ATM: Solar panels installed on two Vail buildings

VAIL - Solar collectors are being installed on two buildings located atop the Vail Village Parking Structure

In addition, town officials are replacing incandescent light bulbs in the Colorado Ski Museum with compact fluorescents.

Together, the two projects are costing the town $25,000. The payback on the investment is calculated at 10 years.

Town officials chose the very conspicuous public buildings - an information center and the transportation center - in an effort to lead by example, said Bill Carlson, the town's environmental health officer. "We hope to encourage businesses and private property owners to research alternative energy uses that they might install on their property," he said.

Last summer, the town bought renewable energy credits equal to the total use of the town government, about 20 million kilowatt hours. The increased cost was $12,000 per year.

The town is also reroofing the buildings atop the parking structure with new synthetic slate shingles. In at least one of the buildings has shake shingles. Again, the effort is to lead by example. Responding to heightened worries about the potential for wildland fires, the town in the last year required new roofs and those being replaced to use the non-combustible shingles.



New high-end project has sustainability theme

GYPSUM - Something new is being proposed in the Gypsum Valley, about 45 miles southwest of Vail. While nearby is a traditional high-end golf-course based real estate development called Brightwater, the new project being proposed to Gypsum town officials boasts of its sustainability. Some 273 units are planned, some two-thirds of them single-family homes in a low-density fashion.

Kurt Forstmann, one of the developers, said the proposed Winding Creek Ranch may become a model for future resource-sensitive developments. Because the ranch has senior water rights, Forstmann said, a series of lakes and ponds will be the centerpiece of the plan.

Forstmann also says that homes and other buildings will make use of its exposure to the sun. "Colorado has 300 days of sunshine a year," Forstmann told the Eagle Valley Enterprise. "I think it's fairly stupid that people aren't using solar power for electric needs."

He also said that homes will be highly energy efficient. "I thin this is the future of home building," he said.

The ranch is also to have a 22-acre vegetable farm as well as a working ranch, with homeowners sharing in the bounty.



Telluride Bluegrass Fest going ever more 'green'

TELLURIDE - The Telluride Bluegrass Festival almost from the start has been about more than bluegrass. This year, for example, the lineup includes jazz musician Chick Corea and the burly everymen of rock, Los Lobos.

But the festival, which is being held this weekend, has from its start 34 years ago also been about environmental ethics. In early years, explains the Rocky Mountain News's John Lehndorff, who was there, festival organizers simply asked the attendees, to pick up after themselves. They did and continue to do so, he said.

The "greening" of the festival has accelerated in recent years. A salient year was 2002, when New Belgium Brewing Co., the maker of Fat Tire beer, signed on as a festival beer sponsor. The company had an employee who had the title of Sustainability Goddess and whose only job was to find ways to increase sustainability at the beer company. She found plenty to change.

Water bottles made from cornstarch were introduced in 2004. In 2005, travel by artists was offset by purchases of wind-powered energy credits. In 2007, the offset was increased to cover travel by staff and audience, too. As well, the number of water taps has been doubled so fans will fill reusable water bottles, instead of tossing plastic ones. Festival-goers are also encouraged to take their own beer cups.



Open door policy annoys Whistlerite

WHISTLER, B.C. - What are the top environmental concerns in Whistler? Reducing the carbon footprint, says Mayor Ken Melamed. Another concern in the town's grassroots environmental group, called AWARE, is the increasing amount of snowmobiling in the backcountry. But Michele Bush says she has a big problem with stores that keep their doors open through the darkest, coldest days of winter. While market research shows people are more likely to enter store doors that are already open, she says "it's not right." Presumably her beef is the wasted energy.