Wendy Burt-Thomas

As a former exploration geologist, it should come as no surprise that Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper launched the 2005 Greenprint Denver Initiative. The comprehensive action agenda aims to integrate environmental impact considerations into its programs and policies while actively engaging residents to meet the City’s goals for the year 2011.

> Highlights of the goals include:

• Reduce Denver per capita greenhouse gas emissions by 10 percent below 1990 levels

• Increase Denver’s tree canopy from 6 percent to 18 percent by planting thousands of new trees

• Increase Denver’s residential recycling by 50 percent in the next year while reducing total landfilled household waste by 30 percent

• Construct solar and methane power plants

• Increase the incentives for energy-efficient affordable housing to $1,250,000 within five years, as well as increase the funding available for energy efficiency improvements for low-income residences

• Require that all new city buildings and major renovations be certified under the U.S. Green Building Council’s LEED® Silver standard and meet the EPA’s Energy Star® guidelines

• Expand the city’s “Green Fleet”

• Continue the recent progress made in shifting all diesel vehicles to biodiesel B20 fuel

• Decrease reliance on automobiles through increased public transit access and use, transit-oriented development, and bike and pedestrian enhancement

• Boost mass transit use by city employees by 10 percent within one year, and increase by 20 percent the new development located within a half mile of existing transit stations by 2011

• Significantly improve water quality in the South Platte River

• Use recycled water for parks and public areas, and promote water conservation in both building and landscape use

• Partner with the Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation to advance high-performance building and energy efficiency in the private sector

• Help revitalize 35 acres of formerly polluted lands in Denver (Brownfield redevelopment)

• Position Denver as a regional center for balanced and renewable energy and green industries by creating 1,000 new training and job opportunities in these areas for metro Denver residents

“Denver will track and report on our progress on priority goals through an annual Report Card,” said Hickenlooper. “We will also continue to seek new ideas from the city’s employees, citizens and Mayor’s Greenprint Council about how and where Denver can innovate, leverage resources, catalyze new projects and communicate the importance of sustainability as a public value to ensure that we leave the community in as good or better shape than we found it.”

And while Greenprint Denver may be the largest sustainability initiative in the state, it’s certainly not the only one. Nonprofits, governments, communities and private businesses across the Front Range are implementing new programs and practices to help protect and preserve the environment.

> Private businesses:

• Propp Realty Management in Denver has been actively seeking new ways to address the current energy dilemma. “At our Golden Hills Office Centre, we had photovoltaic panels installed on the roof and we’re working on getting LEED-certified,” explains Director of Leasing MaryAnn Proctor. “LEED certification is a road map for delivering economically profitable, environmentally responsible, healthy, productive places to live and work.” The company asked its tenants to participate in two programs, uniform recycling and the purchase of windpower, which they did.

• As part of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Climate Leaders program, Coors Brewing Company in Golden has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 12 percent per production index from 2005 to 2010. Coors also recycles 95 percent of the waste from its brewery, and processes nearly 6 million gallons of wastewater generation by its operations every day, in addition to processing the City of Golden’s wastewater. Coors sells about 1.5 million gallons of ethanol — a byproduct of the brewing process — to Colorado refineries annually. In addition, the company sells about 600 million pounds of wet cattle feed, another byproduct, to Front Range ranches.

• In October 2007 Boulder Associates received the AIA Colorado North Chapter Merit Award in Sustainability for its design of Denver Health Pavilion for Women and Children. The project was one of five selected for an award out of 41 entries submitted. The 212,000-square-foot, 107 bed hospital addition received LEED-NC v2.1 Silver certification on July 16, 2007 and was the first publicly funded healthcare facility in the United States to garnish this certification. The project features cool roofing, shading devices and high-efficiency triple-glazing, 56 percent locally manufactured materials, 14 percent locally harvested materials, 42 percent recycled materials, and 6 percent rapidly-renewable materials.

> Governments/public organizations:

• In 2007, the City of Golden undertook a massive endeavor to establish and implement sustainability goals for the next 10 years. Perhaps the biggest commitment: reduce the City of Golden’s energy usage by 25 percent and increase to 50 percent the proportion of its energy use derived from renewable energy sources within 10 years.

• In September 2007, the City of Colorado Springs’ Fleet Management Division welcomed its first Ethanol 85 fuel pump to provide a more environmentally friendly fuel option for the 92 flex-fuel vehicles operating with the City of Colorado Springs and Colorado Springs Utilities. The City has a strong commitment to alternative fuel programs including ethanol and bio-diesel. As of July 2007 the City’s Fleet Division has used more than 1,000,000 gallons in its vehicles and has the second-largest program in the state. The alternative fuel program will have an estimated reduction of 2,500 tons of carbon monoxide emissions to the environment.

• The U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) in Golden has pledged to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions by 75 percent from 2005 to 2009. To achieve its new goal, NREL will install two major on-site renewable energy projects: solar cells on a five-acre site will provide approximately 7 percent of the Laboratory’s electric needs and a biomass combustion plant fueled by forest thinnings and other waste wood will offset the need for about 75 percent of the natural gas used to heat the Laboratory’s research buildings. In addition, NREL is planning to make its buildings more energy efficient through a site-wide energy savings performance contract. The Laboratory also will purchase renewable energy certificates (RECs) to offset all of its indirect emissions from electricity use and from Laboratory operations such as employee commuting and business travel.

> Nonprofits:

• In 2008, the Alliance Center in Denver, owned and managed by the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, earned the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) prestigious ENERGY STAR, the national symbol for superior energy efficiency and environmental protection. The Alliance Center is a multi-tenant nonprofit center that provides office and meeting space to 30 nonprofit organizations. It houses groups that advocate for development of policies and implementation of practices of sustainability.

• Boulder-based Sustainable Travel International (STI) is a nonprofit dedicated to providing education and outreach services that help travelers, travel providers and related organizations support environmental conservation and protect cultural heritage while promoting cross-cultural understanding and economic development. Among its many programs, specific efforts include investing in clean energy and supporting sustainable development while helping to offset carbon dioxide emissions, an eco-directory of eco-friendly tourism businesses, and a partnership with Brighter Futures, a venture that enables travelers to buy hand-crafted and fair trade products direct from local villagers via the Internet.

• The Colorado Non-Profit Development Center in Denver has a program called U-Turn that provides education on issues of sustainability and material assistance to organizations attempting to operate more sustainably. Projects have included making biodiesel and building electric bicycles. — WB
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