Elephant manure will heat a new exhibit at the Denver Zoo.
Durango voted to buy 100 percent of its power from renewable sources.
Boulder battles global warming with money collected from the nation’s first “carbon tax” based on residents’ electrical use.
A consensus is growing in scores of Colorado communities to take solid steps toward balancing economic development, quality of life and protection of the environment.
Today – marking the 38th annual Earth Day – sustainability has moved from an esoteric idea just a few years ago to a way of life in Colorado, which ranks fourth nationally in wind power and 15th in ethanol production.
“It’s not just a left-wing, granola- crunching kind of concept,” said Larry Kallenberger, executive director of Colorado Counties Inc. “Real and regular types of folks are doing it.”
His counterpart at the Colorado Municipal League, Sam Mamet, added, “Sustainability is something that has captured the attention of local officials that I have not seen in some time.”
A record 14 House bills and eight Senate bills related to sustainability have been introduced in the state legislature this year.
Wind farms are sprouting on the Eastern Plains. But there has been a lack of transmission lines to get the power from turbines to towns, which HB 1150 would ease with an authority that could make low-interest loans.
“We have plenty of wind and no way to get rid of it,” said Baca County Commissioner Troy Crane. “I’ve lived here for 64 years and cussed the wind all my life. It’s time to use it.”
Helping to push the agenda are groups such as the Colorado Municipal League and Colorado Counties. In November, 37 mayors signed the Metro Mayors Caucus’ pact that supports energy efficiency and conservation.
For 30 years, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory in Golden has developed energy-efficient technologies and transferred research into practice.
But it has just been in the past few years that NREL’s efforts have burst into bloom.
“To some degree, people are listening more,” said NREL spokesman Gary Schmitz.
A convergence of issues has made the time ripe for sustainability to appear on council agendas and people’s minds.
Gas prices are nudging $3 a gallon, and heating and cooling bills have soared.
Headlines tout global warming; there is discomfort about relying on foreign oil; former Vice President Al Gore’s documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” has heightened awareness; and November’s elections shifted the political landscape.
Tom Plant, Gov. Bill Ritter’s “energy czar,” said advances in technology “have driven down the cost of alternative energy so it’s competitive with traditional forms of energy.”
Tax breaks and credits, loans and grants have made the technology more affordable.
“Sustainability,” Kallenberger said, “makes economic sense” with the payback shrinking from 20 years to four to five years, and sometimes immediately.
Lakewood officials estimate their break-even point will come in December on the “green” construction of a 119-unit senior-apartment project that opened two weeks ago near Casa Bonita restaurant.
The Lakewood Housing Authority will charge lower rents at the Residences at Creekside – and the seniors will have lower utility bills – thanks to the 25,000-watt rooftop photovoltaic solar system, low-E glass and a system that recaptures heat from wastewater.
Fort Collins has been in the “green” game for nearly a decade. The city lowered electric consumption 2.8 percent between 2002 and 2006.
“The payback is pretty immediate,” said senior environmental planner Lucinda Smith.
The city of Boulder passed a “carbon tax” in November, becoming the first U.S. city to collect a tax based on the amount of electricity that residents use.
In 2005, voters approved a ballot issue that has allowed Boulder County to spend 6.67 percent of property taxes that would have been refunded under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights on such sustainability efforts as buying fuel-efficient vehicles to replace gas guzzlers.
Last week, Denver kicked off planting 7,000 trees in seven days as part of a “Greenprint Denver” effort to plant 1 million trees in 20 years.
“You have the Denvers, the Boulders with their programs, but the important thing is these are initiatives being taken on by communities large and small,” said Mamet.
Loveland charges residents for each bag of trash at the curb to encourage recycling. Durango has decided to expand the amount of power it buys from renewable sources from 10 percent to 100 percent.
Glenwood Springs is developing a long-term climate action plan. Steamboat Springs is looking at tapping geothermal resources for a ski-resort ice- melt system. Free solar classes are being offered by a nonprofit organization in Basalt, Paonia and Crested Butte.
Thirty-three counties require energy efficiency in residential building codes.
In a few weeks, Carbondale will weigh a “green” building code that requires 30 percent greater energy efficiency than the basic building code for a 2,000-square-foot house, and the requirements rise as the house size grows.
“When the locals hear about these initiatives, they weigh in,” Mayor Michael Hassig said, and the reaction is positive – such as in November when 80 percent of voters approved a $3 million bond issue to build a 200-kilowatt municipal photovoltaic power system.
Community input also is strong in Golden, whose mayor sees it uniquely situated to become a sustainability leader with NREL, the Colorado School of Mines and several small renewable-energy firms in town.
More than 200 people – four times the expected number – showed up recently at Golden City Hall to brainstorm ideas that will fundamentally change their community.
They talked about recycling, reducing greenhouse gases, conservation, “green” buildings, renewable energy and alternative transportation.
Citizens were impatient when city officials suggested tentative goals of reducing overall energy use, cutting solid waste and trimming the community’s total miles driven to work.
“I agree with the goals, but the timelines are too long and too far out,” said Susan Rhea.
Tim Rehder noted sustainability isn’t contained by city or county borders. “If Golden banned incandescent light bulbs, people could still go to Lakewood and buy them, but it might start a movement in the state,” he said.
An unusual first-ever project aims to recycle Denver Zoo’s waste into energy. Inspiration came from the 75 tons of manure produced annually by elephants Dolly and Mimi.
A gasification plant to superheat waste to generate electricity may cost $1.5 million. But it would cut the zoo’s overall electric use by 15 percent and heating bill by 17 percent – for an annual savings of $85,000 while reducing what’s hauled to the dump by 450 tons.
When zoo officials thought about adding eight bull elephants to the Asian Tropics exhibit in 2010, they began to eye the elephants’ dung as a source of biomass.
The cycle of conservation posed by the project intrigues George Pond, vice president for planning and capital projects, who said, “The elephants would essentially be participating in the heating of their own space.”
Staff writer Ann Schrader can be reached at 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com.
