>> good evening, everyone. i would like to call this meeting to order. anthony? >> clerk: good evening, this is a meeting of the san francisco commission on the environment, date is tuesday, september 25th, 2018. and the time is 5:01 p.m.. a reminder that the ringing and the use of cellphones and pagers and electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. be advised that the chair may order the removal of meeting room from any persons responsible for the ringing of the use of a cellphone or sound producing electronic devices. note to the public that there's public comment on every item as well as an opportunity for general public comment during item and for items not on the

agenda. we ask that you fill out a speaker card and hand it to me and i'll hand it to the chair and the chair will call folks in the order they receive them. and we will call folks up if they want to speak anonymously after we run through all of the speaker cards. with that, call to order and roll call. president bermejo, here. >> commissioner ahn is not present. commissioner hoyos. >> here. >> clerk: and commissioners mike sullivan. >> here. >> clerk: missioner stephenson is here. there is a quorum. the next item is the president's welcome, this is for discussion. >> president bermejo: thank you, everybody, for being here for the commission meeting today where we have several exciting items and we just want to make sure that i really thank everybody from the commission staff for all of the work they did during the global climate

summit here in san francisco. a lot of work went into that and i know that long hours so thank you on behalf of all of us commissioners. we'll discuss in the first regular item today the san francisco played host to the global climate action summit two weeks ago. it seems so like yesterday. the department worked closely with governor brown's office, the c-40 team and others to help with every aspect of the international summit. and i'm excited to hear all about the results and everything that happened because there was just so much going on. thanks to the department once again for engaging the commissioners. and the seven of us represented the department at 18 events across the city with various stakeholders. this evening we'll also perform our responsibility of reviewing the reduced risk pesticide list and consider the policy committee's recommendation. two very important

presentations, indeed. so let's get to work. is there any public comment on the president's welcome this evening? okay, hearing none, anthony. >> clerk: the next item is the approval of the meetings of the july 24th, 2018 environment special meeting and the document of july 24, 2018 draft minutes and this item is up for discussion and action. >> president bermejo: okay. may i have a motion to approve the draft minutes? commissioner? >> i so move. >> it's been moved by commissioner wald and seconded by commissioner hoyos to accept the draft minutes. all in favor? oh, just one second -- >> clerk: any discussion? >> president bermejo: any discuss? >> clerk: none. public comment? >> president bermejo: any public comment on the minutes? hearing none, all in favor?

>> aye. >> president bermejo: any opposed? any abstentions in the motion the motion passes to carry the minutes. next item. >> clerk: item 4, the general public comment. the members of the public may address the commission on items that are not on today's agenda. >> president bermejo: anybody that would like public comment on items that are not on the agenda today? okay. hearing none, we'll move on to the next item. anthony? >> clerk: approval of the concept agenda, an action item. item 5-a to accept the draft 2017 annual bi-green report. and the explanatory director is the draft 2017 annual buy green report. >> president bermejo: so this item was discussed in our policy

committee and the committee recommended our approval. this item is also a consent, so there's no discussion. any members that would like to pull this item from consent to have a discussion before our vote? either way we will be taking public comment. okay. i guess that we can move forward. there's -- so no public comment. then we'll vote on this item. all those in favor of approving the consent agenda signify by saying aye. >> aye. >> president bermejo: any opposed? any abstentions? motion carries. next item. >> clerk: a participation in the global climate action summit of 2018. this sponsor is deborah ravel director, and the wendy goodfriend, a program manager and charles sheahan with public affairs officer. this item is up for discussion.

>> president bermejo: director raphael. >> director raphael: thank you. president bermej bermejo, what h it has been. i have to say that i think that most of us, in fact, everyone that i have talked to felt that the global climate action summit exceeded any of our expectations. the mayor shone, the city shone, the world saw what we're capable of. i want to set a bit of context to why this was such an important moment. governor brown announced the summit because there wasn't a good place in the united nations process, in their conference of the parties, when they negotiate the paris agreement for what they call "sub-national actors." those are cities, states and regions. and being the governor of a very active state it was frustrating to him to go to paris and find

that there was no place for a state leader at that negotiations. when president trump made the decision to pull out of the paris accords, governor brown was motivated even more to tell the world what is possible at the local level. and it was no accident that when governor brown made the decision to hold this climate summit in california that he chose san francisco. i think that this commission is a testament to that. we have a commission on the environment, most counties, cities, do not have a commission on the environment, let alone a department of the environment. this is clearly a city with tremendous commitment to climate justice and to climate action. when i look back on what excited me the most about this experience, it was two things. the first was the people i met. everywhere i went there was somebody interesting from another jurisdiction, another

country, business, a city, a non-profit, someone who decided that san francisco was truly the most important place for them to be at that moment in time. why? because they shared our commitment to climate action. the second most wonderful part of this was to watch what staff and the commission did. there were so many people on our team at the department of the environment who got the opportunity to discover what they're capable of. they were given an opportunity to lead and many of them grabbed it and they discovered the challenges and the excitement of being in a leadership role and it was truly heartwarming for me to see those people excel. i'm not going to be able to list all of the people who did that but i just want to acknowledge that. first and foremost, of course, it was your participation and your willingness to represent

the city and everything that we stand for. i have here a thank you note for commissioner wan, you commissionererwan, went to a workshop called "civics is sexy," who knew? but thank you for being there and the organizers of it have sent you a thank you note that we'll pass down to you. on a more formal side, it doesn't sound nearly as fun but commissioner ahn and commissioner bermejo both went to the u.n. -- the united nations association of the u.s. and they got certificates of honor that said "in recognition of the professional contributions to the cause of climate justice." so there's one to commissioner ahn and there's one to president bermejo. so clearly they were incredibly honored that you came and spoke. and all of you participated and represented the city in so many

different ways. i want to give a couple specific call outs tonight for the record. i want to call out the deputy director of the department of the environment jennifer cast who took this on above and beyond her normal everyday craziness. she was the city's point person with the governor's office, with c-40, with anybody who had questions about the summit. she often is behind the scenes and she is truly the foundation of our success. i want to give a particular -- [applause] i want to say thank you to our policy and public affairs and press team, the charles sheahan and peter golada, amazing team. i don't see peter here but they worked hours and hours and hours to bring this -- to make the

most of this event. wendy goodfriend and her climate team who worked so hard on the commitments and navigating all of the different networks, c-40, and cnca, and usdm, and the acronym list goes on and on and wendy was the convener of them all. on the outreach side we have luke easdale and cara and the outreach team and, of course, sarah peters who did all of our social media. and i want to call out shawn rosenmoss on her own -- you will hear from her as well -- but the amount of collaborating, corralling and coordinating, the three cs, that shawn did looking at what i would call the unusual suspects. not the typical partners, but in the arts and the non-profit world and in the religious world, shawn was phenomenal and running around like a chicken

with her head off as well trying to get three places at once. and i want to thank in particular anthony. anthony put on the most phenomenal reception in our department that many of you were at. those of you who came, you saw our office transformed. it wasn't only transformed physically but transformed m metaphorically and emotionally as well, because the world was welcomed and we had amazing people from environmental justice advocates to the united nations, environment program leadership, to other cities from around the world. so, anthony, thank you. you went above and beyond. and, finally, i don't know if i see her, anya, who is the center of all things in the department, she kept her head, never lost her cool. and she was certainly the eye of the storm, the calm in the storm and i'm so grateful for everything that she did.

so those are my thank you and i could go on in detail but i hope that you were able to get a sense of the power of that week. what we want to do tonight is to step back and to celebrate a little bit about how did the city and the departments fare. so there's all of the big commitments and there's all of the wonderful things of bringing the world together, but what about selfishly, you know, how did we all fare? so i've asked four of my team to come and to share with you their reflections and their successes and their hopes for what is coming out of this. so you will hear from wendy about our commitments. you will hear from charles about press engagement. and you'll hear from luke about the outreach and the welcoming and activations. and you will hear from shawn about the arts and the culture and the affiliated events. so hopefully by the end of this

presentation you'll think, shoot, i didn't get to everything that i wanted to but i have a great appreciation for what happened. so, wendy? >> thank you very much. director raphael and the commission. i will lead us off with a summary about the summit. so the global climate action summit really brought together the actors from all places, states, regions and cities and companies and investors and civil society. and the theory behind the summit was that we all need to take ambition to the next level. this was a very ambitious summit. it had over 4,000 delegates, 25 sessions, 325 affiliated events and about 500 major commitments. within those major commitments we also made commitments as a city. these are going to guide and lead us on our climate policy moving forward. they really are commitments that we are just accelerating or

amplifying. they are our current goals and i'll take you on a quick spin of some of the commitments that we have made. the first is that we re-committed or reaffirmed to the developing an inclusive climate action plan that will help us to align with the paris agreements to limit the warming and to adapt to the full impacts of a changing climate. we also challenged the cities around the world to join us in a bold new commitment to advancing zero waste. we asked ourselves and others to pledge to a world where we reduce waste, and generation 15% by 2030. that means reducing to recycling and composting and disposal in a generation. and we're asking ourselves to reduce incineration 50% by 2030. and so in san francisco that means really reducing what goes in the black bins and reducing anything that goes off-site that doesn't get recycled or

composted or reused. we also made a new commitment to amplify our existing commitment to a clean climate future. climate healthy future. we are joining a set of about 20 different cities and pledging to have net zero carbon building by 2030 on new buildings by 2030 would be net zero emissions and by 2060 we'll have all of our buildings net zero emissions. we strongly reaffirmed a pledge to renewable energy and the goal to get to 100% renewable energy. and then we also really started talking about our green -- the green bonds that we issue currently and committed to using green bonds whenever and wherever possible for infrastructure in particular to guard against the worst impacts of a changing climate. that was my last slide. so the commitments that we made are really taking our current ambition, accelerating it to the

next level. you will hear about those commitments and how you as a commission and how us as staff are going to unroll them and to continue to carry them on through policy and through outreach and education as the year unfolds. so what you're going to hear about tonight next is how we use those commitments to align our press engagement to activate our citizenship and the residents of san francisco around the summit. and how we use those to really champion and to talk about the city as a whole and our great climate change action planning that we have been doing for so many years. so the next speaker is charles and he'll be talking to you about the press. >> good evening, commissioners, charles sheahan, policy affairs manager. i wanted to take this opportunity to talk a little bit about the press that we generated for the commitments,

for the city, for the department, and for everything that we do good here in san francisco. we try to cover the full gamut. i do want to thank my colleague, wendy. policy very much does drive the press and so when we have such a sophisticated team that hands you like these really bold, ambitious well-thought out policy commitments it makes my job a lot easier to tell the press about them. so i do want to thank her and her team. but before i do that, i do want to talk a little bit about what i kind of just referenced about the need to be prepared and to be coordinated. when you're dealing with members of the media, you want to hand them a story, you want to hand them a bold policy announcement and have kind of all of your ts crossed and your is dotted. so for the past several months leading up to the global climate summit we have been working with our city partners, we have been holding meetings with the other public information officers throughout the city to make sure that they are on board with our

policy commitments and they understood the press implications for those policy commitments. and we wanted to help them to capture the limelight because we have excellent city partners that are proud of their own environmental record and we want to help them to showcase their bold action on the environment as well. so we had been working with other city departments and other pios and other building officials from public works. you know, anyone that we could kind of pull into meetings on the environment and the global climate summit, we pulled them in. in addition to that we also put together a press kit for the visiting press delegations from the various countries around the world. so, again, we are giving them a pathway, we are making it easy for them to spotlight san francisco's work. and, you know, the easier you make it, the more likely you'll wind up in the press. so there's a bit of -- there's definitely some coordination and work before we get to the press conference and the press event. so let's talk about that.

so after all of that preparation and after all of that coordination, kind of our big -- our first major initiative is leading with our zero waste and leading with our zero waste commitment. so we worked with the mayor's office on a mayoral press release. we talked to curtis alexander from "the chronicle" and after he listened to debby and he listened to robbie haley and talked to us about our commitment, we wound up with i think a front-page story in "the chronicle" and that was our first kind of splash about the global climate summit and some of the policy commitments that the staff had put together. so we called that a success. so that was our first controlled, civilized splash. and the sequel to that was our action-packed, like blockbuster sequel, i should say. that was our press event at the mosconi center that i know some of you were at and i know that commissioner hoyos was there and commissioner ahn was there and commissioner bermejo was there as well. and at that press event, there

were so many things announced that i have to read it off. we recapped our zero waste commitment and we announced our initiative to decarbonize our buildings and to make them net zero buildings and we announced the green bonds commitment and the new solar ray going up at the mosconi center that provided a nice back drop for our commitments. and the mayor announced that she had agreed to be a 100% renewable energy mayor's co-chair for the sierra club 100% renewable ca campaign. that was also a success. we started small and then we just kind of grew big with that press event as well. so how did we do overall? again, we did well, we did well. i'm going to kind of -- you can see -- maybe i won't quite run through this list fully. but we were able to kind of track the stories that we generated ourselves. what's missing here is the

stories that were generated just by the fact that the conference was in the city. so there's too many of those to count. so that's another measure of success. and so i'll let you read the list but i want to point out a couple of the op-eds that the department, that peter, myself, debbie and a few other folks, had influence on. we were able to help facilitate an op-ed between the mayor of paris and our mayor. we had one from debbie, from "the san francisco examiner." as i was talking to the editorial page editor she decided if we're going to do this locally we need the state's perspective so that's how our governor of california's op-ed came about. and "the chronicle" did their own editorial as well. if you were on streets you were seeing our advertisements and watching tv, and the global climate summit was omnipresent and that's definitely our goal.

and i believe that is my last slide. so i do want to thank debbie and the commissioners for their support and i want to introduce my colleague luke, and i alluded to this and i'll touch upon it with a little more precision right now. when you can do all of this using the power of the press and then luke can take his advertising and outreach campaigns and bring what we're doing and the commitments to the people and then focus in on an advertisement and then it's on the tv news, that's when you achieve harmony between paid and earned media and maximize what you're trying to say. i think that we were able to achieve that harmony with the climate global summit and we have excellent partners in luke's team and wendy's team, so, thank you, and i'll introduce luke. >> so how do you go about welcoming the world to san

francisco? when it comes to a global audience coming to the city of san francisco to talk about sustainability and to talk about climate, where do we begin as a city and as san francisco and the department of the environment? to me it began with inspiration, we wanted to inspire others to learn, to share ideas and that was a foundation of the communications and outreaches that we developed for this particular -- well, for this summit. how did we go about doing that? and we shared ideas and one of the best ways to do that in advance of the conference or the summit, rather, was to develop a delegate kit. this would showcase all of the things that we as a city and a county are proud of. when i use the word "city" and county, 13 other agencies joined our meetings to discuss this conference or this summit, sorry. we had sftsa, and the m.t.a.

okay. we wanted to share the things that we were really proud of. this is one vehicle for us to be able to did that. that was something that was really important in advance of the conference. we wanted people to come here and to understand a glimpse, a taste, of sustainability coming to life in san francisco. in advance as i was mentioning before we wanted to put our best foot forward. so we joined d.p.w. with their "love our city" campaign. this is the saturday before we were out on the streets with thousands or hundreds of volunteers across the city and picking up litter and making our city, loving our city. and importantly when delegates got off the plane they were welcomed to s.f.o. with messaging and welcomed and there were light poles across the

city. but we as a department wanted to take more of a personal touch. so we spent time in advance of the summit creating partnerships with the hotels. and these are really important because we wanted to help them to share their sustainability and successes and highlights with these delegates when they came to each hotel. but beyond that we wanted to create partnerships because we wanted to do things that we were really proud of, like remove single-use water bottles from the rooms of delegates. and for the hotels that had the majority of delegates attending them we removed them and replaced them with reusable water bottles that are all in front of you. not just a welcome though, but a welcomer and a celebration and a recognition and appreciation. but this wasn't just about the delegates. this wasn't just about the summit. this was about bringing the community to the conversation which is why we hosted a school education poster contest for elementary school, middle school

and high school students. and this is a great opportunity for them to share things that they were really proud as it relates to the environment. in fact, there were 270 posters entered for both the middle school, high school and elementary as well. and when we talk about helping the city shine, we really wanted to coordinate our advertising efforts. we wanted to make sure that we are bringing our best foot forward in terms of 100% renewable energy and the commitments that we were making. which is why we created this campaign, 100% renewable energy. sorry... i will squat. 100% renewable energy. easier than finding a friend in delores park. and addressing 100% renewable energy and sharing things that people associate as barriers to participating in 100% renewables. and people think this is just for homeowners who would put

solar panels on their roof. no, it's for renters, that it's easy to do, affordable to do. it's cheaper than garlic fries on gameday and cheaper than tacos on tuesday. this is a light hearted way to connect our programs to 100% renewable energy and to build excitement around the city, around our sustainability initiatives. as you may know on the wednesday of g-cast it was an important meeting going on at c-40, at city hall. we took this moment to launch our refuse, reuse campaign. and what i really appreciate about this campaign is that they were asking a simple action from people. we want them to refuse single-use items like a coffee cup, cutlery, and also things like plastic bags and instead to bring their own reusable versions instead.

>> meantime, we had battery waste. i don't know if you seen it but it's loud. it's vibrant and it is exciting. this is a great way to capture

people's attention and talk about something that they may not have entered their minds. which is what should i do with batteries when i'm done with them? we also had our multi lingual campaign supporting homeowners in san francisco. with rebates to improve the energy efficiency and comfort of their home. i keep saying, in the meantime, at the same time, we were doing these things one more to that. while all of this was going on, we had 19 tours across san francisco with art, our partners at sfmta at the airport with a hard hat as well. beyond the tours, i want to turn it over to sean to share some of the events and some of the activities and those activations she led as well. >> hello. so i'm sean, the manager of the development and community partnerships for the department.

so, i know all of us feel this way -- our staff is so incredible. our commissioners are so incredible. i'm going to talk about some of the events we were involved in. it's just the tip of iceberg. all of our staff asked to be on panels, asked to participate ner to put together events. there was so much going on. we are the coolest people in town. thank you, very much. just a few of the things that we worked on. food. all-day event at the library around getting rid of up stream waste. food. huge, huge fabulous event on the last night of the g cast celebrating composting and local food with johanna macey and john whick as the speakers. forest, right. again, getting back to the press and the programming. we had an urban forest symposium

with a tree planting and press conference. i don't know what newspaper that person works for, the big, tall tree person. biodiversity. food, forest, forna. people didn't want to leave with all the of our partners. it was supposed to end at 5:00. peteing couldn't get them out until 6:00. they were starving but they still wanted to stay and chat. fairness. we had a huge event between u.s.f., m.l.k. foundation around ethics and climate justice. we were able to get dr. bob bollard to speak, which is a lot of us -- our personal hero, right. these are a lot of wonky stuff. i want to quote leonard bernstein. the thinkers that will save us that articulate, educate, defy, sing and shout the big dreams.

the artists of the world can turn the not net into reality. and so, i was so excited. i mean like 500 500 events. that is how you grab people. we can be charlie brown's teacher all daylong but you grab people through the arts. and so, even our san francisco symphony performing copeland's coal mine remove is huge. when our symphony is involved, it's all over. our symphony is involved. if you are not involved you are the only person who isn't involved in this. i think our symphony is probably the first symphony to say you know, we're going to take on this issue. so, that was totally exciting. our cultural centers, you know, we've got five around this city. the chinese cultural center was featuring seven artists with

photography. our african american culture center, day-long symposium with panels and performance, right. this is one of the photographers with the chinese cultural center. the climate music project. again, it's part of the beat batteries and the coffee pot. people go from one to the other and stop at the climate music project, which was going on all day on the steps of the library. they come out, perform around what you want the future to sound like. lots of rappers, spoken word, classical musicians, it was an amazing day. climate ballet. all about glaciers. the other thing about art that i want to say, you know, we have to have some joy in this work. a lot of times, we sing, we dance, that invites people to

join us in this movement. this is from the climate march. i just love this. this was a new orleans second line. i hear that and i am marching with you. a lot of other people are too. the last thing, you know, artists have been asked to turn this not yet into reality. the g cast was really about all of these delegates from around the world saying how are we going to turn this not yet into reality. i mean, i was so -- it was a peak experience for me. i hope it was for you as well. we're turning not yet into reality in the city of san francisco. and it's just so, so exciting. city hall, the standing march, right. fom-o o. i didn't get to see this. i was at the fabulous reception at our office, right. anyway, this is us. this is us turning not yet into

reality. questions? [applause] commissioners, any questions? thoughts or comments? >> it's not a question. it's just phenomenal. thank you for all the sweat and energy and creativity and intelligence you all poured into this. it's remarkable. it's great to see the images and if there's things we can do -- maybe this is a question. maybe it's for you, charles. what are your thoughts regarding the crscendo that's been created and how to continue to build? are there any opportunities for the rest of the year to touch on what was built and keep the spark alive? >> sure.

i think there's a couple of opportunities starting with implementation of some of our commitments. now that we concocted policies, we've weighed its pros and cons. we bought in from other city departments. the next step is implementation. we already know that there might be clean-up legislation that we will need. it will advance policy a little bit more. it's another press opportunity to highlight what the city is doing. we made bold commitments and there's will be implementation opportunities to talk about what we're doing here in the city. i know there were other commitments that they were makeing and we're still taking a look at those to see if we can adopt them locally. we got our hands and arms around all that we could and now that we've kind of digested that, we'll move on to other things. we took notice from other cities and counties. things that they were doing that maybe was completely new to us

and we want to try. we'll need some more time. we a looked at some of the best practices and we're going to be continuing to look at them over the next -- and so i think in the aftermath there's a lot of work that starts with what we learned and committed to. there's a lot to do still. >> let us know how we can help. >> sure. >> absolutely. >> commissioner stephansen. >> i want to echo the amazing work the department did. everything that i attended and everything i saw was intentional. and i definitely noticed the surround sound experience of the articles in the papers and the adds on the muni and it was a sign to walk with my new cup

from the cup line onto the muni where i was like i matched all the adds as i walked down. it was treat. i really want to give a special shout out to anthony. i felt like you did a wonderful job preparing us as a commission, for the work we needed to do that week and i appreciated that. my question s. was there anything unexpected that came out of it? was there anything that was sort of -- you guys were so well prepared. was there anything either positive that you hadn't considered or just that came out of left field? >> unexpected is maybe too strong. what made us so happy was to see the mayor talking about environment with such passion. when she gave a talk on zero waste. it was really our city's moment to shine because zero waste was not typically in climate conferences. this conference it is.

she kicked off and opened up the session on it. listening to her speak with such first-person confidence and certainty, was so inspirational. and watching her at the opening of the whole g cast welcome everyone to san francisco. so just seeing her get her stride on these issues is both -- i won't say unexpected but gratifying. and commissioner hoyos, about the future, what is on all of us now to make sure the mayor understands what is possible now. the world is watching and the world appreciates and it's a way for her to grab the reigns and run with them. >> is there other staff who had unexpected o experiences?

>> a lot of us were hanging out saying it would be the same old. people show up and they sign something, whatever. we've all done it before. and it really was a peak experience. it really was so exciting. for our staff and for other people, to have a feeling like this is different. this is different. it's moving. this is happening. that was unexpected. >> i just would like to add that i echo what debbie said about mayor breed. to have her on the world stage was really cool. i do have a question and another comment. the question of, all the wonderful press clippings or videos, we were able to look at those on the website so we can just bask in the glory of what happened? >> that will be in the next

director's report. so, we'll compile some of those that still exist. sometimes the tv and radio links come and go. we're still searching so we'll put those together and we can circulate them. we do want to memorialize them. >> the other thing is a lot of times you hear people say san francisco, the city that knows how. well, the department and our commissioner is the department ex commissioneand commission thw and gets it done. this is to show people what is possible. the welcoming. there was such a buzz in the city and everybody wanting to learn more. someone said, you know, we need to -- this is the way we're going to really make a difference by getting involved and not just sort of passing through and for getting about what happened. i think thank you for all your work. there's a lot of work to be done in the implementation so thank

you. any other commissioners have comments? >> one i really like to thank for reaching out to media. i've been hearing about this from radio to tv station to everyday articles about this it's really phenomenal. the second comment is it's great that -- which event i go to when i mention i'm commissioner the shine comes out on people's face and how proud or how really jealous about that we can work in san francisco. this is this department. i want to especially shout out to director. everybody is so inspired by your speech every time and every occasion so thank you. >> commissioner ahn. >> i'm very appreciative of staff for helping out with this event. it felt like every hour of our time was between five to 20 times the amount of time that we

spend as commissioners. i was very appreciative of the prepping, organization around the summit. great job. thank you. >> debbie, thank you for your outstanding leadership. i think that debbie should go to the u.n. she is the ultimate diplomat making people from -- not only across the united states but across the world who came to san francisco welcome the way she extends programs. really and truly brought the world to the commission office and department offices. thank you for all that. it was a beautiful event. kudos to everybody who worked on that. it was wonderful. >> the newest commissioner will chime in. i didn't get to make it to all the events. the one that really stands out in my mind was the reception at

the department had. i came early and i stayed late. it was an opportunity for me to talk to a lot of members of the department at every level that are doing so much great work. everyone was excited about that week. the thing that really stood out to me was the incredible moral and enthusiasm of this department. it real see stands out. it really impressed me. i think it's what motivates everybody to do all the great work we're doing. you all are very enthuse attic anenthusiasticand it shows. >> thank you, that's a great point. are there any other comments from commissioners? we'll take public comment on this item, please. >> hearing none, anthony will go to the next item. >> clerk: item # vote on whether to accept the policy committee recommendation to approve

resolution file 2018-07-coe adopting the 2018 reduced risk pesticide list for city properties. under the environment code, the department maintains a reduced risk pesticide list identifying those pesticides that may be used on city property subject to restrictions. the sponsor is debra rafael and the speaker is dr. chris agreeinger and they are resolution file number 2018-07-coe and the 2007 reduce pesticide list this item is for discussion and action. >> director. >> switching gears. you have an action item before you tonight. you are going to be hearing a presentation on our i.p.m. program. and i hope you will see what a thoughtful, collaborative, problem-solving, responsive and transparent effort this truly is on a city-wide basis.

i also hope that you will hear that pesticides are a small part of the program. in fact, they're very important when it comes to the commission, because it is the responsibility of the commission on the environment to provide the guide posts for their use. and so, each year, we come to you with evidence of our progress, with challenges that are before us and with our best assessment of the tools that are needed to maintain our parks and open spaces and our buildings as well. in the past couple of years, there's been much activity around a particular active ingredient glysophate. it was when the world health organization changed its

designation of. >> we went into high gear when that action was taken. automatically we changed the designation of glyphosate to a middle of the road risk pesticide to a tier 1, the highest risk. we amplify our restrictions of that product. even though other organizations were disagreein disagreeing witd health organization, it didn't matter. as soon as it came in we went into action. we convened meeting after meeting to ask the question is it necessary? are there alternatives? do we really need to keep this on a list. there were two court rulings and it's confusing about what the legal world is saying about the product. what is clear, there's tremendous angst and interest in figuring out what to do about

glyphosate in commerce. i think all of this activity under scores the tremendous importantance there is and having an institutionalized process. a process that is so robust that it can respond effectively and transparently to new information. this policy committee, the policy committee of this commission, takes this charge of establishing these boundaries seriously. and in fact, spent two entire meetings on this issue before this full commission meeting. so what you are going to hear tonight is an abbreviated version of those presentations. president bermejo felt it was important to present a full picture to the commission, because you will be voting tonight. but we're not going to go into the level of detail that the policy committee members heard.

you are also going to hear from two key city departments. it's important for you to understand what it means when a department says, pesticides are a last resort. what does that really mean? and how do they internalize that charge? you are going to see, in the presentation, that chris gives, a lot of images of people in training. they're going to be gathered around on the outside, they're going to be gathered around tables. basically the message there is that a huge part of the i.p.m. program takes place person-to person, professional to professional. people learning from the experts. learning from each other. solving problems so they can prevent the need for pesticides at all. so i hope after you hear the presentations, that you will come away with that holistic understanding of the rig or and substance of this program and

understand what your charge is in your vote tonight. with that, i will turn it over to chris to start us off. >> thank you, good evening. chris, department of environment toxic reduction and healthy eco program. so, may not match the scheer excitement of the global climate action summit. after 15 years, i continue to be excited about my program. i think it is -- it's not because of the pesticides. the reason is because we have, as debbie said, an amazing collaboration. a collab are tive spirit that's been very enduring for the past 20 years. i see it ever month. we have a problem-solving session in every meeting. it's very wonderful to participate in that. very proud of that. i'm going to lead you quickly through where we are now and where we are going with the

program. in general terms. that includes trends in pesticide use. then we'll hear from karla short, from public works, to report on some of their activities and their efforts to reduce use of the most hazardous herbicides on the list. and then, from lisa wayne. after that from department of recreation and parks. she likewise will tell you about some of the projects and activities they've been up to. just as a quick sampling. i'll come back and just outline what is before you in terms of changes in the reduced risk to pesticide list for this year. so, without going into the details of the ordinance requirements, there are a number of public transparency requirements written and one is tonight your review of the annual reduced risk pesticide list. the activities ha we have been up to since last year, first

off, starting with trends. if you look at this graph, it's from 2010 to the present. the red bars are tier 1 pesticides of all kinds. that is the highest hazard pesticide. tier 2 is green. this is the tier as they were when we were creating the list. you can notice that the direction -- it's going in the correct direction. what you don't see is that in 2015, when glyphosate was categorized as a problem able carcinogen, it became tier 1 in a lot of the yellow you see in previous years would be red now. the tier system really helps us to focus in on our priorities. on which products we have to pay the most attention to on finding alternatives. that is exactly what we did in

this case. looking at the long-term trend, this is for all pesticides, not just herbicides that are tier 1. from 2010 to 2017, it's a good trend. it's a 96% reduction. now, last year, in 2017, there was a small blip, which we also foresaw due to the wet year. it's still a 75% reduction since before we put in the restrictions to this year. it is in the right direction. if you put this in human terms, i guess, looking just at the parks within the city. in 2010, if you took all of the active ingredient for tier 1 herbicides, and you would have about 60 gallons of active ingredients.

in 2017, that's 1.8 gallons. that's covering 3500 acres of park properties under management. that's just the tier 1s. we've used tier 2 and 3 and we're actively finding substitutes for glyphosate ever chance we can. but this is good for perspective on where we are now. you know, the over all, i guess, picture here is that you go through that first 96% but that last 4% is tough. and there are certain stubborn weed problems, this is dubata grass and there are other examples that lisa wayne may talk about, where there are some situations there's no mechanical way to deal with it. these are people digging out a clump. if this was a cliff, it would be a worse problem. that last 4% is the challenge

and it's what we're chipping away at. the biggest way, i mean, one of the biggest activities we participate in are trainings around the city. i'm not going to go into the details tonight, but we did have property managers training for affordable housing. how to build pests out of your housing. spring i.p.m. trainings with three departments. effecting hundreds of gardeners and we do this ever year and we remind them of what the requirements are. that includes looking at manual and physical methods. it's worth noting rec park is now trying battery powered weed whips. this is a great way to prevent gardeners having exhaust spraying in their face every day. and the battery -- the new products are very promising. it's a good climate change move as well. decor bonnization of those.

we have monthly meetings of the committee usually with speakers. so these are some of the trainings that we are involved in. this is the way that we actually make the change happen on the ground. it's by having these champions in the department and all of these hundreds of people being trained constantly. we have also advanced our pesticides dashboard. if you haven't seen it yet, i urge you to check it out. it's much easier to update with the latest pesticide use data for city properties and it's interactive. so you can look at things in many different ways. that is my very quick summary of what we've been working on this year. moving into the coming year, we're going to continue our emphasis on the big picture of sustainable landscaping, not just the pesticide use but also everything else that goes with it. we still believe, as we have for many years, that bay friendly

landscaping program is one of the best ways towards that end. it is a certification of landscapes and landscapers. rec park and public works both have been organizing their own trainings of gardeners and landscapers. the policy committee heard from one of those in the august meeting. and the nice thing is, this is not just isolated issues that everything put together, it's water conservation. it's reduced waste, plant selection, pesticide reduction, it's biodiversity. we are going to continue working with affordable housing and there's a new phase in the rental assistance demonstration project in the public housing where we are going to continue our past efforts in building and designing pests out of these units in situations where it's really, really needed.

we are also actively working right now. we have a draft of a new set of pest prevention by design guidelines. this time, they're oriented towards landscapes. this is how to build weeds out of the landscape in the first place and rodents in every way possible. we have a workgroup. we meet every month. we're gradual leah arriving alye fundamental problems. that is my report. i'd like to car karla short, the the. >> i'm going to very briefly just highlight a few of the activities that we've been engage in that i think demonstrates our commitment to

reducing our pesticide use. over the past number of years, we've continued -- [ please stand by ] ... passed the exam, so they're now qualified. and this really has helped them i think underan