One public commenter spoke at Lawrence’s environmental advisory board meeting Thursday night. Board members hope to draw a crowd next month as they decide which sustainability recommendations to put before the city commission.
The swath of initiatives proposed by the city’s Environmental Sustainability Advisory Board underlined the ways environmentalism touches every aspect of life in town.
Proposals included preventing automotive idling near school zones, banning styrofoam, expanding public transportation and keeping it free, increasing recycling downtown, monitoring nitrate in river systems and more.
Kathy Richardson, the city’s director of sustainability, commended the board members for their strong ideas, but said they need to winnow down priorities while working in tandem with community values and the city’s strategic plan.
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“I will say this just from my heart, I know that the community fought for this board to continue on when it was going to sunset as the Sustainability Advisory Board, and the biggest reason for the community stepping up was saying we need a group of experts to continue to be of service to whatever the city’s priority is,” Richardson said.
She told board members that they are those chosen experts.
“We need community engagement, absolutely,” Richardson continued. “And then you know, working with staff, which is working through that strategic plan.”
Board members resolved to present two lists to the city commission: their full collection of ideas, plus a prioritized ranking to highlight key proposals. They will start to prioritize during their July meeting, which they hope will be well attended by community members.
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Chair Nancy Muma proposed that the city publish the ESAB agenda as early as possible next month to give ample time for public feedback.
Ultimately, the board would like the city commission to implement some of the selected programs or initiatives, or fold them into the upcoming strategic plan.
In certain cases, the sustainability recommendations would require state legislative buy-in. Board members will separate those suggestions from recommendations the city could more actively implement. Richardson said the city can still advocate for or against proposed state legislation.
Brainstorming policy
Some policy pitches touched on popular local topics.
Board member Patrick Ross suggested industrial and data center moratoriums, which were discussed at this week’s first Douglas County Data Center Watchdogs meeting.
Ross also pitched an idea to use the hotly contested police surveillance program, Axon Fusus.
“I think there’s like 400 cameras around town, be great to track all the vehicles and have a better understanding of wear and tear with larger vehicles,” he said.
According to a document he submitted in the agenda, the goal of tracking would be to dispel “the myth that heavier electric buses damage roads at ‘extraordinary’ rates.”
Muma pitched a styrofoam ban focused on food containers and cups.
“The banned styrofoam or expanded polystyrene is pretty common throughout the country … These are especially toxic,” she said. “There’s 70 nations, including the whole European Union, 12 U.S. states that have these bans.”
The conversation also veered toward recent issues with recycling. A city audit announced this month “found that contamination in randomly selected residential recycling carts increased to 17.5%, up from the 15.1% rate established from the Fall 2025 audit.”
Board members circulated the idea of pre-sorted recycling, as opposed to single-stream. Richardson said that the city has already invested in recycling trucks and has a contract with a recycling facility that are both geared toward single-stream.
Here is the full list of ideas that Muma presented, and here is Ross’ document, which were both presented at the meeting.
Environmentalism meets bureaucracy
Throughout the conversation, board members grappled with how to affect tangible change at the city level.
“It does feel like we spin our wheels a lot in this board,” member Joshua Roundy said, as the group debated how to grab commissioner and public attention.
Some members acknowledged that they felt stymied by city government operations.
“I’m starting to process the bureaucracy that we’re having to come up against, and I — again, I’m new to the board, but I do know that the board’s changed,” Ross said. “And I think a lot of the reason why they changed was because you guys were effective, and then people didn’t like that you were effective with the plastic (bag) ban.”
Ross also said it felt frustrating to “sit and watch the world destroy itself.”
Richardson said that she doesn’t know much about the process for developing the city’s next strategic plan, but it doesn’t hurt to see if the board can lead some community engagement.
“Right now we’re not interfacing with the community,” member Chris Reimer said. “We’re waiting to get things from the city that they want us to engage with, and then in the meantime, … spinning our wheels trying to come up with ways to be helpful, because we care.”
He continued, saying, “As part of the next strategic planning process, if one of the things we could take back to the city is figure out how to use your advisory boards and experts more effectively in the process of engaging the community, that would be fantastic.”
The city will post details about the July ESAB meeting, including a time, location and agenda, on this page. People can watch the full Thursday meeting on the city’s YouTube here.
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Wulfe Wulfemeyer (they/them), reporter and news editor, has worked with The Lawrence Times since May 2025. They can be reached at [email protected].
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