The "Greening" of Aspen, Part I

The City of Aspen is an environmental pioneer on numerous fronts. The city developed the Canary Initiative (http://canaryinitiative.com/), which is responsible for calculating Aspen’s CO2 emissions and finding ways to reduce the carbon footprint of Aspen. Aspen is proud to offer the first municipal carbon offset program in the United States via the Canary Tag program (http://www.canarytags.com/). The city urges citizens, visitors and businesses to do everything possible to reduce their carbon footprint, and to consider purchasing Canary Tags to offset the remainder. Ninety cents of every dollar donated to Canary Tags goes to support a renewable energy project within 500 miles of Aspen. The Canary Initiative also partners with the Environmental Health Department to run the ZGreen program. This program helps businesses, events and citizens be “greener” and rewards them for their efforts. There are currently 12 ZGreen certified businesses in Aspen. As of January 2009, all events in the City of Aspen will be required to meet ZGreen standards in order to obtain a permit for their event. All events must make an effort towards reducing their energy, water usage, trash generation and air pollution. Citizens are encouraged to visit http://www.aspenzgreen.com/ and commit to doing 5 new things to be more environmentally friendly. The program is free, and new members get a “goodie” bag.

- Lynne Cantrell, Associate Broker