nvironmental initiatives remain at the forefront of Mayor Frank Caplan’s mind – he’s supporting a local sustainability company’s outreach to the City of Miami and calling for a discussion of a program that helps bring green technology to businesses and homes.
Caplan reported last week the local firm of D Squared Engineering Corporation, owned by the father-and-son team of Robert and Derek Duzoglou, plans to meet with City Commissioner Marc Sarnoff about their Symbio program, which turns a city’s waste into energy and other products.
D Squared made a presentation to the Council several months ago, and the Mayor is also urging further conversations between the company and local officials.
Caplan said he planned to discuss the matter with his colleagues at the Council meeting Tuesday, May 14.
In a draft letter to Derek Duzoglou, he wrote, “I am writing to encourage further discussion about D Squared Engineering’s Symbio program, including whether and how the Village of Key Biscayne might support and participate in its roll-out.”
Caplan said his line of thinking right now is the program would likely be implemented in an intergovernmental fashion, meaning Key Biscayne would partner with other municipalities.
“I presume that our involvement probably must occur, if at all, in concert with the City of Miami and other municipalities or unincorporated areas,” he wrote. “I am unsure at present how this might work, but on the basis of our several meetings about the technology and business model, I’m encouraged to think that we should be attentive to the possibilities.”
Caplan said he is aware the Duzoglous are meeting with Sarnoff and others to talk about Symbio, and said he’d like the Council to help by officially indicating its support.
“I would regret it if the response to your presentation was impeded at all by the proposition that it is too new and novel to endanger credible public interest,” he noted. “With this in mind, I write to express our ‘official’ interest, and to offer my personal presence at meetings with Commissioner Sarnoff and others for the sake at least of giving a good idea its due and hopefully for capitalizing on a promising evolutionary development in waste management.”
Caplan added the Village is focusing on sustainability – along with looking at a number of programs and policies, local leaders recently agreed to a suggestion from Council member Theo Holloway to appoint a committee to oversee the Village Goes Green initiative – and he hopes more discussion about Symbio will be part of that.
“It may well be that your business model will present a feasible and economical process to deal with ever-growing waste, and in the process generate usable and monetizable by-products, create ‘green collar’ jobs, set standards for resource management and reduce carbon-derived climate impacts,” Caplan wrote in his letter to Duzoglou.
Meanwhile, Caplan also hopes to promote Key Biscayne’s participation in another innovative environmental program that was presented to the Council last December: Property Assessed Clean Energy, or PACE, which joins local governments to help businesses and homeowners access loans for environmentally-friendly construction projects.
PACE was formed based on the realization that products like solar panels, high efficiency air conditioners and energy-saving windows save business owners money down the road, but many people lack the cash-on-hand to make the improvements on their own.
PACE – which is 100 percent voluntary and comes at no cost or risk to the Village – works by having municipalities join a “Clean Energy Green Corridor” district that acts as a legal entity that can sign off on financing agreements for qualifying earth-friendly building retrofits.
That lets property owners seek PACE loans with terms of five, 10 or 20 years through the district at no risk to the municipalities.
Qualifying projects include efficient air conditioning units or hot water heaters, energy-saving landscaping, better windows, solar panels, etc. – the only caveat is the change must be affixed to the property, so appliances like refrigerators or washers and dryers don’t count.
PACE loans are paid via a special assessment on an individual’s property tax bill, and costs stay with a property – if an owner sells a home or business, the new buyer takes over the assessment.
Caplan said he’ll suggest that Key Biscayne join with Pinecrest, Palmetto Bay, Cutler Bay, South Miami, Miami Shores and Coral Gables in their already-created Clean Energy Green Corridor district so local businesspeople and homeowners can start accessing PACE loans.
About the Author
Kelly Josephsen graduated with a degree in Mass Communication from Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois. While there, she served as editor of the student newspaper, The Daily Vidette.
After working for three years as a business and higher education reporter at The Pantagraph in Bloomington, Illinois, Kelly relocated to South Florida in 2003. She currently covers local government for The Islander News.
During her tenure with The Islander News, she has received several editorial awards from the Florida Press Association and the National Newspaper Association for her writing.
Kelly enjoys running, reading and spending time with friends and family. She is married to Brandon, an attorney, and they both have a son, Anthony.
