SUBJECT: UPDATE REPORT ON PROCESS FOR THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT PLAN
FILE: 210-02

THAT the process for the development of the Environmental Management Plan (EMP) as outlined in DI-5/2000 as modified by adjustments as identified in the Pilot program be approved and implemented

AND THAT a core group of staff be trained in facilitation in order to carry out the workshop aspect of the EMP

AND THAT the position of Manager Environmental Support as a regular full time position in the Corporation be approved, subject to budget approval

AND THAT the current contract positions of Environmental Management Support Officer and Environmental Projects Outreach Officer be extended from March 2001 for a two year period, subject to budget approval

 

The purpose of this report is to report on the outcomes of pilots and consultation on the development of an Environmental Management Plan and to seek approval for the process, implementation strategy and timetable.

Future Focus – Millenium Edition established the following short-term goal:

Council, on June 21 1999 passed the following resolution (Item CD-95-99, June 21, 1999; DI-10/99)

THAT the Terms of Reference for the City of Burlington Staff Environmental Management Team, as noted in Development and Infrastructure Report DI-10/99, dated June 1, 1999, be approved.

Council, at its meeting of May 29 2000 passed the following resolution (Item CD-96-00, May 29 2000; DI-5-2000)

THAT the amended terms of reference of the Environmental Management Team be approved; and

THAT Council adopt the following Mission Statement as its statement on environmental matters:

The Corporation of the City of Burlington will be a leader in making a high level of environmental performance one of the primary goals for its policies, programs and operations through protecting and enhancing the natural environment so as to achieve the highest quality of life for its citizens of today and tomorrow.

THAT the process for the development of the Environmental Management Plan, as illustrated in Diagram 1, including the Environmental Policies, contained in report DI 5/2000,dated May 9, 2000, be endorsed in principle; and

THAT the Environmental Management Team commence consultation and pilot projects on the process for the development of the Environmental Management Plan; and

THAT, upon completion of the consultation and pilot projects, a final process and timetable for the Environmental Management Plan and implementation strategy be presented to Council for approval.

Introduction

The City of Burlington currently has a range of environmental processes and projects underway:

• Setting of Strategic directions and identifying tools to assist in achieving these directions. For example, issues relating to urban growth and management, and the maintenance of the urban/rural boundary for the City are matters that are being raised at a strategic level. The City has adopted a Mission Statement on the Environment, and there will be elaboration of directions and preferred environmental outcomes in the coming Strategic Planning process.

• Identifying in a proactive way the range of City activities and their environmental impacts and redressing these, while linking clearly into other existing processes of the City. The Environmental Management Plan is the vehicle for this process.
• Integrating environmental considerations into the processes used by the City. Examples include the Budget where the 2001 budget papers identify the need for environmental performance indicators; the Infrastructure Renewal process and the developing linkages with environmental performance; the review of the proforma for presentation of reports to Council which will include an environmental query; the linkages, over time, between the performance standards established in the Environmental Management Plan and individual performance standards.
• Providing advice to staff and Council and where appropriate the community on a range of environmental issues that may arise. This can include providing reports on matters that may arise in media.
• Projects focusing on staff to improve the environment. This includes the Smog program that has been put in place through 2000.
• Community outreach and development on particular programs. There are a number of specific projects now underway which are community wide. This includes the Anti-idling program and the Healthy Green Spaces Program.

The Environmental Management Plan and its related components are but one element of the environmental activities of the City. Its is important because of its outcomes, and because it links into other processes of the City. The Environmental Management Plan provides a new management tool for the Corporation, rather than a one-off static document.

The Environmental Management Plan is a major element of improving the environmental performance of the Corporation, positioning the Corporation as a leader in environmental management, and providing leverage and leadership for discussions with other sectors of the community and other municipalities.

This report from the Environmental Management Team focuses on the outcomes of the Pilot projects and review of the preferred process for developing an Environmental Management Plan for the Corporation of the City of Burlington.

The role of the Pilot projects was to determine how effectively the process approved in principle by Council worked and to

• Obtain an idea of the time and resources involved
• Fine tune the process and
• Introduce the process to staff

Three pilots have been undertaken. The Pilots involved the departments of Transit and Traffic, Fire, and Parks and Recreation. Each Pilot took place over a period of one and a half days. After consultation with Directors and Managers, staff from the Departments were invited to participate in the workshops and provided a copy of the Background Kit. Participants involved staff of the affected Departments and members of the EMT. Through the course of the workshops, selected department activities were broken down into smaller components (called aspects). These aspects were then assessed to determine if they had any environmental impact. The severity of the impact, if any, was established, and solutions were developed to mitigate the impacts.

There has been considerable consultation and communications on the Pilot. In addition to the discussions within the City of Burlington, presentations have been made to the Sustainable Development Committee, the Aldershot Community Council’s Environment Committee, Rotary Club meetings, the Local Environmental Business Network, and the Burlington Economic Development Corporation.

Articles have also appeared in the local media, both print and cable television, as well as newsletters. This includes the Hamilton Home Builders Association, City Talk, and Focus.

A web site has been developed and updated for the Environmental Management Plan on the Intranet, along with a series of updates and information provided electronically to all staff via broadcasts. Staff is also working to have the web site made available via the City’s Internet.

1. Background Kit

Attachment One is a copy of the document Pilot Program for the Development of an Environmental Management Plan for the City of Burlington. This document was provided to participants prior to the workshop and was a reference document during the workshops.

2. Logistics manual

Streamlined instructions for organizing workshops, standard invitations, check lists, overheads for presentations and scripts have been produced and tested.

3. Database

A database has been established by ITS, in consultation with the EMT. This allows for easy input of data, the recording of outcomes of the workshops and production of reports. The data base has been designed to be able to interrogate it by activity, by Department and by ranking of aspects. Further refinement will allow the actions to be ranked by due date of activity, and responsible person. This will assist in the ongoing management of these issues at a corporate level, and at departmental level. The data base is still being refined but will be available for future workshops.

4. Review of usefulness of Activity Based Costing as basis for analysis

EMT identified the Activity Based Costing (ABC) Dictionary as the first point of identification of the activities of the Corporation upon which to base the analysis of environmental impacts. The ABC listing has been tested and provides a suitable basis for analysis.

The advantages of using the Activity Based Costing framework are that it utilizes a pre-established data source and it allows the outcomes of the workshops to be tied into budget information. In the longer term, links can be established between the ABC activities, environmental impacts and performance measurement. Using ABC assists in linking the EMP into existing processes.

1. Ranking of activities and aspects

Workshops have been held with Traffic, Fire, and Parks and Recreation. A total of twenty eight activities have been examined and ranked for relative importance. Of these, twelve have no environmental impact and require no further action at this stage. A further seven activities are corporate wide and will be addressed at different workshops which will bring staff from a number of departments together.

2. Staff knowledge

In addition to the staff from EMT involved in the process, a further 21 staff from the three departments have now been through the process and have a greater understanding and awareness of the impacts of the department’s activities on the environment, and the activities to address those impacts. Attachment Two includes the list of staff involved to date.

3. Identification of other potential issues

This systematic approach may identify potential gaps in Corporation practices that will need to be addressed through the development of the Environmental Management Plan.

4. Feedback from participants

Feedback on the process has been received and the process refined

5. Support for funding applications

Due to its systematic and traceable nature, the Environmental Management Plan process can be used to add weight and credibility to funding applications. In addition, the outcomes of particular workshops can be used in specific applications for funding. One outcome of the review of activities for the Fire Department has been to identify issues that need redressing and to feed these into a separate application for funding for Federation of Canadian Municipalities. (This process will be subject to a separate report to Council).

6. Issues raised for further resolution

During the workshops there were only a few concerns raised. These are listed below.

Issue One: Make sure that any potentially serious environmental concerns identified are fully researched before listed as highly significant.

Comment: This process identifies in a systematic way all environmental issues of the Corporation. This initial review is part of a due diligence check. Potentially serious concerns must be identified and documented. If there is any uncertainty then priority must be placed on further research.

Outcome: Rankings of different items may be reviewed, subject to additional information.

Issue Two: Undue weighting was given to any aspects that had an environmental legislative requirement

Comment: There is a recognition that the ranking should differentiate between activities that may be subject to environmental legislation that is being complied with, and activities where there is environmental legislation and further action, including research, must be undertaken. It is the latter category that has a higher priority.

Outcome: Both the worksheets and the data base are to be amended to reflect the different status. In addition matters where there is Health and Safety legislation will also be identified.

Issue three: dealing with activities that are common across the organisation and reducing duplication

Comment: A number of activities of the Corporation cut across the Corporation rather than are restricted to one department. For example, a number of activities involve the use of vehicles and these need to be addressed Corporately rather than by activity. Likewise, energy management in buildings, the management of garages for vehicle maintenance, and the use of volumes of paper cuts across departments.

Outcome: It has been agreed that in addition to workshops by department or unit, there will be workshops by activity (e.g. facility management, vehicle usage) which might cut across departments and divisions.

7. Adjustments to process through Pilot Program

The Pilot Project has largely validated the process that was outlined in Report DI-5-2000. Minor changes relate to logistics including the need for preliminary agendas and more time between the one day workshop and the half day workshop. The other change is the need to identify the correct level of the department and staff appropriate for each workshop – at a Work Unit level rather than a Departmental level. There will also be some amendment to the background kit, including clarification of some terms and additional explanations.

The EMP process will provide information, actions and tools to improve the environmental performance of the City. However the Pilots have confirmed that this process will require significant resources to implement effectively.

The preferred structure arising from the Pilots is to have at least four members of the EMT at each workshop. These members will be facilitating, clarifying issues and processes, recording and co-leading the discussions. Initial thoughts were to have attendee representation span the entire Department but this was found to be too large a scale. There needs to be enough people from the appropriate Department to be able to address the details of each activity. As such, experience through the Pilots indicates a minimum of 5 people from a Department, usually at a unit level, with a maximum of 10. Members present have helped to identify which of the activities can be examined in a useful manner at each workshop.

There was some experimentation of the structure of the workshops. An attempt was made to collapse the time needed to one day but this did not work. The initial (one day) session introduces the processes and works through activities and aspects. It identifies the range of the environmental challenges and their relative importance. Session two (half day) allows the original participants to identify what needs to be done to address those issues: the actual plan.

In addition the EMT found that there needed to be a break between the first and second session of each workshop. The break was required to investigate issues and obtain information on matters that arose during the activity analysis. This information was important in developing the Plan in the last half day. For example, there was a need in the Fire pilot to research some legislative issues, as well as check construction drawings.

Based on the outcomes of the workshops to date, the current estimate is that approximately 40 workshops (each of one and a half days) will be required. The final number of workshops will depend on the ability to cluster topics and the range of issues identified.

Considerable staff time is consumed by the logistics of organizing workshops and ancillary work, including database input. This has been assisted by the appointment of a staff person on short-term contract as Environmental Management Support Officer. This person’s primary role is to undertake the organization and the follow up necessary for workshops and associated work, as well as assisting in research and projects identified. This position has been largely funded to date through external funds. It has been identified as a contract position in the 2001 Current Budget process.

The Environmental Management Plan is an ongoing process that builds into the systems of the Corporation. While the focus currently is on issue and action identification, the outcomes of the workshops build into other corporate processes such as Strategic Planning, the budget, performance appraisals and infrastructure renewal. As such the Environmental Management Plan is part of a larger Environmental Management System, with the outcomes of the workshops a starting point.

A revised timetable is included as Attachment Three.

The primary facilitation for the Pilots to date has been by the Environmental Co-ordinator. However there needs to be more people able to take on the facilitation role and to this end, other members of the EMT have also facilitated sections of the workshops.

It is important to have a larger pool of people able to run workshops. This will help spread the workload from the members of the EMT, minimize the risk of being too dependent on one or two people, increase expertise for both the process and environmental issues, and ensure that the EMP continues to have a corporate focus. It is therefore recommended that those staff already trained in facilitation in the City be invited to act as facilitators on occasion. In addition it is recommended that members of the EMT have access to facilitation training.

In addition to the development of the Environmental Management Plan, there is considerable related and linked activity to improve the environment now underway in the Corporation. These include:

• Involvement as a partner of the Halton Public Sector Smog Response Plan
• Development, endorsement by Council, and implementation by staff of a Smog Response Plan as part of the above initiative. A report on the outcomes of this initiative is to be provided separately to Council.
• Healthy Green Spaces Initiative, an outcome of the resolutions of Council on turf management. A project management team has been established and a project is now underway to reduce the use of pesticides throughout the City.
• Anti idling initiative, also as a result of Council resolution. A project team and project brief is currently being established with a view to an initial meeting in December 2000
• The organization of a Community Based Social Marketing workshop, to provide tools for better use and targeting of resources to develop environmental changes
• Identification of potential sources of external funding with a small team of staff identifying potential projects and developing applications. This is also subject to a separate report to Council
• Developing environmental performance measures for incorporation into budget report systems

To date, a number of these projects have been independent of the EMT. To ensure co-ordination of corporate activities, the EMT will in the future provide an oversight of these projects. Reports and recommendations will be forwarded to Management Committee and Council through the Environmental Management Team.

As the Environmental Management Plan is developed and being implemented, then the EMT will also have a monitoring role for the activities of each department. As outlined in the previous report to Management Committee and Council, the maturely developed process will included departments monitoring the progress of their initiatives and providing reports to the EMT for a corporate overview.

The functions of the EMT, as outlined above, can only occur with the resources that have been identified as part of the current budget process. Members of the EMT will be stretched to deal with the workshops and related processes of the EMP. A focussed and dedicated staff complement is required to service the EMP and other environmental activities underway.

Members of the EMT have invested considerable time to date in this process. There have been some changes in membership due to retirements and leave, as well as other Departments indicating an interest in being involved. Meetings of the EMT have been on average every two weeks for two hours, plus workshops and some work in between.

It is therefore recommended that Managers of these staff recognize that they are involved in a priority corporate project and adjust their departmental workloads accordingly. It is also recommended that expressions of interest be sought from other staff to have an ongoing role in the EMT, and to provide alternates for the Team. Other Departments such as the Fire Department, Human Resources, Clerks, Building and ITS may consider a role on the Team or as facilitators for the process.

The development of the Environmental Management Plan is a significant investment of staff time and energy. The outcomes of this process will include an improvement of the environment in the City of Burlington, a way of building environmental considerations systematically into the corporation, and a management tool to assist in resource allocation decisions on a corporate basis. It is a major element to achieve the Environmental Mission Statement adopted by the City.

Mike Hall
Chair, Environmental Management Team

Narelle Martin
Environmental Co-ordinator

The proposed process provides a framework for a systematic review of the City operations.