TESTIMONY
of
Amy Kelley
Sierra Club DC Chapter, Zero Waste Committee
before the
D.C. Council Committee on Facilities & Procurement on
DC Department of General Services
Budget Oversight Hearing
April 4, 2019
John A. Wilson Building, Room 500
Thank you for the opportunity to speak before this committee today. My name is Amy Kelley, and I’m here to speak on behalf of the Sierra Club DC Chapter’s Zero Waste Committee, though I am also co-founder of a DC Certified Business Enterprise (CBE), a board member of the DC Food Recovery Working Group, and a 6-year resident of Ward 6.
We want to thank Chairman White for leading this important Committee. The Department of General Services (DGS) is responsible for many critical functions in the District, yet its importance is often overlooked.
We would also like to commend Director Anderson for reinstating recycling and organics hauling programs at 35 DC Public Schools and visiting School Without Walls at Francis Stevens earlier this week to restart the initiative with the students and teachers who advocated so passionately about the issue at the February Oversight Hearing.
During that February 28, 2019 DGS Oversight Hearing, several concerned parents as well as employees of DC Public Schools testified about the severe lack of maintenance at schools throughout the District. I was particularly struck by Ms. Lavanya Poteau’s testimony about the litany of ongoing maintenance issues at Johnson Middle School, including non-functioning door locks and HVAC units, and ceiling tiles falling on students during class.
DGS is responsible for hundreds of buildings in DC, and the Sierra Club’s Zero Waste Committee strongly supports ensuring adequate funding for building maintenance. We are pleased to see a 5.6 percent increase over FY19 figures indicating that this important function is being prioritized. However, as we reviewed the draft FY20 budget, we found it very difficult to assess whether DGS’s various important facilities functions are adequately funded due to a lack of detail provided. For example, the line items for “Facilities” appears to include many different types of costs ranging from elevator and fire alarm maintenance, landscape, air quality, pest control, and HVAC and electrical repairs. In addition, while there are separate line items for different sources of energy and water, there is no separate line item for waste, though it appears to be included in a category called “Sustainable DC.”
You may be wondering why the Sierra Club is interested in building maintenance. Properly maintained and operated buildings are essential to achieving and maintaining greenhouse gas (GHG) reductions and waste diversion goals in cities. Yet, buildings such as Dunbar High School that were built to meet certain environmental standards, no longer meet those standards due to severe maintenance issues.
DC recently took a bold step by adopting the cleanest renewable energy bill in the United States, and DGS is an essential element in the bill’s success. Just as DC has committed to being the leader in renewable energy, DGS has an opportunity to take a leadership role in making the buildings within its portfolio the greenest, most efficient, and well-maintained in the US.
DGS’s Key Performance Indicators include nine measures within the Sustainability and Energy Division1 that are intended to make existing and new DGS buildings the most environmentally sustainable, comfortable, and resource efficient of any city in the US. We concur with the measures and targets, but are concerned that it is extraordinarily difficult to find information on whether they are being met. The FY20 budget states that data related to energy KPIs is “Not Available” for 2017, even though it appears 2017 data for public buildings is available through the DOEE website. BuildSmartDC.com previously provided up-to-date energy benchmarking, but as of today is “Offline for maintenance.”
It is particularly difficult to find information on waste. The Healthy Schools Act of 2010 required DGS to provide a report on building-by-building data on waste which we have not been able to locate. While the Interactive DCPS Recycles! Maps are welcome and give transparent data on participation, there is no information on the DGS website about whether DCPS schools have achieved the 45% diversion rate set in the Healthy Schools Act. The Department of Public Works’ Solid Waste Diversion Progress Report: Fiscal Year 2016 Data Addendum includes Table 4 showing that the District Government Operations diversion rate decreased from 17 to 16% between FY15 and FY16 but comparable information could not be found in DPW’s FY17 Annual report. Unfortunately, this contradicts one of DGS’s other KPIs2 that states it will “Create and maintain a highly efficient, transparent, and responsive District government.”
We are concerned about this lack of transparency and data regarding energy efficiency and waste diversion rates in schools and across all DGS facilities. We strongly urge DGS to begin publicly reporting building-by-building energy efficiency, water use, and waste diversion rates for schools and the other facilities in its portfolio, and ask that DGS share this information with the Sierra Club and other interested stakeholders. This information is essential to track the District’s progress against the waste diversion and other environmental goals in Sustainable DC 2.0, the overall goal of achieving an 80% diversion from landfills and incineration in the District by 2032, and progress against the Clean Energy DC Omnibus Act.
Specifically, we request that DGS publish building-by-building waste diversion rates for all buildings on an annual basis since FY11, since a similar report was requested under the Healthy Schools Act of 2010, and to publish monthly data going forward. We request that DGS publish for comment a time-bound action plan describing how and when this information will be made available and identify the DGS representative responsible. The Sierra Club Zero Waste Committee would be delighted to provide constructive input to this plan, and requests a meeting with the representative that DGS designates as responsible.
Finally, we note that the position of Associate Director for Sustainability and Energy remains vacant. This is a critical role in overseeing and fulfilling the initiatives identified in this testimony, as well as in the testimony of Sierra Club Chair, Mark Rodeffer. We urge DGS to fill the vacancy with an individual who believes in and is committed to the mission of the job, and who has the skills, drive, and experience necessary to carry out that mission. We request that adequate funding is secured for this position and for the data collection and reporting we have highlighted in this testimony.
We also believe that DGS a new ‘Zero Waste Manager’ position, which would be responsible for aligning DGS’s waste management responsibilities with the city’s Sustainable DC target of 80% waste diversion by 2032 is an essential position.
As always, the DC Chapter of the Sierra Club stands ready to work with DGS on any of these issues. Thank you again for the opportunity to speak today.