In this  March 5  interview Kimberly Miller interviews Lori Cunniff, who will be speaking at the Green Cities Conference taking place May 19-21 in Orlando, FL. Lori Cunniff discusses why Florida is becoming a sustainability leader, the new Climate Change Center and Orlando as a Florida Green Local Government in this week’s podcast. This is the sixth in a series of interviews with Green Cities speakers. Subscribe to our podcast and make sure not to miss the rest of the interview series leading up to the Green Cities Florida conference.

“Just by planting the educational seed, [sustainable practices] are already growing in our area.”  – Lori Cunniff

 

 Green Cities Podcast: - Lori Cunniff Interview [24:00m]: Play Now | Play in Popup

Transcript of  Interview
March 5, 2009

I’m Kimberly Miller for Green Cities Media. We’re talking today with Lori Cunniff, the manager for the Orange County Environmental Protection Division. Thanks for speaking with me today, Lori.
Thank you.

One of the exciting things happening in Florida right now is the opening of the Climate Change Education Center. Do you want to talk a little about that?
Sure, we’re very excited about it. We’re opening a climate change center at the same time that we’re putting up a one megawatt photovoltaic system all at the Orange County Convention Center. Part of the goal behind the Climate Change Center is to promote renewables such as solar and renewable fuels, pretty much across the entire state of Florida.

How do you think this Climate Change Education Center and the photovoltaic will affect and lead the rest of Florida?
We’re setting up a nice demonstration. The solar system that is going in at the Convention Center includes some demonstration cells. We’re working closely with the Florida Solar Energy Center to do some demonstrations. It’s also a good size system; it is a one megawatt system. It’s not enough to power the convention center in its entirety but it will help offset the electrical costs. We’re hoping to use the Climate Change Center as an educational facility to promote things that are more sustainable and again a high focus on renewables.

If you could give me an analogy of the size of the solar array that will be on the top of the convention center?
It’s about the size of 5 ½ football fields.

That’s a large solar array. I think I read it is the largest photovoltaic system in the southeast. Is that correct?
I believe it will be, but it will be shortly outdone. To give you an idea, I’m pretty certain that the entire state of Florida has about 1 megawatt in the state tops. There’s an exciting project going on outside of my area in Gainesville, they recently passed a feed-in tariff and they now have applications in to put in up to 4 megawatts of solar on individual homes. So there’s a lot of energy out there in the Florida community where these renewables are getting promoted.

The Climate Change Center will be located in the convention center. How do you think this will affect the conventions that take place there?
We’re hoping that the conventions that come there, it will raise their awareness about some of the environmental things we’re doing and maybe encourage them to do some environmental things at their own conferences. Conventioneers will be able to attend and visit the climate change center if they choose, that can be arranged. But for example, one of the things we’re doing, if you’re coming and holding a convention, you can offset your carbon footprint by working with the Climate Change Center.

That’s great.
Yes, McDonalds most recently did that. They planted some trees and donated money to offset their carbon footprint. We did the calculations for them and we ended up spending the money to subsidize or create incentives for homeowners to put in solar water heater systems. It was a great project and now we have lots of homeowners that got a little help with their solar hot water heating system.

How did the Climate Change Education Center get started?
It started when we as a county decided that we wanted to promote solar and we applied for a grant with the EP to put in this very large solar electric system, or photovoltaic system, at the Convention Center. And we wanted to put in an educational component with that. That’s pretty much how the concept grew out of that. We’re kind of excited about it not because it’s growing all on its own, the concept, for example, recently the city of Orlando has become a Solar City, and we’re partnering with them to again promote solar across the entire state. OUC is also a partner, that’s Orlando Utilities Commission. So you can see just by planting that educational seed it is already growing in this area.

So what does it mean to be a solar city?
It’s actually a DOE project, we received a grant. I don’t remember the exact amount but it was about $200,000. It was to create educational workshops and working with groups to try to promote solar across the state.

How did you get involved in this kind of work to begin with?
That’s a good question, I’m not sure if you have all afternoon [laughs]. Seriously!
I’ve always been involved in environmental work because of my interests and of course my job. I think we started noticing some of the problems that come with the use of fossil fuels. I manage an air program. We have concerns all the time with our air quality. We do have good air quality, however we’re always on the brink of becoming a nonattainment area, which means your air isn’t as clean as you’d want it to be. So, we’re always looking for ways to keep our environment cleaner. And one of those ways is renewable energy. There’s a lot of work out now about carbon and your carbon footprint and a cap and trade program coming down the regulatory pipeline. So, it’s a natural to become more involved with what’s happening. So, climate change itself, when you think of it in the bigger context, it could become a very big problem for Florida being that we’re a coastal community.

Right, exactly. I think it is very telling that Orlando is choosing to do all of these sustainability initiatives. And then Green Cities is happening in Orlando. It seems Orlando is a leader in sustainability. Can you speak some on other things that are happening in Florida?
Actually, I’d love to. Mayor Crotty, who is the mayor for Orange County has been really proactive in supporting our initiatives. We have a climate change plan. In September of 2007 he decided to hold a climate change summit. One for educational purposes and two to announce what county operations; what our government carbon footprint was. So we did a carbon inventory. And from that he set up goals. Some of the types of things we’ve done besides this PV system is, we’ve for example, looked at our vehicles. We have tried to reduce our petroleum consumption. One of the first things we did was to right size our vehicles. So there’s a committee that reviews all the purchases of cars to make sure you’re not just buying an SUV to buy an SUV. The second thing we did, we started looking at hybrids and alternative fuels. So, now 42% of our vehicles are either alternative fuel or hybrid. We’ve installed ethanol tanks and we have e85 available for county cars. And we’re using biodiesel. And we also have two hydrogen shuttle buses that are down at the convention center, which is part of a demonstration project. So, those are some of the different things we’ve been doing as far as vehicles. And we’re also looking at electrical consumption at all of our buildings and making sure all of our buildings have basic things like recycling. We’ve installed solar water systems in Great Oaks Village, which is one of the county facilities. We’re looking at a project to install a solar system; this one would be PV or solar electric, at our cooperative extension building. And we just received some funding to get that started. It’s slowly growing, all the things that we’re doing. We have a green ribbon committee where everyone in the county gets together to talk about their ideas and how we’re going to implement it. And then April of last year we were recognized for our certification as a Florida Green Local Government. It’s a certification program run by the FGBC which is the Florida Green Building Coalition. And you have to go through and show that you’re a sustainable community. And there are many initiatives that you have to take to earn a level, and we earned it at the Gold Level, and I’m proud to say we were the first to earn it at a Gold level. We were the first and we are very happy about that.

So it’s somewhat surprising for me to hear about Florida’s sustainable initiatives, because it’s not the first state that I would think of when I think of sustainability and energy conservation. Do you often get that people are pleasantly surprised about what’s happening in Orange County and throughout Florida?
Well I don’t know if they are surprised but I definitely think most people are happy with the initiatives we’re taking, it is a state wide thing. The Governor has done a lot of work, he’s held some climate change conferences as well; continues to hold them every year in Miami. But I have to ask- why wouldn’t you think we’d be a leader? We’re the Sunshine State!

You know, you’re absolutely right, you guys should be the leader and it’s cool to see that you are.
Well thanks, we’re trying! We’re trying to become less dependent upon petroleum based fuels. It is not only good for the environment but it’s good for the economy, it’s good for security. There are a lot of reasons we should be doing it.

So what are some upcoming projects that are going to be happening in the realm of sustainability in Orange County and even the rest of Florida?
Well some of the things we’re working on besides the PV system coming on board, and we’ll probably be prepared to flip the switch at the Green Cities Conference and the Climate Change Center will officially open. One of our big projects is called Smart Growth. We’re actually rewriting our land development code to allow us to promote more “smart growth.”  So you’ll see a lot of transient oriented development coming up in new developments that are coming up. That’s going to be a very big project. That’s going to take us probably a year to get all of it in place. But I think Smart Growth will definitely influence our area. And the other big thing that’s coming that’s going to change our area is rail. When we get commuter rail into our area it will really change how people start traveling, it will open up some opportunities and it will certainly be environmentally friendly and sustainable.

Do you want to talk a little bit about some plans for Commuter Rail?
Well the Mayor’s been working very hard, well actually all the mayors, and all the community is involved in this. But to run a commuter rail pretty much comes along the I-4 corridor. We’re hoping to get funding this year, and I believe they also have a name for it, it’s called Sun Rail. And the I-4 corridor is extremely congested, a lot of vehicles on it.  People will have the opportunity now to take mass transit to get where they’re going. I think you’ll start seeing different types of developments around the train stations as those come in, and other than buses it will be one of our mass transit options that we’ll have here.

So do you think Smart Growth and these new transit options are going to help out the economy in Florida?
Oh yes, absolutely. We are all hurting right now with the economy with the way it is. And I think anything that creates jobs for building these systems, maintaining these systems, the fact that people will be able to get to locations in a more sustainable and affordable way will be very good. There are a lot of people in our community who take buses to get to work; this will open up another option. This will take more cars off the road. Yes, I definitely think it will have an impact on our economy.

So what would you like to see happen in the world of sustainable progress and smart growth in Florida?
Well I’d kind of like to see us continue to move in the direction, I would never say that I don’t want to see us grow, I’m not anti development, but I would like to see us grow in a way that protects the environment, that gives us lots of open space. We all crave nature so it would be nice to see a development come about in way where you have a walkable community, you have open space and natural lands preserved so you can visit those, and you have mass transit available so you don’t have to get into your car to go everywhere. You can get on mass transit; you can walk around in your community. It would make it a much nicer place to live and I do think our community is moving in that direction and so that’s what I expect our future to be. And I envision that this will happen in several of the areas. Now, I am an optimist but I do envision other cities will be doing the same type of thing. And then eventually we’ll have all our cities connected by a high speed rail. And Florida itself will become a much more sustainable state.

I hope for all of those things too, especially the light rail piece. So going back to talking about the climate change center for just a second, could you walk me through some of the displays and technology used to teach about climate change in the center?
Well one of the things that we’re trying to promote in the center is not so much the education on whether climate change is really happening or not, we’re focusing on what technologies are out there, what options are available to the general public on becoming more sustainable. So they’ll be a lot of workshops held from this facility or because of this facility. We’ll be doing webinars and things like that, a lot of telecommuting and conferencing to reduce travel time.  All the furniture that comes in, we’re trying to use furniture that is either built from a sustainable resource or is recycled or has a sustainable element about it and then we’ll be highlighting what that is. So right now we’re inviting different vendors that have these various products to show us what it is and we’ll be seeing if they’re compatible with the center and the displays will change all the time so new stuff will be coming in to make people aware of what’s available.

Terrific, that sounds like an amazing resource and I think that Orange County is more than lucky to have the Climate Change Center there.
Well thanks, we’re really excited about it and we’re hoping that it will be a great location for people to be able to tap into resources.

So there is a plan to have the Climate Change Center’s grand opening and ribbon cutting on the first day of Green Cities. What’s going to happen during that?
Well I envision it will be the traditional ribbon cutting and there will be some sort of hors d’oeuvres or food. People will be talking, talking about what we have planned and then there will be some displays so people will be able to look around afterwards and see what types of things are happening. One of the exciting features in the Climate Change Center is that we will have a display board that shows you what’s happening up on the roof with the PV. So you’ll be able to see how much energy is being produced, and of course during the peak of the day that will be very exciting to watch. And of course it will also give information about PV systems and solar energy in general.

So why do you think conferences like Green Cities are important? What’s the significance?
I think the significance of it is that it brings people together to discuss the issues, get ideas from one another, and see what works or has been tried and try to generate new solutions. And it helps to talk and again see what other people are doing. It’s kind of a synergy when you talk and get excited about a project. That’s how these types of things are born. Somebody comes up with an idea; somebody else makes a connection and the next thing you know something’s happening.

So you’re also involved with the Florida Green Building Coalition, so what kind of projects are you guys working on right now?
Well right now we, at least my group which is a very large part, is looking at some of the green government standards and seeing if it needs to be modified in any way. But the overall goal of Florida Green Building Coalition is to promote green buildings. So they spend a lot of time highlighting various green buildings that are coming in, people that are getting various certifications and my focus of course is on the government angle, so I’m trying to promote governments to get this green standard; to come in and be a Florida green local government. I promote that a lot through another group that’s called FLERA, the Florida Local Environmental Resource Agencies, and that’s kind of a group of people who are involved with the environmental agencies throughout the state. So it’s a lot of cities, and counties, and private interest, and I’m trying to have them encourage their municipalities and their counties to also go for this.

So do you think it’s important for governments to understand things like green buildings, sustainability, smart growth, and those types of things?
I don’t think we can move forward if we don’t have a good understanding of some of these new, whether it is new planning techniques, I wouldn’t say smart growth is new. But for example let’s talk about green building for a minute, if you think about it as people come in to get a building, they go through a building department, a plan review in Orange County, if we don’t understand what this new concept is or new technique we tend to slow down the process. And that’s exactly the opposite of what we want to do. So what we’ve done in Orange County is actually trained several of our staff to be LEED AP certified staff. And so when a project comes in and they claim to be green, and they are going to meet a green standard such as FGBC they get fast tracked. And so they have a person appointed to them to kind of walk their project through the system to ensure they don’t get hung up some place and they go to the front of the line. So it’s one way that we’re trying to promote green buildings, promote sustainable communities.

Right – so working together with the local governments is actually going to help put these initiatives into play more quickly?
I think so. I think it’s critical to work with local governments and private sector. Only by working together will we get this done.

Alright Lori, so is there anything else you want to mention? Any upcoming projects that you’re excited about? Any news that you’d like to share?
Well I think what we’ve already covered, the fact that the Climate Change Center is going to open and I think once that opens you’ll start seeing more and more projects being highlighted there. The only other thing I didn’t tell you about is that we have a Climate Change Plan but we publish that on the web, that’s more a document on what we’re doing as far as fighting climate change and what we’re doing to reduce our carbon emissions. It also helps to keep us on track to make sure we’ve got forward movement.

Right and that document keeps you accountable to citizens that may be able to view it. So where would I able to find that document?
You can find it on our webpage if you go to www.ocped.gov you’ll be able to find it.

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Lori Cunniff, C.E.P., CHMM, is currently the Manager of the Orange County Environmental Protection Division in Orlando, Florida. Prior to this position, Lori worked as the Environmental Manager at Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York (a Dept of Energy Facility), the Environmental Director for the Escambia County Neighborhood & Environmental Services Department in Pensacola, Florida and in various positions with the Miami-Dade County Department of Environmental Resources Management in Miami, Florida. She has been in the environmental field for over 25 years.

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