Uptown Special Service Districts, and authorizing the Department of Public Works to proceed with the work.

That concludes my presentation.

Thank you and happy to stand by for any questions.

All right, thanks for the presentation.

We'll have the public hearing and then any questions from committee members.

So I will proceed to open the public hearing on this item.

Did anyone sign up?

Madam Chair, there are no people signed up at this time.

Does anyone wish to speak on this item?

All right.

Seeing none, I'll close the public hearing.

And I did want to ask Mr.

Bauer a couple of questions.

Um, just about the Uptown and Lowry Hill Special Service District.

So it's my understanding that with the new Hennepin Avenue, it kind of opened up some new possibilities for lighting and signage.

Can you just share anything that you know about with the new street that's about to reopen?

What additional services or changes in services that area can expect?

Yeah, sure.

Thank you, Chair Cashman, members of the committee of Hennepin Avenue.

Um, some of the new amenities there, I guess there aren't really too many new amenities, but we do have a festoon system, so we will be doing holiday lighting.

We're gonna continue with snow removal on all the sidewalks.

Um there are some turf boulevards out there, so we will be maintaining that turf.

There's irrigation systems that we're gonna be maintaining.

Um, we have those, there's landscaping beds that we are tasked with maintaining with some GSI infiltration trenches.

So um, yeah, the that's kind of the core of what Lowry Hill District is doing right now.

There will be um with the expanded festoon electrical system, there will be opportunity to do some tree lighting.

So these are things that we're focused on this year.

Okay, thanks.

Yeah, I just wanted to ask because the neighborhood's doing this holidays on hennepin initiative to light up Hennepin and celebrate our new street uh throughout the whole month of December and do special uh advertising and marketing for all the businesses.

So just been getting some questions about what the city can contribute to that, and I think this special service district work is part of how we can bring even more holiday cheer to that neighborhood.

Uh so thank you so much for that.

Anyone else from the committee wish to speak on this item?

All right, seeing no one else in queue, I will move approval.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

Those opposed say nay.

Any abstentions?

That motion carries.

Our next item is a resolution adopting 2026 assessments related to water and sewer line repairs repairs.

And I'll invite looks like we have Mr.

Handeland here from Public Works to give us an overview.

Welcome.

Thank you, Chair Cashman, members of the committee.

My name is Jeff Handeland.

I'm a principal professional engineer in the transportation engineering design division of public works.

Overseeing the Public Works Office of Special Assessments.

This is the public hearing for water service lines and sewer lateral repairs.

City ordinance enables procedures for the city to repair or replace private service lines upon request of the property owner or failure of the property owner to do so, such that if the bill for this work is not paid, the cost is recovered through a special assessment to the property owners.

The process includes an administrative hearing where a hearing officer considers assessment objections and makes decisions prior to the public hearing at your committee here today.

This year, public works sent assessment notices and heard back some questions, but received no objections and no one attended attended the administrative hearing.

Public works recommend recommends passage of a resolution adopting the assessment to adopt and levy the special assessments.

I'll stay nearby in case there's any questions.

Okay.

Thank you so much for that overview.

And I will now proceed to open the public hearing and ask if we have anyone here to speak.

Madam Chair, we have uh no members of the public uh signed up to speak.

Sounds good.

Anyone here to speak on this item before we close?

Seeing none, I will close the public hearing and ask if there are any questions from committee members.

Councilmember Rainville.

You don't have any questions on this, but I would like to be recorded and affirmative without any objection for the last vote.

Sure, no problem.

Um I appreciate the work that you've done on these these repairs.

And it sounds like you know there haven't been any objections to this, so that's that's great to hear.

And I will move this item for approval.

All those in favor say aye.

Aye.

And those opposed, say nay.

Abstentions.

That motion carries.

So our next and final item today is receiving a presentation from our deputy commissioner in the health department, Patrick Hanlon, on implementation of our climate legacy initiative.

So welcome, Deputy Commissioner Hanlon, um, to start your presentation.

Here we go.

Chair Cashman, Council members, thank you.

My name is Patrick Hanlin.

I'm the deputy commissioner in the health department overseeing sustainability, healthy homes, and environment.

This is an update on our climate legacy initiative uh for quarter three.

The last time we were here was in quarter one.

Uh so we're giving a close to the end of year update on the programming.

As a reminder, refresher, the uh this the climate legacy initiative comes from the climate equity plan adopted in July 2023.

And uh I know there's it's election time and it's budget season, but to add one more thing is uh 2025 is on track to be the second hottest year on on record.

2024 was the hottest uh year on record globally in re in recorded history, and uh the third hottest was uh 2023.

So the last three years have been the hottest years uh on record, and so I just want to highlight that is even as at the federal level a lot of research around climate change is being suppressed and climate change is being removed from a lot of documents, it is still happening and it's still going on.

Um the climate equity plan, if I could summarize it in one graph, it is this one, and this is our carbon budget for the city.

So, in order for us to hit science-based targets, uh we need to be on that line.

You can see the different colors there that outline uh wastewater contribution, solid waste, on road transportation, fossil gas, electricity, and uh the net zero goal trajectory.

That's the trajectory that we need to be on in order to hit our targets.

And the little arrow, of course, is you are here.

Um our assessment or our ability to gather the information.

Uh we can only uh do our calculations back to 2024.

So in 2024, we had uh our target was 155,000 metric tons avoided, and what we actually hit was 115,000 metric tons avoided, which is uh we're making making progress, but in order to stay on that trajectory, we are 74% of our target.

So not hitting our target, and as you can see from that line, the further uh we move on in years, the more emission reductions we're gonna need to get to stay on target.

And that gray area there is our carbon budget.

So if we don't stay within target by a certain year, uh we exhaust our entire carbon budget.

So to stay within uh within that gray area there.

The climate legacy initiative is the first step of that climate equity plan.

Um 65% of our climate equity plan is is moving forward right now, and this is one of the major pieces of it in terms of an operational uh operational piece.

It was passed by the mayor and council.

Um it's an initiative funded through a portion of the franchise fees, it's a locally based tool, it's a local-based tool to fight climate change.

It's a community-led uh approach.

This this concept came from the community uh out of a series of city-based actions and alternatives to the conversations happening around municipalization with both of our utilities.

So, this was a main tool that came out of those conversations.

These in the climate legacy initiative uh I want to emphasize this is all team.

It's a team within city government here working across departments on the climate legacy initiative, and it also is also a team working out in community on the climate legacy initiative.

And these are all the partners, I should say two big partners that aren't on here are our utilities themselves.

They've been uh great partners, some of the most progressive uh partners in the country, uh Excel and center point in in moving for a carbon uh-free future.

2026 recommended CLI budget.

Um these are estimated allocations based on their mayor's recommended budget.

I'm gonna, for the most part, in this uh presentation stick to the operational side and the outcomes, but this is the budget piece uh that I'll probably be repeating some of this and going more further into depth in budget at our budget presentation on October 27th.

Um the allocations, the big story is that the allocations have remained relatively constant.

As you all know, this is a tough budget year.

We've been asked to make some very tough uh cuts across across the enterprise.

We actually started at a uh only seven million dollars of the 10 million dollars uh were in our first report had been coming in through the franchise fee, and we've had a lot of conversations with the utilities uh with our budget office here, and we're able to get that number up to 8.4 million.

The pollution control annual registration conversation that happened uh a couple weeks ago in the passage of that has brought our climate-related uh programming back up to almost where it was previously with some of those cuts that the entire enterprise has been taking.

So, overall, this is pretty good news where we're where we're sitting this year, considering where we started.

Um, the allocations reflect our continued emphasis on equity, that climate equity plan, it centers equity in the approach, savings for residents, savings for small businesses, greenhouse gas reductions, uh, carbon sequestration.

Then as we move down that line that I was just showing you in that graph, looking at what are the innovative spaces that we need to be moving into.

Um I mentioned that that bullet there about the funding and PCAR and its contribution.

52% of the overall funding has gone to distressed communities, and that is our south side green zones, north side green zones, income qualified properties, and then nonprofits that are serving people in low-income situations, and those meet that criteria of distressed communities and or environmental justice.

Uh weatherization and deep uh greenhouse gas reductions.

This is the biggest piece of the overall investments.

It's 49% of the climate legacy initiative.

Uh, predominantly it goes to weatherization, residential weatherization.

Uh there's also funding for small businesses, and then those large industrial greenhouse gas reductions.

In fact, we just we have our new uh industrial uh specialist that just came on board a couple weeks ago is gonna be going out and meeting with uh in industry across the city and looking at what sorts of big reductions we can get in that space.

The metrics of success, the main metrics of success are the number of projects that we do, the dollars that are saved, uh, greenhouse gas reductions, of course, and uh focusing on those economically distressed communities, focusing on equity.

2025 contracts are still in process.

I remember showing you this uh this graph last year, and it was a considerable increase uh from where we had been in previous years, and this is showing uh right now we we get most of our contracts come in in November, December, January.

That's when we're kind of closing everything out.

So to be this far along this late, and we don't even have our we had ARPA funding last year.

We were kind of anticipating with where we were at politically on a federal level, continued investment from the federal level to be moving.

Uh so I'm really happy.

I think our team is really happy with the success that we've had, and we're showing sustained success.

So we're gonna be we're gonna have a uh a lot of projects that are beginning to going to be coming in after this on that green line.

Uh so I think we're showing that there's sustained demand out there for the programming.

We've had over 1,700 projects that have come in through the CLI.

Again, 54% of the funding has gone to the distressed areas in this program uh and/or low-income qualified properties in this category.

We had the funding for all of our green cost share and weatherization programs was exhausted in August of 2025.

So huge demand for our projects in this space.

This is the green cost share program.

We have residential, we have rebates, uh, direct rebates that go out to folks in residential properties, 0% interest loans, uh working with Center for Energy and Environment.

And then I put a highlight on that low-income rental grants.

I think that's an area that people want us, people are always asking, well, what are we doing for renters?

And this is a low-income program that we work with Frontier Energy on.

Uh, and the utilities have said they never would have hit their goals as a utility had it not been for our city-based programming to be able to get incentives out to property owners that benefit low-income renters.

So that's that's been a huge success uh just since we even saw you last time uh when we brought our our uh updates forward.

We have solar group purchase, none of those have come through, so we're gonna see a number of solar group purchase grants that have come through at the end of the year here.

We have our commercial solar and energy efficiency grants, and then I'll keep repeating at the large greenhouse gas uh programs.

We have two new major efforts healthy homes and weatherization, and I'll go into those in a second, and then cooperative energy futures and their block by block approach to weatherization.

So the Healthy Homes weatherization is really focusing on the entire house, doing an all-encompassing uh looking at um the health of the house and and the occupants of the house, um two to four unit owner-occupied housing, low-income housing below 80% area median income, and then covering the full cost of weatherization and pre-weatherization.

Sometimes these old houses have knob and tube wiring, they've got construction issues that may get in the way of them updating or panel upgrades, and so those are all included uh and uh it's an all-encompassing approach to people in low-income situations uh to make sure that they live in a healthy home.

And then cooperative energy futures is a partnership that we've been working on for the last two years.

It's working with owner-occupied properties in the green zones in lower uh incomes, and it's looking at insulation, also that uh fully encompassing weatherization and looking at electrification where we can get it.

It combines city, state, and utility incentives into one financing package, and then the residents work with cooperative energy futures, so they don't need to have upfront capital.

Oftentimes you're working with people in low-income situations, even if you can cover 90% of the cost and there's still a thousand dollars left, they don't have the thousand dollars to put into the program or to put into their into their home.

And so this model gives folks in low-income situations a way to get that uh get that financed, and then the payback that they're paying back to cooperative energy futures is modeled out so that it's less than what they're paying uh currently for their electricity bills.

So they're gonna be saving money and plus uh getting the capital up front to make improvements in their homes.

And I want to talk about this as well.

We talk about uh burden on on residents.

I know that's been a huge conversation across the city this year looking at tax levy and looking at what the burdens are.

So I want to focus on the center of this graph, and that is the funding that helped make this current all the programming that I'm talking about today, uh it's uh $12.

This is annually.

So it was $12 annually uh for the average household.

On the right hand side is the average, if we look at just someone that goes in and does a uh maybe a weatherization and an air sealing project, it's a 225 dollar a year savings.

And then all the way to the right, if they're going in and doing some of the full weatherization that I just talked about, you're talking about $550 or more in savings.

And then I also want to focus on the graph to the left.

That was a you one utility rate hike uh back in 2022, and that was 115 hike on on folks on the average household for a year.

And uh I know that there's utility uh rate increases that are coming forward right now in the 160 dollar range.

And so this model, this tool really gives it's the only thing that we're getting money out into the community that is helping cut back on some of those utility rate increases that are happening in the community.

So I just want to lay that out as well.

And this is where most of the investment is going.

Um and I can I can change uh the parameters of of how I'm putting in information into these maps, and if I do it over the history of the green cost year program, uh I the map tends to look the same.

And as you know from being up here, oftentimes the city programs that we put out generally into the public are the opposite of this map.

That we don't see investment in North Minneapolis, we don't see investment in South Minneapolis.

And when we this program has been very intentional about having specific incentives in the Northside Green Zones, in the Southside Green Zones, and then having partnerships.

And I'll go into some of those partnerships in a second, too, is to make sure that they're getting out and making sure that people are aware of the incentives and the programs that are available to them.

And so this number is actually off.

I'm I'm we're we're working with contracts as they come in.

It's actually 218 projects, and I just got that from our um our analysts this morning, and it's 300 and I think it's 390 properties across the rest of the city.

Uh so I will fix that for the um for the final slides that go in with this.

But it's about 66% of our residential funding goes into uh either north or south side green zones and low-income properties.

And so uh North Minneapolis is I I would say that North Minneapolis is leading Minneapolis in terms of the green energy, the energy efficiency work, the weatherization work, the solar work that's going on in the city.

And I would say if North Minneapolis is leading Minneapolis, uh, it is also leading in the state.

And if it's leading in this state that is very progressive, it is one of the national leaders.

Uh, and I think that's a story that needs to be told is that there is a lot of positive work going on in North Minneapolis in climate change right now.

Uh healthy homes and weatherization.

I mentioned that is another one.

This is a full, just giving you an example of what it looks like when we go into a home where you maybe have mold issues, you have air, uh ventilation issues, is that we're going in and doing a full house looking at pest control.

We have partnerships with Sustainable Resource Center, um, with Center for Energy and Environment.

We go in through this healthy homes and weatherization case.

Uh, and Kelly Fisher, I think is who who manages the program, is watching right now.

Uh, they do amazing work of being very intentional in each home in some of the hardest to move.

When we say the climate equity plan, we work on the that equity piece, the hardest properties to move first.

And this is an example of of one of those homes that we're working in.

And then 12%, the next the next area is on our workforce and green careers.

This is led by our community planning and economic development.

Uh Deb Barhelgan and her team leading on on green workforce, connecting adults to accredited training, uh, workforce opportunities and green career fields.

The health department plays a supporting role in exposing youth and young adults to concepts in green career fields, solar energy efficiency, HVAC, uh, electrical careers, and uh exposing uh folks to these green careers and these opportunities.

And they are focused, again, I'm gonna repeat that in the Northside Green Zone, Southside Green Zones.

Um the Minneapolis Employment and Training, again, that's a CPED program.

Uh I will read through these because I'm I'm not here to represent Deb's work, but uh they are uh working with George Modular Solutions, creating multifaceted classroom training.

Uh they hire locally their equity focused in their recruitment in North Minneapolis, prepare new and recently hired employees with skills to produce modular homes.

Um they have apprenticeship programs created by CPED.

Um they they have their career force center in uh North Minneapolis.

If you haven't had a chance to look at that, we're actually just out there for an electric charging event that was pretty uh impressive to see the space there and to see folks uh working throughout the day.

Uh and they this is a statewide model of how they are uh really focusing on equity, really focusing, bringing career centers uh where people need it most in their communities, uh, and they have an outreach navigator that was hired in mid-November uh, I think that was last year for uh working with nonprofits uh called Build Strong Communities.

They have a goal of 40 uh individual pre-apprentice and apprenticeship placements that may not sound like a lot, but actually placing people, and that's pretty common with workforce is to you start out with a lot of people that go through training, but to actually place that many people into a job uh it is incredible uh targets that they're that they're shooting for, and to have that on a consistent basis and to do it year in and year out.

Um so this is where they're at right now.

They're at 29 placements, they've had 31 uh participants in their training, and uh they've had 12 folks uh converted from their trainings to placement and 100% retention once once folks get into the into their jobs.

This is the green career program that I mentioned.

They are uh 71% of the applicants.

It is open to anyone in the city, but 71% of the applicants are BIPOC, black indigenous, and people of color.

Um, and 100% of the funds are invested into environmental justice communities.

They've trained 206 participants uh and offer accredited training wherever they can.

Most of that work is either done out of 1200 Plymouth or out of Sabatheny in South Minneapolis.

So again, trying to put career training opportunities in communities where folks need it the most.

Next up with 8% of the CLI is urban forestry.

It is to plant more trees.

There, as you all know, there are so many benefits aesthetically, the air quality, energy efficiency, and then of course the carbon sequestration ability.

I think you had a conversation with the park board earlier about some of the work that they're doing around this, and we're excited to uh meet with their new uh forester at the at the park board to to do more uh collaborative work with them.

There are three main lines in the urban forestry program, the city tree sales, is that's the one where folks go out and they pick up the trees, uh commercial canopy that's going out to places where we know we need trees in Minneapolis and we need better tree canopy cover, and so working in those areas, and then uh green zones planting is being very intentional about going out into the green zones and making sure that we're getting, especially in North Minneapolis, where we still have not recovered from the tornado uh that rip through that area is to get more trees planted there.

These are the 2020 20, sorry, 2025 metrics.

Uh 2200 trees have been planted through the distribution events.

I mentioned I mentioned the green zones planting, 259 trees planted there, and then 205 trees through the uh business organizations.

And over the lifetime of those trees, that's something that you know, as they plant those trees, we keep getting more and more benefits as those trees get older here in uh Minneapolis, and that's over a million tons of CO2 equivalent absorbed through that program.

Policy outreach and uh community awareness, these funds uh we it funds metric tracking, community grassroots contracts, feedback and marketing to get the word out about all these funds, so to make sure that people in the city are aware of all of the opportunities and all the funding that is out there for them.

The main business lines here are working.

I mentioned those intentional to get those numbers that we get in North Minneapolis, uh, those intentional relationships.

So, and with this one, community members for environmental justice, uh, UNIDOS working on some of the block by block approach, and that's uh been a lot in South Minneapolis, where actually we work with them on the data around where the services are needed most and making sure that people are getting out into those areas first when we're doing that block by block approach.

Uh, seven neighborhood organizations that we're working with, all in the green zones.

Um, and then we have marketing through meter.

I think it's the same group that Public Works is using on their EV charging infrastructure, and then we're establishing a dashboard which will uh put some of this information more readily in your hands to kind of look at the results of these investments.

Um then the climate legacy roundtable that is engaging.

We have so many advisory groups across the city, so including the north side and south side green zones, uh, but other groups like our housing advisory group and different groups uh that are interested in this topic, and so the climate legacy roundtable brings those people together and we present them the programs, and they've they've offered us a lot of great feedback on how we can more intentionally get our funding into uh areas of need in the city.

Uh so they uh look at metrics and reporting, incentive design, how we how we design our incentives, and then of course that workforce pieces how can people in our communities benefit from these programs.

This is the marketing.

That's this is an area that in government you we don't often uh get resources for marketing, and this has been incredibly helpful in getting the word out about our programs.

Uh you can see some of the um increases in our in our different programs, including 9,000 folks that have visited our residential energy site.

Uh and we can be very targeted.

We have that green zones map on there.

We can be very targeted and geographically targeted and where we're getting our messages out to people.

This is the policy outreach and engagement metrics.

Uh there's 388 folks.

It's it's one thing to just uh put something on someone's Instagram, but to actually get someone to take the next step.

And so that's been a really those are uh great numbers for us in terms of driving people to take the next step in terms of weatherization and taking action.

Uh 17,000, uh over 17,000 residents reached.

And this group, like I said, will be doing uh they've signed, they want to sign up 200 people for with UNIDOS and other partners for weatherization services by the end of the year.

They currently have 109 people already signed up, and we just started in September, so that's uh a great success as well.

Charging infrastructure.

The objective of this is the EV charging infrastructure and EV car sharing, giving people alternatives to get around the city that are uh emission-free is looking at uh electric using electric cars and a transportation network to get around this city.

Um their key areas of business lines have been the E B spot network, bringing E B chargers to people in every community.

I'm just gonna keep repeating this, specifically in the green zone, north side, south side green zone, really focusing on equity.

EV car share, giving people car sharing options to get around the city.

Um and the numbers that they've had in this program have been this was not an area we've in the health department, we've always focused on the built environment.

Uh and so seeing the numbers that they've had with this program is really incredible.

Uh 250,000 car share trips, 70,000 uh EV charging hours, uh, 22 million dollars saved.

That's and that's a piece of this as well.

It's not just about the climate.

People are saving a lot of money, and they in these programs we spend a lot of time to make sure that we we verify the actual dollars that people are saving.

And this is just one of the programs with 8% of the CLI funding that is saving people a lot of money.

And as you can see, some of the vital facts and number of chargers that they have around this city.

Uh they're really growing intentionally and continuously growing out of network so that everyone has access to public EV charging.

I may have gone backwards or I did.

Um, outcomes and partnerships.

Uh this is that first part is the Q1 and Q2 outcomes that we've already brought uh here to council.

And so this is the updates of Q3 and Q4 actions that they're taking, is full electric diagrams to be drafted for new hub locations.

That was a partnership through uh uh working with St.

Paul, and I'll think of the name of the program in a second.

Um, but it was a partnership with St.

Paul in Minneapolis.

Um two new hubs to finish by installation by the end of 2025.

Uh that is a full network of transportation options in those hubs, and then it's 2.3 new square miles to be added to the EV service area, and to give you an idea, that's more than half the size of Hopkins, Minnesota.

So finalizing integration of charging sessions into the Minneapolis parking app.

So they're just continuously working to make sure people have options.

For some reason, I'm hitting it backwards.

There we go.

So there's this is more of their uh more of their updates.

I gave you some of the total that they've had through the CLI, but this is the 2025 year to date, and they're on track to uh match what they put forward last year in terms of their outcomes for number of EV car share trips, EV charging hours, uh I should say probably exceed last year's numbers.

So uh just incredible greenhouse gas numbers, incredible savings that they're getting out of this and incredible service.

Administration, not the funnest part of uh uh when you're reporting something out, but entirely necessary.

This aspect of funding has allowed us to have adequate contracting and staff.

The number of contracts that we've had come in have quadrupled.

Uh and so that is a lot of different projects to track.

As you looked at that graph of the number of projects, we have to track all that and make sure all of that work is happening before we're paying out any city money.

So that's just a lot to scale and to track.

Um, and so we've had in in the audience here uh our director of climate equity action is here.

We have a project manager that is helping take some of our as we go around the enterprise and are working with our enterprise partners to take those concepts when when we come up with concepts and priorities to work across the enterprise, uh, just stone to deliver, make sure that those we work with reg services, we work with CPED and to get them into service delivery out into the community, and so these projects touch the ground.

Um, and I think I mentioned this at the top, but uh our climate equity action director Meg Hoy Megan Hoy uh let me know that 65% of the climate equity plan is set into motion, and they have uh interdepartmental core teams to make sure that we get the rest of this plan into action, that it's not a plan that we have sitting on a shelf somewhere uh that we're getting this thing into into action.

So the these are the areas of priority right now is city facilities decarbonization, residential decarbonization, climate legacy initiative funding and flexibility, climate equity metrics, and then as we look off into the future.

I mentioned that innovation piece, uh geothermal potential potential, network geothermal.

You're gonna see a lot of cities.

In fact, I just met with the mayor of Rochester recently, and they're doing a lot of work in that city.

You're gonna see a lot of cities focusing on network geothermal and building out that infrastructure.

Carbon sequestration, five percent of our CLI.

That if you want to go over to uh the facility there, I'll give you the address in a second.

But we are it is under construction, we are underway.

Um the main business line with the carbon sequestration with with biochar is the production and sale of biochar made from wood waste from Excel Energy and other partners that we have.

So taking waste, especially as we lose a lot of trees to uh Emerald Ash Bore and turn that into biochar, which sequesters carbon for over a thousand years.

And the beneficial aspect, I I have to repeat this and refresh people's memory every time I come up here, uh, but it is beneficial for our soils here, poor urban uh soils in Minneapolis.

And so we use those in urban farming and stormwater projects, roadside applications, and then as we get into production, we're also going to be looking at carbon accounting and the either the retention or the resale of the credits that come from that.

When you can hold carbon for a thousand years, that is a very strong carbon credit, and so it is a very, it's a valuable uh asset that we're gonna have outside of the biochar that we're producing that is gonna have its own benefits across the community.

So our metrics metrics of success in this space are the tons of wood waste that we repurpose, the tons of biochar that we produce, the tons of biochar and compost.

We work with our partners at the Metawalk and Sue community, and we have uh for since 2013.

So super grateful for the work that we the partnership that we have with them in getting that compost biochar out into the community and then looking at total tons of CO2 equivalent uh credits produced, sold or retained.

And this is the project pass.

So that's the address if you want to swing by that address and see not everyone at once uh going to see the biochar facility, but uh the it is under construction right now.

That is our paralysis unit that creates the biochar, uh, and we're just waiting for the uh construction to get to the point where we can bring that in and put that in place.

Thank you to CPED, uh, thank you to Public Works who's here right now, and property services for the assistance.

Health department doesn't have a whole lot of experience in this space, so that we were uh incredibly grateful for their partnership.

Construction completion should be done complete in 2025 and production in early 2026, and we are right now working on developing a carbon credit pathway.

These are the metrics that we will have, we estimate out of this program uh is 3,000 tons of wood waste converted, 500 tons of CO2 uh equivalent uh produced or taken out where we can get those carbon credits.

That was the official groundbreaking earlier this spring.

Homegrown circular economy, this is the smallest aspect of the climate legacy initiative, uh just two percent of the budget, but uh it's looking at sustainable growing, extended growing seasons, uh providing more locally grown food, delivering programs that rescue fresh food, so going places where food is being wasted.

Um this is incredibly important, not only as there's a lot of embedded energy in our food systems, it's about 10% of our uh climate emissions, and we probably don't track it well as a city.

It's a difficult one to track.

Um, but this is an area that uh will be important as we look into the future as we look at innovation in our food systems in terms of greenhouse gas emissions.

Um our main business lines here are urban farming, food rescue projects uh through 14 community partners that we work with.

I should also mention as we look at SNAP programs that are going away and other assistance that are going away for people in need in our community.

These are also going to be important programs for people getting fresh food in their community.

So these are some of the results of that program.

Uh those are the number of uh contracts awarded.

Again, 100% of this is going uh into environmental justice areas into north and south side green zones.

That's where these partners are.

Um, and so that we're looking forward to finding more projects that we can do and then ways of tracking and correlating our climate equity work.

Zero waste programming.

This is the last one.

Uh this is an area as we as you all know, we've had lots of conversations about uh HERC closure, and that is uh very active conversations that are going on right now in community with Hennepin County and the city.

Uh so really getting uh trying to get ahead of some of the planning around this.

So zero waste funding was used to evaluate long-term strategies uh to get to zero waste.

Well, resund re uh funding recycling programs and awareness programs, waste diversion programs.

Um and then we also getting into that grants, those grants is getting community grants out there.

There's the West Broadway uh coalition in North Minneapolis is doing some work with businesses.

There's a group of neighborhood organizations working in South Minneapolis on electronics recycling.

So just looking at innovative ways in the community to really get after uh waste diversion.

Um the key business lines are zero waste reduction planning, so looking at how do we uh how do we start funding some of this uh zero waste work, recycling awareness, and then I mentioned those innovative grants, and those are the timelines uh down below, uh, most of them happening later this year, towards the end of this year.

Uh and those uh I went into the explanation of these already.

So zero waste funding mechanism evaluation and the recycling awareness campaigns.

I'm there we go.

Okay, those are the partners that we're working with on the on the grant program.

The five different grants, and it gives you a basic rundown, uh, the different partners that are working on waste reduction.

Sorry, I was I was so prepped to do our budget presentation.

I didn't have some of these elements in there.

Um these are the main, these are the that was the last slide that was that was the last area, zero the zero waste piece.

These are the big numbers of our climate legacy initiative numbers, cumulative results in 2024 and 2025.

We had 40,000 people uh reached through this program, and that is not just people that saw an ad somewhere that is people that people that we directly interacted with and directly had uh awareness of our programs.

10 over 10,000 people received uh programs, so that's people that received an energy efficiency grant, a weatherization uh weatherization work, a tree they planted a tree.

It's like uh the EV car share program.

Actually, I don't think I have as much of that piece in here.

Uh but that is people that receive very direct services, and that's a very conservative estimate.

There are probably more people that received those services.

Um, and I had to check that number twice.

This is equivalent to 63 million miles driven by gas-powered uh cars in terms of the work that we've done this year.

Over two thousand twenty, four hundred low-income housing units have been served through this program.

So I talked a little bit about weatherization, but we also did a lot of multifamily units that had low-income units in them, and those folks are receiving the benefit of those renters are receiving the benefits of lower bills in the building.

Um, and then the climate legacy initiative uh cost share, those numbers on the right.

Uh I I was working on getting a full printout because sometimes people don't believe uh these numbers when we put them out there, but we take all of the projects that we have, and we have what's uh a reference manual, a technical reference manual.

So we look at what piece of HBAC equipment was in the property in the before we came, which piece of equipment was in the property after we came, what is the difference in terms of savings that we would expect at that property, and then how do you extend that out on the life?

So maybe the life of that furnace is 15 years.

You extend that dollar amount to the life of that furnace.

And these are the numbers you get with the number of projects that we've had.

This is not only about greenhouse gases, this is about saving people a lot of money in this community.

So 72 million just we're not even finished with the rest of this year and done with our calculations for this year.

Uh and then I mentioned some of the EV and transportation work of 110 million dollars uh if you try if you carry that out over 10 years, and then the green cost share from from the start till now, you're at about 254 million.

So you could really add the EV car share and the green cost share.

So you're up around 364 million dollars in these investments that are that this city is gonna benefit, and that's just from the work that we've done.

So when we continue on next year and get into the 2026, 27, we're gonna continue to add to these numbers, and it's gonna continue to benefit the people of this city.

So I'm just really proud to be a part of this.

Uh it's been a huge team effort uh in bringing all of this work forward in across departments with CPED public works, property services, uh a lot of folks that I'm that I'm gonna leave out, but it's just been a mass effort to get this thing started.

Um and then this is where we're at right now, kind of lays out the timeline of we had a lot of challenges in 2024.

When you start a new program for any of the folks that had the that took on this on top of their other workload, uh there was a lot of challenges in the beginning of the year.

We brought on some really talented staff uh that we're able to grab from from other organizations, uh including Zeph Energy.

Yes, it's been yeah, we've grabbed some great talent out of this.

Um, and and it's really helped us push us along, especially in that enterprise-wide approach.

Uh, our green cost share staff are up to they they are in place and are able to scale uh with the number of um staff that they have and and the systems that they've set up.

So it's not just about uh I think Casey Carl mentioned it earlier, it's not just about throwing people at it, but we've created some great systems to be able to scale the number of contracts that we have.

Uh and we have a data uh person that's on right now, uh Peyton Johnson, who's building out a dashboard for you, the zero waste strategies, uh, and we have hit the ground running uh in all of our program areas, including this block by block approach that's starting to roll out right now.

So it's really the you know, the first year was getting it all started, and I feel like right now we're in a mode of sustained success, is that we are showing uh as much or more demand for all of our programs than than we have programs.

So that is the conclusion of my uh presentation to council on the Q3 climate legacy initiative updates, and I can stand for questions.

Thank you so much, uh Deputy Commissioner Hanlan.

And you know, we set up these reports uh starting last year at about twice a year, and I'm hoping that we can continue that next year or discuss a different way if you have a different proposal about how to bring these reports because it's very important that we're able to show success of these programs in order to scale them up and achieve achieve more together.

So I really appreciate the work that you've put in to putting this together today and keeping all of us as policymakers, but also just the broader public informed.

I also think we're showing a lot of cities how it's done.

So there's a lot others can be learning from our work too.

So I will ask if there's any council members in queue here.

Um first I'll recognize councilmember Rainville.

Thank you, Chair.

Uh so first of all, great marketing for your city.

That was a guide plug for it.

That's it.

We're not a very big city.

Four miles square.

You're the best.

You're the best.

I appreciate that.

Uh secondly, is there an opportunity for network geothermal as we redo First Avenue north?

Uh so uh Chair Cashman, Councilmember Rainville, I know that Megan Hoy is behind me shaking her head, yes.

Um I think we're looking at opportunities anywhere in the city where we can, especially if we have we can get in conversation with develop conversations with developers early uh and developers that might be interested in that concept and to kind of have conversations about what might get them over uh certain hurdles and certain challenges and and initially have conversations about it, and that's where we want to start.

Uh but yes, we're looking at anywhere in the city, and of course with our CPED partners as well, and looking at zoning and public works and looking at infrastructure and all of that.

So as early as we can get into those conversations, the better.

So we're all on the same page.

Well, it's early because uh First Avenue is being planned as we speak.

So I hope everybody's talking about that opportunity.

Is are are you No?

Someone talk to me.

Uh Chair Cashman, uh Councilmember Rainville, we can certainly talk with public works.

I thought you were talking about a specific project.

You're talking about the street project.

Right.

You're tearing up your your uh so everybody knows the street's gonna be tore up all the way to the bottom.

Every pipe and every wire has a chance to rebuild the infrastructure in that street, including network geothermal.

So, Chair Cashman, uh Councilmember Rainville, we can certainly have conversations with public works about uh and look at what the challenges are, especially in the downtown corridor around that.

I I look forward to uh hearing about that conversation.

Thank you.

Thank you, Councilmember Rainville.

It is absolutely the moment and to really set uh downtown Minneapolis apart, you know, to be having we the dense districts of our city are the best positioned also for these district systems too.

We already have a district system in downtown, so it is a really important moment to make sure that we're doing that in in the First Avenue corridor.

Um, next I'll recognize Council uh Vice Chair Koske.

Uh thank you, Madam Chair, and just to add on to Councilmember Rainville.

I mean, this is exactly why Council Cashman wanted to make sure our public works and your team were in the same committee so that we could make sure that we were integrating those conversations.

And so I do hope that you take this opportunity to break down those silos that we tend to have here in the city, and this would be a great opportunity.

But um, that's not why I got in queue per se.

Um just thank you so much for this presentation.

You know, you've just you've outlined so many wonderful things.

I mean, we know that like you said, we have the have been having the hottest uh years on record.

Um and that seems to be what's going to be our trajectory here.

Um you noted that our your funding uh ran out by August.

Um the outcomes that you showed are just incredible and what we were able you were able to accomplish.

Um it's really amazing to see the energy bill impact for our residents, but then just the millions of dollars that our residents have saved.

And so this is a big question.

Um, but would just love to hear.

I mean, this is this is an incredible story, I think, and your team has worked incredibly hard, and we want to keep going.

And so I'd love to hear what your five to ten year vision is to grow and scale this program so that we can continue to amplify this impact.

Chair Cashman, uh Councilmember Koske, uh not a question that I I don't think I was uh not prepared would be would be coming.

Um I talked about in the beginning that uh you know this this was a tough year in the beginning.

We started out at uh seven million dollars out of ten million dollars that had come in.

So those three we started out in a three million dollar deficit.

Uh a lot of uh good folks had conversations with our utilities to be able to get us up to 8.4 million.

We had uh our staff and council uh worked hard to pass that pollution control annual registration to get us up into that 10, 10 million dollar range.

Um so the answer to the first part is yes, we we ran out of funding in August uh, and yes, there is a lot of demand out there, yes, there is a potential to grow.

Uh but considering where we started this year, and this is a tough budget year with um you know looking at uh all the all the difficulties in in budget uh that are out there.

Um and so I would say that I think we feel fortunate to be where we're at right now.

Um and in terms of having a uh developing what the next, you know, we kind of got to the point of survival this year, and so in terms of what those conversations look like moving forward, I think we're interested in looking uh, you know, what those future budget uh projections would look like and what the needs would would look like you.

Um I mean, if you can be more specific around like that future five to ten year, we'd be we'd love to hear it and what your kind of ideas or if you have any um you know other ways that you think that we can continue to scale.

We we're open to your expertise.

So got you.

Uh Chair Cashman, Councilmember Koskey, the in the climate equity plan, we lay out you know what are the what the needs are, and I don't have those specific numbers, but getting into the thousands of households, and I think I'm pretty proud of what we've done so far in getting from 23 houses that we did in 2023 up to above 500 last year, and now we're up into this, we're gonna be getting into the 700 range.

Um I think we wanted as uh my my daughter, she's three and a half, she has she loves ELSA and uh uh she watch watches frozen a lot and there's a scene in there of taking the next best step uh right and so what it looking for what that next best step is.

I think we were in a in a place that we were um looking at a lot of federal funding this year and how could we use these funds, these limited city funds to be able to lever leverage bigger federal funding, and that's gone, right?

And so we're sitting here uh trying to figure out what the next best path forward is.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

All right.

I am next in queue.

So I have a few questions.

Um I was wondering, you know, early on in the presentation you mentioned or you had a graph that showed the amount of projects that you were able to achieve, and that's that's grown.

Um and I'm wondering how you measure the amount of uh energy savings.

Because you do did have on your final slide, I think it was 72 million dollars in energy savings.

But how do you measure that and where are you pulling that on a neighborhood scale or like a how home scale or an annual at an annual level?

Yeah.

Uh Chair Cashman, I love that question.

Uh because we are very we take a lot of pride in in looking at every single kilowatt saved, every single therm saved, and looking like I I mentioned that technical reference manual that we that we use and that's from uh a state State Department.

Um and so we look at what the piece of equipment that uh was there previously.

So let's say it was a boiler from 1990 or whatever it was from, and to removing that, look at the efficiency rating of that boiler, and then putting in a new furnace or a new air source heat pump, along with the weatherization potential savings that could be there from our partners at Center for Energy and Environment.

Uh so looking at very detailed of at that specific project and then and then correlating that out to what is the life expectancy of that furnace or of that air source heat pump, and then what would the lifetime ex uh lifetime savings be expected for that one line in that one project, and we have thousands of lines of different projects that have been done, and that's where that number comes from.

It's the cumulation.

I wanted to bring uh with me today a big printout of so people could see that the the actual lines of data that go into how we track all of this.

So that is not a pie in the sky number that is very uh we we technically track that every single therm and every single dollar saved.

Okay, so if if you have uh the amount of projects that we completed this year, how much in energy savings did we bring just this year alone?

Uh I'd have to get back to you on that specific number, because what I what I just presented to you was the lifetime energy savings of a bunch of mixes of different projects with different lifetime expectancies.

Right.

And so that's a different number that you're asking for, but we can certainly present that for you.

All right, thanks.

I'll note that for follow-up because I think that's you know, I saw the article in the Star Tribune today that that praised Prospect Park, and I am all for uh measuring in metric tons of CO2 abated.

I'm all for it.

It's very important in how we reach our our greenhouse gas emissions reductions.

But to me, the most important metric is the cost savings for the families that are over overburdened by their energy bills.

That is the most important metric because that is how we're actually achieving the equity part of this equation, which we are.

We're focusing on the equity part, but how we show and tell that story will make the difference about whether we can succeed or not.

Um I also wanted to ask if we have information on how we've been able to reduce energy burden, like a percentage of cost per month that families have to pay because we have a goal in our climate equity plan to achieve 6% energy burden citywide.

And when we did a report with Elevate a few years back, we saw that some neighborhoods in our city in the green zones are paying, had a 19% energy burden.

So have we tracked and measured any progress toward that goal in the last two years?

Chair Cashman, uh yes, we've had conversations about tracking that.

I as a if I could go back to that that initial graph that we were looking at, is you talk about the continuous utility increases.

I mean, that is where the burden is happening.

Is you're talking about 150 dollars at a time, 120 dollars, 60 dollars at a time, and we're talking about 12 dollars for a franchise fee.

Uh that and it gives us the tools to be able to try to drive that down.

Um so we've been having conversations about how we track that, and I know uh Megan and her team in the sustainability office are looking at that question.

And then we also have to talk about when we start getting to the scale.

You know, we started out at 23 houses and then we got up to 500, and now we're up to getting up above 600.

Uh when do we start getting at a scale where we're in where we're directly impacting those numbers?

But that is definitely where we're driving.

And we are the only tools that are out there in our community that are getting to those spaces.

Uh like I mentioned that the utilities uh center point had said to us they wouldn't have hit their year goals, their low-income rental assistance uh program goals were it not for our tools.

So uh and then when you get into these spaces working with Sustainable Resource Center, uh working with the block by block work that we're doing with UNIDOS.

Uh we're the only folks that are getting into actually addressing these equity issues in these homes.

Um and I would say in to your your point about the Star Tribune article today, I'm sure we were uh a part of a lot of the work that happened in that article as well.

Yeah, I definitely saw your fingerprints all over that uh that work.

Um then we have about 700 homes that have participated, but what is the demand here?

I know that I've talked to families who have applied who haven't been able to get this work done.

Talk to someone who got the weatherization work uh but wasn't able to get the solar work because there wasn't enough money.

So can you give me a sense of the amount of applications we're receiving compared to what we've been able to deliver?

Chair Cashman, um I don't have the number of specific applications that we've turned away on all of our websites and all of our everything that we've shut it down in the beginning.

So I don't know if that's gonna give in at the um sorry, at the point where people come in contact with those websites, it says that there's no funding left over.

So I don't know if that data is gonna be give us a good idea of how many more out there.

We know there are a lot of people, we are getting the same requests from people to uh to understand how much funding is out there, both on the residential side and the and the green business side, so for small businesses as well.

Um I'll just say that you know, from my research and you know, this data is obviously out there, but the Center for Energy and Environment estimated that for us to achieve our goals, it'll cost between two billion and two point seven billion over the next 20 years.

So this is the the work that we have ahead of us is very costly.

Um I know that ten million dollars is a year is not gonna be enough.

You know that, we all know that.

Uh so that's kind of what I want to understand is what can we reasonably expect for demand in the next couple of years so that we can grow our programs according to the demand and actually scale this up.

Uh Chair Cashman, so uh you know, I mean, even even talking to Center for Energy and Environment folks, uh the folks that do the programmatic side of that work, and uh we all saw that that report as well on what the the targets that we need to eventually hit.

There is the reasonableness of how much we can get done uh both through Center for Energy Environment through cooperative energy futures.

I mean, we really just built a lot of these programs last year.

We're really just getting them under uh into motion this year.

Um and so we definitely know that there's more demand than there is uh program funding and at to at what rate, we don't know.

And then there's also the challenge, the reason that we really focus on green careers work is to make sure that we actually have the workforce out there to even do this work.

Um, you know, so if we were to put large numbers uh into this work, there's a certain level at which you that work can't get done.

You know so if we were to put large numbers into this work there's a certain level at which you that work can't get done and so scaling up at the at the appropriate level is important.

So how much uh funding this year went to the cooperative energy futures program that started in September that's a uh Chair Cashman uh I don't have that number off the top of my head we earmarked a small dollar amount to for them to uh move forward I I won't take a guess I I do have a guess in my advice I'm not gonna say it because I I'll I'll get you those numbers afterwards okay but it was not a it was not a large percentage of our uh funding we knew that they were going to be starting late in the year and so we set aside a small amount for them to get moving I'll uh note that for Clerk Michael to follow up as well on that question and then um this is kind of a general question that you know you could follow up with in a memo too is if we were to add funding to our CLI which programs should we say we put three more million into it where can we put those program that money to achieve the most energy cost savings?

Is that just in weatherization does it have to partially go to workforce training as well should it be going to the block by block or the cooperative energy futures program where exactly that money can go to produce the most energy cost savings for cost burden households Chair Cashman I can take that question back and we can talk about it with leadership and and how to respond to that question.

Okay thank you so much for the presentation queue I'll ask the clerk to file this report then and with no more business to come before the committee today we are adjourned.

Thank you.