Boulder – The Boulder Bookstore installed energy-efficient lighting last year to earn Xcel Energy rebates.
Then the store replaced fluorescent lights with ones half the diameter.
Over the years, the Boulder landmark has also installed more efficient heating, air conditioning and display window glass.
Actions such as that by businesses – 37 others also installed energy-efficient lighting – and by residents enabled Boulder to become Colorado’s first “Green Power Community.”
The designation was made by the federal Environmental Protection Agency.
Even as Boulder’s population has grown, the city has been able to trim emissions of the gases linked to global climate change, according to the city’s emissions progress report.
“We gave away 650 (energy- efficient) light bulbs and signed up over 1,000 wind-power subscribers, and that made a huge difference in emissions,” said Carolyn Brouillard, the city’s energy sustainability coordinator.
Those were just two of the strategies Boulder used in trying to curb the gases, according to the emissions report.
The Boulder Wind Challenge ended in October with 1,150 new wind-power subscribers buying almost 16 million kilowatt-hours of renewable energy.
That equates to taking 2,400 cars off the road for a year and saving 92 acres of trees from deforestation, Brouillard said.
The number of new wind subscribers was more than double the city’s goal.
The city’s emissions report also concluded that commercial buildings surpassed vehicle emissions as the largest source of greenhouse-gas emissions.
“We saw a dramatic increase in people using alternative fuel in their cars such as biodiesel,” Brouillard said.
“In 2003 the community used 190 gallons of biodiesel, compared to 39,186 gallons in 2004,” she said.
Emissions were reduced in 2004 by 1 percent compared with 2003 – even as the population grew.
“We know our renewable energy purchases went up, and we’ll definitely see an impact there,” Brouillard said.
The city also expanded residential weatherization, which resulted in natural-gas savings of up to 69 percent for participants.
The program also makes financial sense, said Boulder Bookstore owner David Bolduc.
“As the cost of energy has increased, the payback has been quicker and quicker,” Bolduc said. “Even if you look at this from a purely bottom line, it makes so much sense. And on top of it, you’re benefiting the environment.
“Hopefully what we’re doing in Boulder as a community can be helpful in bigger places like Denver,” Bolduc said.
In 2002, the Boulder City Council passed a resolution committing the city to a 7 percent reduction in greenhouse-gas emission from 1990 levels by 2012.
To meet the goal, the city must still reduce greenhouse-gas emissions by 350,000 metric tons from today’s levels.
Staff writer Dave Curtin can be reached at 303-820-1276 or dcurtin@denverpost.com.
