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Climate Council

Orange County · Climate Council
Thursday, November 21, 2024

Other Environment and sustainabilityArts and public artSchools and educationBonds and debtRoads and transportation

Agenda document Minutes Watch Meeting recap

What's on this agenda

The Orange County Climate Council, which brings together elected officials and staff from the county, Chapel Hill, Carrboro, Hillsborough, both school districts and UNC, met November 21, 2024 to compare notes on what is working, plan a joint public campaign, and look at how little young people are involved in any of it.

Summarized from the published agenda. Read the agenda itself before acting on it.

Meeting recap

What happened, drawn from the records published after the meeting. Minutes

The council agreed to build a shared campaign around electrification, modeled on the state parks' Year of series but with a climate subject each year. Chapel Hill's resilience manager made the case: buildings are a large share of local greenhouse gas emissions, and state energy funds expected soon would help replace gas furnaces and stoves and install chargers. Names floated included Year of the Plug, Year of the Charge, Electrify Your Life and Year of Going Electric. Members suggested an equipment swap for electric landscaping tools like the one Durham County ran, promotion of e-bikes and induction ovens, and a demonstration day at Blackwood Farm. The Orange County Ag Summit wants to show electric tractors. Later years might cover community resilience, LEDs, trees, compost or solar.

On youth engagement, members listed what already exists: summer camp, UNC Eco Studio interns, a STEAM program at Glenwood, composting in the Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, a 4-H community garden in Hillsborough, environmental clubs at every county high school, a student climate summit, and an EPA program for AP students. The obstacles were as consistent: transportation, funding, the shortage of paid internships, the need for adults to run things, and what one line calls student frustration at having to deal with the problem at all. Carrboro's youth seat on its board came up as the model worth copying.

Members also took stock. Successes named included the school bond, solar on school buildings and to charge buses, five electric buses for the county, Carrboro's first electric vehicles and completed fleet study, neighborhood composting, and the Repair Café. The obstacles list was blunter: transportation money going west, charging infrastructure, too few technicians and asset managers in clean tech, the possibility that federal environmental rules and Inflation Reduction Act funding get rolled back, and Hurricane Helene. The council next meets May 15, 2025.

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Agenda items (4)

Discussion item · 4
  1. 1 Small group discussion: successes, obstacles and opportunities
    Discussion item Bonds and debtEnvironment and sustainabilityRoads and transportationSchools and education
    Members broke into small groups. Successes listed included the school bond, school solar projects including solar to charge buses, the county's multimodal transportation plan and its bicycle and pedestrian priorities, five electric buses, Leave the Leaves, neighborhood composting in Carrboro, Carrboro's first electric vehicles and its fleet study, more sustainability work in Hillsborough parks, the Ag Summit, the Green Neighborhoods program, and the Repair Café. Obstacles included transportation money going to the western part of the state, charging infrastructure, too few technicians and asset managers in clean tech, possible rollbacks of environmental protections and Inflation Reduction A…
  2. 2 Year of _____ collaborative campaign
    Discussion item Arts and public artEnvironment and sustainability
    A proposal for a joint annual campaign with a different climate subject each year, modeled on NC State Parks' Year of series. The first would be electrification, aimed at building emissions and timed to state energy funds expected to support replacing gas furnaces and stoves and installing chargers. Names discussed: Year of the Plug, Year of the Charge, Electrify Your Life, Year of Going Electric. Ideas included an electric landscaping equipment swap like Durham County's, promotion of e-bikes and induction ovens, and a demonstration day at Blackwood Farm. Later years might cover community resilience, LEDs, trees, compost or solar.
  3. 3 Youth engagement in climate action
    Discussion item Environment and sustainabilitySchools and education
    Members catalogued existing youth work: summer camp, UNC Eco Studio interns, a STEAM program at Glenwood, composting in Chapel Hill-Carrboro schools, a 4-H community garden in Hillsborough, environmental clubs at Orange County high schools, weekly library programs, a student climate summit, Sunrise Movement chapters, Creek Week and an EPA program for AP students. Obstacles: transportation, funding, few paid internships, the need for adults to facilitate, difficulty communicating what is happening, and student frustration at inheriting the problem. Opportunities: youth seats on advisory boards, following Carrboro's example, and building on existing student interests in gardening, scouting an…
  4. 4 Upcoming outreach and education opportunities
    Discussion item Arts and public artEnvironment and sustainability
    A list of events the governments might run together: Leave the Leaves, National Drive Electric Week, Carrboro Pollinator Week, No Mow May, Arbor Day, Bike Month, Bike Walk NC, Moth Night, Earth Month, the Repair Café, the resilience hub, Creek Week, tree giveaways and heat awareness. Members suggested pairing tree giveaways with other events during planting season and prioritizing electrification events to support the campaign.

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