Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission — Skokie, IL
Date: 2022-11-29

Village of Skokie
 Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission
 AGENDA

 November 29, 2022
 7:00 pm
 Village Council Chambers
 Also live streamed at www.youtube.com/user/thevillageofskokie
 Public Comments: sustainability@skokie.org


  I. Approval of minutes

 II. Pumpkin composting – 4.55 tons!

III. New Business
 a. Sustainability Plan/Board Meeting Review
 b. Waste Sub-committee Board Meeting Report Review
 c. Implementation and next steps

IV. Public Comment

V. Next meeting

VI. Adjournment

Memorandum
TO: Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commissioners

FROM: _______________________________________________________________________
 Andrew D. DeCanniere, Commissioner, Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission

DATE: December 19, 2022

SUBJECT: November 29, 2022 Sustainable Environmental Advisory Commission (SEAC)
 Meeting Minutes

Meeting was called to order at 7:05 PM in the Council Chambers at Skokie Village Hall. This
meeting was also streamed live on YouTube. A recording of this meeting may be viewed by
going to the following web address: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OB1qNVcHgdo

Present: Chairperson Jennifer Grossman, Commissioners Christopher Buccola, Andrew
DeCanniere, Lisa Gotkin, Alma Likic, Olivia Mahoney, Jim McNelis, Rick Moskovitz, Emily
Okallau, Charles Saxe, Trustee Liaison Khem Khoeun, Trustee Liaison Ralph Klein, and
Director of Public Works / Staff Liaison Max Slankard

Absent: Commissioners Michael Gershbein and Robert Render

I. Approval of Minutes

Minutes from the October 25, 2022 meeting of the Sustainable Environmental Advisory
Commission were unanimously approved.

II. Pumpkin Composting

Chairperson Grossman stated that this year’s pumpkin composting event was held during the first
Farmers Market of the month, and went on to note that it set a record. Staff Liaison Slankard
added that a total of 4.55 tons had been collected at the November 6th event. He said that it was a
successful event that the Village looks forward to continuing in the future, and went on to thank
Collective Resource for their assistance.

III. New Business

 a. Sustainability Plan / Board Meeting Review

 Chairperson Grossman noted that, during last week’s meeting of the Village Board, the
 new Environmental Sustainability Plan was approved. Staff Liaison Slankard went on to
 say that the Environmental Sustainability Plan was presented to the Village Board during
 a special meeting that was held on November 14th, and then came back to the Village
 Board for consideration and approval on November 21st. What comes next in terms
 of the plan actually is implementation, which is also on tonight’s Agenda.



 Page !1 of 10
b. Waste Sub-committee Board Meeting Report Review

Staff Liaison Slankard said that, in addition to the Environmental Sustainability Plan
presentation by Ted Redmond of paleBLUEdot, LLC, who led the planning team in
putting together the sustainability plan, during both of those meetings the Village Board
also considered this Commission’s Waste Sub-committee recommendations. More
specifically, at the November 21st Village Board meeting, the Village Board did approve
transitioning from twice weekly refuse collection to once per week, and also endorsed the
sub-committee’s recommendation with respect to food scrap collection in Skokie.
The sub-committee’s recommendation to the Board that night was to pursue the
establishment of drop-off collection locations in Skokie, as well as to explore —and
ultimately provide — incentives. The idea is to provide some kind of incentive to boost
participation in Collective Resource’s collection program.

Commissioner McNelis said that he thinks that the last time we talked about it, we spoke
of three different levels of service. He went on to say that where things ended up was that
they recommended the establishment of drop-off locations, and a less costly version of a
Village-wide program. The idea is to try to to bolster the existing program. The Village
would subsidize the program, and we would try to grow it from where it is
now (there are about 300 - 400 participants with Collective Resource providing the
service) — tripling or quadrupling the number of participants. He thinks we’re at the
point where we are just trying to focus on growing the existing program we have with
Collective Resource, and put money into that and into communication and education. We
cannot grow the program without communication and education. Those are crucial
components.

Staff Liaison Slankard concurred. He said that those were the two specific items of the
sub-committee’s recommendations that were presented to the Board. The other two
elements of the recommendation to the Board, when it was made a number of months
ago, related to communication or enhanced communication, as well as a Sustainability
Coordinator or a sustainability type position being created for the Village. During the
discussion at the November 21st Village Board meeting, that was discussed during the
Q&A session with the Board. The Village Board did not take any formal action with
respect to those two items.

Staff Liaison Slankard said he would note that, for those who did not hear that discussion,
or for those who have not followed along with anything that has happened in that regard,
in the budget process last year, the Village did hire an additional communications
position. As soon as she began working with the Village, she started helping push out
additional public information and marketing information, with respect to a lot of the
Village’s waste programs and other programs. They think that the communication
investment that was part of that recommendation has been made and is ongoing. With
respect to the Sustainability Coordinator position, the Village Board did not take a
position on that, but he would expect that there is going to be some discussion of that as
the Board and the Village staff work into the budget process this spring. There were
questions that were asked about it by members of the Village Board, and he does not

 Page !2 of 10
think that it is something that is going to be forgotten. It’s just not a specific
recommendation that was included for the Board’s action that evening, and it certainly
was referenced as an implementation item in the Environmental Sustainability Plan.

He went on to say said that, with respect to implementation on those recommendations,
there is not as of yet an implementation timeline for a transition from twice-a-week to
once-a-week refuse collection. He would say that the direction the Board gave on the 21st
is what he would consider to be a strategic direction. The Village staff now needs to take
that direction and work towards those details of how they will effectuate this transition,
when they will do so, and so on. Obviously, they will not rush into a service transition of
this sort. They will need to make sure that it is well thought out and, probably most
importantly, well articulated. As such, they are actively looking at their options for how
they will set up the routing to do that. As has also been discussed with this Commission a
few times, the Village has a recycling contract that comes up with Lakeshore next spring.
They are getting ready to go to the marketplace, with respect to those services. As a part
of this, they will be considering what all of the Village’s options may be.

c. Implementation and Next Steps

Staff Liaison Slankard stated that with the Environmental Sustainability Plan done, and
with the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Inventory having been done last year, what is important
for Commissioners is to dive into the sustainability plan, reading it in detail, assuming
there is anyone on the Commission who has not already done so. When we next meet, we
all need to be prepared to sit down and discuss, in earnest, what the work plan will be.
So, he needs for all Commissioners to review the plan, the plan sectors, and the strategies
and actions, and to be prepared to have that discussion, because this group needs to have
a work plan in place. He said that, at a staff level, they have already assembled a
Sustainability Action Team. They have already taken the plan, with its eight sectors, and
they have sector leaders, as well as secondary sector leaders, for each of the different
plan sectors. That team has had its first meeting, which was chaired by the Village
Manager, John Lockerby.

Staff Liaison Slankard noted that the ongoing chairpersons of this staff committee will be
(Assistant Village Manager) Nick Wyatt and himself. Then there also are both primary
and secondary team leaders in all of the sector areas, and then there are also additional
Village department directors as team resources to support all of those teams. He said that
they will be expected to have each of those sector teams to have had their initial sector
team meetings and be ready to reconvene and report back by December 15th. By
December 29th of this year, all of those sector teams are to have identified
their quarterly work plan goals for next year, with that quarter beginning in the calendar
year and not the fiscal year. He went on to say that there is now the momentum for the
Village to move forward, and to start effectuating these planning strategies and action
steps.




 Page !3 of 10
By December 15th, he should have an idea of where he thinks the eight sector teams will
prioritize some things as they see their work plans or work priorities within these sectors,
and should definitively know, by December 29th, what their quarterly plans are for the
next year. Therefore, he’d like to be in a position where, to the greatest degree possible,
we can try to sync up our knowledge of what the staff is initially identifying as priorities
that they will be working on with what we, as a Commission, think our work plan may
look like. When you look at the plan and you look at some of the action steps in there,
you will see a phasing indicated in a column on the right-hand side that indicates either
“Phase 1,” “Phase 2,” or “Phase 3.”

Generally, if it is a “Phase 1,” then that is a shorter-term type of action (e.g. in the next
two to three years). As we start to look at this, that might suggest a good starting point for
action steps. However, beware that just because an item is a “Phase 2” or a “Phase 3”
strategy or action step, and just because it may have a longer time in which to come to
fruition, that does not mean that we should not discount beginning to work on it now. It
just means that it is a bigger, more ambitious thing, but we may want to start working on
that now, because it may take longer to come to fruition. Many of these steps are
designed to be accomplishments by 2030. Therefore, we should keep that in mind as we
begin to look at this. We should also bear in mind that we will also be looking at what the
other Boards and Commissions opportunities are to be able to effectuate their steps in the
plan. He said that he is sure there will be questions as to what that will look like, and that
he does not know the exact answer to that, but he thinks that a lot of that is likely to be
staff-driven, out of what their own staff implementation team does as they begin to
identify their work plan, because much of that is going to “spill over” to a Commission’s
work. Obviously, there will be many things that will happen in the Community
Development realm, for example, and Johanna Nyden (Community Development
Director) will have a lot of work items that will fall within building, zoning and land use,
which will then fall out to the various Boards and Commissions.

Chairperson Grossman noted that, with the last plan, it seemed like it was driven by us,
in that each year we would map out what we wanted to tackle within a given year, be it
short-term or long-term. With the creation of this new team, they will be doing a lot of
that stuff, which previously only we had done. Therefore, she wondered how our
role, as a Commission, is envisioned.

Staff Liaison Slankard said that he thinks that there has been commentary made at the
Board level regarding reporting back, and he thinks that some of us on the Commission
have made the same kind of comments, along the lines of “When will we hear back, or
how frequently will we hear back from the staff in terms of progress reporting, as we
go along?” He thinks that they will all have to work together, and they are going to have
to keep us apprised of what the staff work plan is like. He will be in a position to be
aware of what everybody’s work plans are, which means that they will be able to feed the
Commission that information at basically whatever frequency is desired by the
Commission — whether that ends up being quarterly or every six months or whatever it
may be. They will be able to feed us the information on what all of the various sectors’
work plans are. He said that what he would like to do is to see the Commission identify

 Page !4 of 10
some items in the plan that it is able to take and run with, whatever those may be. We
have always been a Commission that has had different subject matter expertise and
interest areas from amongst the Commissioners, and he does not necessarily propose to
change that. He thinks that we all still have different areas of expertise or interest, where
we will see some things within various sectors of the plan that we are really driven to
work on. He would like for that to continue. He just wants to be able to bring it all
together, so that we all know what everyone is doing.

Commissioner Saxe said that last time we set up sub-committees to look at various areas,
and he was thinking there could be a similar kind of thing with these sectors. He went on
to inquire as to whether there will be any opportunity to have a direct liaison for each of
the staff sector teams. Staff Liaison Slankard said he would think so. He doesn’t see why
that wouldn’t be possible. Commissioner Saxe reiterated that it would be helpful for us to
have regular communication with the sector teams.

Commissioner DeCanniere inquired as to whether, now that the Environmental
Sustainability Plan has officially been approved, and we have begun to discuss
implementation, we have any idea as to if and when some sort of online dashboard —
which would chart our progress toward the various goals and objectives that have been
set forth in the plan —will be up, running and accessible to the public. Ideally, something
of the sort would be available from the very beginning, but he is unaware whether there
has been any further discussion where the creation of a publicly accessible dashboard is
concerned. He went on to say that he feels that it would be nice to have all of that
information available to the public, in a clear and concise form.

Staff Liaison Slankard stated that Staff Liaison Zimmerman would probably have some
news where that is concerned. He does not have that information himself, but he will get
that information and send it out to all of the Comissioners.

Commissioner DeCanniere went on to say that while he is aware that, if there were an
online dashboard, it would not necessarily be updated on a daily, weekly or even monthly
basis. However, based upon what we have already discussed tonight, it does sound as
though quarterly updates of that webpage / online dashboard should be feasible, thus
ensuring that not only do we, as a Commission, have an ongoing understanding of where
things stand, but that anybody in the community who may take an interest is also able to
easily gauge where things stand in terms of our progress towards the goals and objectives
that have been set forth in the Environmental Sustainability Plan.

Commissioner Mahoney said education is one of the cross-cutting actions in the plan.
She went on to inquire how that may be a part of each sector’s activities.

Staff Liaison Slankard said that is a good question. He went on to say that (Assistant
Village Manager) Nick Wyatt and he had a conversation about that last week, and he
thinks that is probably a discussion topic for their meeting on December 15th. They
talked about that, and he has a feeling that there could either be a new resource identified
to serve all of the sector teams related to education, or some alternative to that. The

 Page !5 of 10
marketing and public information piece has been identified to sort of serve in that role
for all of the sector teams. More specifically, regarding education, the way that they have
the sector teams set up internally right now, they do not currently have the education
piece identified, and they have identified that as a deficiency already. That is something
that they will be talking about on the 15th.

Commissioner Mahoney said that the education component had come up quite a bit in the
whole process, so she thinks it is critical it be emphasized. Staff Liaison Slankard
concurred.

Commissioner Gotkin said that the last time she saw the Environmental Sustainability
Plan was when it was in draft form, and so she was wondering whether there is a
checklist, which she thought Ted Redmond (of paleBLUEdot, LLC) said would be used
for approving new businesses / new construction. One of the biggest concerns we all
seemed to have was how we integrate sustainability into the planning / zoning processes.
When it came to things like the Carvana tower or the Amazon facility, it seemed as
though the Trustees felt as though they had no way of enforcing or recommending or
requiring sustainable things. She thought that one purpose of this plan was to be able to
do that, and that one of the things that was going to come out of this whole process
was this whole checklist. She went on to inquire as to whether this checklist exists and,
if so, where we may be able to find it.

Staff Liaison Slankard asked if Commissioner Saxe might have a comment on that.
Commissioner Saxe then went on to say that he put together a sort of pilot checklist
idea, and he had spoken with (Former Community Development Director) Matt
Brandmeyer and (Former Planning Supervisor) Carrie Haberstitch about that, and now
neither one of them is with the Village any longer. That kind of was put on hold, but
he does think it would be a good idea to revive the effort. He’s not sure what the best
next steps for doing that would be. The checklist he had been working on was based
upon more of a hypothetical thing, and he was using some of the LEED criteria as
items in the checklist, but we are obviously not necessarily doing LEED certification or
LEED-compliant requirements, but we do have requirements that are identified in the
plan that we can certainly organize into a checklist form.

Commissioner Gotkin said that she’s aware that Commissioner Saxe has been working on
this, but she thought that Mr. Redmond suggested that paleBLUEdot had come up with
checklists for other municipalities and that he was preparing one for the Village.
She went on to ask whether she’d heard that incorrectly or what the case may be.

Commissioner Saxe stated that he does remember Mr. Redmond mentioning that there
are other municipalities that had them, but does not recall that he is preparing one for
Skokie. He thinks they were just models that could be emulated for Skokie, but he
cannot say for certain as to whether he had one that we could adapt or whether he was
preparing one for us, specifically.




 Page !6 of 10
Staff Liaison Slankard stated that he would like to check with Mr. Redmond. He had
prepared a checklist-type form for Skokie, but it was not particularly specific or detailed
as it relates to development. Staff Liaison Slankard went on to say that, from his
perspective, it was more applicable to any one of a number of actions or items that might
be sent to a Board, a Commission, or to the Village Board, that asked for the staff people
submitting the item to identify how the item proposed for Board consideration relate
to the goals or strategies in the Environmental Sustainability Plan. He is not aware as to
whether he had provided one to us that is very detailed specifically where development is
concerned. He will be checking on that.

Commissioner McNelis inquired whether such a checklist is something that the Plan
Commission might want to adopt. Staff Liaison Slankard said that they might, potentially.
He is not certain. It would depend upon what it would include and how far reaching it
might be, but he will get information on that.

Commissioner Gotkin said that, hopefully, it could be something that could be presented
to those who would like to construct some sort of development here in Skokie, instead of
handing them the whole plan, and telling them to make sure that their business fits in
with it. A checklist, such as the one we are discussing, seems like it would be much more
workable, which we could give to businesses, that would also be usable and practical for
all of the Boards and Commissions, when they are coming to a decision on zoning,
appearance, and so on. Staff Liaison Slankard stated he will follow up on that.

Commissioner Okallau thanked Staff Liaison Slankard for providing the summary and
the next steps we will be taking in terms of implementation. She said that, to return to
the whole matter of the Sustainability Coordinator, she wanted to know whether they plan
on requesting that position in the next budget cycle — in March — or would it be later.
She said that she isn’t completely certain what Staff Liaison Slankard’s thoughts were
on that, in terms of timing.

Staff Liaison Slankard said that, in normal circumstances, it would go through the budget
process. The budget calendar has not been set as of yet. Ordinarily, it would be
somewhere in the February to March range, for hearings before the Village Board and
approval. With respect to the Sustainability Coordinator position, the direct answer is that
he does not know if the Village would consider doing something that is quicker than that
or not. Commissioner Okallau said that makes sense. She was just wondering if it
something that was going to wait a year or two, or whether that is something that is more
immediate. It sounds like it is the latter. Staff Liaison Slankard said that his sense is that
it is something that will be discussed before a year or two has passed. His comment
should not be taken to presuppose that the answer is going to be “yes,” but he personally
does feel that the decision could be made a lot sooner than that.

Commissioner DeCanniere said that to follow-up on his earlier question, so much of the
plan depends upon the community’s continued engagement and involvement — as we say
in the plan itself, “implementation is for everyone” — and we are explicitly asking for the
public to be involved all along the way, whether we’re talking about residents or business

 Page !7 of 10
owners. Therefore, he thinks that it is important for them to be able to follow along with
where we are and how things are going. Aside from his earlier question — which was
when we could expect some sort of online dashboard to be up and running, and accessible
to the public — the second part of that question is whether we know how frequently such
a webpage would be updated. As he said, he thinks that quarterly would be appropriate.
However, he is not aware of how the Village staff might feel about that frequency, or
what anyone else on the Commission might feel. It sounds like updating the webpage
quarterly should be quite doable, especially given our anticipated schedules for making
progress toward these various goals and objectives. It seems to be in-sync with how
things will be structured. He went on to inquire as to whether we currently know how
often such a webpage or dashboard could be anticipated to be updated or whether that
remains unknown.

Staff Liaison Slankard said that we currently do not know. He went on to say that he
thinks that we need to give this some thought. The 2016 - 2021 Environmental
Sustainability Plan talked about the importance of everybody in the community playing a
role. Similarly, this plan also talks about the importance of everyone playing a role. So,
public awareness, public participation and public action is important. Therefore, we do
need to look at our ability to put information on the Village website, as well as the ability
to update that information. That said, he really thinks that a more important discussion
than that is how we have more active communication and engagement that actually
furthers the goal of changing peoples’ behaviors and gets them to do something. He
said that sometimes he thinks that a webpage is a bit of a passive endeavor. It sits
there for people who want to seek it out. We need to think about more than that.
That said, he doesn’t have an answer as to how frequently a webpage might be
updated. If we’re talking about quarterly reporting, or quarterly updates to this
Commission on activities, he doesn’t know that he sees any issue with updating
that information on a quarterly basis as well. He just wanted to point out that the
bigger, and perhaps more important challenge, is how to do more engagement.

Commissioner Mahoney stated she thinks that is where education comes in. Staff Liaison
Slankard concurred. He went on to say that while he accepts that people will look to us
and ask what we are doing, the whole point of saying that implementation involves
everybody is that they also need to talk about what they’re doing. Everybody has a part to
play in this.

Commissioner Saxe said that, to follow up on what Staff Liaison Slankard was saying,
he has been working with the Citizens Utility Board (CUB) and Go Green Skokie, and
something that they’ve been working on for a while is that CUB has been pushing a
decarbonization program, and had asked if they would set up a meeting. They have set up
a public meeting at the Skokie Public Library, which will be taking place in January.
That was prior to the Environmental Sustainability Plan being approved, but the question
of whether there would be any subsequent meetings did come up in conversation, and he
thinks that it might be an opportunity to set up a regular series of meetings that would be
hosted by our Commission that, for one, would also be an opportunity to give people an
update on where things stand with the plan or what the actions are, but also to pick out

 Page !8 of 10
specific items, and to provide information on those in terms of what people can do and
what the implications are for people in the Village. It could be that we’d have someone
who speaks to it from a subject matter expert point of view — they are somebody who
has some expertise in a particular area — and then there could also be some opportunity
for feedback, for people to share their experiences or concerns or ask questions. He
said he thinks that this is something we could look into and create a quarterly series,
and it would be something that we could schedule in advance.

Commissioner DeCanniere noted that he had helped put together an event back in 2018
(“Putting Your Garden to Bed for the Winter”), which was held at the Skokie Public
Library, which seemed to have been well attended / well received. He’s aware that there
were others that we’ve done in the past that were similarly well received, also in
partnership with the library or with others in the community, and those things do seem to
go over pretty well. So, he does think that a series such as the one proposed, with a
different topic covered each time and where there’s a presenter who can come at it from
an expert perspective, could very well be a good way of reaching people, and said that he
too believes the answer, when it comes to education and community engagement is an
all-of-the-above approach — not one particular means of reaching out to and engaging
with the community.

Chairperson Grossman asked if we as a Commission — or else a specific sub-committee
that may be created — identify a topic particular issue that we would like to tackle,
how that might interface with what the staff sub-groups are doing. She went on to ask if
we have something different that we want to try and push, but we need staff for many of
the things that we’re trying to do, how we would go about doing that and whether that
would be well received. Staff Liaison Slankard stated that they are interested in knowing
what the Commission sees as its priorities, and they are looking to the Commission to
identify those priorities, and are also looking for the Commission to identify areas where
it feels it can be of assistance in terms of whatever those priorities are. They would
definitely like to take those into consideration and to integrate those as much as possible.

Commissioner McNelis asked if policy would be coming from Village staff, or would
they want policy changes to come from the Commission. Staff Liaison Slankard said
he thinks that the answer can be either, depending on what we’re talking about. A lot of
building, zoning and planning policy can be anticipated to be staff-driven or will quickly
become staff-driven. When it comes to other things, that would depend on what we’re
talking about. He thinks the key parting thought that he will leave us with tonight is that
those of us who have not had the chance to really dig into the plan as of yet ought to dig
into the plan. Our priorities can then begin to be identified/defined at our next meeting.

Commissioner Saxe reiterated the fact a workshop on decarbonization will be held on
January 25th at the Skokie Public Library, in partnership with the Citizens Utility Board
(CUB).




 Page !9 of 10
 Commissioner DeCanniere asked whether the CUB event will be in-person only, or
 whether there are any plans for it to be a hybrid event, where people can attend in-person
 or remotely via Zoom as well.

 Commissioner Saxe said that the library said that they can do it hybrid. The library will
 promote the event, and the intention is to provide a way for people to attend via Zoom.

IV. Public Comment

Rachel VanHoose introduced herself to the Commission and proceeded to speak about Evanston
Grows, volunteer opportunities at Eggleston Farm, and a number of gardens around Evanston.
She also stressed that we do not need to wait to start community gardens, and spoke about what
the Peterson Garden Project did in Chicago (taking over undeveloped lots, until such time as
development of the lot begins), and how there could be such opportunities when it comes to
undeveloped lots here in Skokie, such as those on Oakton Street. She also spoke about backyard
composting, saying that she does not think that compost drop-off/pick-up sites are the right
answer for every family, and how we should encourage/incentivize backyard composting.

V. Next Meeting

Based on the expected availability of Commission members, the next meeting will be held on
Tuesday, December 27, 2022.

VI. Adjournment

There being no further business, the meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM.




 Page !10 of 10