The Nederland Sustainability Advisory Board (SAB) met on Thursday, February 23, 2023, at 6:45 p.m. to discuss ideas on how to promote solar power to the public. Board members heard an update from the Zero Waste subcommittee and also discussed updating the SAB’s goals.

On July 6, 2021, Nederland adopted the Rights of Nature resolution, giving “fundamental and inalienable rights” to its 448-square mile watershed. The main goal of the Rights of Nature resolution is to protect the ecosystem and to keep the residents informed concerning potential harm to the ecosystem. By adopting the Rights of Nature resolution a municipality and its community recognizes the responsibility that humans have to act as environmental guardians.

Environmental guardians speak for the rights of nature at local government meetings and hearings concerning issues that affect the town’s surrounding ecosystem. Guardians also keep in touch with entities who have jurisdiction over matters concerning the ecosystem: such entities as the State of Colorado, the Division of Reclamation, Mining, and Safety (DRMS), Boulder County, and the City of Boulder all have jurisdiction over our watershed.

Though the Rights of Nature resolutions 2021-11 and 2021-11a have already been passed, an additional amendment concerning specification of the roles of the environmental guardians and how they are appointed is in need of approval. On January 19, 2023, PROSAB approved a motion to endorse resolution 2023-04, which allows SAB to appoint guardians and set their responsibilities.

The SAB will bring the matter of seeking approval for resolution 2023-04 to the Nederland Board of Trustees (BOT) on Tuesday, April 18.

The SAB were provided with an update on the next steps being taken by US Solar, a national full-service provider of solar products, in their projects planned for Nederland. Board members also discussed how to potentially get 300 more residents to subscribe into the solar program.

On July 5, 2022, the Town of Nederland began working with US Solar on three solar initiative: signing residential customers up to existing solar gardens outside of Nederland, gifting solar subscription donations to low-income families that apply, and developing a bid to Xcel Energy for a solar garden specific to Nederland to service local businesses.

A “priority period” wherein US Solar offered Nederland residents priority access to enough community solar garden capacity for 500 subscribers began on September 1, 2022, and the US Solar Subscription Campaign began in full on September 7, 2022.

Board members discussed several ideas for promoting US Solar in an attempt to reach 300 more subscribers to get closer to Nederland’s goal of complete sustainability by 2025. The ideas for solar marketing included posts and a banner image on the Nederland Town Hall website, a physical newsletter, as well as advertisements in The Mountain-Ear. The SAB also considered making presentations on solar energy to several Nederland boards and commissions, including reaching out to the Youth Advisory Board to come up with creative solutions for marketing artwork.

The SAB also highlighted obstacles in getting residents to sign up for solar energy, including certain stigmas against solar as an energy source and issues with the registration process on the US Solar website.

The SAB was informed that the US Solar website would be shut down on March 1 for a complete overhaul, including visual rebranding and a streamlining of the registration process to be more user-friendly. Customers will be unable to sign up for US Solar while the website is being rebuilt, but the company hopes to have the website up and running by mid-March. Board members agreed that a marketing push can begin in early April, once the website is updated.

The US Solar Subscription Campaign connects customers to existing solar gardens. A rooftop solar campaign from Solar United Neighbors is expected to begin in early May; however, the matter has not yet been before the BOT for approval. The SAB hopes to present the rooftop solar campaign proposal to the BOT at their meeting on March 7.

The SAB was provided with an update concerning their application with the University of Colorado Masters of the Environment graduate program concerning approval of Nederland’s submitted capstone project, a proposed electrification roadmap for the town. Though the SAB’s project was a strong candidate for consideration, the program simply did not have enough students to assign to all the submitted projects. Though the proposal was denied, the SAB will continue to search for other alternatives to make the electrification roadmap project a reality.

Board members heard an update from the Zero Waste Subcommittee concerning their work on Nederland’s composting efforts and on a campaign to provide single-use compostable materials to Nederland restaurants.

Colorado’s largest compost recycler, A1 Organics, changed its policies in early August, 2022, due to large amounts of inorganic objects such as plastic utensils and glass bottles contaminating loads of compost. A1 will no longer accept compost loads that include non-food items such as brown raw paper products and compostable packaging even if the items are recyclable. All rejected compost loads are being sent to the landfill, where items like compostable packaging take years to biodegrade and can release harmful methane emissions.

A1 is Boulder County’s contracted composting company. Even though Nederland residents are more apt to compost properly, A1’s new policies have resulted in rejections of most of Boulder County’s compost loads.

The Nederland Transfer Station has recently received a new composting unit which is able to handle a higher capacity. The SAB is also looking at applying for grants which become available in March that would fund advanced home composting units. The home composting units would be raffled off by the SAB at special town events to help promote sustainability.

The SAB also discussed applying for grants to help fund a campaign to provide single-use compostable materials such as cups and straws to Nederland’s restaurants and other businesses. The campaign is in its early planning stages, with board members focusing on funding for the campaign, providing support to local businesses on proper recycling and composting, and devising a compost pick-up system.

Board members discussed updating an official document stating the goals for the SAB. The SAB has attended two work sessions during which the board listed zero waste efforts, narrowing the income gap that affects green energy subscription numbers, and sustainable development as their main areas of focus.

Sustainable development includes supporting infill development and updating Town code to require future developments to be energy efficient and provide green energy solutions, such as rooftop solar panels and charging stations for electric vehicles. BOT liaison to the SAB Nichole Sterling notified board members that Trustees were appointing a subcommittee to analyze Town code in relation to how it affects development projects in the Central Business District. Sterling noted that the subcommittee should include a member from the SAB.

The SAB will continue to update the official document, stating their goals as they continue to work together on defining those goals.

The Nederland Sustainability Advisory Board meets on the fourth Thursday of every month. Their next meeting is scheduled for Thursday, March 23, 2023, at 6:45 p.m. and can be attended online or in person at the Nederland Community Center. For more information go to: https://townofnederland.colorado.gov/ sustainability-advisory-board.