Headwaters will be a featured exhibitor at this year’s GEO conference at the Colorado Convention Center. Drop by to learn how we can help you access a variety of new state and federal programs to support local government sustainability programs. We will be sharing space with Placematters, an exciting local nonprofit that provides computer modeling and other tools for community land use decision making.

Hope to see you there!

In the months following the selection of Denver as the host city for the 2008 Democratic National Convention, I worked to lay the groundwork for it to be the greenest convention ever - supporting Mayor Hickenlooper’s early greening pitch to DNCC chair Howard Dean and organizing a group of advocates and supporters to get the effort underway. Since leaving my role as Greenprint Denver founding Director in June of 2007, life has been relatively quiet. I’ve enjoyed building a new business, being in the private sector, walking to work, supporting local and national clients with sustainability strategy needs and working on a book contract.

But next week the Democratic National Convention comes to Denver, and it’s impossible not to get caught up in the transformation in the city as it prepares for 30,000 guests, and the wild proliferation of “green” events and opportunities related to this historic event.  Read more »

One of the more insidious aspects of the recent “green” p.r. rush is the frequent description of “green” attributes as luxury goods and the related sense that somehow, environmental health and leadership are amenities available only to those who can pay for them. That being green requires having green.

While it’s true that green buildings sometimes cost more up front, the premium paid for related benefits is generally recouped through reduced energy bills and increased productivity in 2-4 years, after which the savings represent a significant net gain to owners and residents.

For this reason, there is strong and growing interest by both public and private sectors in the benefits of “green” affordable housing: units that are built in order to minimize monthly energy costs and maximize indoor air quality. Those who stand to benefit the most from reduced monthly energy bills are, of course those with the lowest monthly incomes.  Read more »

Where has spring gone?  Read more »

A pilot program launched in Denver last week aims to show drivers how their habits effect greenhouse gas emissions by tracking how much time they spend idling and how much extra fuel they use due to sudden changes in speed. Real time wireless monitoring will send data from city vehicles to an online database that can be analyzed to determine low- and high-emitting driving habits.

While it sounds a bit Orwellian, it will be interesting to see whether and how the City can convert this information about driving behavior into actual behavior change and emissions reductions.

According to the press release and Denver Business Journal:

“Driving Change,” a $400,000 program launched last week, will install equipment developed by Denver-based Cartasite Inc. in individual cars to track idling and fuel consumption caused by speed changes via wireless connectivity to a database developed by the Enviance corporation. Rapid acceleration and hard braking can lower gas mileage by as much as 20 percent, and idling is believed to consume one cup of fuel every five minutes.

 Read more »

If a picture is worth more than a thousand words, then these videos focusing on global warming and energy conservation should hit their mark in this era of YouTube, viral marketing, and multimedia messaging. But are they effective at changing individual behavior? You be the judge:  Read more »

Just Out: beginning this spring, a limited number of hybrid vehicles in Colorado will receive the same privileges in HOV lanes as carpoolers. Hybrid drivers must apply to CDOT for special decals that will give them access to HOV lanes on I-25, Highway 36 and Santa Fe drive in Denver. The goal is ostensibly multifold:

• Incentivize the use of highly efficient vehicles by making it easier for them to bypass traffic jams.
• Reward purchase of hybrid vehicles, which still cost a premium up front, by providing preferential road conditions for them.
• Limit the number of eligible vehicles to avoid the congestion that has resulted in such programs in Washington DC, California and elsewhere.  Read more »

My grandfather Julian Conover was a mining lobbyist in the glory days of the mining industry. Old photographs show him on a cruise ship in the 1940s standing with FDR’s Secretary of the Interior Harold Ickes (the father of the Clinton appointee of the same name), no doubt convincing him of the merits of the 1872 mining law that has caused environmentalists so many problems.He was also a member of something called The Old Timers Club, formed in 1938, the written purpose of which was to “perpetuate friendships formed within the coal industry and to promote worthy activities directed toward the betterment of coal mining.”

Grandpa was a geologist in an era when mining was big business in the US, and protecting the interests of coal (and other mineral) mines was his job. That meant keeping regulation to a minimum. Colorado was built, in part, on that extractive industry. Today, Colorado is leading the way in the mitigation of the carbon emissions produced by burning coal and other fossil fuels. Mitigating carbon emissions, whether voluntarily or by regulatory requirement (as in California) , has become a major concern for companies around the world, and a major business enterprise at home.

Coal is still relatively plentiful, as you know if you’ve ever had to wait for a coal train to pass a road crossing in Colorado. And yet, as a major source of carbon dioxide emissions, conventional coal is facing increasing regulatory and financial pressure. Utilities, the primary users of coal for electricity, are canceling or delaying plans for new coal-powered plants, instead seeking greater efficiencies in existing plants, and encouraging conservation among their customers to lower demand. The Wall Street Journal recently reported on the fact that banks are now putting a price on carbon emissions when assessing financing for coal plants and other high emission investments - a new risk factor for lending, and one that business can’t afford to ignore.

What’s it all mean to you and me and the carbon produced between us?  Read more »

The connection between art, science and nature has been posed through the ages by some of our most celebrated figures. To wit,

“Joy in looking and comprehending is nature’s most beautiful gift.”
Albert Einstein

“Keep your love of nature, for that is the true way to understand art more and more.”
Vincent Van Gogh

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”
William Shakespeare

As a community, we rely on our institutions of arts, science and culture (”the culturals”) to keep us abreast of important trends and ideas, and in Denver over the past two years our major arts and science facilities have embraced sustainability programming and green operations in an aggressive way. The trend is so strong that it appears to this outsider that the community as a whole will benefit from healthy competition among the culturals to “outgreen” each other.  Read more »

WHAT’S A LOCAVORE TO DO IN DENVER?

Two years ago I helped organize (with ASPO-USA) a national Peak Oil conference in Denver that was attended by a healthy mix of local officials, big picture thinkers, petroleum industry reps, and environmental types. On the second day of the conference I moderated a panel discussion regarding local government response to Peak Oil scenarios. The debate centered on the question (made popular by James Howard Kunstler and others) of whether cities outside of strong agricultural zones (read: good soil, mild climate, plentiful water) will be viable in the future, or whether a serious decline in global petroleum supplies will significantly increase the cost of food transportation and require a new movement to rural living, thus signalling the demise of the city as we know it.

Whether or not you buy into the concept of a back to the land movement created by geopolitical crisis (also known as Relocalization), and many don’t, there is a strong and growing movement to support the production and consumption of local foods. Beyond Peak Oil scenarios, the Local Food Movement is being driven by a multitude of factors, including:  Read more »