{"id":498,"date":"2010-03-01T17:12:33","date_gmt":"2010-03-02T00:12:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=498"},"modified":"2010-03-01T20:12:21","modified_gmt":"2010-03-02T03:12:21","slug":"new-resolutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/?p=498","title":{"rendered":"New Resolutions"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By now, most of us have forgotten our New Year\u2019s Resolutions and are consumed by the ongoing fray of our daily lives.\u00a0 I write today to urge people to take on a NEW RESOLUTION that will actually make a difference- take action now to significantly reduce your carbon footprint this year.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s how.\u00a0 Boulder County is about to issue a new round of ClimateSmart Loans, which are available county-wide in unincorporated areas AND in our municipalities.\u00a0 This time, for the first time, these innovative loan opportunities will be focused on commercial properties, apartment buildings, low income housing, and small manufacturing facilities.<\/p>\n

Why is this important?\u00a0 57% of Boulder\u2019s GHG emissions come form commercial\/industrial buildings and another 17% comes from residential buildings, half of which are rentals.\u00a0 The biggest GHG reductions can come from this sector, but we need strong community engagement to propel these.<\/p>\n

So you say, \u201cI don\u2019t own a business or an apartment building, what can I do?\u201d\u00a0 Talk to your landlord, talk to the owner of your apartment building, talk to your boss, talk to owners and managers of stores you visit, talk with owners of office buildings where you work, talk to industrial service owners you do business with.\u00a0 Talk to everyone.\u00a0 Ask them if they are part of the solution.<\/p>\n

Why are ClimateSmart loans a great deal?<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. It\u2019s easy to qualify and there are minimal loan initiation fees<\/li>\n
  2. They can be used for a broad range of efficiency improvements (high-efficency furnaces, insulation, weatherization, windows, etc.), renewables (solar thermal and photovoltaics, wind, geothermal, etc.), and much more (http:\/\/www.bouldercounty.org\/bocc\/cslp\/comeml.pdf<\/a>).<\/li>\n
  3. ClimateSmart loans are attached to property taxes, paid on a 15 year term to keep payments low, and they stay with the property if you sell it.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    What about the split incentive?\u00a0 This means that the renter or leasee pays the utilities and the owners therefore think they would not benefit from energy savings.\u00a0 Here\u2019s how to deal with that- Tell your owner\/landlord you will increase your rent by the average amount of your monthly\/annual utility charges.\u00a0 Then the owner\/landlord will begin paying the utilities and will reap the benefits of reduced costs due to efficiencies and renewables funded by the ClimateSmart Loan Program.\u00a0 You will benefit too, because your utility costs will not increase over time due to inevitable rate increases.\u00a0 Win-win-win.\u00a0 The third and biggest winner is our planet.\u00a0 Or, there are local companies that will gladly do performance contracting and pay themselves with the energy saving.<\/p>\n

    To get engaged, attend one of the Commercial ClimateSmart seminars on Wednesday, March 3 or 10, from 6:00-7:00pm at 3550 Frontier Ave, Unit C-2 in Boulder.\u00a0 Applications are due by March 29.\u00a0 Can\u2019t make the seminars? Get informed on the ClimateSmart website (www.beclimatesmart.org<\/a> ).<\/p>\n

    In his recent State of the Union address, President Obama said, \u201cI know that there are those who disagree with the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the thing. Even if you doubt the evidence, providing incentives for energy efficiency and clean energy are the right thing to do for our <\/strong>future, <\/strong><\/em>because the nation that leads the clean-energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy<\/em><\/strong>, <\/strong>and America must be that nation.\u201d<\/em> Remember the bumper stickers, THINK GLOBALLY, ACT LOCALLY?\u00a0 DO IT.\u00a0 START A BUZZ.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    By now, most of us have forgotten our New Year\u2019s Resolutions and are consumed by the ongoing fray of our daily lives.\u00a0 I write today to urge people to take […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":500,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[42,65,45],"class_list":["post-498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-call-to-action","tag-climate-action","tag-climate-smart-loan","tag-energy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=498"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":544,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/498\/revisions\/544"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.boulderblueline.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}