ABOUT DR. MISSY STULTS:
Dr. Missy Stults is the Sustainability and Innovations Director for the City of Ann Arbor. In this role, she works with all city operations, residents, businesses, the University of Michigan, nonprofits, and others to achieve a just transition to community-wide carbon neutrality by 2030, as outlined in the A2ZERO Carbon Neutrality Plan. Prior to joining the City, Missy worked with cities and tribal communities around the nation to advance their climate and sustainability goals, including during her time as the Climate Director at ICLEI-Local Governments for Sustainability and as a consultant to philanthropic organizations. Missy has a PhD in urban resilience from the University of Michigan, a Masters in Climate and Society from Columbia University, and undergraduate degrees in Marine Biology and Environmental Science from the University of New England.
RESOURCES:
Ann Arbor Office of Sustainability & Innovations
Ann Arbor Home Energy Rebate Program
Ann Arbor Home Energy Advisor Program
Ann Arbor EV Multi-Family and Commercial Charger Program
Ann Arbor Bryant Community Neighborhood Decarbonization Project
Ann Arbor Sustainable Food Programs
Ann Arbor's 10,000 Trees Program
Ann Arbor Sustainability and Renters
Ann Arbor Neighborhood Swap Days
Ann Arbor Green Energy Neighbors
TRANSCRIPTION:
David Fair: Equity, equality and the environment. Can you serve the best interests of any of those societal aspirations without taking care of the others? Well, that's what we're going to explore today on 89 one WEMU's Washtenaw United. I'm David Fair, and we've spoken a great deal with our guest today about a variety of the components that make up Ann Arbor's A2Zero carbon neutrality plan. Missy Stults is Ann Arbor's director of sustainability and innovation. And today, we're going to specifically discuss how the plan was drafted and is being implemented to not only help in the fight against climate change, but in the needed fight for greater equity, inequality and community change. I always appreciate your company, Missy!
Dr. Missy Stults: Oh, David! The feeling is so mutual! Thank you for the time and space to talk about this really critical intersectional topic!
David Fair: Well, take me back to when plans for A2Zero were first being formulated. Obviously, there are environmental and sustainability outcomes desired. What role did diversity, equity and inclusion play in the formulating of the initiative?
Dr. Missy Stults: It's a great question. And it was really, really critical. And I'd say just like many of us have experienced in lots of things in our life, we didn't get it right at the beginning. And so, we had to make some changes. So, as we were trying to create A2Zero, we knew we had to have community voice centered in this work. We knew that if this was going to succeed, residents had to see themselves. They had to be excited about the initiatives. They had to want to participate. And so, we ran a number of public engagement events, and we did public surveys. And when our first public survey came back, what we saw was we had zero youth--no one under the age of 18--took the survey. And our demographics skewed towards affluent, white residents. And we knew that we had to do better. And so, we held special forums, and we went out to some of our trusted community stakeholders. We held a youth forum and we said, "What are we doing wrong?" And they said, "You need to be using TikTok. You need to be coming into our classroom." And we talked to our folks at the Disability Alliance, and we talked to residents in housing commission sites. And they helped us see that we weren't using the right engagement techniques. And so, we had to change. This is kind of cliche, but instead of holding a big town hall, you go to where people are. We went to public schools and talked to folks with AAPS, and we went to the Housing Commission, and we held special sessions in parks or on busses. We went into neighborhoods, and we talked to residents there, as opposed to expecting them to come to us. And that fundamentally shifted A2Zero. It's why, at the end, we did 68 public events, largely in neighborhoods, in places where people are--houses of worship, etc.. We ran three public surveys. And at the end, our math is one in every nine Ann Arborites gave us input into that plan.
David Fair: Well, some call it environmental justice. Some call it environmental injustice. But we know communities and people of color and lower income residents end up with worse health outcomes because of air, land and water pollution. And there's been less access to the resources to combat these factors. How does the A2Zero plan create more equitable access to sustainability efforts that ultimately will improve future health conditions and outcomes?
Dr. Missy Stults: Yeah. It's another really good question. And one of the things I have to remind kind of everyone outside of the city that we work with is there are three foundational values of A2Zero, and they are sustainability, transformation and equity. And when we talk about equity, we do not think of it as a lens. You can't see me right now, but I'm wearing glasses. Lenses can be privileged. I just took them off right now, right? I can choose not to see what's happening around me. I can choose not to sit in the reality that these inequalities exist in society, because I may not be shrouded in those inequalities in the same way someone else is. So, equity isn't a privileged lens that we have. It has to be centered in the work and so does the authenticity of naming. We are going to make mistakes. That's not a failure. A failure is making a mistake in not learning from it or changing something. So, the way that we kind of work in equity into all the things that we do are a series of kind of principles. One: you work with the community, right? It's not working for the community. It is with them to the fullest extent you can doing power sharing. Now, sometimes we don't have as much power sharing, depending on what it is we might be doing. But being honest about that going in and setting expectations about how they can set the menu, how they can set the table, how they can even determine where we're sort of headed directionally. So, working with the community for their vision and shared objectives that we're trying to aspire towards. It's compensating people where we can for their expertise, right? I have expertise certainly in sustainability, but I have expertise living. You have expertise living in this community. People have expertise by the shared nature of being, and valuing that expertise is really, really essential. And then, showing up and staying up, showing up for people and continuing to work on the causes that we're collectively working on, those are kind of critical things that we do, and they manifest from everything of our engagement work. Working directly with community-based organizations that serve different residents in the community that are trusted to. We have OSI staff members who actually work at community centers. They sit there, right? They might be doing OSI work, or they might actually be helping in the food pantry for a few hours, because that's what the need is. So, we really try to be in the community as much as we can.
David Fair: WEMU's Washtenaw United conversation with Missy Stults continues. Missy is director of sustainability and innovations for the City of Ann Arbor, and I want to talk a little bit about some of the specific programs in the A2Zero plan that are aimed at creating greater equity and access to clean energy. One of the more ambitious undertakings is the Bryant Community Neighborhood Decarbonization. How do you go about decarbonizing an entire neighborhood in specific?
Dr. Missy Stults: I know you're not supposed to say this. It is my favorite project, and it is a very hard project. The first was fundamentally working with the residents to identify what they needed. And we started almost in a SWAT analysis way where we said, "What do you love about your neighborhood and what do you see as strategic opportunities and what are you concerned about? And what do you want the future to look like?" And that's what led us down the path of trying to create the first carbon neutral existing neighborhood in America. And even if we don't hit that, it's making this neighborhood exactly what the residents want it to be: a safe, healthy, wonderful place with high quality of life, which, for many, it already is, and for some, not quite. And so, the things that we do are very much resident-driven. They're everything from...we do tree plantings in the neighborhood for areas that are undercanopied, helping with stormwater benefits and doing some rain gardens. We fundraised quite a lot and continue to fundraise to do deep energy efficiency and indoor health quality improvements in a number of homes. I think we've made it through 30 homes so far in the neighborhood, but we have funding for many more. We're putting in grants for designing a district geothermal system. So, we actually won this grant. I know we've talked about it. We're putting in a grant in the next several weeks to implement that geothermal system, meaning heating and cooling would be from the ground. There aren't any toxic fumes associated with that. Indoor air quality will improve, and rates should be much lower than what people pay today to heat and cool their homes. Solar panels, energy storage to make sure no one loses power again, vehicle share programs, more green space, really doubling down on the parks that exist in the neighborhood. These are some of the things that we're doing with residents..oh, and workforce development, right, that people need to see people who are like them, who have a shared experience to them doing this work. And so, we want to recruit people into good paying family sustaining jobs that help us do this in the next neighborhood and the next neighborhood and so on.
David Fair: And it will work its way through the city, ultimately, and down the line. The city has also launched Home Energy Advisor and Home Energy Rebate programs. That is a part of what takes place in Bryant. But how does it also create greater community equity throughout the city?
Dr. Missy Stults: Yeah. So, the Home Energy Advisor is kind of like a one-stop shop that you can call to figure out what your next step is. So, you can get a free home energy assessment, which is more than just energy. They're also looking at indoor air quality and safety opportunities and renewable energy opportunities. But it's going to be a customized path for you to get your home to zero carbon emissions. It's also going to identify what funding opportunities are available to help you do that work. So, your journey might look different. And it will. It will look different than my journey. And that's okay. So, this is free from the Community Climate Action Millage that passed in 2022. And we call it a "path to zero." The rebate program is also from the millage. And this is where we're trying to close the gap between doing the sustainable thing and doing the easy thing financially on the market. And so, here you can get rebates to actually make those improvements, rebates to put in more insulation, so your home feels healthier and tighter and more comfortable, funding for batteries, so that you can have resilience when the grid goes down, funding for e-bikes. And e-bikes are one that people are really excited about. This isn't for a recreational use. This is literally people saying, "I'm not going to drive today because I have this e-bike, which is much more accessible for me, and I'm going to take that." So it's displacing vehicle trips. So, we've got a series of rebates, and we plan to do these for many years into the future to help people afford sustainability improvements. And 50% of that money is set aside for income qualified households. Now, 100% of the money could go to income qualified households. So, 50% has to. The rest is for whoever applies.
David Fair: Our conversation with Ann Arbor's director of sustainability and innovations continues. Missy Stults is the guest on this week's edition of Washtenaw United on 89 one WEMU. Tell me how the resilience hubs and sustainable food programs in the A2Zero plan are going to play into greater equity in Ann Arbor?
Dr. Missy Stults: Absolutely! Resilience hubs are locations where people can go. They already go. They already trust that space, but they can go every single day, whether that's during a sunny day and they need after-school care or there's a food pantry at that site, or it's just a trusted place to go and hang out with friends and play cards. But also during a rainy day, it's a place that still can provide that social cohesion that you need, or it provides relief, heat or cooling relief. So, it's not an emergency shelter. It is an everyday--no matter what the day is--space that the community goes, trusts, recreates and networks and fill in the blank. Whatever the community needs, they help co-design with that space looks like. Resilience hubs--the philosophy here in Ann Arbor for us is that we double down on our existing community based institutions that already provide critical services and make sure they can keep doing that. So, Community Action Network has two resilience hubs: the Bryant Community Center, which is the largest food distribution site in all of Washtenaw County, and Northside, which is the headquarters for Community Action Network that also does food distribution. But a lot of shipments come in there. So, those are two hubs that we have. We also have the senior center, because we know that a lot of older adults really rely on that space for their social activities, but also there are social service provision that happens. So, that's actually set up as our third resilience hub, which is fully functional now. And then, we're working with Peace Neighborhood Center on the west side of the city to transition Peace into our fourth resilience hub. And then, Green Baxter Court, which is one of our community centers at the Ann Arbor Housing Commission sites. We're transitioning that to our fifth resilience hub. So, those are really key pieces, and they can serve everybody, but they really are laser-focused on certain folks. That might be geographical ties. That might be some sort of identity tie. But these are folks who trust that space, who use that space and continue to do that even during disruption. And then food--everyone deserves access to safe, healthy and affordable food. And so, we're working really hard to help make that happen, whether that's through working with first-time farmers and our Buy/Protect/Sell program that we do with the Greenbelt program, or whether that's at the farmer's market, our double-up food box program, or working with local businesses to help them provide more sustainable local food, sourcing from local farmers. So, food is critical. Food is life. Water is life. Those things deeply intersect in the work that we're doing. And you can check out more at our local food festival if you want to on the 26th.
David Fair: And that is going to be a well-populated event. We've only touched upon the programs and projects that are part of the A2Zero plan. Overall, the goal is to get to carbon neutrality by the year 2030, and that really is right around the corner. But the city goals and the need for greater equity extend well beyond the next five-plus years. What is to follow the immediate goals of A2Zero when we move beyond 2030?
Dr. Missy Stults: Yeah, A2Zero won't be done in 2030. We'll obviously have much more work to do into the future, and a lot of our effort right now is thinking about those long-term strategies and how we make sure equity is really centered in that work. That may look like the work that we're doing right now to ensure that, when you turn on the lights, that you have clean energy that's flowing, whether that's on your roof through potentially a sustainable energy utility or whether that's because we've changed the policy in the state of Michigan. But how do we make sure that that energy is affordable? So, the city regularly intervenes in rape cases and generation cases before the Public Service Commission. We're doing the same thing on the heating side. I don't want anyone to have to question whether or not they should be heating their home, and if heating their home is the reason their mother has asthma, or that their child has chronic bronchitis. We do not want toxic energy in our homes. No one wants that. So, can we work to transition our heating and cooling systems to something that is much safer and healthier for everybody, including our planet? We're intervening in cases right now to see if that's possible and what that actually looks like. Can we do it in a way that's more affordable? Those things extend far beyond the borders of Ann Arbor. If we can get those kinds of changes, that changes Michigan and not probably changes the entire Midwest. Those are just a few of the small things that we're thinking about here in our office.
David Fair: Well, I'd like to thank you for taking us deeper into the DEI aspects of the A2Zero plan today, Missy. I always appreciate your time!
Dr. Missy Stults: Oh, it's always a pleasure, David! Thank you so much! And thanks to everyone for caring about this topic!
David Fair: That is Missy Stults. She serves as an Arbor's director of sustainability and Innovations and has been our guest on Washtenaw United. This weekly conversation series is produced in partnership with United Way for Southeastern Michigan. You hear it every Monday. I'm David Fair, and this is your community NPR station, 89 one WEMU FM, Ypsilanti.
UWSEM STATEMENT:
Environmental racism, a pervasive issue within the United States, manifests in the unequal distribution of environmental hazards and resources, disproportionately affecting communities of color. In Southeastern Michigan, this injustice is starkly evident, as vulnerable populations bear the brunt of pollution, toxic waste and inadequate environmental protections.
Acknowledging the historical roots of this problem, we understand that marginalized communities have long been marginalized in terms of access to clean air, water and green spaces. Despite strides in environmental awareness, communities in Southeastern Michigan, such as Detroit, continue to grapple with systemic disparities, highlighting the urgent need for comprehensive solutions.
Disturbingly, studies reveal alarming statistics indicating the severity of environmental racism in Southeastern Michigan. For instance, a report by the Michigan Environmental Justice Coalition highlights that predominantly African American neighborhoods in Detroit experience more air pollution than predominantly white neighborhoods.
There are an estimated 721 premature deaths annually in Detroit from exposure to pollution. Moreover, a comprehensive study by the University of Michigan notes that communities with lower income levels are more likely to be situated near hazardous waste sites, further exacerbating the environmental inequities.
WEMU has partnered with the United Way for Southeastern Michigan to explore the people, organizations, and institutions creating opportunity and equity in our area. And, as part of this ongoing series, you’ll also hear from the people benefiting and growing from the investments being made in the areas of our community where there are gaps in available services. It is a community voice. It is 'Washtenaw United.'
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