Colorado Daily
April 30, 2006
By Richard Valenty

There are geographic lines where the CU-Boulder campuses end and city or county turf begins. But environmental factors don't give a hoot about boundaries, and that's one reason why Dave Newport, the director of CU's Environmental Center (CUEC), has taken at least one of his acts on the road.

Newport is soliciting support for the 2006 version of CUEC's Blueprint for a Green Campus — as the name suggests, a document delineating an eco-friendly framework — and he spent Friday afternoon with a citizen group that knows a thing or two about environmental activism.

Very few citizens know it as the People's League for Action Now anymore, but PLAN-Boulder County (PBC) has been advocating slow growth and supporting green political policies or candidates since 1959.

Back in the day, CU Professor Emeritus Al Bartlett and fellow professor Robert McKelvey were concerned about the city's residential growth in the foothills — when the city's population was closer to 20,000 than its present 100,000. The duo organized a meeting that attracted 15-20 people, and a resulting citizens' movement led to a successful ballot initiative that prevented city water service from being delivered above a "Blue Line" at about 5,700 feet in elevation.

About 47 years later, a person can still look at the Boulder-area foothills at night and see dark foothills, not a random pattern of outdoor lighting — and on Friday, about 15-20 PBC-type people carried on with some form of business as usual.

Newport was the star attraction, but PBC members spent a half-hour before his presentation organizing petitions for a 2006 citizens' initiative that would require city voter approval for certain major annexations.

They made announcements about upcoming events such as the Boulder County ACLU annual meeting, city discussions on greenhouse gas reduction programs and an appearance by James Kunstler — author of the book "The Long Emergency" and the featured speaker at the 2005 annual PBC dinner. PLAN-Boulder is still active after all these years.

Newport worked at the University of Florida and as a county commissioner in Florida before taking his CU post in early 2006, and told PBC that he was well aware of the reputations of CU and Boulder-area leaders and citizens for environmental activism long before he moved north.

"And I want your formal endorsement of the document as a group," said Newport to PBC members. But why would a city/county group care about a CU Blueprint?

Start with the statistics — about 30,000 students and 6,000 CU employees each use limited resources, including potable water in a city situated in a semi-arid climate. Newport produced charts showing that CU decreased potable water usage from about 412 million gallons in 2001-02 to about 262 million in 2004-05.

The Blueprint says CU saved potable water by using ditch water for irrigation, using more efficient water systems in laboratories and using water-saving fixtures and toilets. But the 2006 Blueprint wants more. "I would think the opportunities for water conservation here could be exploited," said Newport.

The Blueprint's long-term vision says CU would educate every campus user on how to conserve and protect the quality of local water sources, while shooting for use reductions of five percent per year for five years. More specifically, goals would include increased xeriscaping, increasing the use of water-conserving machinery for on-campus research and following Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) guidelines in all future new campus construction.

And one could call the Blueprint's long-term vision for addressing CU's effect on global warming through greenhouse gas emissions a bit ambitious. The document's vision statement suggests the campus could shoot for a "zero or positive net impact on the climate" by 2025.

Specific goals include all campus buildings obtaining at least 25 percent of all energy consumed from renewable sources, reducing singleoccupancy vehicle trips, converting 25 percent of CU's fleet to high-efficiency or alternatively-fueled vehicles and again meeting LEED standards in all new construction.

Newport also used the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to illustrate the need to bring social awareness more fully into environmental planning — and the Blueprint contains numerous references to "environmental justice" or social equity.

"Climate change affects those with the least most harshly and most quickly," said Newport, referring to the poverty-stricken in New Orleans left homeless and hurting after the storm struck and the levees failed. He also said the CUEC recently held a computer recycling program where old computers were refurbished and delivered to the underprivileged — reducing solid waste generated while helping the needy.

The Blueprint includes goals to continue recent reductions in the use of electricity and production of hazardous waste, boost the purchasing of environmentally responsible products and enhance the already strong campus recycling efforts.

Newport has collected Blueprint endorsements from U.S. Rep. Mark Udall, CU regents Cindy Carlisle and Michael Carrigan, all three Boulder County Commissioners and Boulder's Mayor Mark Ruzzin. PLAN-Boulder chair Pat Shanks said there are currently about 300 dues-paying PBC members. Many of the members hold local positions of influence, and Shanks suggested that possible PBC endorsement of the Blueprint will help Newport spread the word to the broader community. "I'm especially happy with the inclusion of social equity in this blueprint," said Shanks. "We'll take this up very soon at a board meeting, and I suspect we'll be very supportive of it."