BVUUF - Colorado Green Business Network Certified GOLD!

 More information about BVUUF sustainability below.

BVUUF - Gold-Level Member: CGBN recognizes BVUUF for demonstrating a commitment to sustainability!

 

The Colorado Green Business Network (CGBN) within the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment (CDPHE), recognizes BVUUF as a Gold-level member.

Visit CGBN at:  https://cdphe.colorado.gov/co-green-business

At BVUUF we are proud to be a part of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment's Colorado Green Business Network.  BVUUF improved sustainability mainly by disconnecting from the City's natural gas supply, and installing a Ground Source Heat Pump HVAC system.

Check out our GreenBiz tracker profile to learn more about the work we do to make Colorado a healthier place to live, work, and play.  

Visit:  search.greenbiztracker.org/search

Here are some of the eco-friendly features:

• We use no natural gas, and are disconnected from the city gas lines.
• Ground Source Heat Pumps provide heating and cooling.
• We further reduce the need for heating and cooling with increased insulation.
• Motion detectors direct heating and cooling only to rooms when occupied.
• Use of non-fossil fuel marmoleum on all non-carpeted floors. Marmoleum is natural linoleum, bio-based, highly durable, non-toxic, anti-microbial and easy to maintain.
• Electricity is supplied through a subscription to Jacks Solar Garden.
• LED lights are used throughout the building.
• Automatic light switches turn off lights when no one is in the room.
• Bathroom and kitchen fixtures are low-water use.
• Reusable plates, bowls and silverware replace disposables.
• We use low-water dishwashers rather than hand washing.
• Workers issued reusable water bottles to eliminate use of single-use plastic water bottles.
• Recyclables and compostables are collected at all events.
• Currently designing and installing water-wise landscaping and pollinator gardens in beds near the building.
• Native grasses and low-water shrubs are planted in areas further from the building.
• Raised garden beds adjacent to the playground use drip irrigation.
• Beetle-kill pine used in sanctuary ceiling.
• Wood chips used under equipment in playground instead of synthetic materials.

Awards Ceremony at the Denver Zoo on Friday, September 27th.

Assessment of the Building by our Colorado Green Business Network (CGBN) Consultant

 Today I received the assessment that our consultant did when she toured the building last week.  It is chock full of good stuff.  Green Team Building Assessment - April 2024

Upcoming Events - Colorado Green Business Network Items

RSVP ONLY.  NO NEED TO SEND REGRETS. Thanks

• Every Monday Morning:  I've reserved the Mountain View Room for Mondays from 10 am - 11 am, so that we can continue to work on the CGBN Application form.  You're welcome to come and support the effort.  This is the document that supports filling out the application:   CGBN Technical Manual

• April 26 - CGBN Mixer:  Colorado Green Business Network's April Networking Mixer, Friday April 26th,   1-3 pm at Boulder County Recycling Center:

• May 22 - CGBN Application Tips & Tricks Workshop.  Virtual, 10 am - 11 am, Fellowship - Mountain View Room.  This 1 hour long Google Meet workshop will give us additional information regarding filling out our application for CGBN.

We're thinking of investing in an electric lawnmower for the Fellowship.  Does anyone have time to visit this demonstration?  Sounds like it's right up our alley:

Draft of the BVUUF Environmental Policy

 

BVUUF Environmental Policy--DRAFT 4/10/24

Boulder Valley Unitarian Universalist Association recognizes that we are a part of the interdependent web of life.We pledge to ground our missions and ministries in reverence for our earth and responsibility to her as we undertake the following congregational actions, personal practices, and advocacy goals.

Congregational Actions:

• ●  Celebrate reverence for the interdependent web of existence in all aspects of congregational life;

• ●  Treat environmentally responsible practices as a spiritual discipline;

• ●  Educate ourselves and upcoming generations on sustainable ways to live

  interdependently;

• ●  Whenever possible, plan congregational events around proximity to public transportation and encourage attendees, as they are able, to travel by public transportation, walking, biking, and carpooling;

• ●  Use sustainable practices, environmental guidelines and eco-Justice awareness for all building renovation projects;

• ●  Use congregational resources to positively address climate change;

• ●  Practice environmentally responsible consumption;

• ●  Build a broader base for environmentally mindful policies and practices through congregational alliances and certification within Unitarian Universalism, through interfaith channels, and with secular entities;

• ●  Maximize the energy efficiency of congregational facilities

• ●  Encourage education of congregation and local community about environmental issues

  and concerns

• ●  Support interaction with the natural world in the design of our buildings and landscapes, and in our programs

• ●  Plant appropriate trees and native plants, and care for them;

• ●  Strive to be modest in our landscape water use.

Personal Practices:

Our congregation pledges as individuals and families to strive towards becoming better earth stewards. We choose to make positive changes on an individual and community level in our homes and places of business in these ways:

• ●  Reduce our carbon footprint and use renewable sources of energy when possible;

• ●  Choose more energy-efficient transportation that meet our needs and abilities (e.g., walk,

  bike, carpool, mass transit, use online communication and limit travel);

• ●  Consume less, and choose reused/reusable, recycled/recyclable, compostable materials and sustainably harvested materials;

• ●  Reuse, recycle, compost, and reduce waste;

• ●  Choose sustainably harvested wood and wood products;

• ●  Eat and serve food that is locally produced and lower on the food chain;

• ●  Move towards a life of more simplicity and Earth stewardship;

• ●  Make awareness, appreciation and immersion in nature part of our daily lives

  Advocacy Goals

  We, as individuals and as a congregation, pledge to support positive environmental change by being active in our communities, and raising our voices as we are able and have capacity to do so, including (but not limited to) the following advocacies:

• ●  Support local, state, and national environmental initiatives and policies that value clean air, clean water, protection of wildlife, environmental building initiatives, eco-justice, and reducing use of fossil fuels;

• ●  encourage the development, scaling and implementation of clean, renewable energy sources locally, statewide, nationally and internationally;

• ●  Encourage corporate social responsibility with reference to climate change and environmental toxins;

• ●  Continue to learn and share knowledge about the science, impact, and mitigation of climate change and environmental degradation;

• ●  Encourage corporate social responsibility with reference to global warming/climate change;

• ●  Support initiatives that encourage appreciation of the natural world, the interdependent web of existence, of which we are a part.

Upcoming Important Dates

1.  Done:  Zoom Meeting:  Colorado Green Business Network (CGBN) - Application Form Clinic, Thursday, April 4, 2024, 9 am - 9:30 am. This meeting went really well.  We cleared up lots of confusion about how to fill out the CGBN online questionnaire.  Turns out that the Member Handbook & Technical Manual  answers our questions as we work between it and the online questions.  Several members of the Team are taking individual questions to answer.

2.  Done:  Colorado Green Business Network (CGBN) Meeting:  Thursday, April 11,  10 am - 12 noon at the Fellowship.  

• We'll meet with Francis Otero.  She is our very own consultant from the Colorado Green Business Network (CGBN), of which BVUUF is a member.  She will take a tour of the building, do an on-site assessment and then talk to us about filling out the CGBN questionnaire.
• This is the url for the Green Business Network Colorado Member Handbook & Technical Manual.

3.  PACE (Partners for a Clean Environment) Breakfast Meeting, Presentation and Tour.  May, TBD:  

 Boulder County Office of Sustainability, Climate Action & Resilience - PACE (Partners for a Clean Environment)  

From Ambra Sutherlin,  Ambra Sutherlin Business Sustainability Advisor LEED AP BD&C

• It’s great to connect with you again. I attended one of the early BVUUF tours you hosted with Matt and Jenn, and I was so thrilled to see your new church to learn more about your mission and the Ground Source Geo-thermal system.

I am an advisor and I work with many Faith-based organizations and through PACE land as you may know we are promoting our gas to electric feasibility study and PACE rebates and incentives.  We have several Faith-based organizations that are very interested in reaching a net zero goal and looking at alternative heating systems.

We would love the opportunity to showcase your project to other Faith Based organizations and to help educate them on the system and financial support that is out there to help them meet their goals.  I met with members of our team including Matt and Jenn and we were thinking of a breakfast with a presentation and then a tour, in May, if you are willing to provide the tour and the space?  

I said yes, we'd love to do this. 

We can provide breakfast and send the invites to the Faith-Based organizations in Boulder County.  We would also like to include your contractors on the project for the presentation if that's possible.

We'll arrange a date for sometime in May.