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HomeMy WebLinkAboutOshkosh Sustainability Plan - Governance Education Outreach DRAFT - 25 July 2025Oshkosh Sustainability Plan 2025 30 July 2025 DRAFT Chapter: Governance, Educatfon, & Outreach Introductfon This plan focuses on how to make municipal operatfons more sustainable, i.e. the buildings, programs, services, and functfons of the City of Oshkosh. A key functfon of local government is to be a resource to community members who live, work, and play in Oshkosh. The City of Oshkosh can help make it possible for community members to make more sustainable choices and educate people about key sustainability issues and opportunitfes. While a lot of what local government does happens behind the scenes, community engagement and outreach around government initfatfves can help to make them more successful and generate support for the work being done to improve quality of life across the community. This chapter focuses on initfatfves that foster community involvement, promote partfcipatfon in sustainability initfatfves, and build partnerships for sustainability. It also focuses on how to better prepare local government personnel to engage with sustainability topics and issues that matter to community members. Further, this chapter addresses sustainability of local government hiring, knowledge transfer, and retentfon to ensure that resources within the City are being effectfvely utflized for the public interest over the long term. While many of the recommendatfons in this sectfon do not directly make progress on sustainability issues, they are crucial to ensuring proper transparency, reportfng, and communicatfons around all of the recommendatfons in other chapters of this plan. Past Accomplishments The City of Oshkosh has already made progress towards sustainability with the following accomplishments: • Established the Sustainability Advisory Board to advise and advance sustainability efforts citywide • Providing sustainability training for City staff • Contfnuously promotfng how government services and City staff can better help the community via public outreach through widespread communicatfon channels • Developing internal processes to facilitate knowledge transfer between staff so instftutfonal knowledge is not lost over tfme • Exploring GovAI (Artfficial Intelligence) systems to improve government efficiency • Ongoing tribal relatfons efforts through the Oshkosh Library to preserve culture and history Background Local government plays an important role in leading a sustainable way to benefit the natural and urban environment, the people who live and work in Oshkosh, and the economy that drives the city’s success. Local government also plays a pivotal role in supportfng the local community and its members in becoming more sustainable. Initfatfves foster community involvement, promote partfcipatfon in sustainability initfatfves, and build partnerships for sustainability. Oshkosh Sustainability Plan 2025 30 July 2025 DRAFT Why is “Governance” in a Sustainability Plan? First and foremost, the act of governing is essentfal to sustainability because it provides the structures and processes for integratfng sustainability into government’s operatfons and decision-making. When governance is done well it provides accountability and drives toward reaching goals. It translates ambitfon and actfons into metrics and results in line with municipal vision and values. Creatfng and dedicatfng resources to implement a sustainability plan demonstrates good governance. Purchasing Power. How a government chooses to spend taxpayer money is critfcal in communicatfng how it prioritfzes sustainability. This includes purchasing energy efficient equipment for government functfons, looking at lifecycle costs and passing along that technique to the private sector where possible, and thinking about potentfal technical obsolescence in the process. In Wisconsin, life- cycle costfng (LCC) for municipalitfes awarding orders or contracts for materials, supplies, or equipment is generally required. LCC, however, is an evolving field because future cost forecastfng presents formidable challenges. Those may include unknown energy and material costs, the effects of climate change, declining revenues, and other hurdles. Capital budgetfng is oftentfmes completed without looking at life-cycle costs, sometfmes favoring choices that result in initfal or short-term lowest costs. Over the life of an asset, on-going maintenance, poor reliability, and lack of durability translate to real costs for taxpayers. Full LCC leads to more informed decision-making, long-term cost savings, and improved sustainability when related to more durable materials, lower energy consumptfon, and better waste management. It can also be used to justffy higher initfal expenses, ensuring that the government makes good decisions about the products it procures.1 While life-cycle cost accountfng standards do not exist, there are many guidelines that can help municipalitfes undertake the effort, such as those from the Government Finance Officers Associatfon (GFOA)2, Government Accountfng Standards Board (GASB)3, Internatfonal Organizatfon for Standardizatfon (ISO)4, and American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE).5 The GFOA offers two awards to local governments for budgetfng practfces. These awards include the Distfnguished Budget Presentatfon Award and the Certfficate of Achievement for Excellence in Financial Reportfng. Many local governments, as well as Winnebago County, have won these awards in the past, but Oshkosh has not. There are many choices when choosing a piece of equipment, and some are more sustainable than others. Energy use, because of its relatfvely high and on-going cost, is often a differentfator in determining what purchases are more sustainable than others. Capital cost aside, some products are more energy efficient than others, while others embody more carbon in their productfon. Here are some examples: • ENERGY STAR products meet strict energy efficiency criteria set by the US EPA or US Department of Energy. They are the same or better than standard but use less energy. Sustainable ENERGY STAR products include things like programmable thermostats, lightfng fixtures, low emittance Embodied Carbon Community Example: La Crosse County, WI: La Crosse County’s Climate Actfon Plan has a goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050. A key component to achieving carbon neutrality is via using alternatfve materials with lower amounts of embodied carbon in roads and buildings.11 Oshkosh Sustainability Plan 2025 30 July 2025 DRAFT glazed windows, insulatfon, heatfng and cooling equipment, washers and dryers, water heaters, office equipment, and refrigeratfon equipment.6 • Embodied carbon is a calculatfon of all the greenhouse gas emissions associated with a product, from its creatfon to its end of life. While Oshkosh does not currently include embodied carbon consideratfons in its procurement or approval decisions, some municipalitfes accomplish this through building codes, procurement policies, climate actfon plans, deconstructfon/reuse policies, and incentfves (e.g., expedited permitting). Efficiency in purchasing is important to local units of government. In Wisconsin “Value for Local Government” is a non-profit purchasing network available to local governments. Affiliated with the Wisconsin Associatfon for Public Procurement (WAPP) chapter of the Natfonal Instftute of Governmental Purchasing, the organizatfon, known as VALUE (Volume Acquisitfon and Large Uniform Expenditures), reduces the cost of goods and services by allowing members to combine requirements for commonly used items on one single request for bid and to share informatfon about contracts that were publicly bid by individual Wisconsin agencies and which are available by piggybacking.7 Another way that municipalitfes can drive sustainable purchasing is through its vendor guidance. Oshkosh’s procurement vendor guide uses the word “sustainability” once. This guide should be updated to integrate sustainability into various processes, rather than as a stand-alone item.8 Partnerships. In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin DNR’s Green Tier Legacy Communitfes (GTLC) is made up of local government leaders, like Oshkosh, preparing for the future by building sustainable and resilient communitfes. GTLC is a Green Tier program tailored for local government. Oshkosh has been a GTLC since 2017 and reports annually on their progress. There are significant benefits to be had by partfcipatfng in GTLC, to include special consideratfon and eligibility notfficatfons for grants, peer-to-peer learning and resource sharing, an assigned Wisconsin DNR liaison, access to sustainability webinars, regional collaboratfon opportunitfes, use of the Green Tier logo, and free technical support. The Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalitfon (WLGCC) is another membership organizatfon that provides a network of local governments with resources to advance climate actfon goals. WLGCC provides resources ranging from technical assistance to informatfon on grant opportunitfes and funding programs. 29 communitfes partfcipate in WLGCC, representfng almost 40% of Wisconsin’s populatfon. Unlike GTLC, WLGCC is more directly focused on climate actfon through greenhouse gas emission mitfgatfon and adaptatfon to the impacts of climate change. WLGCC also focuses on renewable energy, decarbonizing transportatfon, and sustainable land use policy.9 A separate program from GTLC, Green Tier (GT) is also run by the Wisconsin DNR, but is for non- governmental organizatfons to align their business objectfves with environmental performance. It provides a voluntary platiorm for collaboratfon and has been around longer than GTLC. It rewards regulated and unregulated businesses, communitfes, and trade associatfons aspiring to deliver superior environmental performance. GT further provides access to tools to move beyond environmental compliance minimums. Oshkosh has two organizatfons that partfcipate in GT, Sadoff Iron & Metal Company and the WI Department of Military Affairs (with 85 facilitfes). Promotfng the GT program to more Oshkosh organizatfons could help catalyze community-wide benefits for air, land, and water resource benefits. Oshkosh Sustainability Plan 2025 30 July 2025 DRAFT Separate from Green Tier is the Wisconsin Sustainable Business Council (SBC). That organizatfon is a statewide nonprofit that knows that sustainability is smart for business. As such, they support businesses who want to weave sustainability into every aspect of their business. They do this by sharing tools like a sustainability gap assessment/roadmap tool, customized programs, offering a Green Master’s Program to create sustainability throughout the supply chain, and a game-based fun collaboratfon called “Cool Choices.” This is also a great program to promote to local businesses. Tracking. Providing public services, developing/maintaining infrastructure, promotfng community growth/development, supportfng educatfonal/cultural initfatfves, promotfng transparency/partfcipatfon, and several essentfal functfons, are the core roles of local government. To accomplish those things, local government has a responsibility to plan for future needs and to track/report progress. New trends and technological innovatfons are as much a factor in the future as any, and staying on top of best practfces, antfcipatfng what is down the road, and planning for the future is a fundamental responsibility of good government and for good governance. It will be important to contfnuously train staff so they can track and adopt innovatfons. Tracking the schedule and effectfveness of sustainability efforts in the context of this plan involves the following: • Easy-to-understand metrics that can be compared to a defined baseline conditfon • Regular reportfng, such as the Green Tier Legacy Community annual reports • Implementfng recommendatfons • Communicatfng and celebratfng progress Policy. Another role of local government is to set policy and to create rules and processes to implement them. Organizatfons in the state that help municipalitfes with this include the Wisconsin Policy Forum, the League of Wisconsin Municipalitfes, the East Central Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission, and Oshkosh’s Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB). Successful sustainability programs, projects, and outreach are based on good sustainability policies. Municipal sustainability policies may include elements of equitable economic development, accessible community engagement, and public safety for everyone. Examples of sustainability policies include: • Comprehensive plans with sustainability elements • Tree policies that require diversifying street trees in street reconstructfon projects • Walkability to promote transit-oriented development • Public health initfatfves i.e. beekeeping and chicken/duck keeping In additfon, the prior approved Sustainability Plan for Oshkosh has the following policy statements that are incorporated here for reference: • The concept of sustainability guides City policy • All decisions have implicatfons for the long-term sustainability of Oshkosh Outreach/Education. There are a number of ways Oshkosh supports outreach and educatfon that lead to greater sustainability. There are advisory committees, websites, newsletters, social media posts, Oshkosh Sustainability Plan 2025 30 July 2025 DRAFT and other channels for people to learn about sustainability. Programs that Oshkosh should contfnue to promote include: • Focus on Energy, WI Public Service Commission, for energy conservatfon projects • Oshkosh’s Sustainability Advisory Board and the Sustainable Oshkosh website • Regular waste and e-waste recycling to ensure that waste becomes a resource where it can or is otherwise recycled in a safe way that protects human health and the environment • Go-Transit, to broaden ridership and decrease single-occupant vehicle use • Aquahawk, to notffy water utflity customers of excessive water usage signaling a potentfal leak • Stormwater utflity credits and rain barrels, to incentfvize stormwater utflity customers of opportunitfes to reduce their costs by reducing impervious surface and capturing rainwater on their property • Residentfal solar panel installatfon, backyard chicken/duck and beekeeping, residentfal greenhouses, and other sustainability improvements permitted on residentfal propertfes • Yard waste compostfng services and permits to divert restricted organic waste from landfills • Oshkosh Healthy Neighborhoods and residentfal grant programs to improve older neighborhoods Promotfon could be a simple as nestfng program informatfon further into the City of Oshkosh website, including a spotlight in each City Manager newsletter, and connectfng with any other appropriate government resources across all local government departments. Physical informatfon materials should also be placed at kiosks in City Hall, the Oshkosh Public Library, and other similar locatfons. Diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) are a base of social sustainability. Oshkosh has a DEI committee, established by ordinance, to help focus on inclusion among government functfons. The DEI committee is working through its mission statement to ensure it reflects its charge and expected outcomes. Oshkosh’s DEI efforts are shared primarily through a Facebook page. Other educatfonal/promotfonal actfvitfes may center around incentfves. Encouraging sustainable behaviors with strategies such as offering discounts or preference to local goods and service providers, providing density bonuses for sustainable buildings, offering financial incentfves or hour flexibility for employees who use transit, or even offering expedited permitting processes to developers can make sustainable choices more cost competftfve. Oshkosh can also contfnue to provide internship opportunitfes throughout and across divisions of local government. While the City does not have an internship applicatfon process or otherwise provide formal internships, they may be able to help students meet academic internship requirements on a case-by- case basis. That informatfon is maintained on the City’s website.10 For additfonal informatfon on the resources outlined in this chapter, check out: 1 Life cycle costfng: https://www.gfoa.org/materials/life-cycle-costfng-fff 2 Government Finance Officers Associatfon (GFOA) guidance on life-cycle costfng: https://www.gfoa.org/materials/life-cycle-costfng-fff 3 Government Accountfng Standards Board (GASB) guidance on capital asset depreciatfon: https://cpcongroup.com/a- guide-to-complying-with-government-accountfng-for-fixed- Oshkosh Sustainability Plan 2025 30 July 2025 DRAFT assets/#:~:text=The%20Government%20Accountfng%20Standards%20Board%20(GASB)%20is%20responsible%20for%20setting, or%20deletfons%20to%20the%20inventory 4 Internatfonal Organizatfon for Standardizatfon (ISO) guidance on service life planning: https://www.iso.org/standard/61148.html 5 American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) policy statement on life-cycle cost analysis: https://www.asce.org/advocacy/policy-statements/ps451---life-cycle-cost- analysis#:~:text=The%20American%20Society%20of%20Civil,project%20users%2C%20or%20other%20stakeholders 6 How ENERGY STAR works for local government: https://www.energystar.gov/sites/default/files/buildings/tools/SPP%20Sales%20Flyer%20for%20Local%20Govern ment.pdf 7 Purchasing Network of Wisconsin: https://value4gov.org/ 8 City of Oshkosh Vendor Guide: https://www.oshkoshwi.gov/Purchasing/Documents/CityOfOshkoshVendorGuide.pdf 9 Wisconsin Local Government Climate Coalitfon website: https://wlgcc.org/ 10 Oshkosh Internship Opportunitfes: https://www.oshkoshwi.gov/HumanResources/InternshipOpportunitfes.aspx 11 La Cross County Climate Actfon Plan: https://lacrossecounty.org/docs/default-source/administrator/climate- actfon-plan-part-1---government-operatfons-plan.pdf?sfvrsn=f0f27945_1 Goal(s): a) Transparency: Provide public access to informatfon about government process, opportunitfes, programs, and other benefits to ensure that people have a say in decisions that affect their lives. b) Promotion: Promote and celebrate the services and programs offered by local government to community members to increase the effectiveness and use of government programs. Recommendatfons 1. Sustainability Governance. Provide an annual review of the approved Sustainability Plan recommendatfons and report on progress towards them. o Lead Responsibility: Planning Division and Human Resources o Time Frame: Assign/budget annually; review/update plan every five years o Implementation Details: ▪ For this plan’s recommendatfons, assign responsibility and adequately budget for them in future years. ▪ Include a schedule for the implementatfon of recommendatfons. ▪ To implement the recommendatfons, assignment, budgetfng, tracking, and reportfng must be accomplished. ▪ Plan compliance should be reported annually at the State of the City address and could also become part of reportfng for Green Tier Legacy Communitfes compliance to reduce the burden of effort. ▪ Where recommendatfons cannot be implemented for assignment and/or budget reasons, this document should be revised with SAB partfcipatfon and re-approved by the Oshkosh Common Council at least every 5 years. ▪ Annually, contfnue to work with the SAB to identffy sustainability prioritfes and make a plan to implement them. Oshkosh Sustainability Plan 2025 30 July 2025 DRAFT ▪ Consider whether to assign existfng staff or request new staff positfon(s) to implement the plan recommendatfons along the recommended schedule. Among the job dutfes for this positfon, include establishing an internal green team to catalyze further plan implementatfon. ▪ Add at least one duty that relates to one or more recommendatfons in this Plan to municipal job descriptfons, partfcularly one that focuses on integratfng sustainability into day-to-day functfons. Human Resources should review this annually and determine additfonal dutfes to integrate into job descriptfons as recommendatfons are implemented. 2. Purchasing. Consider how budgetfng for and procuring products and services occurs currently and find ways to make them more sustainable. o Lead Responsibility: Finance Department / Purchasing o Time Frame: Short (<3 Years) and Medium (3-5 years) o Implementation Details: ▪ Short term: Contact the Focus on Energy advisor for Oshkosh and ask about existfng (2025) and future opportunitfes to plan for. ▪ Short term: Create a robust menu of sustainable procurement policies, guides, and rules, with an eye toward updatfng them with a sustainability lens. • Update Oshkosh’s procurement vendor guide to integrate a sustainability lens into processes and procedures. • Make official updates to policies, guides, and rules, and also educate procurement officers about the benefits of the updates. ▪ Medium term: Add a new lens to the annual budgetfng process making the procurement of goods and services transparent and clear as possible. ▪ Medium term: Seek to achieve budgetfng awards to instfll additfonal confidence in the budget process and making connectfons between the recommendatfons in plans like this one and their implementatfon through the annual budget. ▪ Medium term: Specifically consider how to expand the implementatfon of life-cycle costfng and promote that approach across municipal government. Innovatfons to watch include tools like the Community Lifecycle Infrastructure Costfng (CLIC), Building for Environmental and Economic Sustainability (BEES), and Building Life Cycle Cost (BLIC), scenario comparison methods, and others. 3. Green Tier. Contfnue to partfcipate in the Green Tier Legacy Communitfes program, aligning reportfng for that program with reportfng for Sustainability Plan implementatfon compliance to improve transparency. o Lead Responsibility: Planning Services o Time Frame: Short term (<3 years) Oshkosh Sustainability Plan 2025 30 July 2025 DRAFT o Implementation Details: ▪ Update the Environmental Leadership Award to emphasize sustainability achievements and align with the goals of the Sustainability Plan. ▪ Promote the Green Tier and Sustainable Business programs to businesses in Oshkosh to help them become more sustainable. 4. Policy Statements. Ensure that sustainability is integrated into City policy statements and practfces to ensure sustainable perspectfves are a usual and customary way for Oshkosh government to serve constftuents and otherwise do business. o Lead Responsibility: Planning Division o Time Frame: Ongoing o Implementation Details: ▪ Improve Oshkosh policy statements during planning and policy document updates to ensure a sustainability-based perspectfve. ▪ Proactfvely antfcipate known issues with policy statements in documents that currently drive unsustainable decision-making to integrate a sustainability-based perspectfve into updates to that policy document, including procurements to update such documents. ▪ Accelerate interim amendments to policy documents that are in direct conflict with the Sustainability Plan if there is no antfcipated update in the next 3-5 years. 5. Outreach/Education. Contfnue to promote City programs, amenitfes, and opportunitfes through the website, City Manager’s newsletter, and through special incentfves and spotlightfng. Use direct outreach to underserved communitfes to ensure equitable partfcipatfon and use of all the city has to offer, such as access to parks/open space, green/living wage jobs, and equitable transportatfon that provides for people as well as it does for cars. o Lead Responsibility: Oshkosh Media and o Time Frame: Short (<3 years) o Implementation Details: ▪ Identffy 1-2 opportunitfes to better integrate sustainability into Oshkosh messaging. ▪ Integrate sustainability front and center into programming, infrastructure projects, etc. should be reflected in Oshkosh’s messaging. ▪ Begin to integrate sustainability into mainstream messaging rather than compartmentalizing it. ▪ Create and promote one sustainability post per month on social media. Task the SAB in brainstorming potentfal topics, including ideas derived from this plan. ▪ Consider unique ways to support local food system/productfon outreach, including partfcipatfon at the Downtown Farmers Market ▪ Provide informatfon on compostfng and on greenhouses allowed as accessory uses by right. ▪ Consider catalyzing work on some of the recommendatfons in this plan through student/internship engagement. Sustainable Janesville Award: The Sustainable Janesville Award program is to reward, recognize, and promote innovatfon and leadership in sustainability by businesses, community groups, and people in the City of Janesville, WI.12 Oshkosh Sustainability Plan 2025 30 July 2025 DRAFT ▪ Contfnue to support, maintain, expand, and promote the SAB’s diverse sustainability events, including bikepacking and seed exchanges. ▪ Provide key recycling informatfon from this the Sanitatfon Division’s Garbage and Recycling Guide11 and others to include e-waste as an insert to annual property tax bill mailings, also encouraging landlords to provide to all tenants. ▪ Partner with the Winnebago County Master Gardener Associatfon or other entftfes to establish new landscaping in public places that provides natfve landscaping and stormwater infiltratfon capabilitfes. Provide signage and promotfon. Further reading: 11 Sanitatfon Division Garbage and Recycling Guide 2025 https://www.oshkoshwi.gov/Sanitatfon/Documents/GarbageRecyclingGuide.pdf 13 Sustainable Janesville Awards: https://www.janesvillewi.gov/government/city-council/sustainable-janesville- committee/sustainable-janesville-awards- program#:~:text=The%20purpose%20of%20the%20Sustainable,of%20the%20City%20of%20Janesville.