Grand County Living Magazine - The Green Parade: Paving The Way ... Locals Lead The County To A Greener Future

THE GREEN PARADE:
Paving The Way ... Locals Lead The County To A Greener Future
By Cindy Kleh / Photos by Carter Photographics

Grand County Eco-Group We all try to do our part to be green, but there are some Grand County residents who go above and beyond their personal responsibility. They give of their time and expertise to organize, inform and inspire the rest of us to make the right decisions today that will result in a better Grand County in the future. Grand County Living Magazine salutes their efforts and invites us all to become a little more aware and involved.

Where Will it All Go?
One of the more pressing needs facing Grand County today is a solution to its waste and recycling issues. The Granby Landfill’s life expectancy is estimated to be about two years due to an outer-landfill slide that cost the county $4.5 million to stabilize. The Grand County Board of County Commissioners has concerns about investing more taxpayer money in a site that isn’t stable, since they want to protect the environment as well as their own liability for the site far into the future.

At the same time, recycling options in the county have been declining. At present, the Granby Landfill and Grand Lake sites are the only recycling collection locations for Valley Recycling, and the types of materials they accept have also become more limited.

To add to this perfect storm, the recent recession and resulting slow down in construction has hit the towns and the county itself pretty hard financially, leaving little left over in their coffers to fund a recycling effort (as they once did when Grand Recycles provided the service as a non-profit). But they are all still committed to a recycling solution.

Recycling icon “Stumbled into Recycling”
Jesse McWilliams decided to create a curbside recycling business when he dropped off his recycling in October 2008 to find that Valley Recycling no longer accepted glass. He knew that the county needed an effective and affordable recycling service.

“Grand County is truly an oddity. Most of us grew up recycling. It’s like moving here and being told you don’t need car insurance,” says McWilliams, who has a degree in mass communications. “I fell into this recycling thing because I have always believed in it.”

Although the business is still adjusting to fit the county’s needs and is in its more labor-intensive stages, Curbside Recycling is enjoying a steady clientele of homeowners and businesses, while taking on new accounts each week. Customers are charged a monthly fee, and McWilliams picks it up every other week, sorts it and hauls it down to Eco-Cycle in Boulder, which has a state-of-the-art sorting and baling factory.

Compared to a city like San Francisco that recycles 66 percent of its wastes, this county has some catching up to do, but McWilliams thinks “we’re moving forward … we’re growing there.”

Curbside Recycling accepts a vast array of materials, including glass, aluminum, cardboard, plastics #1-7, cereal boxes, bags #2 and #4, and phone books. The company supports local non-profits by donating four percent of its profits to organizations that offer environmental, social, educational and recreational services to our community.

Plant icon Planting the Seeds of the Future
Another way to keep trash out of the landfill is to start composting, which can divert about 30 percent from a normal family’s trash. Carol Morales of Morales Farms in Granby donates her time and expertise to teach free classes at all five libraries in the county. The classes focus on how to compost and grow vegetables at high altitude, and are taught under the curriculum of a CSU extension program.

“It makes sense from so many angles,” says Morales citing financial savings, nutritional advantages and superior taste of homegrown vegetables. If vegetables do not need to be transported anywhere, no CO2 is emitted, and they are
fresher with a longer shelf life.

“Society is ready and willing to learn.” (In fact, national trends this year show the biggest spike in gardening among Americans in 30 years due to the economy. Maybe that’s because only $50 in gardening supplies can yield over $1,200 in produce!)

Morales’ vegetable gardening classes have been well attended, partly because she is so entertaining, but underneath the jokes and colorful stories are some serious messages:

“Only two percent of the world’s population produces all of the food. Half of them are over the age of 65. Who is going to grow our food 10 years from now? We need to bring back this lifestyle and teach our children that it’s okay to farm as a profession.”

“And we need to get rid of the preconceived notion that composting is hard at high altitude. It just takes more time and attention.”

Morales (with help from many enthusiastic community members) has also been instrumental in creating Grand Community Gardens, a project that allows citizens to tend their own vegetable garden plot on community land with technical support. She also plans to add classes in the near future on canning and dehydrating vegetables.

Morales Farms has been providing Grand County restaurants and residents with fresh vegetables, fruits, and herbs since 1944. In addition to teaching free classes, organizing local farmers markets, and selling their harvest, Carol and her husband, Joe, work the farm 14 to 16 hours a day. Is there something in the homegrown vegetables that gives them all that energy?

Green Home icon Wired to the Future
Guy Larson is one of a team of alternative energy experts for Simply Efficient, a company that specializes in the consultation, design and installation of solar, geothermal, wind, hydro and off-grid energy systems. They can help guide homeowners, HOAs, architects, real estate professionals and businesses toward green solutions that can cost less than conventional energy sources.

Guy and his wife, Sandy, have always tried to live a sustainable lifestyle in Grand County. They have composted for 25 years, they own a Prius with the license plates “Eco Guy,” and they volunteered every weekend at the county’s recycling centers. Their eco-conscious ways have been passed down to their two kids, who are now grown and living green on their own.

Guy learned some of his knowledge about alternative energy while working for Mountain Parks Electric, before joining Simply Efficient in 2007 with co-owner, Daimon Vilppu and CEO,Charley Adams. (Adams recently installed the first wind turbine in the county in 30 years, which will supply 50 to 150 percent of the energy for his family home in Granby. Adams estimates that it will take about 10 years for their wind turbine to pay for itself, and after that, it’s free energy.)

Larson’s first words of advice to prospective clients is: first address their usage of gas and electricity and then to make the building in question more energy-efficient. “Why use alternative energy if much of it will end up being wasted on leaks?” he asks. For most, an energy audit is recommended to examine the usage as a whole and decide what can be eliminated or minimized after adding the correct amount of needed insulation.

Simply Efficient’s website (simplyeff.com) has up-to-date news about federal and state legislation affecting rebates and tax incentives for homeowners and businesses considering alternative energy. Although he has fielded more inquiries on the subject recently because homeowners are thinking about the investment, Larson admits “it’s going to take a change of attitude of the people.”

But helping turn the tide are the facts: Renewable energy is free, sustainable, non-polluting and allows individuals to control their own power production. The technologies are already available and are cost-competitive with conventional fuels. Eventually, consumers will add it up, because it makes sense.

Green Ideas icon Solutions Instead of Landfills
Vicky Burton has spent much of the past two years building her Granby home with the most sustainable methods that she can research and implement. Sometimes this means peeling bark off of hundreds of beetle-kill branches to fashion rails for her deck; or searching construction businesses for slightly imperfect materials; or finding yard sales with one-of-a-kind furniture or accessories that can be recycled.

Brought up with a “waste-not-want-not” philosophy, Burton has fashioned a beautiful home complete with PV roof solar collectors, a long curtain of south-facing closed-system glycol solar collectors, an attached greenhouse and an ingenious use of passive solar energy.

A long wooden church pew sits on her back deck, needing refinishing, and one of her showers consists of broken slate pieces arranged in an artistic design. Beetle-kill pine lines most of the walls, shelves, stairways and posts in her home, and the marble in the master bath was a yard sale find.

The whole building process has been an eye-opener for Burton, and it prompted her to try to share the information by forming the group Energy Opportunities in Grand County. So far, it’s grown to hundreds of members with help from its website on facebook.com. Burton’s goal is to spread the word to homeowners and commercial building contractors about state and federal energy initiatives, recent legislation on green incentives as well asproviding networking for energy-efficient products and services.

Recycling icon Looking at the Bigger Picture
Tim Hodsdon has started up Infinite West, in hopes of engaging the community in discussion about where the county is headed in terms of sustainability.

“Infinite West started in response to some major issues that the county is facing, which happen to be tied into some global issues of the same dimension,” says Hodsdon, an architect with Munn Architecture in Granby. “The three big ones are recycling, beetle-kill pine and the landfill problems.”

“Our first meetings have really just been about listening. It has been wonderful to hear what other people are already doing. Right now, there is a simple desire to exchange ideas and have a unified voice on these issues. This is timely, with the county’s Master Plan being revisited this year.”

The group believes that the word “sustainability” goes beyond green materials and energy sources to include such concepts as sustainable economics, culture and lifestyle. Seven priority items have been identified to tackle this year: recycling, sustainable agriculture, conservation, sustainable community (economic, social and environmental), alternative energy, education, and sustainable building.

Infinite West plans to hold an annual community forum to discuss priorities and strategies in hopes of becoming a community-driven group. They will also be using the concept of Industrial Symbiosis as a model for solving some of the resource challenges of the county.

Some of the ideas that have surfaced include growing and harvesting within the community; a buy-locally project; wind and solar energy opportunities; range land conservation; re-planting forests; a manufacturing plant that can convert dead beetle kill to biomass energy; a recycled glass business; affordable housing; water issues; and composting.

“We want Infinite West to be a resource for the county,” says Hodsdon. “I think we can work progressively toward a future that enhances the best things about our way of life. Why not increase our prosperity and protect the planet for our grandchildren while we’re at it?”

Follow the links below for more articles within the Green Parade section.