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Toronto West CRAG Meeting
June 26, 2008
Minutes
Present: Peter, Tanya, Heather, Jane, Tim P, Krista, Anders
Regrets: Marylu, Nancy, Vivian, Tim V, John, Mark, Marcia
1. Introductions and sharing of an idea/question about how to reduce
one’s carbon footprint.
Among the carbon-reducing suggestions people made: add extra
insulation to attic (R50 is recommended), fly less, boil only the
amount of water you need, don’t keep things in the fridge that don’t
need to be there, and read “A 100-Mile diet” or “Animal, Vegetable,
Miracle” for ideas about food. Ideas were also shared about low-cost
high efficiency furnaces and indoor laundry drying racks.
Some questions that were raised (and which we may want to discuss
again in the future): How do we get lights and computers in offices
and public buildings that aren’t being used to be turned off? How do
we talk to people who are not already converted without coming across
as self-righteous? How do we deal with the fact that although we’re
taking action in our group (and that feels inspiring), so many others
seem to not care (and that feels deflating)? Similarly, how will we
bridge our individual action with working toward broader social
change?
2. Explanation/review of what CRAGS are, including report back on BIG
festival and CBC interview and article.
3. Discussion of the ground rules for our first carbon year, covering
three key areas:
a) what types of carbon emissions will we count?
b) what will our carbon allowance be for the first year?
c) what types of rewards/penalties, if any, will we set for members
who come in over/under their carbon allowance?
It was agreed that:
a) We will count inter-city bus and train travel, in addition to
heating, electricity, car travel, and air travel (which were agreed to
at the previous meeting). Acknowledging the importance of food, but
the current difficulties of precisely calculating the contribution of
food to one’s carbon footprint, we also agreed to produce some rules
of thumb for lower-carbon eating, which will appear on our carbon
calculator and as a regular topic in future communications and
meetings.
b) Our carbon allowance will be based on the principle of setting a
target 10% below the current Ontario average for the things we are
counting. That gives us a target of 4.8 tonnes (5.3 tonnes minus 10
percent), given our current best estimate. There could be some
revision to the target in light of a better estimate of the Ontario
average.
c) Our first carbon year will be considered as an experiment to give
us more time for learning. Rather than fixed financial
rewards/penalties for those coming in under/over the allowance, any
member who comes in above their allowance will produce an individual
action plan to take responsibility for their “carbon debt.” This could
include financial payment or work towards carbon reduction in the
community. The individual action plan will be presented to the group,
but does not require formal group approval.
Before the beginning of our second carbon year, based on our
experience, we will revisit the issues of what we are counting, the
target for the following year, and rewards/penalties (e.g. whether or
not to follow a carbon trading model).
We agreed to start our carbon year on September 1. We will aim for an
early September meeting to launch our first carbon year; everyone
involved will bring the details of their carbon footprints to share
with the group. It was suggested that there should be a celebratory
aspect to this meeting.
Some other points made during the discussion of our ground rules for
year one:
- There was some debate about whether we need clearer financial
rewards/penalties to have some “skin in the game” to make sure we
are serious about it and perceived by others to be serious. Others
were not ready yet to take a chance on being involved if it could lead
to a significant penalty.
- It was suggested that we should also consider rewards or
recognition for people coming in under their carbon allowance
-The question of offsets was raised and whether some offsets are
better than others. Concern was expressed that offsets can’t show
additionality, (i.e. it can’t be guaranteed that money spent on
offsets leads to additional emissions reductions that would not have
otherwise occurred) and it was suggested that the purchase of offsets
would not adequately take responsibility for any “carbon debt”. This
topic should be discussed at a future meeting.
- It was suggested that those coming in above their allowance aim to
reduce emissions elsewhere by an equivalent amount in a measurable way – e.g. by taking on a project in the community that leads to emissions
reductions. This would likely raise some measurement challenges, but
the spirit of this idea could be integrated into individual action
plans to take responsibility for any carbon debt.
- Questions were raised about people who are self-employed or work at
home as it’s not always clear where the line is between personal and
business emissions. Any uncertainties about this can be discussed at
future meetings.
- Public transit within the city is not currently included in our
carbon calculator, although it could be added in the future. Some
argued that we want to encourage the use of public transit and were
reluctant to count it as adding to one’s carbon footprint, while it
was noted that public transit still has an impact that is not
negligible.
There was some brief discussion about our community action component,
including the idea of organizing a public meeting to promote/debate
carbon-reduction proposals. We agreed to continue that discussion on
our email list before the next meeting.
Meeting adjourned.