Once arriving in Colorado, I really got to explore the land of micro breweries. I finally made the pilgrimage to Fort Collins and saw first hand where that cherished Fat Tire came from. But when I arrived, the brewery was nothing like I’d imagined. It was… cool! Unlike anything I’d ever seen. Hailing from Alabama the concept of sustainability was not something that I was taught growing up. Sure I understood the importance of doing my part for the planet, but the idea that a brewery could take their liquid waste and generate energy from it was foreign to me. Celebrating Earth Day as a company holiday? Even more foreign. I took the standard tour, tasted a few other brews, purchased some merchandise and headed out the door intrigued by the culture of this company.

Over the next few years I learned more and more about New Belgium and its products. And finally, I started working here at the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado. That is when my appreciation for the company went from simply a love of their beer to a true respect for how they operate as an organization. As I learned more about the “business case for sustainability” and what that meant for a company’s bottom line, I realized that New Belgium was doing it all right! Environmental stewardship and social responsibility (among others) were right there… written into their Core Values and Beliefs. The company is employee owned, operates on wind power, constantly looks for ways to reduce waste, supports local nonprofits, has partnered with the City of Fort Collins to start a brown bottle recycling program… the list goes on and on. They even have a Corporate Sustainability Report published on their website detailing everything they do to be a more sustainable part of the community. They are a tried and true “business case for sustainability.”

The Alliance is lucky enough to consider New Belgium Brewing a partner. Not only do they donate their tasty product to assist with offsetting some of our event costs, we are the beneficiary of funds raised at the annual New Belgium Scavenger Hunt at Loveland Ski Area. We assist with providing volunteers for the Denver Tour de Fat. Kim Jordan (New Belgium’s CEO) will be the keynote speaker at our 8th Annual Legislative Briefing on February 28th. Our Alliance Center team also recently visited the brewery as part of a larger tour of Fort Collins’ FortZED project. (Didn’t see the pictures? Check them out!) We truly are proud of the partnership we have built with New Belgium Brewing. They are an exceptional organization. I now know them as a text book example of a sustainable company… not just for that Fat Tire that would magically show up in a friend’s cooler.

We have made huge progress over the past generation with rethinking of buildings to reduce their negative impact on the environment, and the future promises further great strides. New building technologies come on line each year that use less energy, produce less waste and provide better comfort and amenities for humans. The use of sustainable building technologies is shifting from cutting-edge to commonplace. Buildings are becoming better, smarter and more sustainable.

At the Alliance Center, we strive to model the best of environmental sustainability. When the Alliance Center was initially purchased, much was done to improve its environmental performance. Incandescent lights were replaced with CFLs. Water-conserving fixtures replaced outdated technology. Interface recycled-content carpeting was used throughout the building. A modest solar array was put on the roof in 2009. There are dozens of other examples of the care that was taken to reduce the Center’s impact on the environment and to showcase sustainable building technology.

When the Alliance Center was originally being prepared for opening, every effort was taken to make the Alliance Center as sustainable as possible within the available budget. At the time, several big-ticket “deferred maintenance” sustainability opportunities were left for us to address in the present day. The HVAC system in the building is a combination of electric resistance heat and an old air conditioning/exchange system. The windows have poor thermal qualities. The process of developing a long-term plan based on an integrated design still needs completing. Six years later, we are using the trigger of addressing “deferred maintenance” to do a second renovation of the Alliance Center: a re-renovation.

We are committed to finishing the renovation of the Alliance Center and converting it from a good green building that showcases excellent technologies to an excellent sustainable building.

Over the past year the Alliance has been studying these opportunities. A vast amount of research on the Alliance Center and sustainable buildings has been posted on our website. In this self-evaluation, we found dozens of opportunities, big and small, to upgrade the Alliance Center into a landmark sustainable building. As we enter 2012, the Alliance has embarked on the next step of this journey: the second major renovation of the Alliance Center. You can follow our progress on these web pages in the year ahead. (If you have any ideas or questions, please contact us!)

Buckminster Fuller once said, “If you want to predict the future, design it.”  As we move through 2012, we intend to do just that – to use the process of the second renovation of the Alliance Center to design a building that improves the quality of the environment and provides an example to the world of what sustainable really means.

Will you join us?

The goals of the plan are significant.

1.  State agencies, school districts, schools, teachers, and community organizations have a mechanism to share, promote, and collaborate around environmental education.

2. Districts, schools, and teachers are connected with various entities that facilitate the use of the outdoors as an educational environment in an effort to develop students’ lifelong health and wellness habits.

3. Districts and teachers have access to resources, community organizations,and professional development partners in environmental education.

The Alliance for Sustainable Colorado supports the the adoption and implementation of an effective Environmental Education Plan by the Colorado Department of Education. It will require a dedicated staff person within the CDE or Department of Natural Resources.

We believe that it’s critical to prepare the next generation of Colorado’s leaders to be critical thinkers on sustainability issues.  That’s why we’ve created the Sustainability Literacy Project.

What do you think?

Please take a moment to read The Plan and give feedback to the CDE.

Join me at the Public Hearing in Denver
Thursday February 16

4:00-6:00 p.m.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife Office
6060 Broadway,  Denver

Public comments are also encouraged online before February 24.  Visit The Plan web page.

Then, let me know what your local school is doing to promote sustainability.  We might use that school as a case study!  Contact me at literacy@sustainablecolorado.org

In November of 2011, the Pikes Peak Area Council of Governments (PPACG) released the Pikes Peak Regional Sustainability Plan to the public. The plan takes a systems approach to regional planning and includes goals for agriculture, arts and culture, built and natural environment, economic development, education, energy, health, materials management and procurement, transportation, and water quantity. The plan’s consensus committee is currently incorporating public feedback into the plan and the final version should be released in March. PPACG is currently pursuing funding and implementation strategies for the plan.

The Denver Regional Council of Governments (DRCOG) received a $4.5 million HUD Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant in the fall of 2011 that will help fund their sustainability efforts. As a result, DRCOG is in the process of implementing their MetroVision 2035 plan for the region, which already includes goals for growth and development, transportation, and environment. DRCOG also plans to embark on a listening tour in 2012 to develop MetroVision 2040, the next update to the regional plan.

Other Regional Councils, including the Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency (4CORE), the Office for Resource Efficiency (ORE), CSU Extension Golden Plains, Yampa Valley Data Partners, High Country Conservation Center, and the Community Office for Resource Efficiency have successfully developed Regional Energy Plans with Community Energy Coordinator Funds that were administered through the Governor’s Energy Office (GEO). These funds primarily came from an Energy Efficiency Conservation Block Grant (EECBG) that stemmed from the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act (ARRA) of 2009 and expire by June of 2012. Thus, for most regions, pursuing funding and implementation strategies for these regional energy plans is a top priority.

Looking ahead, the Alliance will continue to ask the question: how can we work together better?  We will assist each Council with implementing and updating their regional sustainability plans. Throughout this process we hope to develop an asset map of sustainability projects and resources in Colorado, determine which sustainability indicators are best to measure for the state, and secure funding mechanisms for plan implementation. If you would like to get involved, please email education@sustaianblecolorado.org.

Better Buildings Denver is a local extension of President Obama’s national Better Buildings Challenge launched in December 2011. Mayor Hancock accepted the President’s challenge – focused on upgrading the energy efficiency of buildings nationwide – and issued a local challenge asking the Denver community to help reduce local energy consumption in buildings by 20 percent by 2020.

Better Buildings Denver was created through the leadership of Mayor Hancock and a strategic partnership among the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, Certifiably Green Denver, Denver Energy Challenge, Greenprint Denver, Living City Block, the Nonprofit Energy Efficiency Program and Watts to Water.

The citywide effort commits Denver’s over seven million square feet building portfolio to energy reduction goals, and challenges commercial building owners to do the same. Leading the way are two commercial showcase projects: The Alliance Center High Performance Building Renovation (1536 Wynkoop Street) and Living City Block in lower downtown. These projects will demonstrate the commercial viability of energy efficiency as well as proven sustainable building practices.

“To deliver a world-class city where everyone matters, we must create a sustainable Denver, one that is built for generations we may never meet,” Mayor Hancock said. “We’ve accepted this challenge to reduce the City’s energy use in municipal buildings, and we ask our community partners to do the same. Help us clean the air we breathe, conserve valuable natural resources and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.”

Representing the national perspective, United States Secretary of Energy Dr. Steven Chu stated, “As President Obama made clear in his State of the Union address, reducing energy waste in buildings and factories is one of the fastest, cheapest ways for businesses to save money and increase their competitiveness. Through the Better Buildings Challenge, the city of Denver is helping to create energy-efficient solutions that will boost manufacturing, create American jobs, cut pollution, and build an American economy that lasts.”

Better Buildings Denver offers a number of resources for helping participants meet the challenge, including energy audits and weatherization upgrades, educational resources, technical assistance, and certification programs. A seminar series is also planned for commercial building owners and operators to learn more about the various programs and how to use the City of Denver’s available resources.

For more information about Denver Better Buildings, seminar dates, and how Denver building owners can “Take the Challenge,” visit here.

Learn more about the Better Buildings Denver Partners by reading the full press release.

Please note that a subscription to the Denver Business Journal is required to view the article in its entirety.

We were stoked. Within our own building, we’re starting on renovations to become as close to net-zero as possible and we work closely with Living City Block, a tenant in our building that is taking on the net-zero challenge on a neighborhood block-to-block basis. We’ve been preparing to do what FortZED is already well on the way to do – and we wanted to learn from them.

FortZED includes much of Old Town Fort Collins and the campus of Colorado State University. A grant from the U.S. Department of Energy allowed them to have the (now completed) stage of testing out technologies that reduce peak energy use and integrate renewable energy – this stage is called “Renewable and Distributed Systems Integration” (RDSI). We were able to see these technologies being put to use at the New Belgium Brewery and Integrid Lab (at CSU’s Engines and Energy Conversion Lab). From the grant, New Belgium Brewing was able to install $3 million in new load-shedding and on-site generation capabilities that will give them access to their goal of creating or shedding 1000kW of electricity through solar PV, co-generation and metering.

One of the overall goals of FortZED is to take their current 45 MW peak demand and reduce it by 20-30%. The installation of a smart grid is an imperative piece of their mission. A smart grid enables a 2-way flow of energy and information (providing data for consumers to manage their energy use). New Belgium Brewing receives notice from the electricity provider that they can shut off non-essential functions to reduce the load on the grid.

Among many green technologies, New Belgium Brewing also has an on-site water treatment plant that produces methane gas from the process that is then piped back to the brewery to power a 292kw combined heat and power engine, which can produce up to 15% of their electricity. Another thing I was blown away by was one of their water saving features: the water that they use to rinse the inside of the bottles is reused to rinse the exterior after the bottle has been filled and capped.

The InteGrid Laboratory ranks among the world’s most advanced centers for test and development related to renewable energy, distributed generation, and power system management. We got to see their wind turbine simulation, natural gas reciprocating generator sets, a switchgear that allows the InteGrid Lab to interconnect with the local utility, Fort Collins Utilities, and microturbines. They also create retrofit kits for car owners to attach onto their engines in order to improve its efficiency.

The importance of completing the project, however, boils down to engaging stakeholders and volunteers. There is an audience out there that wants to be involved and are waiting to be actively engaged. It was fascinating to see many of the plans that we are brewing on in action, but the best lesson that was passed onto us was about best practices of engagement. At the very least, right now, we can engage you by inviting you to follow our progress on our blog and renovation web page.

You should also engage by checking out these pictures from the trip.

Public comments are encouraged during a statewide public feedback tour during February of 2012.

The Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education Environmental Literacy Taskforce has identified the following as key components in any Environmental Education Plan.

Thank you for reviewing these key elements for the Environmental Education Plan and sending your comments to the Colorado Department of Education.

Jonah II natural gas field, Wyoming. Reproduced by permission of The Wilderness Society.

Berman’s post is a point-by-point take-down of recent claims about the abundance of shale gas and how much accessible gas is waiting to be tapped in coming years. For instance, in his State of the Union speech last week President Obama repeated a claim often made by gas cornucopians that “we have 100 years of natural gas.”

Berman reaches a very different conclusion. Optimists tend to count all the gas that geological analysis suggests is probably in the ground (that gas is labeled “resources”), without considering whether it can be extracted at a profit, or even at all (gas that can be is called “reserves”). Right now, Berman estimates that total U.S. natural gas reserves are equivalent to a little less than 23 years of consumption, and that’s at current consumption rates. If cheap natural gas increases demand, then the reserves won’t last as long.

Here’s another concern. Successful oil and gas wells are generally most productive right after they’re drilled. The rate of production then drops off. No surprise there–but the rate of decline in recent wells is a lot higher than in the past. Ten years ago average natural gas well production dropped about 23 percent per year. Now it’s 32 percent per year. To fill in the supply gap created by this faster production decline, more wells have to be drilled–and of course it gets harder to find good places to drill them.

Not only that, there’s something of a drilling frenzy going on just now, but the companies frantically punching holes in the ground–including in Colorado–are mostly losing money. The current gas glut, partly the result of a mild winter but mainly due to overproduction, is keeping prices very low. Berman cites studies by ARC Financial Research estimating that the top 34 U.S. gas producers are spending $22 billion every quarter to keep the gas flowing–but earning only $10 billion per quarter from sales. They keep themselves afloat by borrowing money, issuing new stock, or getting joint-venture investments from other firms.

Here’s Berman’s bottom line:

U.S. shale plays [an area expected to yield oil or gas] share many characteristics with the gold rushes of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Both phenomena result from extreme promotion. Anyone can join. Every participant believes that they will get rich. Great amounts of capital are destroyed as entrants try to get a position. The bonanza is exhausted sooner than most expected …and few profit in the end except for the vendors that serve participants.

For several years, we have been asked to believe that less is more, that more oil and gas can be produced from shale than was produced from better reservoirs over the past century. We have been told more recently that the U.S. has enough natural gas to last for 100 years. We have been presented with an improbable business model that has no barriers to entry except access to capital, that provides a source of cheap and abundant gas, and that somehow also allows for great profit. Despite three decades of experience with tight sandstone and coal-bed methane production that yielded low-margin returns and less supply than originally advertised, we are expected to believe that poorer-quality shale reservoirs will somehow provide superior returns and make the U.S. energy independent.

…Shale gas plays are an important and permanent part of our energy future. We need the gas because there are fewer remaining plays in the U.S. that have the potential to meet demand. A careful review of the facts, however, casts doubt on the extent to which shale plays can meet supply expectations except at much higher prices.

No doubt some people will do pretty well out of the shale gas rush. But others will suffer–from “drilling blight” (see photo), dust, threats to water, possibly seismic effects. Do we have the political machinery in place to allow Colorado to make good choices?

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