The DLANC Sustainability Committee meets on the First Tuesday of every month at the Central Public Library.
Our committee chairs host office hours and neighborhood stakeholders gather for project workshops
to help advance several community-driven initiatives - for Downtown Los Angeles.


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Meeting Minutes 10/20/08 – Approved

  1. City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation presentation on recycling programs by Ms. Cathleen Chavez and Ms. Benet Sanchez highlighted some areas where there is potential outreach and opportunity for the Neighborhood Council to bring resources and services to our community.
    1. Multi-family residential recycling is available to all mixed-use and single use buildings downtown. Any stakeholder, in addition to the building manager/owner, can call and request the blue bin pick-up service. The Department of Sanitation will coordinate service strategies with the building owner for pick-up at a central, interior location. Trash fees could be reduced.
    2. For all buildings with five (5) or more units, a private hauler is required. Only the private haulers Athens, American, and Crown sort trash in what is referred to as “downstream” recycling.
    3. Recommendations included introducing more “Big Bellies” to downtown – solar-powered trash compactors meant for our streets – and public recycling bins (with education to minimize contamination).
    4. Commercial recycling must maintain their own contract – however, there are nonprofits that will do a trash assessment to help business figure out how to reduce waste and effectively minimize trash fees. A list of nonprofit names will be requested from the speakers and posted on http://downtownsustainability.blogspot.com/
    5. If you have any to report for illegal dumping, please call 311 or submit a complaint through the website for Los Angeles Housing Code Enforcement Division through the Building Department or Street Services and register your complaint.
    6. Direct contact information for information about these or other programs, such as restaurant composting (which isn’t actually a Bureau of Sanitation program), can be found by calling 213-473-4142.
  2. The Sustainability Committee Mission Statement will be amended to reflect the qualities we understood as a committee this evening: it is about communities and not just buildings; we must minimize the cost of individual participation through partnership and participation; we must encourage inclusive and relevant opportunities for all stakeholders in our neighborhood and communities; and we need to survey our landscape to understand where we can enhance existing opportunities through outreach and develop programming to meet those needs not being met in Downtown Los Angeles. We should identify our objectives and establish criteria that will enable us to prioritize them. Finally, we should develop programs to support our objectives with periodic review based on the established criteria.
    1. It was recommended that the United Nations definition of sustainability be incorporated into the mission statement.
    2. The United Nations Report of the Brundtland Commission, Our Common Future:

Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.

A more comprehensive list of other objectives outlined will be posted on the blog at http://downtownsustainability.blogspot.com/. The committee and community are encouraged to leave their ideas as comments which will be incorporated for the committee record. This discussion will resume at the next regularly scheduled meeting (November 17, 2008 at 6:30pm at Ardas Café, 418 West 6th Street across from Pershing Square).

Future agenda items:

American Institute of Architects Center for Communities by Design request for proposal will be pursued for the 2009 Sustainable Design Assessment Team Program (SDAT) grant. The proposal deadline is November 14, 2008 and an interim meeting has been agreed upon so that the team of volunteer grant writers will be able to send the proposal to the Committee for approval in time for the November 7, 2008 Board of Directors meeting and the deadline. The proposal will be reviewed by the committee on Monday, November 3, 2008 from 6:30pm-8:00pm at a location to be announced by this Friday, October 24.

    1. Items for the regularly scheduled November 17, 2008 meeting:Presentation by Kristine Kline for the Mayor’s Office on city-wide greening initiatives; Resource compilation for gap analysis and needs assessment; List development will begin on the blog and go to the committee for review and evaluation; Objectives list will be reviewed; and Committee member introductions.

Adjournment. Thank you for all of your great ideas, participation and time this evening!