DRAFT MINUTES
APTA SUSTAINABILITY COMMITTEE
4 October 2010 7:00 – 8:15 am
Grand Hyatt , San Antonio, Texas
1. Welcome
- Kevin Desmond, chair, APTA Sustainability Committee
· Kevin welcomed all to the third meeting of the Sustainability Committee and applauded the turnout for the early morning meeting.
· The main purpose of the meeting was to discuss and adopt the work plan for the committee for the upcoming year. In addition, the committee heard updates from the APTA Standards Sustainability and Urban Design Working Groups.
2. Approval of Minutes
· The minutes of the second Committee meeting which took place on July 27 were approved.
3. Discussion of Draft Committee Work Plan
Kevin walked Committee members through the draft work program. He discussed three broad areas for committee engagement—action and projects, partnerships and liaisons with other committees, and outreach and education.
Action and Projects.
One of the priorities was to develop a white paper on principles for social pillar of sustainability and what it means to the transit industry. J. Barry Barker agreed to take the lead. Additional volunteers include: Amber Ontiveros, FTA; Helen Callier, Bradlink LLC; Kammy Horne, URS; Ken Anderson, RNL; Ken Mall, Educational Data Systems; Mike Harbour, Intercity Transit; Patricia Biedas, Clever Devices; Pat Piras, Pat Piras Consulting; Ron Kilcoyne, Greater Bridgeport Transit and Sarah Kline, Reconnecting America.
Another priority was to establish a working group to look at the role of new technologies and ITS in greening transit. Larry Yermeck, Telvent, agreed to take the lead. Other volunteers include: Angela Miller, North County Transit; David Oglevee, MACRO; Joshua Goldman, Proterra; Mike Dunckley, F3 Sonick; Nigel Astell, DELCAN, and Amber Ontiveros, FTA.
Another priority was to develop an Energy Efficiency working group to compile fleet best practices and to work with relevant APTA bus and rail committees. Volunteers included Colette Ericsson, NY MTA; Joshua Goldman, Proterra, Inc.; Kim Pettit, Bike Lid; and M. Helen Cavazos, Metro Houston.
The other priority was to establish a planning working group for the 2011 Sustainability and Public Transportation Workshop. Susannah Kerr Adler agreed to take the lead. Other volunteers include Aaron Kelly, RNL; Amber Ontiveros, FTA; Amy Miller, New Flyer; Angela Iannuzziello, GENIVAR consultants; Christine Anderson, King County Metro; Collette Ericsson, NY MTA; Diane Jones, Lea Elliott; Erin Hyland, Halocrow; Joshua Goldman, Proterra; Kammy Horne, URS; Karen Corfee, KEMA’ Patricia Biedas, Clever Devices; Rich Weaver, APTA; Rob Padgette, High Street Consulting; Rolando Cruz, Long Beach Transit; and Sean O’Brien, Malcolm Pirnie. Timothy Lindholm, Los Angeles MTA would be a point of contact with the host property.
Another priority was developing an Eco Procurement and develop a working group with members of the APTA Procurement Steering Committee . Part of the mission would be to develop a business case and recommended practice. Work has already begun and Peter Varga agreed to act as liaison to the procurement steering committee.
An important item on sustainability reporting, performance metrics, and benchmarking was referred to the subcommittee on Sustainability Commitment. Eric Hesse , Tri- Met, serves as chair of the subcommittee.
Another item that was discussed and approved for the work program was the development of working group on State of Good repair as it relates to Sustainability and in particular develop policy principles with a look at TIGER II Grants as well as maintaining reliability of the system. David Taylor, HDR and Ernest Tollerson, NY MTA agreed to take the lead. Jeff Booth, Holland and Knight would help as well.
With regard to item to pursue opportunities in Federal energy and climate change legislation, and educate membership on underlying intricacies, Homer Carlisle , APTA staff would serve as the liaison.
With regard to cultivating partnerships and coalitions, Projjal Dutta, NY MTA and Ron Kilcoyne agreed to take a leading role in with a focus on U.S. Green Building Council and transit engagement in LEED and LEED ND. Since the meeting, outreach efforts have taken place with Chris Pyke , US. Green Building Council.
Outreach and Education
APTA staff would take the lead in several efforts including:
1) survey of transit industry on current sustainability policies and practices
2) Conduct periodic webinars and outreach efforts on products developed by the APTA Standards Climate Change Working Group and Urban Design Working Group.
3) Development of a Sustainability Corner, a periodic feature in Passenger Transport.
4. Update on APTA Sustainability and Urban Design Working Group
Rich Weaver gave a brief update on the new recommended practice on climate action plans and mentioned that next working group meetings would be held in Portland following the Rail Volution Conference.
5. Update from Subcommittee on Sustainability Commitment
Eric Hesse who was on the phone at from Portland gave a report and said that there is need for working groups to develop metrics that the signatories for the commitment can use in demonstrating their progress.