Arlington Tree Action Group
June 2020 calendar
Best things to do: attend meetings, speak up, and/or email!
Contact before attending to be sure meeting has not been canceled or changed due to virus.
Be aware:
Met Park design comments open to June 24: (“Forest Walk” design appears to offer most green space.) https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/VAARLINGTON/bulletins/28ffb4d
ArlNow article summary: https://www.arlnow.com/2020/06/15/final-draft-design-of-revamped-pentagon-city-park-revealed/?mc_cid=3de2a96d6d&mc_eid=d05f7f6849
Effectiveness of LEED certified buildings? Oberlin College of Ohio professor John Scofield, a national expert on green building technology, on his research into marketing claims that green-certified buildings such as the LEED rating significantly reduce carbon emissions. View the one-hour talk online https://youtu.be/UeolxpvJzVk and see more information below.
Open Door Monday’s with a County Board member: Every Monday is an opportunity to meet informally and virtually with a county board member to discuss any topic. See schedule here: https://countyboard.arlingtonva.us/open-door-mondays/
Meetings:
Monday June 15- 7-8:30. Virtual open door Monday meeting
Register here: https://countyboard.arlingtonva.us/open-door-mondays/
Tuesday June 16, 7 pm- special election for County Board candidates virtual forum
Civfed meeting (vote July 7)
Use this link to join the June Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84047200229?pwd=WHFZM1ViZGRpbkZ0aU9PQ2Y5amJGQT09
(detailed instructions for joining this zoom: https://files.constantcontact.com/9b2b0a78501/42f37020-856c-4995-a0f1-91991be18f78.pdf)
ATAG questions to the three candidates and their answers will be posted on ATAG site and sent to you soon.
Monday June 22, 7-8:30. Virtual open door Monday meeting
Register here: https://countyboard.arlingtonva.us/open-door-mondays/
Tuesday June 23, 4 pm. Protecting trees from construction impacts
Register here for webinar https://auburn.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_FU8JX7DiRSam6XXLXvGfcw
Tuesday, June 23, 12 p.m. – 1 p.m. Arlington County COVID-19 Response and Program Updates including Housing Arlington and Development Project Updates and Q&A
Join this meeting online from here: https://housing.arlingtonva.us/events/housing-webinar-covid-19-response-and-program-updates/
Thursday, June 25, (register by 9 am!) 7 – 8:30 p.m. ECO Action forum to discuss climate change, smart growth, resiliency, equity, and natural resources with the candidates for the Arlington County Board special election on July 7: register here
June 15, 2020 press release from Arlington Greens re marketing claims for green-certified buildings:
The Arlington Greens announced today the release online of a talk on March 2 in Arlington by Oberlin College of Ohio professor John Scofield, a national expert on green building technology, on his research into marketing claims that green-certified buildings such as the LEED rating significantly reduce carbon emissions. EcoAction Arlington, an Arlington environmental non-profit organization, co-sponsored the talk held at the Arlington County public library with the Arlington Greens. The Arlington Independent Media and Miriam Gennari of the Sustainable Scoop recorded the talk and interviewed professor Scofield.
View the one-hour talk online https://youtu.be/UeolxpvJzVk
Professor Scofield used energy data from hundreds of thousands of commercial buildings in ten major U.S. metro areas to examine if energy certifications like LEED (a trademark meaning “Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design”) significantly reduce carbon emissions over non-certified comparable buildings. His findings demonstrate very small, almost negligible carbon savings. Scofield found that carbon emissions reductions in LEED buildings are quite modest, generally well below 10 percent, and well below marketing claims of over 25 percent.
The research finding that LEED and other similar commercial building energy rating systems save only negligible amounts of carbon emissions is an important environmental policy issue for Arlington County and for many other U.S. communities. Over 40 such certified buildings in the county got generous subsidies based on now discredited claims of substantial carbon emissions reductions. Arlington County subsidies for bogus green energy technology wastes county funds which should be used to incentivize proven effective green technology that does substantially reduce carbon.
In 2019, the Arlington County Board approved a community energy goal that the county become carbon neutral within 25 years. About 80 percent of carbon emissions in the county occur in commercial and residential buildings, and thus the county’s goal can only be achieved by large carbon emissions drops in buildings. The county government’s past reliance on LEED and similar energy certifications to reduce energy use in commercial buildings now appears to be wrong.
Contact the Arlington Greens at info@greensofarlington.org for more information.
What you can do:
- Email comments to County Board members and speak at CB meetings (countyboard@arlingtonva.us), County Manager (Mschwartz@arlingtonva.us), and Vincent Verweij, urban forester Department of Parks and Recreation (vverweij@arlingtonva.us). Even as simple a comment as “keep land and mature trees in Arlington”
Email the School Board to encourage respect for trees: school.board@apsva.us
- Speak at county board meetings. Attend other county meetings and speak up.
- Join Arlington County commissions to be a voice for responsible action on green space preservation. You can sit in on the meetings to learn about them.
- Join your Arlington Civic Federation neighborhood association. Speak up- county listens to CivFed.
- Like ATAG on Facebook. Follow on twitter and find resources on ATAG website.
Arlington Tree Action Group (ATAG) is a network of citizens working to preserve and grow Arlington, Virginia’s urban forest to keep Arlington green and fulfill the Vision stated in the Arlington County’s Urban Forest Master Plan 2004 (currently being updated).