State and Local Climate and Energy Program

Climate-Wise Community Program

La Plata County, Colorado

Federal Funding: $500,000
Project Timeline: February 2011 – January 2014

Project Summary
Community Characteristics
Program Results/Estimated Results

Project Summary

A Comprehensive Program Working to Achieve Net Zero Climate Impacts

The four project areas of the Climate-Wise Community Program are underway. Southern Ute Community Action Programs, Inc. (SUCAP) discussed the details of an on-bus Wi-Fi system to attract ridership under the Climate-Informed Mileage Reduction program and will release a request for proposals for vendors. Durango Discovery Museum (DDM) continued research and development of the hands-on lesson plans and activities of the Resource Smart Design curriculum. La Plata County continued to engage in research and development of toolkits to educate producers, consumers, and policymakers for the Climate-Friendly Local Food System program. Lastly, the Resource Smart Business Program team worked with six organizations on program design and development activities, such as researching indicators for sustainability within business practices and the development of a marketing strategy. Now that the pilot program has launched, three businesses are scheduled to have an employee health, energy usage, and sustainability audit, and recommendations will be provided on how to be “Resource Smart.”

La Plata County's Climate-Wise Community Program is comprehensive in breadth and depth, achieves ongoing greenhouse gas reductions, and can be easily replicated depending on the needs of different communities. The Program stems from initial measures developed through the community Climate and Energy Action Plan (CEAP) process and includes a Climate-Wise Education Campaign and the following four project areas to build capacity and create lasting change:

Climate-Informed Mileage Reduction,
Climate Education: Magic PlanetTM and Resource Smart Design,
Climate-Friendly Local Food System, and
Resource Smart Business Program

First, La Plata County will partner with Road Runner Transit, an in-place rural transit system, to decrease vehicle miles traveled. Road Runner Transit, a division of Southern Ute Community Action Programs, Inc., aims to increase ridership levels by 125% from 2010 to 2013 by implementing rider education and outreach, outfitting buses with attractive amenities, such as wireless internet service, cup-holders, and reading lights, and providing incentives to increase ridership.

Next, La Plata County will partner with Durango Discovery Museum to educate children and youth on energy efficiency. The museum will purchase a state-of-the-art, interactive multimedia earth globe called the Magic Planet™ and will further develop a comprehensive, interactive climate change program for Kindergarten through 8th graders using NASA-based curriculum and Magic Planet™ technology. The Museum will also develop a building science based curriculum and program, designed to create hands-on resource smart building design and engineering education curriculum, activities, and manipulatives.

Third, La Plata County will partner with Healthy Community Food Systems to recruit and inform food producers, marketers, and consumers about the impact of the food choices they make, including the way it is grown, harvested, processed, stored, transported, marketed, and consumed. This three-year effort will reduce the distance food travels to make it to market, while improving the environment, local economy, and community health. This comprehensive climate-informed local food system will build capacity within local government, institutions, businesses, and organizations to address greenhouse gas emissions within the food system and network multiple stakeholder groups (consumers, producers, processors, restaurants, retailers, institutions, organizations, and policy-makers) to leverage existing and new partnerships for greater community and environmental benefit.

Finally, La Plata County will partner with several entities to assist businesses with decreasing greenhouse emissions, increasing the health of their employees, and fostering economic connections in La Plata County. The project will provide businesses with:

an employee health, energy usage, and sustainability audit,
recommended measures with associated return on investment (ROI),
a list of local reputable contractors; educational sessions and materials for employees,
rebates for implementing high-cost measures, and
recognition and marketing materials for the businesses to promote themselves as “resource smart”

All Climate-Wise activities will be integrated and marketed as one comprehensive program through the education campaign to ensure consistent community-wide messages. The Climate-Wise Community Program will provide numerous co-benefits, including cleaner air, reduced highway congestion, affordable access to jobs, increased spending in the local economy, improved nutrition and health, and healthier workplaces.

Community Characteristics

Population:	49,678
Area:	1,692 square miles
Government Type:	County
Community Type:	Rural
Median Household Income:	$53,713

Program Results/Estimated Results

Expected GHG Reductions:	5,847 metric tons CO₂e annually
Expected Vehicle Miles Traveled Reductions:	1 million miles (over 3 years)
Expected Electricity Reductions:	59,000 kWh
Expected FTE Green Jobs Created:	6.5

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