Coraggio Consulting
Fairfax County Board of Supervisors Environmental Committee, Tuesday, February 28, 2023

Date: Tuesday, February 28, 2023
Place: Fairfax County Board of Supervisors, Virginia
Length: 1h 25m (video)
Official meeting video (Fairfax County): https://video.fairfaxcounty.gov/player/clip/2763
Official Board of Supervisors page (Fairfax County): https://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/boardofsupervisors/

Machine transcript (speech-to-text) produced by Coraggio Consulting. Not an official county record. Names and numbers may be misspelled; check the video at the timestamp before quoting.
Speech-to-text: whisper.cpp, model large-v3-turbo. Produced 2026-11-04. Timestamps are [HH:MM:SS] into the meeting video.

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[00:00:01] Supervisors if you could take your seat we're going to try to get started all right. Thank you folks

[00:00:37] We're going to get started and we do have a pretty full agenda I would just say that we will try to the last piece of this particularly Folks might have a few more questions about and it's on the bamboo ordinance But that'll stand between you and lunch So we'll see if the bamboo overtake lunch or lunch overtakes the bamboo So we'll be a contest we'll have to address so first thing The December 13, 2023 meeting summary, any changes to the prior Environment Committee summary notes?

[00:01:12] Do you have anything to correct? Okay. And are there any expected updates from the last meeting that board members have not received or follow-up responses? Anything that we need to raise? Okay. So if there's no further comments or suggestions, let the minutes stand as a record of the meeting, and we're going to move right into Greenbanks.

[00:01:33] And John Morrill is here to give us an update on where we are with creating a Fairfax County Green Bank. John, or Combis, I don't know if you wanted to start it, but I'll give it up to the two of you. Good morning, Chairman and members of the Board of Supervisors.

[00:01:51] My name is John Morrill. I'm a Division Manager in the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination. I'm pleased to give this update on staff's work toward a Fairfax County Green Bank, including information on sources of funding, lessons learned from others, and the project schedule with future milestones. Green Bank is a technical and financial resource supporting a substantial increase in the use of clean energy technologies, whether improved energy efficiency, the installation of renewable energy systems, or increased use of electric vehicles. This slide

[00:02:28] maps the role of the Green Bank to the major sectors in the community-wide energy and climate Action Plan and the four key carbon reduction strategies a Green Bank supports. These four CCAP strategies address nearly half of the total greenhouse gas emissions in the community, underscoring the essential contribution a Green Bank can provide to CCAP implementation.

[00:02:54] This slide summarizes the brief history of work to date on the Green Bank. At the moment, staff continue to develop relationships with potential partners and collaborators, and we are preparing essential legal and operational documents needed to launch the bank for success. I will outline future schedule and milestones later in this presentation.

[00:03:19] And by the way, the slide introduces a progress bar in the upper right-hand corner that gives a qualitative illustration of where we are in the development of the Green Bank. A similar progress bar will be used in subsequent presentations today on other aspects of CCAP implementation.

[00:03:36] Once established, a green bank leverages public money with private capital to increase the number of projects in the community that produce energy savings and pollution reduction. An emphasis of most green banks, and certainly a priority of the Fairfax effort, is to make energy improvements accessible to all community members and grow the clean energy economy throughout the county.

[00:04:03] The Green Bank forges partnerships with a variety of financial institutions to tailor project financing to various segments of the community, be they residential or commercial. And as a 501c3 organization, the Green Bank can receive charitable donations from individuals and businesses, and support for the Green Bank can raise the visibility of corporate partners.

[00:04:29] The bipartisan infrastructure law in 2021 includes federal funding for energy efficiency block grants, and Fairfax County's allocation is just under $1 million. The U.S. Department of Energy recently provided guidance on the use of these funds, and up to a quarter million dollars can be allocated to a nonprofit.

[00:04:52] In this case, that amount will be targeted for the Green Bank's formation. In addition, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 includes billions of dollars designated for investments by state and local green banks. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has provided limited guidance for those funds, and many details, including application processes, have not yet been disclosed. Nonetheless, the Fairfax work on a green bank should position the county well for funding, whether from the EPA directly or as a subrecipient to whatever

[00:05:27] large entities receive the first awards. Staff remain in touch with our regional neighbors, keeping them apprised of our progress. We are exploring various ways in which other localities could join with the Green Bank and expand the bank's depth, breadth, and reach in the region.

[00:05:51] Staff are benefiting from our engagement with experienced consultants and green banks elsewhere. Insights from the Montgomery County Green Bank, as well as the new Philadelphia Green Capital corporation are very helpful to our planning. The Montgomery County Green Bank's executive director notes that financing for clean energy projects is quite different from routine real estate lending. Energy projects can often be hard to imagine or not front of mind for both lenders and customers, even though the projects can have a very positive economic impact for both the lender

[00:06:30] and the consumer. Therefore, a tremendous amount of marketing and education is needed and becomes an essential role for the Green Bank. The chart on the right shows the steady growth in projects and lending by the Montgomery County entity, showing growing momentum each year after modest beginnings. Through the end of calendar 2022, the Montgomery County Green Bank has touched over 1,500 homes, and most of them have been low and moderate income households. In addition to creating

[00:07:06] a pipeline for solar projects with dozens of non-profits. Just last month, the Green Bank announced a two-megawatt solar system on a 684-unit affordable apartment community. The Montgomery Green Bank's financial partners were Virginia Community Capital and the New York City Energy Efficiency Corporation, illustrating that financial opportunities cross borders.

[00:07:38] Looking forward, and I apologize for the small type, the interagency working group will be preparing materials for this committee's review in April. We are aiming to advertise a public hearing for the ordinance establishing the Green Bank later in the second quarter of calendar 2023.

[00:07:59] The public hearing for the ordinance for its adoption will be in July, the third quarter of calendar 2023. In addition, the organization's bylaws and a county support agreement will be presented for approval as administrative items. Meanwhile, staff will be applying to the Department of Energy for its EECBG funding allocation and carefully monitoring the U.S. EPA for guidance on applying for this funding specific to green banks. Once the ordinance passes, the green bank

[00:08:34] will be incorporated, funds will be allocated, and staff will be hired to launch the bank in in with programs uh we'll have additional details to share at the april meeting of this committee i welcome your questions thank you john and um i guess the bottom line is when are we going to be ready in time to secure the federal funding and meet those deadlines number one and when will we

[00:09:04] issue our first loan um we will we'll certainly uh be in shape to uh apply for the federal funding Again, we're very curious to see how the EPA presents the guidance and the application process for the very, very large sums.

[00:09:37] We're hearing that there are some very, very large consortia being formed that will likely receive the bulk of the EPA funds and that other entities will then be sub-recipients and apply from there. There's a strong movement in the community of Green Bank advocates for a national Green Bank, and that's what

[00:10:11] some of this EPA funding may be pointing to. As for the first loan, that will be as soon as a project is identified. I guess maybe the question is, when are we ready to issue our first loan? The entity could be ready to issue its first loan shortly after formation. The amount of the loan would depend upon the amount of equity capital the entity has

[00:10:47] to either leverage or provide directly. And when you see the organization being ready to be able to do that um shortly if if the entity is is um authorized in july and an executive director is hired it can be that summer thank you other questions just go down though yeah

[00:11:19] uh just very quickly on on slide two um looking at the different sectors um another initiative we're doing is charge up Fairfax. Might there be a connection at some point, and maybe this is more of just a suggestion, in terms of helping townhouse condo associations finance electrification, electric charging? Is that a potential? I believe so. I also believe that there's,

[00:11:51] with the Inflation Reduction Act, there are quite a few funding buckets from the federal government for electrification that we'll certainly be looking at. Okay, good. Thank you.

[00:12:08] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Very exciting. Thank you for your work up to this point, Mr. Morell and others. Just a question. One, you know, it is exciting that when we started working on this in the Legislative Committee in 2020, some of the things you're talking about in terms of the federal funding opportunities didn't exist, right? We're were maybe hopeful, but didn't exist. So it's great that we're prepared to capitalize on some

[00:12:39] of that. Question in terms of the process for the bank and how do you think about structuring it in a way to make it most efficacious with the new opportunities that exist, so the tax credits in the IRA for individuals or businesses to install solar or make their homes or buildings more energy efficient. How does a green bank identify the kind of marginal case where we can, our financing can be the tipping point for someone or some entity to make that decision? In other

[00:13:19] words, you don't want to be financing projects that would happen anyway, right? And how do you identify those cases that maybe wouldn't happen if not for the financing that a green bank like this could provide? That goes to the market development and certainly the federal incentives that are out there for home energy efficiency, electrification, and renewable

[00:13:55] energy will certainly help, but there are still going to be homes and businesses that they don't have the cash to still do it, and yet working with partners in the community, the housing agencies, and also the contractors. The contractors become a strong

[00:14:24] uh uh marketing and advocacy vehicle for the the projects themselves um and so it it is a matter of of opening the door uh to um uh to to customers residential and businesses and um through marketing and promotion i stimulating making the um making it clear to all customers that

[00:14:56] These federal incentives exist, but understanding that some of these deep energy retrofits and renewable energy installations still cost money. And there may even be cases where, you know, the tax credit just doesn't move the needle enough.

[00:15:17] And so all of those become opportunities for this entity. It seems like on the personal side of the residential side, you could have folks lower or moderate income who don't have a federal income tax liability large enough to benefit from the federal tax credits, and that might be a ripe group for this kind of financing.

[00:15:41] Absolutely, and that's where a strong LMI, low and moderate income, emphasis for the entity is important. There are also, because of all of these incentives, we're also mindful to keep the opportunities for business development in opportunity zones and historically disadvantaged

[00:16:12] communities to join with this clean energy market movement and really growing the market in all respects. Thank you. Supervisor Lusk? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Two quick questions. I think the first is on page five, you talk about the Green Bank revenue comes from loan fees. Is there a method that you are proposing for the structure of those fees, like a single fee based on a

[00:16:48] percentage of the loan, or is there a graduated fee based on the size of the loan? Just trying understand what's the thought process around that? I don't have details on the structure. I think everything is a possibility, and I think it can be everything from closing costs to, you know, their origination fees. And I'm not a, I bring primarily energy expertise to this. I'm learning

[00:17:16] the financial as fast as I can. And that is something that the entity finds really adapts to the market and finds its niche and tailors its approach and whatever fees could be gained from the market conditions and its lending partners. Because again, much of the

[00:17:49] much of the capital, especially early in the life of the green bank, much of the capital will be coming from private lenders. And so it's that, I want to call it a finder's fee, the green bank.

[00:18:06] So it sounds like yet to be determined. So you'll come back and we'll understand that later. I just was just trying to get a sense just based on identifying that that's how we would. And so that is becoming self-supporting through those fees is a long-term goal for this entity where what other green banks that have been established have found is that over time, as their portfolio and the capital structure grows, they can become self-supporting from those fees.

[00:18:41] Okay. I certainly understand it. And I'm just thinking in my head, the model that we use for industrial revenue bond program we do have you know fees that are connected and there is a one-time amount that's set up for that but we can maybe see how you guys structured over time second question is on page six I think you mentioned from Montgomery County they have the Virginia Community Capital Group that's connected to that to their financing they're not formally connected in in any permanent manner but they were uh an investor in along with the new york city

[00:19:18] entity an investor in um that very large solar installation in a in an affordable um apartment complex oh it's only in that one yes but and and so we're in touch with virginia community capital uh they're a long-standing um cdfi type organization in richmond that was going to be my next question is what is the opportunity for us to obviously partner with them here in Virginia?

[00:19:46] Yes, absolutely. And then just out of curiosity, maybe you can explain this to me later, but I guess if there are other partners that we might be thinking about to work and partner with for this Green Bank, I'd be curious to know maybe who some of those folks might be. And if there's something that we can do to help, you know, kind of promote opportunities for folks to look at this as an investment instrument? I would certainly want to be proactive in that because we want this fund to be as, obviously, as large as it can be to support as many different investments as possible.

[00:20:20] Yes, we're speaking with banking institutions, large and small, and both depository banks, just large names in the community, as well as CDFI and other community development enterprises.

[00:20:45] I would welcome, if you have individuals in the finance community who could, you know, provide some interest and guidance, and then I'd appreciate any referrals just because this is ultimately a community organization.

[00:21:14] Certainly. Happy to help. Thank you. Thank you, Sir Vajaloski. Excuse me. I'm going to assume that means files. Next. You okay?

[00:21:31] Thank you. You know, this is really exciting. good stuff uh i think i follow up a little bit on what uh the uh questioning of supervisor lusk i just wonder i mean it's almost seems to me unfair to ask an energy expert to set up a bank you know which we're kind of asking you to do is there consulting have you looked at the the possibility of retaining a consultant who would add that expertise to your team yeah i i i was

[00:22:07] just self-deprecating there. The consultants we're using from ICF, they were instrumental in setting up the Philadelphia Green Capital Corporation. And so they have helped immensely on a number of the legal, organizational, and financial aspects. In addition, we have an interagency work group. And so staff from the finance department have been in all of our

[00:22:43] planning meetings and providing essential guidance. And then also, you know, learning from our neighbors is essential. And actually, that interagency work group also includes It's an expert from the private sector who's a real estate attorney who was involved in the D.C. Green Bank startup.

[00:23:12] So we are getting good advice, and our own Department of Economic Initiatives is very much involved in our staff working group, and they've provided a number of helpful pointers and contacts.

[00:23:30] And, of course, the county attorney's office is very much involved. So you have access to the resources you believe you need, and if you find you need something, you would let us know. But at this point in time, there's no reason why this isn't going to come together based on lack of expertise.

[00:23:49] Very good. Good luck with it. I like it. I like it. Supervisor Alczyk. Thank you. And I think, as Supervisor Faust, also Supervisor Lusk, really got to a lot of my questions. It was very exciting. And while I don't have experience in the green banking, it sounds very similar to the microfinance field and working with the different financial institutions.

[00:24:11] So I'm very happy to hear that you are working with DEI. That was going to be my next question, is I know as we talk about the education, you talk about outreach here, I'm really thinking about the capacity building and the partnering with groups like the Latino Economic Development Corporation that I know DEI has worked with to help ensure that we are building capacity going even beyond the education piece, targeting and ensuring that we focus on and support those smaller lenders and those who are already working in the community and have that outreach.

[00:24:46] So I guess I see you nodding your head, and I assume that that work is already happening and DEI or other members are helping support that engagement and capacity building piece. yes ma'am the supervisor they they've been um they've been very very helpful from the very beginning well excellent this is very exciting share my colleagues uh excitement on this thank you so much mr morell i think very fortunate to have you here in the county oh thank you thank you supervisor and um this initiative really started with the fairfax green initiative in 2018 and chairman mckay was a huge proponent and actually ensured i think that we moved it forward

[00:25:25] legislatively as well. So, Chairman McKay. Yeah, thank you. And this is promising. I will say, you know, we need to make sure we don't overlook our philanthropic community as well as initial seed money, potential contributors. But, you know, in looking at the chart of, you know, what's happened in Montgomery County, I think, you know, that tells the whole story of the importance of doing this. And this is, you know, still pretty new for them, too. So it's not like we're you know coming at this years and years and years behind schedule uh that being said i do think that you know the quicker we can get this up and going the better and i think that's

[00:26:03] everyone's feeling um but when you get legislation from richmond and get the authority to be able to do something um everyone's watching that and our ability to continue to get authority from richmond to do the type of environmental work many times that you know we find we have to do in our county is subjected to how we're using the authority we've already been given.

[00:26:23] And so I only say that because I think the faster we can get this up and moving, we can be continually scaling it as we go, but at least getting a handful of projects up into the program and going, I think will go a long way in cementing future support in Richmond for the type of flexibility we need to really tackle issues like this, certainly environmental issues like this in the future.

[00:26:48] So good update, and I know we'll be following closely the progress that's made here. So thank you. Thank you. Thank you, Chairman Kate. Thank you, John, for your presentation. And I think I know you heard from my colleagues that if there's any resources or anything else that you need from us to move this along more quickly, I think you heard, in general, strong support for doing that.

[00:27:13] So just let us know. We're going to move on to the next presentation, which is on the CCAP and Neely Laws here. Matt Myers, you're going to give us an update on CCAP and kind of where we are with our different efforts and pilots and so forth. Good morning, Chairman McKay, Board of Supervisors.

[00:27:33] Thank you for the invitation to provide you with an update on implementation progress and our 2023-2024 priority actions for implementation. The CCAP implementation priorities for 2023-2024 prioritize or target sectors with the greatest carbon reduction need.

[00:27:59] As you recall, CCAP addresses greenhouse gas emissions from five sectors, building and energy efficiency, energy supply, transportation, natural resources, and waste. With more than 90% of the greenhouse gas emissions from commercial and residential buildings and the transportation sectors, these are a priority to accelerate implementation. While the priority implementation for the next two years is on these three sectors, implementation efforts will continue

[00:28:34] for waste reduction and natural resources. So as we are aggressively expanding existing programs and new initiatives, a community-based approach to implementation is needed where individuals, businesses, community-based organizations, and government are collectively working together to achieve the common goal of carbon neutrality. No one entity can do this alone. The implementation

[00:29:08] plan identifies many ways in which the county supports the community in their efforts. This progress update will illustrate and share with you the many ways in which we are supporting businesses, HOAs, and NGOs. So we are working with and leveraging existing networks through community-based organizations to create this multiplier effect to accelerate implementation.

[00:29:36] So the next set of slides will identify the priority actions in these sectors, followed by a more detailed update on key programs. So first, the emissions reductions in the building and energy sector is targeted to reduce a quarter of the emissions. The table in front of you lists the priority actions where the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination and its partners are working to ramp up new and expand existing programs to activate the community's potential to increase energy efficiency of buildings and their electrification or strategies

[00:30:13] one and two. For example, you just heard about the green bank that will serve this need. In addition to the green bank, however, programs like Carbon Free Fairfax, Climate Champions, Green Business Programs are actively underway to connect with individuals and businesses to take on climate action. Increasing the energy efficiency of new buildings, or strategy three, is also being addressed through comprehensive planning and the entitlement process. The yellow box around these actions and programs are just to illustrate the programs that carry over into different sectors

[00:30:53] or our multi-sector programs. Each one of these actions will require some level of investment. So to the right are a list of existing incentives that are available for the community to reduce the cost of implementation from county, utility, state, and the federal government. And as John mentioned, we're still seeking clarification on the Inflation Reduction Act and what rebates and incentives will be available. In the energy sector, a similar 25 percent reduction in emissions is the

[00:31:27] target. The priority actions for 2023 in the work plan largely focus on Strategy 5 because this is where the county can be most influential. The Office of Environmental Energy Coordination will also be advertising an RFP for a virtual power purchase agreement later this year to increase the renewable energy in the electric grid or strategy four. Again, to the right are various current incentives that are available through county and federal agencies and utilities to

[00:31:59] support implementation of those actions. And these resources will be incorporated into a checklist that I'll later describe that will be available for residents and businesses to take advantage of. And the last priority sector is transportation, and it has the largest emissions reduction at 32%.

[00:32:21] Key to the source of greenhouse gas emission reduction is strategy seven, which is increasing EV adoption. The county is actively pursuing this strategy along two fronts, the county fleet as well as private ev adoption while there are many programs to support the adoption of v of ev and more sustainable transportation mode charge up fairfax what matt myers will explain in greater detail is a new and seminal program to accelerate adoption by providing the needed infrastructure to

[00:32:54] support ev at homeowner association communities going into some specific programs that have begun in 2023. The first one is Climate Champions. This is a new initiative for 2023.

[00:33:14] Climate Champions has the potential to address all sectors. That is shown by the banner at the top of the slide, so all five sectors. The goal of the Climate Champion initiative is to amplify climate action by leveraging existing networks and peer-to-peer outreach. This is the first of three Climate Champions projects that will be initiated. This one specifically is a pilot with a non-profit organization, the Faith Alliance for Climate Solution, or FACS. We are working with FACS to establish solar sanctuaries that are more generically or commonly known as

[00:33:51] resilient hubs. The Solar Sanctuary Program is a Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions program to improve the energy efficiency of places of worship, install renewable energy sources, and battery storage. This will enable places of worship that are a trusted place in the community to provide services before, during, and after climate hazards, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions. The benefit of this partnership is that this Climate Champions Program will act as a multiplier effect to implement and serve as a gateway to engage residents to accelerate

[00:34:29] climate action. Our office is supporting FACS in the development of this program, and we will be applying for an EPA environmental justice government-to-government grant that is due April 10th to implement at least one solar sanctuary in Fairfax County, as well as serving as a model to implement many others in the county. The January through June schedule highlights the work that is currently underway and is expected to be completed by the end of June. The second program

[00:35:03] I'd like to share with you on progress is Carbon Free Fairfax. This continues to be a vital program for CCAP implementation and it is the Climate Action Education Outreach Campaign for County Residents. The program was initiated, that is Carbon Free Fairfax, in 2021 with five campaigns focusing on the three sectors identified in the banner above. Staff is continuing to build on these programs to include logos to brand these new programs along with educational videos that

[00:35:37] will be completed in March and June of this year. A climate action checklist will top our list of priorities and it is currently under development based on the feedback received at our December meeting with you. On the right is an example of the type of information, not a mock-up of the checklist for building and energy efficiency. The checklist will be provided for all of the five CCAP sectors and provide low-cost, no-cost, or higher investment options for residents and

[00:36:12] businesses to take advantage of. These will be linked to informational, educational, as well as financial incentives to assist with implementation. So at the end of this quarter, we will also have a climate action roadshow that we will take to HOAs in a partnership with FACTS to places of worship to again accelerate implementation by engaging with existing networks and associations because once again, we cannot do this alone. Matt, we'll continue with highlighting additional

[00:36:45] programs. And as we approach the noon hour, say good afternoon. Matt Myers with the Office of Environmental Energy Coordination. And yes, one of the, another, as we transition from carbon-free Fairfax, one of the big outreach and education components of that is the EVs and EV adoption. So as part of that, we build a program actually to help residents on the ground. So Charge Up Fairfax is a community program managed by our office to facilitate the installation of electric vehicle charging stations to support EV adoption in multifamily residential communities.

[00:37:24] The program is intended to address the unique challenges these residents face with respect to at-home charging since they do not have driveways or garages. Multifamily residential housing units represent over a third of the total 425,000 plus housing units in the county. In addition, there are many townhouse communities without driveways and garages that have the same challenges for installing EV charging stations.

[00:37:53] The Charge Up Fairfax pilot will start this April and include work with up to three communities. Charge Up Fairfax is one initiative that supports the CCAP sector goal to have a minimum of 15% of the cars registered in the county be battery electric, plug-in hybrids, or fully electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles by 2030.

[00:38:24] And let's see where we switched the other slide. So as building on that, the next three slides will turn into the county operational energy strategy and supporting of the goals to have the county operations be energy carbon neutral by 2040.

[00:38:40] The county's OES sets ambitious goals and targets to transition the county's buses and fleet vehicles to electric or a non-carbon emitting alternative by 2035. So as supporting that big piece is installing the EV charging infrastructure at county facilities.

[00:38:56] To date, EV charging stations have been installed at 11 locations with 91 charging ports serving those 91 parking spaces. Charging stations serving up to 116 spaces are planned to be installed at the five county locations listed on this slide.

[00:39:15] In August of 2022, the Board of Supervisors approved establish a retail fee for charging of EVs at county-owned charging stations to increase charging availability for the community members and promote the widespread adoption of EVs.

[00:39:33] Next, we're making a lot of progress on solar installations at county facilities. In 2023, solar installations are scheduled to be completed at nine county facilities, providing over 1,100 kilowatts of capacity.

[00:39:49] An additional 17 solar installation sites will be with 3,100 kilowatts, plus the 5,000 kilowatt project at the I-95 landfill will be active during 2024 and 2025. So in total, we convert that to, it's 9.2 megawatts of renewable energy based on the programs listed on this slide.

[00:40:13] So it's a big step forward. The 2021 Operation Energy Strategy updates, along with the supporting sustainable development policy for county capital projects, has set a target to achieve net zero energy for all new facilities and major renovations.

[00:40:30] The projects listed on the left were started and designed under the previous policy. These 18 projects are currently in construction or final design. They are designed to meet LEED, the Leadership in Energy Environmental Design Standards. At least silver certification are higher, with eight facilities designed to gold or platinum.

[00:40:52] Two of these buildings, the Stormwater Wastewater Facility and the Operational Support Bureau, are also designed to be net zero energy. Projects on the right have all been designed based on the new policy to achieve LEED gold plus net zero energy.

[00:41:08] They're also solar and EV ready. To date, the summary on the bottom right, DPWS Capital Facilities has completed 41 buildings with LEED or Green Globe certifications. So this slide provides additional CCAP priority programs that further bolster the community-based approach to build capacity and accelerate implementation.

[00:41:37] The Green Business Partners is being revitalized to encourage and elevate sustainable businesses and innovation to meet the CCAP goals. A forum will be held this March 31st. The Fairfax Tree Canopy Program supports and expands existing tree planting programs in the community, building on Urban Forestry Management Division many programs, including the Tree Preservation and Planning Program.

[00:42:01] We're working with nonprofits like Casey's Trees and Nature Forward to help move this program forward. We're also expanding the HomeWise Program to support and accelerate residential energy audits and ultimately retrofits of existing homes.

[00:42:17] We're also partnering with non-profits like LEAP, the Local Energy Alliance Program, and the community housing partners that are active in the community. In addition, we are coordinating with the Northern Virginia Soil and Water Conservation District to support grant programs, building on existing programs like their Energy Conservation Assistance Program that's currently funded through the Environmental Improvement Program.

[00:42:42] Neely mentioned Climate Champions. We're also facilitating a Climate Champion Program with the hospitality sector. It's bringing together representatives from hospitality organizations like Visit Fairfax, American Hospitality and Lodging Association, Virginia Restaurant, Hotel and Lodging Association, and BF Soul Company Hospitality Group.

[00:43:04] In addition, there's major hotel brands and associations, including Hilton and Marriott representatives that will be part of the team. A kickoff meeting is scheduled for next week. Other things on, of course, transportation planning with our Fairfax County Department of Transportation.

[00:43:19] Their long-range planning and active Fairfax is also considering how we take action and reduce our greenhouse gas emissions overall. The final one is a comprehensive plan. The board has directed the Department of Planning and Development to update the policy plan updates.

[00:43:39] So Allison Homer is presenting on Resilient Fairfax next. She'll be able to do a little bit more detail how we're bringing both CCAP and Resilient Fairfax together in those changes. So finally, the Climate Action Dashboard has been updated and can be accessed directly through the link at the bottom of this presentation, this slide, as well as from the Climate Action link on the left-hand navigation panel of our Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination homepage.

[00:44:08] The page is intended to be a hub of information related to climate action that brings together information and programs to support CCAP, our operational energy strategy, and resilient Fairfax. The page includes overall climate action metrics.

[00:44:24] Several of these also complement the county strategic planning, environmental, and energy community outcome area. It's organized by the five sectors that were presented in CCAP, as well as has a specific link on resilience. As you drill down into these pages, you'll provide information on how to get involved, learn, track progress of implementation, and how to take action.

[00:44:51] We'd really like to thank all the agencies that provided input, data, and links to their own ongoing programs, especially those outreach and education programs that help residents and businesses take action. One example of a new webpage that was also just launched today is the Zero Waste Plan just launched their Zero Waste Plan webpage today.

[00:45:11] So there is a link at the bottom of this page to give feedback, so we're rolling it out to our stakeholders and partners to ask them for feedback on this and how this page will will evolve and develop over time. So thank you.

[00:45:26] Great. Thank you, Matt. Thank you, Neely. The website is, I know, something we've been looking for. It's really great that we have that. I know there's more coming, so appreciate. And I know that that's a critical part of helping our community understand what we're doing and how we're moving this forward.

[00:45:43] I also particularly like the images or icons that are used, And hopefully that thematic, those thematic icons, people can use that to help them more quickly see what's being done in a particular area or not. Not only the ones that are early in the part of your presentation, but also the ones at the end about different parts of the energy areas that we need to focus on.

[00:46:08] So thank you. And I'm going to turn to the chairman. Yeah, first, I mean, excellent presentation, a lot of progress being made. And so we thank you and the whole team for that. i guess one of one of the questions i have involves the climate champions because you know obviously i'm hearkening back to what we went through with covid and trying to convince people to get vaccinations and sometimes that comes from people like them more than it comes from government and so the community champions piece of this becomes really important to move the rest of the community along with what we are already doing in the county and to that end i'm just

[00:46:47] wondering, since the solar sanctuaries, when there's been this, you know, kickoff meeting with FACS, I'm just wondering what assessment is being done about the capacity of these organizations and how we might help them. Because if we're going to move the needle with our faith community, it's likely to be the faith community talking to the faith community more than it is us talking to the faith community. And I'm worried about their ability to scale up in an organized way and be able to get that information out? And have we done assessments of both, you know, facts or who the groups we're identifying in the hospitality world, the business world, to make

[00:47:27] sure that they have the resources they need or maybe access to grant opportunities so that they can get the resources they need to do what it is we're asking them to do? Thank you very much for that question, Mr. Chairman.

[00:47:46] Kambi Zagazi, Director of Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination. I love that question because we've been working really hard to stand up these pilots, these champion pilots, for the past couple of months. And one thing that we're finding is, number one, our NGOs are saying, we need you, Fairfax County.

[00:48:07] We need you. And we're saying, we need you. So we need each other. They think we bring a lot of credibility to the table. We think they bring a lot of credibility to the table. And you know what? It's great. We're there together. That's number one. Number two, we're finding that we have some NGOs that are quite large, well-resourced.

[00:48:28] We have other NGOs that have a lot of technical expertise, but they're quite small. We're actually leveraging the different NGOs to help each other and to help us. So we have, for instance, in Charge Up, we have a couple of NGOs that we're working together with, not one.

[00:48:44] And the same thing goes with HomeWise. We're looking to work with more than one NGO because some of them bring different expertise. Our tree canopy program, we have two NGOs working with us. Because, again, one of them brings education and outreach expertise. The other one brings more labor expertise.

[00:48:59] So it's a great question, and I think that from our early experience, we're recognizing that we need each other. Yeah, I don't disagree with that. I also think that we fund on the county side our organization well, you know, and so we know what we expect of you, and you all always deliver.

[00:49:20] What I don't know is that on the NGO world, and I'm particularly concerned about making sure that we've identified climate champions, that they have the resources to actually do what it is we're asking them to do without it falling back on ultimately just us to do, because then we're losing the value of their voice.

[00:49:41] And so I would hope that as you do these meetings and have these discussions with them, that if there's identified needs that we're made aware of those, If there are grant programs, we can help identify where some of these NGOs might be able to apply for financial assistance.

[00:49:57] I don't think there's a lack of willingness of these organizations to work with us. I know there's an acknowledgment of the power that association with the county brings to them. What I'm worried about is just on a day-to-day basis, their real capacity to be able to launch this in the way that we expect them to.

[00:50:13] And I think you're going to find pretty extreme variations of that. And I'm just saying where we're finding weaknesses – And it's not weaknesses because of the desire. It's just weakness from an administrative standpoint that we are able to work with them to help them do that.

[00:50:29] Because we don't want them to fail, get disoriented, and walk away from the table when we need them most. And I would think that we need that most at the very beginning. As these things start to take off, you know, this is not something that we may have to sustain in terms of resource support.

[00:50:46] But at the beginning, it's something I think we really need to consider and think about. We've spent a lot to get to this point. We have a really good plan in place. I'd hate any of it to fall flat just because the identified community champions don't have the horsepower to be able to do what we thought that they could do.

[00:51:04] Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Supervisor Palchuk? Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I'll come down the table with anybody else who has any questions. Okay, thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to second his remarks. I love the progress we're making here. I especially appreciate just being able to consolidate so many of the different initiatives and programs we have.

[00:51:26] I think there's still work to be done there, but I think we're definitely moving in the right direction. I am especially focused on, sorry, they don't have numbers, but the additional update slide and then the climate action dashboard slide. I think they're very user-friendly and exactly where I think I, as a board member, want to know where we are and when we're going.

[00:51:49] Focusing in a little bit, because I've been trying to follow some of the HomeWise and the tax incentives, the federal tax incentives, and how we're doing that piece of it. You know, I guess I was a little surprised that I went to their website on HomeWise. I didn't see anything about the tax incentives on there.

[00:52:09] And so that's an area where, especially now as a new homeowner, thinking about how do we proactively work with and build the capacity, right, in our community. Especially for me, this is one of those environmental justice as well as cost savings that I want to make sure we as a county figure out how to be most proactive, especially supporting our community on fixed incomes or trying to continue to afford living here.

[00:52:37] So I don't know if we've considered things like, I don't know, an AmeriCorps-style program or especially which nonprofits or county agencies can help us really target and support our homeowners through beyond, you know, the website and some of those champions?

[00:52:56] How do we target and work with, whether it's NCS or DFS or other agencies, to really support DTA, our homeowners, and capturing both the tax incentives as well as the environmental impact? We're working with all the agencies that you mentioned And making those connections, looking at their programs, whether it's helping homeowners pay utility bills and how that connection to their knowing the community where the need is, to working with the various nonprofits like LEAP and community housing partners to know that they're working in the community as well, and especially low and moderate income families.

[00:53:37] One other component of the Champions is the next step is really look at bringing those nonprofits together and seeing what is being done in the community, what is their capacity, and how do we bolster that and work together to do more. One of the challenging CCAP sector-based goals is to retrofit 100,000 homes by 2030, so that's a big goal, and so, yes, we need to connect with those folks.

[00:54:05] Okay, no, and I appreciate it. I know that one's probably going to take a bit longer, so I'm wondering in the meantime, because I've gotten questions about how we can help you and the county really push out to everyone and make it easier to understand those tax incentives, resources. I don't know if we looked at reducing the barriers to helping it easier for people who are maybe working, and it seems like a bit cumbersome to figure out the whole system and how to move forward.

[00:54:32] Yeah, a lot of the material we're developing now, whether it's the checklist, really focuses on highlights, what incentive programs are out there and connecting them to those. The carbon-free Fairfax programs, anytime there's a campaign related to that, we connect and provide that information to the link.

[00:54:49] So the dashboard as well, as you drill down into building an energy supply, will have links to the incentive programs as well. So we're doing it at multiple levels, and when we go out to an HOA for charge-up Fairfax, making sure we have the packages of information on all these different sectors and information like that as we go out.

[00:55:15] I appreciate it. If you could share all that with us, if you already have, I apologize. I know there's so much coming out. I really want to be supportive and proactive in helping share it out as we're out in the community and with HOAs as well. The board member offices are actually part of our partners list.

[00:55:32] So as we develop these communications toolkits, whether it's the checklist for homeowners or for businesses, we will definitely be sending out these toolkits to the board member offices to help us promote some of these incentives and some of the various programs that are available to them.

[00:55:49] So I appreciate that. Okay. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And in the past, I've urged each board member, too, to identify if you have an environmental person, not only to connect with the OEC but also to talk to Kim Lespear in my office because it's a way that we can help to push out as well as get information back in.

[00:56:08] And we're more than happy, and she's more than happy, to do and meet with folks on a periodic basis to hopefully keep people more abreast of what's going on. We know the committee meetings are not enough, and we know that we're all getting lots of questions, and we know that the environment is changing so rapidly as well.

[00:56:26] So those are all key parts of it. So Supervisor Lusk. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I have a question on the county sustainable development policy, and I appreciate all the presentations, all the slides, but this one's resonating with me to the degree that seeing all of the facilities with their designation in terms of their lead goal, and obviously great to see we have one that's platinum.

[00:56:54] Also great to see we have more that are in the gold designation. The question that I have, and I think I asked this, I think at our very first retreat to calm deeds, and the question I asked at that time was, how do we ensure over time that these facilities remain as lead gold, silver, platinum, or gold?

[00:57:19] So the question is, what do we do? And I think the word was recommissioning, as I think. Retro commissioning. Retro. Thank you. You said recommissioning, retrocommissioning. So how do we ensure that we're retrocommissioning the facilities so that they retain their status in the lead designation that they are when they have to open?

[00:57:39] And that's a great question. So when these facilities are first designed and built, they are commissioned, and then they are certified, and they're turned over. And I think it's important that as time goes on, you know, buildings, even if they're operated correctly, Obviously, you know, equipment, you know, sometimes gets, loses its calibration and things happen.

[00:58:01] So my office is currently creating a retro-commissioning program that we will be unveiling and presenting to this committee at some point, either in 23 or 24. So that's something that we're working on. We're working on it with our, we have an energy service company that we work with.

[00:58:20] So this is something that's coming. So this is important. And I'm glad you're asking the question. So I'll say thank you very much. I'm glad to hear that update. Now the thing is the next step in the questioning would be how do we maybe share this with the broader development community because I think this is going to exist across every single building that has this designation.

[00:58:42] So we can be, I guess, the example and the template, but then the question is how do we communicate that out and share it with the development community as well. If I can add to that, I think that is part of the Green Business Partners program that is currently being revitalized and will be launched at the March 31st event. And so creating those meaningful partnerships with the business community will provide us that forum to share that information. I think more, and even more generally speaking, I think, you know, we have a relationship with the Northern Virginia Building Industry Association. We have a relationship with

[00:59:17] ESI, the Engineer Institute. And so I think it's important for us to continue to share our best practices. They share best practices with us as well. And I think this is an ongoing issue that we have anyway with our building codes. So I think as the county sets the example, it's the gold standard. I think it's important that we do share that because I think ultimately we want the entire county to be built to this gold standard. Thank you very much. Thank you both. And I would add that the schools, I think in particular, we need to be making sure because we've had some

[00:59:55] questions about the school's focus and attention on this issue and we've had a recent meeting this past week with the with some of the the jet individuals and i know supervisor gross can maybe even speak to some of that but i know you're next supervisor gross so well thank you and i did have a question coming out of that but um on the um maybe i wasn't listening to the presentation closely enough but on charge up fairfax you've got an mou signed with northern virginia still and Water Conservation District, at the same point that you've got electrical vehicle registration, and I'm trying to figure out the connection between the Soil and Water Conservation District

[01:00:32] and electrical vehicles. Yes, thank you very much, Supervisor Groh. So that's a great question, right? So I was suggesting to Soil Water Conservation District that they add the word energy in their title at some point, but they've been a great partner. They've been working with the county for even before OEC was formed. They were working with me on an energy assistance program. So we were helping to fund energy efficiency in the community, and Soil Water

[01:01:05] Conservation District was the administrator of the grant program. So it's easier for our contributory agencies and our not-for-profits who we work with to help us, the county, to administer some aspects of our program. I mentioned the various partnerships. This was a great partnership, and so that's what they're doing for us. Okay, and of course, the Soil and Water Conservation Districts, I believe, are a creation of the state, so they may not be able to just automatically change their name. No, no. It just didn't compute with me. Dan, this comes out of

[01:01:43] our jet conversation, and I'm still trying to get my arms around this one. On the county fleet electrification, the EV charging stations, there was a time when you went to a regular gas station, this was a very long time ago, where you did not have universal design on your gas pump. But you do now. It fits everything. And as we're looking at EV charging stations, we know that Tesla has something different. But then when we get into the larger vehicles and so forth, what is the future?

[01:02:21] What types of connections are we looking at? And what is the future for this? Are we going to go to universal design so that you don't have a station here, a charging station here that only accepts this particular kind of connection? Or one over here that only accepts this kind of connection? Because that's wasted time and wasted space. So I'm wondering, you know, this came up in our jet conversation about school buses and some of the garbage trucks and so forth.

[01:02:47] But it seems to me that we need to have more information, at least, on how universal design might play into all of this. I imagine the grid system is going to be the same. It's that connection. It's like going to Europe and not having the right converters. So that's my question.

[01:03:10] What are we going to be doing about universal design? Is the industry coming forward with more universal design on the EV connections? So the answer to that question is yes, and I think the question that was raised at the JET was regarding connector buses and school buses, can we share charging? We've shared that question with Tom Bishotny, Director of Department of Transportation, so we'll get an answer back to the committee regarding sort of sharing between the schools in the county. But the answer is yes, they are moving to more universal. And there has been

[01:03:46] discussion in the industry regarding the Tesla chargers versus the non-Tesla chargers. So that discussion is ongoing. It's an industry discussion. This is a national situation. I'm not going to say it's international because I think we have to recognize that other continents have different kinds of approaches. But I think that this is the kind of thing where we do not want to get so far down the road that we then go, oops, should have thought about this before.

[01:04:16] Because really, if we're looking at universe and universal design as we're advocating in lots of things, this should be one of those that's universal design, because everybody should be able to have access at a location and not have to hunt around for whether this connection is going to work with my vehicle.

[01:04:35] Thank you. Thank you, Professor Gross. Yeah, thank you, Mr. I mean, just on that point, and that's a question that comes up I think with the exception of Tesla, it's 95% universal right now.

[01:04:50] The CCS charging protocol is pretty much standardized with very few exceptions. And I think Tesla has announced recently that they're going to be opening up the superchargers to other cars also. So that problem is pretty much solved.

[01:05:06] But just a few items here. On the climate action checklist, and I mentioned this last time, I really think the first action should always be to learn your carbon footprint, because for someone who's motivated to do any of the actions on the checklist, if they can understand which actions are going to have the biggest impact, our checklist will have the biggest impact.

[01:05:34] So that's just my thought on that. On our fleet, what percentage of our fleet that's eligible is an EV at this point? And I recognize, you know, it's going to be a transition.

[01:05:52] We're not going to scrap a three-year-old internal combustion engine car, but that's the metric that needs to be moving in the right direction. The charging stations at government buildings are just a means to that end. So where are we on that transition as a percentage?

[01:06:08] And I'll just give the answer that Marguerite Garino gave, Department of Vehicle Services, at the JET meeting, Supervisor Stork. Supervisor Stork asked a question, I think, are there any exceptions? And she said no. So as soon as vehicles are ready to be turned over in the county side, you know, those vehicles where there is an electric option, the agencies are purchasing the electric option.

[01:06:34] Okay. There are no exceptions. So we currently have 24 battery electric vehicles in the county and one plug-in hybrid electric vehicle in the county in terms of our vehicle fleet. Okay. All right. So the percentage is low right now, but I think moving forward, speaking for myself, I'd like to see that percentage and how it's moving.

[01:06:55] You know, just a kind of broader thought, there's a lot here and a lot of great programs moving forward. I struggle with how to prioritize them and how we should prioritize them, and I know that's a challenge for you all also.

[01:07:13] And one of the things I wonder is would there be some value in establishing some averages, recognizing the challenges in doing this, of greenhouse gas emission reductions per action, right?

[01:07:31] And maybe you already have this behind the curtain, but I don't see that in how we're prioritizing our actions. And as a board member, I don't see it in terms of moving forward, how do we prioritize where we devote resources in the budget to.

[01:07:51] So if one of those 100,000 homes retrofits, what's the average greenhouse gas reduction versus one person who switches to an EV? So are we better off spending a dollar on the retrofit or a dollar where, quite frankly, we're kind of doing what automakers are already doing?

[01:08:14] They're spending billions of dollars to convince people to switch to EVs. So I don't know that our marketing efforts are going to make a big impact there. But I don't feel like we can prioritize unless we know which actions make the most impact. A lot of that is behind the scenes.

[01:08:32] The greenhouse gas emission reductions for CCAP report is reported at the strategy level. And then for each of those strategies, we actually have the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments who did the greenhouse gas inventories. We have their spreadsheets that show us how, you know, for a number of cars, how that brings down the greenhouse gases.

[01:08:52] are assumptions on how many buildings are retrofitted and how much that brings down. So those are things we can look at. We also provide tools. The EPA carbon footprint tool is linked now on our dashboard.

[01:09:07] There's also tools from the Department of Energy that shows all the different retrofits you can do your house and considerations on the cost benefits, whether it's putting insulation or when you put in a new HVAC system. We also on the dashboard have little graphics that show the change of changing out your water heater or your HVAC and the cost and the energy savings and the overall greenhouse gas.

[01:09:31] Got it. So we have that information. I just don't see that it is utilized to prioritize actions in this report. And I feel like that's where we need to go. And maybe, again, you all have that behind the curtain.

[01:09:48] But as we are thinking about how to invest money in different programs, is a dollar in charge of Fairfax better than a dollar invested in retrofitting homes or not? I think that's where we've got to get to as we make the hard decisions about where to allocate time, your time, and the county staff's time and resources.

[01:10:10] If I could just add to Matt's comment, the draft checklist for residents that we're creating, each item has the – Allison, could you speak up? Yes, sorry. My ears are kind of old. The draft checklist that we're creating for residents, first of all, the first item on that list is the EPA calculator, thanks to your suggestion.

[01:10:32] And every item on that checklist has the estimated carbon reduction potential of that particular item. So the vision is to be able to sort it by, well, you could sort it by cost. So if someone can't afford anything other than low cost and no cost, you could achieve those actions, or you could sort it by emission reduction potential to address the top actions first. And then more broadly, the reason that the energy reduction, energy supply, and transportation actions are prioritized is because those are the greatest contributors to that.

[01:11:06] Right, as categories. I'm just saying within the categories, we got to drill down to the actions that we should prioritize the most. Absolutely, those are the categories, no question. All right, Thank you. Thank you, Supervisor Walkinshaw and Supervisor Smith. I really appreciate Supervisor Walkinshaw's comments because I think that's been a frustration because even if we talk billions of dollars, it's still limited resources.

[01:11:30] And when we need to make those tough decisions, that's some of the guidance we need where we put in the county money. I am happy to see that you're developing these checklists. I think that will be more user-friendly, so however we get that out to people.

[01:11:46] So I appreciate that. Thank you. Thank you. And just kind of maybe a final note on this is that a key part of having champions is to also leverage what we're doing. We have basic programs. We have basic resources, basic information.

[01:12:04] The champions are crucial to spreading this as well as utilizing the work that we've done. And to some degree, champions are going to choose their own focus because they're going to have their own particular passions or interests or whatever.

[01:12:20] And while we want to guide them, in my mind, guide them towards the stuff that has the highest return, if you will, in the end, we really want to marry with their passion because we know that that ultimately will have a larger multiplier than anything else we can do. So there's a lot more information, and I would urge you to meet with staff because there is that process that they've been looking at to how do we focus on the highest value, highest return kinds of elements.

[01:12:48] So we are really almost pretty much out of time, but I know that we needed to, first and foremost, I want to thank Matt and Neely for your presentations and what you've done. I know we need to go quickly at least to Allison, and we don't have time really for a full presentation, but we had a couple of elements that needed to be the need to get board feedback and support for.

[01:13:13] And then the last item on here that we had, which is the bamboo ordinance, there's been a lot of conversation. There's a lot of issues we're getting on that. At this point, I was going to defer it, and if we have time in another meeting, that's fine. But we also have our next meeting is also going to include a major presentation on Lake Akateek, and it's going to absorb a lot of that time.

[01:13:36] So we're going to have to see what we can do with the county response on bamboo, because I know we're all getting questions, and I know there's a lot of concerns about is the county looking at all of its property and how is it supporting it. So with that, I'm going to turn to Allison and ask her if you can give us a five-minute presentation, then if you can get to the core ask that I know we needed to cover today.

[01:14:01] Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the board. My name is Allison Homer, and I'm with the Office of Environmental and Energy Coordination. As you may recall, there are 48 strategies in resilient Fairfax, which was adopted in November.

[01:14:18] They're organized into four pillars, as summarized on this slide. We have integrated action planning, climate-ready communities, resilient infrastructure and buildings, and adaptive environments. And again, there are 48 strategies within those pillars. Out of the 48 total strategies in Resilient Fairfax, 18 strategies are prioritized.

[01:14:41] This slide shows the current status of those 18 prioritized strategies. The status bars show the percentage of implementation actions that have been completed to date for each strategy. Strategies marked with the letter Y are yearly strategies, so that status bar would fill up each year.

[01:15:02] Strategies marked with a delta or triangle symbol are those that staff recommend a change in approach from the way that the plan was written to seize current opportunities that are available or to enable more effective implementation. So those are changes, proposed changes, that I'll be discussing in the upcoming slides.

[01:15:23] In addition to the prioritized strategies, there are 30 additional strategies within Resilient Fairfax. Many of these additional strategies have also started. In some cases, the active state of these strategies is why they were classified as non-prioritized in the first place, because they were already ongoing and therefore needed a lower level of new attention from staff. All strategies considered, 31 out of 48 total strategies, or 65 percent of Resilient Fairfax strategies have started less than four months into implementation.

[01:16:02] The first example strategy that I'll talk about today focuses on amendments to the comprehensive plan. This strategy was activated by the Board's authorization in December of the comprehensive plan amendment to the environmental element of the policy plan, along with other elements.

[01:16:19] DPD and the Office of Environmental Energy Coordination are working on early tasks for the climate component of the larger comprehensive plan amendment staff are seeking to make both resilient fairfax and ccap related amendments to the comprehensive plan simultaneously for greater efficiency and plan alignment another strategy within the integrated action planning pillar is strategy iap3a which recommended creation of a county climate fund for resilience projects i'm highlighting this strategy because staff recommend a change in approach from what was

[01:16:54] written in the plan. As was detailed in an earlier presentation at this meeting, the Green Bank is an existing intensive effort with a similar goal. However, currently based on Virginia code, the Green Bank is limited to emissions reduction only or CCAP related activities and would therefore not be able to fund things like flood risk reduction or extreme heat resilience. Rather than undertaking a separate creation process to establish a funding entity that is similar but not identical to a Green Bank, staff recommend requesting a small legislative change to allow the Green Bank to

[01:17:32] cover both climate mitigation and climate resilience projects. This would seem to be a more efficient and effective use of county resources. In the meantime, for resilience-related funding, staff are using existing capacity, planning to share outreach-related funding with CCAP outreach, and pursuing federal and state grants. Speaking of federal and state grants, This slide provides additional detail on the funding that we are pursuing.

[01:18:01] First, to streamline and improve tracking of funding opportunities, we've created a consolidated live tracker shared with all relevant departments. This matrix includes numerous fields, including color-coded status of each opportunity, key dates, funding entities, qualifications, and many other details.

[01:18:19] On this topic, we send our congratulations to DPWS, who recently won four community flood preparedness grants for flood risk reduction. which align with resilient fairfax objectives additionally as neely mentioned earlier we are currently pursuing an environmental protection agency environmental justice government-to-government grant for potential resilience hub slash solar sanctuary and partnership with faith alliance among other partners such collaboration brings me to iap4a which establishes an interagency collaboration system for climate initiatives regardless of the plan origin so climate work is

[01:18:58] inherently interdisciplinary involving not only environmental and energy experts but also experts in health emergency planning family services transportation land development storm water and more we are very fortunate in Fairfax County to have the active participation of over 20 county agencies we are facilitating improved coordination between silos we've established a climate interagency Microsoft team to enable file sharing including the grant tracker mentioned in the previous slide, communications, coordinated progress and metric tracking, and more.

[01:19:33] So we have organized the 20 departments into six implementation groups shown on this slide. Critically, these groups cover not only resilient Fairfax implementation, but also CCAP implementation to ensure efficient use of staff time and alignment of overlapping initiatives.

[01:19:51] Certain subgroups have already been meeting for specific strategies. an all-hands climate interagency meeting with all 20 departments is scheduled for Friday. In the climate-ready communities pillar, there is a key strategy related to the establishment of adaptation action areas, which are places on a map where resilience action is prioritized due to higher vulnerability. Due to time constraints, I'll spare you the details, but we are making good progress in collaboration with GIS and One Fairfax.

[01:20:26] CRC 1B relates to the development of a network of resilience hubs in climate vulnerable areas of the county. This overlaps with the solar sanctuaries pilot described by Neely in the CCAP presentation. So resilience hubs are facilities that boost a community's resilience before, during, and after severe weather events. This is another strategy we're highlighting today because we're recommending a change in approach. The resilient Fairfax plan recommended that staff conduct a detailed inventory or study of potential hub sites across the county before pursuing the first pilot project.

[01:21:02] Due to unprecedented federal funding currently available, staff recommend changing this approach to seize a current opportunity to pursue a pilot resilience hub now. Specifically, staff are requesting Board of Supervisors approval to pursue Environmental Protection Agency EJ Government-to-Government Grant, which is due April 10th for this purpose.

[01:21:22] we've submitted a board action item for that specific need. One of the most important strategies in Resilient Fairfax is the flood risk reduction plan, which is being led by DPWS and LDS. The big picture purpose of this strategy is to reduce flood risk through physical projects, updates to design and development standards, and community outreach and education.

[01:21:47] Thanks to strong interagency collaboration, we are fortunate to have seamless alignment between resilient Fairfax and these related flood risk reduction efforts. For additional details on this particular strategy, I will defer to DPWS and LDS, who are scheduled to provide an update to the board on April 25th.

[01:22:06] The final highlight I will cover today relates to two strategies, both public services and aid and climate resilience education and guidance. These strategies are being advanced in several ways. The resilience dashboard, which is now live, includes links to resilience-related services from a range of county departments and partners all in one place.

[01:22:31] I will skip details on that, but the dashboard is a living resource that will continue to be updated and enhanced. And then in addition to the dashboard, staff are actively drafting the climate action checklist for residents, which again includes both resilience and emissions reduction actions.

[01:22:47] Additionally, we're working on interagency collaboration for resilience-related climate education and guidance. So there are many education programs conducted by DVWS and parks, DEMS, Soil and Water, and others. So there are great opportunities to combine forces for stronger and more comprehensive educational offerings.

[01:23:07] The Fairfax Environmental Education Team, or FEET, provides an excellent venue for that collaboration. And then we're also pursuing interagency collaboration to expand access to resilience-related services, which means making sure that people know how to access help for various needs.

[01:23:24] And then further, the proposed Resilience Hub pilot, previously discussed, presents an opportunity to make progress on both of these strategies, because the hub itself is envisioned to connect the community to available resources and education. Allison, are we good? We are good.

[01:23:40] Thank you for your time, and we're happy to answer your question. Thank you, Allison. That was very, very, very quick. There's a lot, as you can tell, there's a lot of information here, more than we probably we can fully discuss, but I want to at least tune in to one item, which is the element about the resilience hub in that they're going to be asking for Board of Supervisor approval to apply for an EPA grant for possible resiliency hub at a future BOS meeting.

[01:24:05] So I just wanted to be particularly if you had any questions about that, that would be something to focus on. But any other questions, we'll open it up, and when we're done with questions, we can go to lunch. It's kind of that simple. Anyone?

[01:24:20] All right. So, Allison, thank you very much. I know you did a great job of summarizing what is complex. Thank you, team, OEC team.

[01:24:36] Appreciate very much your presentation today. I know we have a lot going on, and I think we're making good progress at this point and looking forward to making more. And the last item is we do have some staff reports, some NIPs that have come out. So just remind you that the Plastic Bag Fee Revenue Program nip is out as well as one on complaints on litter control and dumpsters.

[01:25:00] So take a look at those things, and with that, have a great lunch.

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