| | February 2012 | | “With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it nothing can succeed.” | | – Abraham Lincoln |  | Better Buildings Denver Unveiled In a press conference at the Alliance Center this past Monday, Denver Mayor Michael B. Hancock announced the launch of Better Buildings Denver, a new effort to upgrade the energy efficiency of Denver’s buildings. Through the leadership of Mayor Michael Hancock, Greenprint Denver, the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado and Living City Block, ‘Better Buildings Denver’ was born, committing the city of Denver’s entire building portfolio (over seven million square feet) to energy reduction goals, and challenging commercial building owners to do the same. Better Buildings Denver challenges all commercial buildings to join in this movement for a more sustainable future. Better Buildings Denver is a local extension of President Obama’s national Better Buildings Challenge launched in December of 2011. The United States will be upgrading the energy efficiency of America’s buildings because it is one of the fastest, easiest, and cheapest ways to save money, cut down on harmful pollution, and create good jobs right now. Issuing the challenge means reducing energy consumption in buildings by 20% by 2020, and doubling electricity generation from renewable sources by 2035. The Better Buildings Challenge program challenges CEOs, university presidents, state and local government leaders, and others to commit their organizations to lead in saving energy, saving money, and showcasing the best energy-saving strategies and their results. The Alliance Center is leading as one of the two local, commercial showcase Better Buildings Denver projects. Specifically, the Alliance Center is undertaking a major renovation project that aims to upgrade its systems, mobilize tenant behavior and cooperation to reduce resource consumption even further while improving tenant productivity and well-being, and improve lease performance. Current energy modeling of the building is targeting energy reductions of 50%. A key goal is to create a replicable framework for use in transforming other existing buildings and helping to shift the commercial real estate market toward significantly higher resource efficiency. Better Buildings Denver will be a great tool for this replicability because it will give the Alliance a ready audience of commercial building owners who are already taking steps to reduce their energy consumption and may be willing to take those efforts even further. For more information about Better Buildings Denver, seminar dates, and how Denver building owners can “Take the Challenge,” visit www.denvergov.org/bbd. | TBD Colorado is Governor Hickenlooper’s latest effort to increase civic participation across the state and get citizens involved in making decisions regarding important issues such as transportation, education, health care, workforce and Colorado’s budget. TBD Colorado is a privately funded nonprofit which will convene 120 meetings in 40 locations statewide to get the input needed for a report of recommendations, still to be determined (hence the name of the nonprofit). The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado endorses this tremendous outreach effort as it fully supports our mission and belief that only by coming together and working on our common problems can we truly create the types of communities we want to leave to our children. To find out more about TBD Colorado and to nominate yourself to participate in this effort, please visit TBDColorado.org. It is critical to the success of our state that those engaged in sustainability have their voices heard – PARTICIPATE NOW! | CU’s Wirth Chair Natural Gas Forum Alice Madden, the University of Colorado’s Wirth Chair, hosted the Wirth Chair Natural Gas Forum at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science (DMNS) on January 18th. The intent of the Forum was to bring diverse cross-sector perspectives together to discuss how to ensure the burgeoning natural gas industry in Colorado is safe and transparent while supporting the currently needed job growth and a long-term healthy and sustainable energy future in Colorado. Over 90 people from Colorado’s key research universities, the oil & gas industry, environmental groups, and government agencies participated in the session. Presenters included DMNS President & CEO, George Sparks, Southwestern Energy Senior Vice President Mark Boling, and Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission Director David Neslin. Researchers representing CSU, CU, and the Colorado School of Mines kicked off the day with presentations on the current and pending research related to natural gas and “fracking” at their respective institutions. In the afternoon, attendees split into two working sessions to address issues and concerns, one on natural gas policy, which was led by Mark Squillance, Professor of Law and Director of the Natural Resources Law Center, and the other on the technical aspects of fracking, led by University of Colorado (Denver) Professor Anu Ramaswami. Key outcomes that were identified included the need for a central, neutral and trusted repository for research data, white papers and other information that could be used by all sectors. This would require a neutral and well-respected steering committee to ensure proper peer-reviews are conducted on all accepted submissions. Another key outcome was the identified need for actual data from currently operating natural gas fracking sites on methane leakage, groundwater contamination, and social impacts (such as increased truck traffic in small towns) and the need for fair and open regulations. Mike Boling, Southwestern Energy’s Sr. VP, explicitly called for fair across-the-board consistent regulations for his industry to ensure a level playing field. The Alliance is proud to have been invited to co-host the event to ensure a diverse group of voices were included. The attendees were indeed diverse ‘unlikely bedfellows’ representing groups that ‘don’t normally talk to each other.’ All were engaged and clearly committed to constructive and civil dialogue toward reaching common ground on this contentious issue. The event was a wonderful example of just how such conversations can (and need to) happen in today’s divisive political climate. We are following up with the Wirth Chair and other key stakeholders from the meeting to determine how to provide resources to ensure the identified next steps are managed. | PACE Public Comment Period PACE allows property owners to finance renewable energy and energy efficiency improvements through assessments on that property. PACE has been suspended since June 2010, when FHFA issued a letter freezing residential PACE programs around the country. | |
| Alliance News Policy Corner The legislative process is in full swing at the capitol with 448 bills introduced and 25 joint resolutions on the 35th day of a 120 day session. Issues are being debated ranging from education benefits to bark beetle timber products and the partisan divide continues to hamper the passage of legislation. The Senate has a Democratic majority and the House has a Republican majority, making this another session of stalled ideas and political maneuvering despite a shared acknowledgment by the two parties that jobs and economic development are their top priorities for Colorado. The Alliance is actively tracking legislation with impacts to the social, environmental and economic cornerstones of sustainability – you can view those lists on our Policy website. On February 28th from 8:00-9:30am in the Old Supreme Court Chambers at the Capitol we will hear from business leaders, department heads and legislators on what their 2012 priorities are and how Coloradans can get involved in the legislative process. Please join us! Colorado’s Sustainability Progress Report The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado has embarked on a project to begin tracking indicators which will give us an idea of how Colorado fares as a state when it comes to sustainability. Our goal is to determine which indicators give us the best picture of economic, social and environmental progress and then begin to report on those indicators annually. We are researching what’s already been done in other states and other cities to track this kind of progress. We’ve looked at Maryland’s Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI), the Central Texas Sustainability Project, Sustainable Cincinnati, Sustainable Breck, and the Minneapolis Sustainability Indicators to name a few. We will also be working with our network of Regional Sustainability Councils and other partners to further refine the list to account for Colorado’s specific interests and concerns. If you would like to participate in this project and give us your input, please contact education@sustainablecolorado.org. Call for Action on a Draft Environmental Education Plan for Colorado The Sustainability Literacy Project at the Alliance is helping to prepare the next generation of Colorado’s leaders to be critical thinkers on sustainability issues. We’re supporting the Colorado Department of Education and Department of Natural Resources to adopt an effective Environmental Education Plan for Colorado that: - Enables students to better utilize the community and the outdoors as a context for learning
- Provides educators with access to training and resources to teach environmental education
- Creates a statewide mechanism to share environmental education resources
Comments on the plan are needed by February 23rd. Please review the plan and give feedback to the CDE by visiting their website. Learn more about case studies of nine Colorado schools which have already successfully infused environmental education into the culture of the school. These case studies will offer replicable best practices to educational leaders around the state. Help us increase the involvement of young people in sustainability efforts led by business, government, nonprofit and education sector partnerships. Sponsor registration for a high school team of five to attend the Green Schools National Conference and Student Summit in Denver February 27-29 for only $750. Regional Council Update The Alliance’s Regional Sustainability Council Program continues to gain momentum! Since January, three additional organizations have joined the network: the Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG), High Country Conservation Center, and the Community Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE). There are now eight Councils across Colorado, all working to unify sustainability planning and implementation efforts in their regions. For the full list and background on the project, please visit our Regional Councils page. This year, the Alliance will continue coordinating information sharing and collaboration between these regional groups. Our goals include pursuing funding for regional sustainability planning and implementation, determining the appropriate sustainability indicators and metrics to measure in Colorado, and developing a comprehensive asset map of sustainability projects and resources in the state. For additional details on current Regional Sustainability Councils, visit our blog. If you’d like to get involved, please email education@sustainablecolorado.org. Alliance Center Hires McKinstry for Renovation Design-BuildThe Alliance’s design-build competition reached a climax in December, when the two finalist firms brought their teams to the Alliance Center for oral presentations attended by Alliance staff, management and board member David Johnston. The winner was McKinstry, one of the country’s most progressive and innovative design-build firms. Next steps: work out the performance contract details and begin the actual design. Other news also relates to the design phase. The Alliance aims to reduce energy consumption in the Center, a LEED Gold-certified building, by an additional 25%; but, we’ve always had a very expansive goal for this project – it’s not just about saving energy, as important as that is. It’s also about making existing buildings work better in every dimension, especially the human one. We hope to optimize the space design to complement and address the human needs of the tenants who work in the building; so, we’re delving into the large, but often-ignored, body of research that investigates the relationships between office spaces and worker productivity, wellbeing and workplace satisfaction. The results of this research project will feed directly into the architectural design phase with the goal of creating exemplary workspaces. We’re convinced that this is one of the key ways to improve lease performance and make such renovations attractive to many building owners throughout Colorado and the United States. The contract and design phases are expected to take several months. As a result, no significant construction activity is expected to begin until the fall. The Alliance Center Welcomes Two New Tenants and Several Expansions!The Alliance Center is proud to announce that eraGlobal Alliance and Recharge Colorado have recently begun tenancy. eraGlobal, housed on the 4th floor of the Center, aims “to promote, preserve, reclaim, restore, and regenerate the Earth’s biodiversity, with specific focus on wild lands, wildlife and ecological sustainability of human systems”. Recharge Colorado, which has recently spun off from the Governor’s Energy Office as a new 501(c)3, serves as a self-sustaining resource efficiency asset for regional and national stakeholders. As a nonprofit, Recharge Colorado will continue to promote the advancement of a robust and effective marketplace for energy efficiency, water efficiency and renewable energy projects in Colorado and beyond to the benefit of both consumers and business. The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado would also like to congratulate Colorado Consumer Health Initiative and Colorado Trout Unlimited for recently expanding their physical footprint at the Center. 7th Annual Sustainable Opportunities Summit – March 21st, Colorado Convention Center Hosted by CORE and the Deming Center for Entrepreneurship, and produced by the GoGreen Conference, the 2012 Sustainable Opportunities Summit is a one-day sustainability summit for business in Denver. The Summit brings together Colorado’s business, education and public sectors to advance the dialogue on sustainability for business. Featuring more than 40 of the region’s top green business leaders, the 2012 Summit is an opportunity to learn actionable next steps, best practices and strategies for implementing or enhancing sustainability with profitability in mind. Learn more at sosummit.org.
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