Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Radon Education Grant Received

La Plata County Extension and 4CORE are teaming up to raise radon awareness. EPA has approved grant request for Radon Education in Southwest Colorado through Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. CSU Extension will provide workshops beginning in December to discuss the impacts and prevalence of radon in our area.  Short term radon test kits will be available.  In addition, 4CORE will conduct radon testing and education for low-income residents.

“I’m very pleased that we’re going to be able to provide this resource again and that we will have kits again,” said Wendy Rice, Extension Agent.  “There are a variety of factors that can impact the amount of radon drawn into a home. Two homes, sitting side by side, could have completely different radon levels,” she explained.  “You just can’t tell without testing.”

Radon has been definitively linked to lung cancer after long-term exposure. It is the primary cause of lung cancer second only to cigarette smoking, though it is easy to prevent through testing and mitigation.

EPA recommends mitigation for homes testing at four (4) picocuries per liter (pCi/l) or greater. Figures released by EPA showed that homes in Colorado are at high risk because of granite and soil content. Levels in La Plata County have ranged from 1 - 315 pCi/L.  If mitigation is needed it should only be done by National Environmental Health Association (NEHA) certified technicians.

The screening kit provided by CSU Extension Office ($5 with class/$10 without) is a complete three-day screening test that has no additional reading costs. The kit is a reliable tool and if results above four pCi/l are received, an additional test should be conducted before mitigation takes place.

The kits are easy to use and any interested resident is encouraged to contact the Extension office about participating in the testing program at 970-382-6465.

Low-income residents should contact 4CORE at 970-259-1916 to determine eligibility and schedule a test.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

First Businesses ‘Going Beyond’

The Resource Smart Business Program (RSBP) is pleased to announce Renae Marie and the Durango Double Tree Hotel as the first businesses to be certified at the ‘Going Beyond’ level. This is the highest level of certification in the program and is only achieved by implementing three improvements in each area of energy efficiency, worksite wellness, and sustainability.


"We have worked hard to bring our business into the light, both literally and figuratively," said Renae Muller, owner of Renae Marie Apparel and Gifts. Our utility bills have decreased and our employees are enjoying new benefits. I feel good knowing that we are making a positive impact in our community and our world by becoming more sustainable with the eco-friendly products we carry and recycling efforts made within the store. The partnership with the RSBP and La Plata Electric Association have made reaching the ‘Going Beyond’ level of Resource Smart Certification an easier task."

Renae Marie made energy efficiency improvements, including changing their lighting system to LEDs,>installing weather stripping on the front door, and insulating their water heater. Worksite wellness was improved by creating "The Box of Gratitude" for employee recognition, providing a wellness package to staff that aligns with personal interests and needs, and providing healthy snacks for employees. Sustainability was improved by creating a new green business mission statement, carrying eco-friendly products, and re-purposing salvaged doors and wood to make display tables. These changes equate to an estimated $1,370 saved per year.


The DoubleTree Hotel in Durango changed their rooftop, restaurant, and parking lot lighting to LEDs, and upgraded the meters on the rooftop air handlers to improve energy efficiency. Sustainability improvements include sharing sustainability information and tips with staff and stakeholders, setting up new computers on power strips, proposing a Director of Sustainability to coach all of the Hilton branches on integrating sustainability into hotel operations, and joining the City of Durango’s ‘Way to Go club’ to encourage alternative commuting methods. Wellness actions include the creation of a comprehensive wellness program focused on physical activity, mental wellness and healthy eating, with a mentor program and support system for achieving individual plans and goals, an incentive system to encourage and track participation, provision of healthy meals at work, a corporate discount rate at the Durango Recreation Center for employees, and wellness education in newsletters. These upgrades are anticipated to save them almost $14,000 in annual operation costs.

Renae Marie is located at 809 Main Ave. in Durango or at www.facebook.com/pages/Renae-Marie-Apparel. The DoubleTree in Durango is located at 501 Camino Del Rio and can be found at http://doubletree3.hilton.com. Stop by their businesses to support Resource Smart Certified businesses.

For more information or to apply for RSBP certification, please visit the website or contact Amanda Saunders with 4CORE at (970) 259-1916.

About RSBP

The Resource Smart Business Program is a voluntary certification program that helps La Plata County businesses identify potential areas for improvement and implement smart business decisions that reduce operational costs, improve employee wellness, boost brand integrity, and increase profitability. Participating businesses learn how to assess energy consumption, worksite wellness and overall sustainability. Businesses that complete the six-step certification and make positive changes based on program recommendations become ‘Resource Smart Certified’ and receive recognition and promotion for their efforts. RSBP is administered by the Four Corners Office for Resource Efficiency (4CORE) in collaboration with , Local First that was awarded to La Plata County in 2012. For more information, please visit www.resourcesmartbusiness.com.

Friday, November 8, 2013

Put your Money Where Your House Is

While you read this, if you read this, I want you to think about your favorite appliance. Mine is, without a doubt, the refrigerator (more on this later).

Let me first take a moment to tell you about 4CORE. 4CORE is a 5 year old 501(c)3 not for profit organization, with the mission to serve Southwest Colorado as the leading resource for the effective and efficient use of energy to promote and sustain vibrant local communities.

What exactly does that mean? It means we are working to curb the dollars each of us spend to buy energy for transportation, our homes, as well as our work place in order to keep money from leaving our community (we are energy importers). Energy has been cheap for a long time, so conserving it and the dollars to buy it hasn't seemed to matter, but as energy costs increase, it does matter. It matters for your wallet and for our community.

The obvious extension is that energy matters for our country and for the whole world. I believe it also matters for the environment. A quick look at a few numbers is pretty staggering: Viewing the global population calculator, which, as I'm writing this blog, is reading 7.2 billion people. This is mind boggling, and leads me to invoke the word ‘sustainable’ (able to be used without being completely used up or destroyed, involving methods that do not completely use up or destroy).

If I were to ask you how your job or your marriage was, and you said, “it’s sustainable”, that doesn't sound very good. So let me ask you, rhetorically, to ponder if you think our current energy consumption levels are sustainable? This reminds me of the bumper sticker ‘Earth First- we’ll mine the other planets later’.

Where We Have Come From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution
A Watt Steam Engine, fueled by coal,
propelled the Industrial Revolution 

The coal fired ‘Watt Steam Engines’ of the early industrial revolution are now around 250 years old, so aside from having fires in our caves for a long time, the machine age and now gadget age are relatively young. To bring this dialog home the Durango Discovery Museum/Power House, which was commissioned in 1893 is now 120 years old. This was the same year of the iconic Chicago Worlds Fair, where Alternating Current (AC) electricity lit the ‘White City’ and Pabst Beer won the ‘Blue Ribbon’ as a micro brewery).

Durango always seems to be on the cutting edge. Back then each small town had to have their own power generation as the ‘grid’ we appreciate today wasn't available. Each town also had their own diaries, saw mills… One might say that communities were more sustainable, or independent. 

My, How We Have Grown
http://visual.ly/how-does-american-energy-consumption-measure-global-context
How do we, in the United States rate on the global scale of energy use? It is nice to see that the U.S. is still number 1, but I am afraid that China and India will probably surpass us in time. Compared to the world La Plata County only has 51,000 people with almost 26,000 housing units (actually, 25,860 housing units according to the 2010 census).

The average home uses $84 worth of electricity/month equaling around $1000 per year, multiplied by 26,000 homes equals over $26,000,000 million/per year spent on residential electricity in La Plata County (this does not count industrial or commercial uses).

If you recall, my Favorite Appliance is the Refrigerator
You have to love the thermodynamic cycle of a heat pump working in reverse to keep food and beer cold and fresh! My grandmother Ethel had an old chest cooler on her back porch in Washington D.C. where I grew up. She had an electric fridge inside the house, but always kept the old cooler stocked full of Frostie Root Beer on ice. This was a pre-electric ice chest, and before electrification, ice was cut from the Potomac River in the winter, capped with saw dust and stored in buildings, then delivered to the neighborhoods throughout the year.

Nothing tastes as sweet as that root beer used to from that antique cooler, and she would let me have as many as I wanted. I remember the milk man delivering whole milk to our back porch in heavy glass bottles, then picking up the empties. We continue to innovate as a species and things are different today. Our modern grocers stock almost everything imaginable year round. I have heard that the average piece of fruit travels 1,600 miles. However, the home grown fruit, or tomato is always the sweetest.

Our Durango Power House has evolved from producing its own power in 1893, to shutting the power house down in the mid 1970’s, and is now an awesome interactive museum.

Enough about our community, what about me? And you? 
In our evolution, let us remember how to innovate and evolve toward energy efficiency. The price of energy is increasing, as is the cost to our planet as we grow in population and use more. The first step starts, literally, at home. Find out how much energy you could be saving by getting a HomeRx assessment. Make the upgrades that will $ave you the most and make your home more comfortable.

Maybe you Buy Local, but take the next step... Put your money where your house is.

About the Author

Born and raised in the Washington D.C. area Gregg Dubit has been in Southwest Colorado for over 20 years. Gregg has a Bachelors degree from The University of New Hampshire, Durham in Forest Resource Management, and from Fort Lewis College, Durango in secondary education. Greggs’ previous experience includes Commercial energy auditing, Residential Services Network training and certification, residential general contracting, residential real estate inspection services, high school math and science teacher, former ski patroller, and aged outward bound instructor. In addition, Gregg is an avid dog musher, proud father of Lydia and Hayden, and happily married to Gretchen.