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!

After weeks of scaffolding, tents and jersey barriers being the only visual signs that anything was afoot, this past weekend  the Democrats came to town and the city went from pure anticipation and gossip to the reality of 30-50,000 political junkies here to play and make history.

From my vantage on the hill just north of downtown life has not changed much. I still walk into downtown and can easily move to and from my office by car or bike. But, once downtown, there are throngs. Free bicycle stations everywhere. MSNBC taping live on a screened in stage behind Union Station, the Big Tent on Wynkoop Street  hosting a variety of Digg forums with activists and celebrities (and celebrity activists). Free smoothies from Google. Pedicabs  doing a brisk business and giant donkeys and elephants patrolling the streets on segways. Parties everywhere, all night long.

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Where has spring gone?  Read more »

One of the challenges faced by businesses and governments as we move toward a post-carbon society is that the rules and standards seem to keep changing. As with the organics industry in the early 1980s, it is difficult to identify what “sustainable business” really means, how it is best measured, and how to compare the actions of one company with those of another with any kind of similar yardstick.

There are a handful of widely recognized products (ISO 14001, GRI, Six Sigma) that track, analyze and allow apples-to-apples reporting on company operations practices, but for most consumer products no single standard has yet prevailed. This leaves room in the current “green rush” for misleading marketing, and for brand competition as companies position themselves to fill the void.  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.

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As much as I appreciate the concept of Earth Day, I hate the fact that, for one short day a year (or at least the week surrounding it), dozens of groups compete for media and audience attention for events and opportunities related to environmental health and sustainability. While there were many sleepy years between Earth Day’s kickoff in 1970 and its recent revival, when one day may have sufficed to do it all, the explosion of interest in green issues and activities means that no matter how fast you move, you’ll miss something good. And the universal goal of strong media coverage will never be achieved if all events are grouped in a single day or week. On the other hand, the more varied and numerous the activities, the greater chance that many people will be engaged, and that’s probably a good thing.  Read more »

BetterBagsColorado is lobbying the Denver City Council to impose a 10-cent surcharge on take-home bag from grocery stores with annual revenues of $2 million or more. The proposed tax is intended to protect the environment by reducing demand for plastic and paper bags, thereby reducing related pollution and landfill impacts. Their hope is that this type of charge will discourage casual consumption and disposal of bags, and encourage the reuse of existing bags or cloth bags.  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 »

A little sincerity is a dangerous thing, and a great deal of it is absolutely fatal.

–Oscar Wilde

Surely, it is the sign of a mature movement, as of a mature individual, that it can laugh at itself, and use humor to makes its points effectively.  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 »