Energy Environment of the Western Slope

I-70 through Colorado’s Western Slope in winter.

When you drive along I-70 between Vail Pass and Grand Junction through Colorado’s Western Slope it’s easy to get lost in the beauty of the mountain west. In fact, you should get lost in the beauty. If you look a little closer at the landscape, you’ll see all the signs of Colorado’s energy environment – the oil and gas industry, renewable resources, and even history related to the Manhattan Project. I make this drive a few times each year and have seen the growth and change.

Driving east-to-west, you first pass Vail ski resort. Although all you’ll see are the hotels and ski runs, Vail has been a significant player in wind power and sustainability within the resort industry.

You could drive through Glenwood Canyon dozens of times before noticing the Shoshone hydroelectric generating station. It’s been generating power for western Colorado since 1909!

Storage tank operated by solar panels.

I’ve seen the small town of Rifle go from a rest stop along the highway to a hub for the booming natural gas industry since the boom of 2007-2009. Exit I-70 for some gas or food and you’ll be in traffic behind trucks from Haliburton, Schlumberger, and every other oil and gas company working the west. The impact on the landscape is now hard to miss. One of the more interesting impacts today is all the storage tanks, which are ironically powered by solar panels.

The newest addition to this areas energy resources is the biomass power plant in Gypsum, which just opened December 16, 2013. As I made this drive last week, the steam coming out of the plant was impossible to miss, since it blocked out the sun for a moment. This plant will be burning trees from pine bettle-kill and from forest burn areas to produce steam to produce electricity. This will help clear badly burned and damaged forest areas.

Steam coming from biomass powerplant in Gypsum, CO.

The discussion of biomass as a renewable energy source and environmentally-friendly is not as cut and dry as solar or wind as renewable energy. Biomass is considered carbon neutral, meaning it doesn’t produce any additional carbon dioxide. Although trees are renewable, it’s debatable regarding how renewable versus the amount of energy they produce. Then there is the air pollution. Burning wood produces a lot of particulate matter, which isn’t as toxic as burning fossil fuels, but it is a regulated pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Just think about the last time you sat around a camp fire or your fire place. It’s an interesting, new power source for the west, whose debate will continue.

As you drive west into Grand Junction, there’s no easy-to-see signs of the Department of Energy’s involvement in the Manhattan Project, but it’s there. There is still a DOE facility in Grand Junction, which once processed the uranium from nearby mines. Grand Junction has seen the ups (jobs and growth) and downs (cancers and illness from improper disposal).

Hydroelectric, biomass, natural gas, and nuclear power. That’s an impressive list of resources to take in without leaving the comfort of your cars. It’s an energy environment resource driving tour.

Contaminated pond near the DOE facility in Grand Junction, CO.

TNEP Profile: Rick Cables, Vail Resorts

Breckenridge Ski Resort, a Vail Resorts property.

Vail Resorts is not just Vail ski resort. The company owns and operates 10 ski resorts in 5 different states. I’ve skied at 5 of those 10 resorts, plus many others that Vail Resorts doesn’t own. I think about the environmental professionals who manage the environmental impacts of these unique properties – wildlife and forest management, water use, waste management, the impact of climate change, and balancing recreation on US Forest Service land. My curiosity brought me to Vail Resorts headquarters in Broomfield, CO to speak with Rick Cables, Vail Resorts VP of Natural Resources and Conservation.

If you spent any time hiking, camping, or recreating in the National Forests of Alaska or Colorado, or in the Colorado State parks system, or have skied in any of Vail Resorts properties, then Rick Cables’ work has impacted your life. After a career with the US Forest Service and working for the State of Colorado, Rick now works with Vail Resorts managing their environmental programs.

TNEP: When I reached out to Vail Resorts to speak with someone working in the environmental program, I didn’t know who to expect. It looks like you made some headlines when you came to Vail Resorts. Continue reading →

Seeing the World Through Environmental Tinted Eyes

Pollution from a sugar factory. Yes, a sugar factory

Seeing through the world through the eyes of an environmental professional is both a blessing and a curse. The blessing is that it gives me an appreciate for the natural world and allows me to see and understand the improvements in our environment. The curse is that I can’t miss the environmental pollutants and potential damage in nearly everything.

Control of air quality, management and releases of hazardous chemicals, and other important environmental areas have seen great improvements. But the amount of chemicals in our daily life seems to be increasing and our exposure to them is often unknown. I can’t stop thinking about constant exposure to environmental pollutants, both mine and the people I see being exposed. At work, it’s the exposure to hazardous materials for both me and my coworkers. At home, it’s the countless man-made chemicals in our food and products.

I see coworkers who are exposed to hazardous chemicals on a daily basis and I try to educate them on the effects of exposure. I gas up my car, get a quick whiff of the fuel vapors, and immediately think about what that exposure is doing to me and everyone else. I’ll drive past a construction site and think about the pollutants in the dust being kicked up. I’ll see someone applying a pesticide without any PPE and wonder about their exposure. Although our overall air quality control has improved, I see pollution from refineries and factories and worry about spending too much time around them.

Air pollution over the Rocky Mountains

As a recreational triathlete, albeit a slow one, I think about the environment where I’m training. I enjoy open water swimming, but wonder what pollutants are in the water? It could be a beautiful lake and maybe the only nasty thing in it is too much goose poop, but a lake in an urban setting could be filled with stormwater runoff chemicals – fertilizers, pesticides, oils and greases. You probably shouldn’t swim in an urban lake the day after a big storm. This fall I ran a half-marathon through downtown Denver and was thankful that the race was on a Sunday morning. I couldn’t imagine running 13.1 miles through the city on a busy weekday and question people who do or worse, run along a busy road during rush hour.

In my house, I’ll wear my shoes inside and wonder what was on the bottom of them that I just carried through (pesticides, grease from the street). Should I be using this household cleaner? Am I being exposed to the fire-retardant chemicals in my couch or the pesticides I applied to get rid of the ants? Most likely, yes. I bought Halloween makeup to apply a mustache for my son’s costume, Einstein. I read the ingredients, thought better of it and he went as Lil Einstein – no mustache.

One area where some progress is being made to reduce our exposure to small amounts of toxic, man-made chemicals is in our food. Although agribusiness is bigger than ever, finding options for healthier, naturally grown food is becoming more widespread.

Paracelsus said, “All things are poison, and nothing is without poison; only the dose permits something not to be poisonous.” I enjoy seeing the world through my environmental-tinted eyes and use that understanding to balance being environmentally conscious, being realistic, and taking calculated risks. Ignorance is not bliss, so I wear my PPE.

What is this guy being exposed to?

Wyoming’s Rich Energy Resources

Wind turbines, coal rail car, and an oil refinery in Casper, WY.

Wind turbines, coal rail car, and an oil refinery in Evansville, WY.

I was driving through Wyoming along I-25 between Cheyenne and Casper and it was impossible to miss the rich energy resources available in this state. Just In this 180-mile stretch of highway I passed a few long rail cars carrying coal, two coal power plants, a hydroelectric power plant, several wind farms, and the refinery in Evansville. That’s amazing and that’s just what you see along one highway in the southeast portion of the state.

I initially thought that the energy resources stood out because Wyoming is such a sparsely populated state. That’s partially true. Wyoming has the lowest population of any state and is #1 state in the country for energy production per capita. But I’ve been all over the country and there is no stretch of road that I’ve driven with the amount and range of energy resources that jumps out at you like this. That’s why I was not surprised that Wyoming is the #2 state for total energy production. Texas is #1. (Maybe I haven’t spent enough time in southeast Texas.) Wyoming is #1 for coal production in the US and that is also not surprising. The over 1-mile long coal rail cars are not just seen in Wyoming, but also up and down the Colorado Front Range, where I live, as the coal is transported to power plants in Colorado, New Mexico, and Texas.

Throughout the rest of the state you’ll find natural gas, hydrothermal, solar, uranium and precious metal mines. The state is a geologic wonder for beauty, range of features, and complexity and that has lead to it being such an interesting state for our energy resources. Check out the US Energy Information Administration page for Wyoming for more stats and information.

Dave Johnson power plant.

Coal rail cars along I-25.

Why is Lead 5.0 mg/l?

Lead at 8.3 mg/l.

Why is the EPA hazardous waste characteristic concentration for lead 5 mg/l or greater?

Lead is a poisonous metal and exposure to it, mainly through ingestion or inhalation, can do a long list of harm to your body – nervous system, brain, kidneys, weakness, reduced cognitive ability, and more. There’s decades of research and evidence about the toxicity of lead. That is why the EPA has determined that wastes containing a certain amount of lead are considered hazardous waste.

Let’s hear it directly from the EPA: If lead in the leaching solution is present at a concentration greater than or equal to 5 mg/l (or parts-per-million – ppm), the waste would be considered to be hazardous, and would be required to be managed as a hazardous waste.

But why 5 mg/l? Why not 100 mg/l, which is the level for barium? Why not 1 mg/l, which is cadmium? How did the EPA determine that 5 mg/l is the threshold level? That less than that leaching out of product in a landfill is not as hazardous? I could ask the same about the levels of any of the hazardous waste toxins, but lead is the one I think about.

The answer has to do with ingestion of lead from drinking water derived from groundwater or surface water sources. The maximum contaminant level (MCL) for lead in our drinking water is 50 ug/l. To determine the level for hazardous wastes, the MCL is multiplied by a 100-fold dilution attenuation factor to come up with the level of 5 mg/l. Apparently in some cases dilution is the solution to pollution.

It’s not the prettiest answer, but it is a technical question, which don’t usually have pretty answers. The summary answer is that lead is poisonous and the EPA has to set a limit that is “safe”. They have determined a level that protects the public based on history of lead poisoning, the science of the breakdown of lead, our consumption of contaminated water, and most certainly the review by policymakers and industry.

The best part is that we have identified a toxic threat to our health, taken steps to reduce our exposure, and we are a healthier, happier, and safer society due to the drastic reduction of lead. Read this for great article about how reducing lead in our environment has reduced crime.

Heart Healthy Beef – Blacktail Mountain Ranch

Ed Jonas tending to his cattle. Courtesy of Blacktail Mountain Ranch.

Ed Jonas and his Blacktail Mountain Ranch breed cattle so healthy that it is considered heart healthy. That’s right, a red meat that is healthier than chicken, bison, and turkey.

What does heart healthy beef have to do with environmental professionals? More than you might think. The connection between your health and environmental health is not hard to make. If unnatural toxins enter into the environment it can directly and indirectly impact our health through exposure to polluted land, air and water. If unnatural materials, such as genetically modified, antibiotics, or herbicides, are introduced into the food we eat it can cause known and unknown harm to our bodies. There are environmental professionals who devote their careers to reducing toxic exposures through safer products and work practices. That’s not much different than a rancher taking similar steps to reduce toxic exposure by providing healthy cattle. It takes a special kind of rancher to raise such a cattle and that rancher is Ed Jonas.

Ed and I met at the Craggy Range Bar in Whitefish, MT to talk about what drove him to raise healthy cattle and to sample some his delicious beef. Ed is a Vietnam veteran who was in Air Force intelligence and a pilot. He has a law degree from Rutgers Law and went into aviation law representing pilots and is now a cattle rancher. That’s quite an interesting life.

When Ed got out of the Air Force he saw the health issues of some of his friends who had served. That is when he asked himself. “What can I do to improve my health?”, which drove him to use healthy eating to keep a healthy body. Edible healing? I’ve believe I’ve heard that before. As an example, he told me a story about his mom telling him to just put some creamer in his coffee. She said, “It’s just like milk.” Ed looked at the ingredients and thought, “There’s nothing like milk in here.” This is just one simple example of countless similar stories that could be told about recognizing the difference between real food and processed food.

When the last of Ed’s three sons went off to college, he moved to Montana to start raising cattle. He was sampling beef at rodeo and asked where the meat had come from? He was surprised that it wasn’t from Montana. With all of the good ranching land in Montana, why was he eating beef from Washington. This was just another step that helped lead him to breed a local, healthy, grass-fed beef.

The long-haired HighMont cattle. Courtesy of Blacktail Mountain Ranch

Blacktail Mountain Ranch’s beef is a unique breed of cattle called HighMont Beef. Ed crossed the Piedmontese breed with the ancient cattle breed of the Scottish highlands. Both of these breeds are known as low-fat and low cholesterol. It’s not only the breeds, but how Ed cares for the animals. He personally walks and handles them daily to keep a calm stress-free environment. The result is a healthy, grass-fed, low-fat, low cholesterol HighMont beef, which has been endorsed by cardiologists. The Ranch was even recently featured in Sunset Magazine.

Ed and his wife Connie have worked for years on the ranch and at the beginning they weren’t making a whole lot of money and were putting in non-stop hours. But they were producing a quality product to be proud of and they loved it. Ed believe’s he could not have done it without Connie. He called her the original pioneer woman, but when they met Connie was a vegetarian. Her involvement with the Ranch has made her a believer in this beef.

As a growing desire builds for healthier, natural, real food, Blacktail Mountain Ranch has been providing it locally. It’s just unfortunate that the rest of the country doesn’t have access to it or a similar product. The Ranch is currently looking at expansion and relocation, so you many soon be able benefit from the heart-healthy beef. As Ed and I finished our meal, he commented, “It’s all about health. I saw my mom die of cancer. I want to be around for my grandkids.”

You can contact the Blacktail Mountain Ranch, get more about the nutritional content of the beef, and read their endorsements at blacktailmountainranch.com.

TNEP Profile: Christopher Huch, Alliance for a Living Ocean

Chris during an ALO summer program.

I’ve been going to Long Beach Island, NJ for over a decade and recently took my first trip there since Hurricane Sandy damaged so much of it in October 2012. The barrier islands up and down the Atlantic coastline are not only beautiful and popular vacation destinations, but they are an important part of the overall coastal geology and ecosystem. Like all of our favorite natural environments we have to find that balance between use, development, and protecting the natural environment. If it is misused and the fish populations dwindle, the water is polluted, or the coastlines are poorly managed, then we will lose those the very reasons we want to be there.

That is where an organization like the Alliance for a Living Ocean (ALO) comes in, whose work to rebuild and restore the island is thriving a year after Hurricane Sandy. I met with their Executive Director, Christopher Huch Jr. at his office on LBI to talk about what they do and his place as a steward for a healthy coastal environment.

The National Environmental Professional: Let’s start with ALO, tell me a bit about the organization and your work with it.

Christopher Huch: We started back in the 80’s when ocean dumping was so big. In 1987 there was not only trash washing up, but also medical waste. That was the summer that gave New Jersey this persona in popular culture that, “don’t go to the beaches or you’ll be walking on needles.”

It started as a grass roots effort. They decided to do something about it, so they formed ALO in 1987, got together with other groups, attended a bunch of rallies on Capitol Hill, and ocean dumping was banned and officially stopped by the early 1990’s.

After that point we went through a time when we had to figure out what are we doing. Our biggest environmental issue after ocean dumping was Barnegat Bay on the other side of the barrier island. One of the issues is, since the 1980’s we’ve had a pretty large build out of the water shed. So we’ve got issues with runoff. In Barnegat Bay it’s especially a big issue because the flushing time of the bay is 70 days. People love having green lawns around here. People throw out so much fertilizer it all ends up running off and goes into the bay, which is really damaging to one of the keystone species, eel grass, which is this submerged aquatic vegetation that provides a nursery for virtually every viable commercial fish dock on the eastern seaboard, whether directly or indirectly. Eel grass since the 1970s, since they first started mapping, has been slowly declining. So we were focusing on Barnegat bay issues for a good 10-15 years.

Our name association wasn’t reflective of what we were doings. As people saw that ocean dumping was banned, it was like, “Job well done. Don’t need to donate to them anymore.”

When they hired me on, we were at the end of it. They hired me and said whatever you want to make this into something again.

The first year I was here was all about trying to cut costs. I worked on that a lot. I worked on strengthening our partnerships in the area. Things were really going in the right direction going into last fall when we got hit with Sandy. When Sandy hit it was a complete reevaluation. For me it was tough because I had left a position at Rutgers University as a researcher there to come and come to this. I left to come here; I had one year and my job was gone.

We were all off the island. I had no idea if the building was still here. There were rumors running rampant. We had about 3 and half feet of water in here.

After the storm the board of directors decided they wanted to keep the organization going so immediately we got involved with a cleanup that was being put on by a local lifeguard. He was going to be home for Thanksgiving so he set up a Facebook event for his buddies to go do a beach cleanup. So, He made this Facebook event, planned to have 8-10 of his buddies to join him and forgot to set it as private and it went from 8-10 to 900 in about a 24-hour period at which point he called me and said, “What do I do?” and asked for help.

We do beach clean ups on a regular basis throughout the year. We were kind of equipped and ready to handle it. That set the stage for the work throughout the winter. We had cleanups every weekend through January and every other weekend through May.

One of the groups we got involved with right away after the storm, a local company called Jetty, a couple of young guys. They run a couple events to help the surf culture in the area. They printed these t-shirts to raise money for Sandy. Right away they had money coming in. As soon as they had $20 in the budget they were buying up all the water they could to bring to the emergency responders. They paired up with another group called Waves for Water, started by a retired professional surfer name Jon Rose. The whole idea is to bring drinking water to all these third world countries he visited touring the world surfing. He had experience with disaster relief and connections with the surf community.

We were picking stuff out of trees. It was a long and arduous process, but we got through the winter. We got the office rebuilt. In the summer we had our educational programs going again and now we’re getting ready to start the process of really replanting the dunes in the area. So that’s our big tasks.

TNEP: I can see why you’re involved with ALO. You have a degree in Marine Science and a Professional Science Masters in Environmental Science and you’re a surfer. So it’s not hard to put together how this is important to your life.

CH: I grew up in Monmouth County, NJ and we moved down here in 98 and at that time I had no experience with the bay. I was really ticked at my parents. I was really getting into surfing at that point. I was, “What did you do? It smells weird. It doesn’t taste right.” The smell of wetland in the bay is an acquired taste.

My family had a charter boat business up in Monmouth County. We sold it when we came down here. My dad is a teacher. My mom got involved with an organization on the mainland, the Tukerman Seaport, a maritime history museum. So I had that kind of upbringing where I had this appreciation for everything. When I was in high school I attend a vocation school part time, the Marine Academy of Technology and Environmental Science. It’s an amazing program. At that time it was really groundbreaking and at this time the kids can put me to shame.

I went to Stockton College, which is considered to be one of the better environmental schools because of its location – in the middle of the Pinelands area, this lush natural habitat and also on the border of Great Bay watershed, which is the most pristine watershed in the United States, oddly enough in New Jersey.

I went to Stockton for my bachelors and ended up staying for the first year of that professional science masters program in environmental science. The whole time I was working for Rutgers at the Jacques Cousteau National Estuarine Research Reserve. So I got my hands into a lot of different research projects.

TNEP: One of the things I liked about ALO is, “education and action”.

An ALO clean up day.

CH: There’s that mission statement you’re referring to, “The mission of the Alliance for a Living Ocean is to promote and maintain clean water and a healthy coastal environment through education and action. We recognize the need to manage our entire watershed since all water flows from “the raindrop to the ocean.” What that actually means is open to interpretation at all times and where to focus. The Board has been excellent to embrace new ideas, new ways of doing things, pushing the social media.

TNEP: When I first found you guys, I was curious how active the organization is and went right to your Facebook page and found that you have a very active page. Have you found the Facebook page to be informative and helpful?

CH: We’re kind of in a weird section of New Jersey. The two major newspapers of the Jersey Shore are the Press of Atlantic City south of here, or the Asbury Park Press, which is north of here. Islanders have this mentality of, “I don’t care what’s going on elsewhere.” The only paper we have for our area is The SandPaper, which is this free weekly newsletter. Obviously after the storm you can’t go pick up your copy of the Sand Paper. Social media is really how everyone got in touch.

The people that stayed on the island were cut off from the mainland and the people on the mainland were cut off from the island. Instead of the towns putting out information about what’s going on, it was people posting on their Facebook pages what was happening. I actually was using our Facebook page. We had a following of about 300, which was pretty decent for the new set up and reflected our membership at that time. Friends working on the island were sending me pictures, videos and I was constantly loading that to our Facebook page. We went from 300 people following our page to close to 3000 in a very short amount of time.

People might not have been able to come up and see their home. They were just relying on a quick snippet of a video of a guy driving down the boulevard looking at side streets. They see their neighbors house and, “Oh good, I feel better about my house.” After the storm, that’s what the Facebook page was used for. After that point, we slowly phased back into our natural role as an environmental organization getting things out there. We’re still alerting the public about different Sandy-related things. It’s gained us a larger following.

TNEP: It creates a great network on the island.

You changed from a research position to now here. Do your friends and family have a better understanding of what you do now?

CH: At first, the reception to my just leaving the position wasn’t great. My family understood what I was doing, but my friends were like, “Why would you leave a job when you don’t have something set up?”

When I started here, a lot of people were like, “What are you doing? Do you just play with kids all day?” There’s a lot of jokes at my expense. Since Sandy, as the organization has been received by the public there’s been a lot more of a respectful position from my former coworkers. They’re excited for me, for the work I’m doing. I’ve even had a couple of my friends who are jealous of the work I’m doing. It’s just been so rewarding.

A calm day at LBI.

TNEP: I can sense the passion in you. You’re a surfer. How do your peers in the surf community see you? Do they have that appreciation and understanding?

CH: We’ve got a really unique surf culture here on Long Beach Island. It’s a really tight knit group. If you’re a year-round surfer here, you’ve got to be in it. The water gets down to the 20’s some times.

A lot of the guys here aren’t your typical southern California surfers. You see the guys around here, a lot of them dress in flannel. We resemble lumberjacks more often than we do your typical surfer. Most of them are local guys, hard working guys that have their own business. A lot of them are actually in the fishing and clamming communities. They are already in the natural environment and appreciate that we need to do something. That we need to save what we have or I’m going to be out of a job in the future.

We actually started a program called Surf Stewards. We would take surf instructors and teach them how to give a quick 1 minute lesson into their surf lessons so that anybody who gets into surfing would have a little bit of understanding on how to protect the environment as well as a little surfing etiquette.

That program had been initiated and I came on board and took it a bit further. I have a lot of contacts in the surf community. We set up this idea where people could sign up and take this pledge to not only go out and surf and not kill people, but also to protect the environment – use reusable water bottles, pick up a few pieces of trash when you walk on the beach, every time you walk off the beach.

That wasn’t really groundbreaking, but what is cool is that we set it up this early alarm system. Surfers are the first ones in the water every day. They’re the last ones out of the water every day. They’re the ones out past where everybody is playing. They’re also the ones who are most in tune with what’s going on.

We actually had this situation where it was the middle of winter. It was a foggy day, but there are waves and there are guys out surfing. Nobody else is on the beach. The township crews don’t go on the beach in the winter. I got a phone call from one of the guys in the program. “Hey. There’s trash washing up in Harvey Cedars and there’s a lot of it. You should get over here.”

It was all these cardboard bait boxes that probably inadvertently fell of a fishing boat, but there were hundreds of them. With the fog and nobody on the beach, nobody would have known about it. They were washing in a specific area. We were able to get in touch with the local borough hall. They got the township crews downs on the beach to clean up.

TNEP: It’s a fantastic story of the connection between your job, the surf community, and LBI.

CH: There used to be this mindset that any groups that were environmentalists were looking to just clamp down on the use of the resources. That’s slowly changing. I think the biggest change around here was the striped bass fishing industry. The striped bass was basically gone. The government came on board and set up this progressive program. In essence, you can have a smaller fish and you can have a larger fish. Those size ranges were set up specifically for breeding and migration. The striped bass population at this point is almost a victim of its own success. It’s gotten so large that it’s starting to impact other fish.

Now the fishing community, especially the recreational fishing around here, is more understanding of what’s going on. These different groups are coming together to understand that instead of working against the recreation fishing laws let’s work with the organizations who are setting this legislations. The sharing of resources has really changed the mindset.

TNEP: What is the long term goal for ALO?

CH: Our biggest focus at this time is going into replanting our island’s dune systems.

Beach replenishment is going to take place across the entire coastline, which is pretty staggering. Luckily the environmental ramifications of beach replenishment are really low. You’re basically worried about the interstitial life, the stuff that lives between the sand grains. But that stuff comes back within a few weeks. We don’t have any opposition to beach replenishment in that regard.

The idea now is to get these projects to form more of a natural profile. We want to see it reflect the natural sand bars, the natural berms that form. Not only are they natural features they are also used for protective purposes during storms. They help break up energy. That’s one that is not necessarily what the organization is focusing on, but is one that a couple of us within the organization are working on with the local communities.

The dune planting is a big thing. When the Army Corps of Engineers comes through and plants them, they plant them with a monoculture of dune grass. What is really fantastic about it is that it’s capable of surviving in this environment that’s really harsh – heat, cold, salt spray. It doesn’t need much organic content to get going. It absorbs a lot of nutrients from the air. One plant can have roots can have roots that extend 30+ feet. The reason why it’s planted is, 1. The sand that’s blowing off the surface of the dune hit the grass and fall back down; and 2. As wave energy eats away at the dune, these roots help hold the dune in place.

What we found is that these dune grasses did not hold the dunes in place as much as we would like compared to dunes with dune grass with a whole bunch of other natural vegetation. Dune grass does a great job to begin with, but you throw all these other plants in there, it makes the dunes stronger.

We dedicated $11,000 to dune planting on Long Beach Island and that’s just a start. The capability of us to do that is fantastic to our board members.

We’re going to try to make sure that the dunes are planted in a way that reflects what a natural dune environment should have. We’re going to try to get as much natural vegetation in as possible. In doing so not only will we create a dune that’s much strong and will protect the community from future storm events, we’re also creating an ecosystem again that was lost for a bit – a real ecosystem that has checks and balances in it. If you just have dune grass, you really can’t have any animals in it. If you have dune grass and goldenrod, suddenly you can have butterflies. If you have dune grass, goldenrod and bayberry then you’ve got some small mammals like rabbits living in there. We’re really excited about the possibility of creating an ecosystem that has largely been lost due to development in the area.

TNEP: Chris, this was great. It was great to hear about what you and the ALO are doing to protect LBI.

TNEP Profile: Anna Zawisza, Alliance for Sustainable Colorado

My work in the environmental field has dealt with either technical or compliance issues. I rarely get into the network of policy, legislation, and the non-profit organizations making significant impacts on our environmental community. That is why I was excited to talk with Anna Zawisza, the Interim Executive Director for the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, whose mission is to advance sustainability through collaboration among nonprofits, business, government and education.

Anna and I know each other through our network of friends in Denver and have skied together, but this is the first time we got together to talk specifically about our roles working in the environmental field. We met at the Wynkoop Brewery in Denver to talk about her work with the Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, her passion for the work, how she fell into the environmental field, and that sustainability is not just an environmental word. With people like Anna driving for change in our world, I’m confident that we’ll get where we need to.

The National Environmental Professional (TNEP): You make a distinction between “Environmental Professional” and sustainability?

Anna Zawisza (AZ): So many people really focus on environment only. For us, unless we’re looking at what in the sustainability field we call the triple bottom line, which is people and profit or society and economy in addition to environment and the planet, you’re really not having a holistic approach because all those three are intertwined. So the way I look at it or think about it is, if you can’t feed your family or pay your bills you’re never going to be concerned about climate change or even recycling, which is the lead-in for people to get into environmental issues. It’s not even on your radar. So you’ve got to be able to look at the economic factor and how the whole human condition impacts all of it. Without people on this planet, we wouldn’t have the issues we’re having, right?

We talk about all three together. So I don’t consider myself an environmental professional. I consider myself a sustainabiity professional.

TNEP: That’s good to hear you say. When I go to your website or think sustainability, the first thing on my mind is the environment.

AZ: Sustainability is more than an environmental movement. But it is really the way that we are perceived, so we have been pigeonholed into that.

TNEP: Since you aren’t an environmental professional, how do you answer the question, “What do you do?”

AZ: That depends. If I’m trying to be really upfront and direct, I say, “I’m the Programs Director at a sustainability non-profit that works state-wide”, and then I go into what I do. If I’m trying to be a little tounge-in-cheek, I say, “I’m trying to save humanity from themselves.” Ultimately that’s what this is about. The planet’s going to be around long after humans are gone. So what we’re trying to do is actually save the human species from ourselves.

TNEP: That’s much bigger than what I’m doing.

AZ: Well sometimes it’s so big that it gets to be difficult. It’s tongue in cheek, but ultimately what the goal here is to make people aware of how unsustainable we’ve become. Everything is disposable. Everything is immediate. If you look at Wall Street, we report profits on a quarterly basis these days and unless it makes sense to do on a quarterly basis, companies don’t do it. Then there are companies like Unilever that made the decsion, not that long ago, to say we’re not looking quarterly anymore. We’re going to look annually. We’re going to look 5 and 10 years out.

What we’re asking humans to do is look 50 years out, 100 years out. Which is so counterintuitive to how we process that it’s a huge disconnect.

TNEP: Do you find that more of your work is geared more toward environmental issues or is it getting that message out? What do you see as bigger?

AZ: I think they’re weighted equally. We tend to lead with the environment, because the organization I’m involved with was founded on the premise that the habitability of this planet is at risk, largely due to climate change. So what we need to do is pull forces together to address that biggest issue. The issue is only an issue because we have humans that need to feed their families on the planet. We lead with the environmental side, but all three need to be looked at holistically as important as the other.

TNEP: When you interact with people and organizations, are they on your side already or are some resistant? How do those different sides feel about you?

AZ: We are guilty of talking and preaching to the choir. There are organizational tendancies. We know our sustainabiltiy leaning freinds, but we all have to address these issues together. A mission of advancing sustainbiility is about collaboration and bringing in business and government and non-profit and academia into the same conversation to say, “No one organization, no one person, no one leader, no one country is going to be able to solve this.”

It is solveable. We have technologies today that can solve the climate change issue. We’re just not at the point yet where we’re willing to do what’s necessary, i.e. sacrifice short term profits, to make that leap. NREL did an amazing study that shows how we can get to 80% renewables in our country on our grid. It’s a great study, but it shows what it takes is will.

We do have staunch critics. We got Tea Partied at one of our events. There’s such a push back to the term sustainability that we are viewed completely as the enemy because of Agenda 21 and the whole UN conspiracy theory. When people like that come in, there’s no dialog. That’s sad because I’d like to think we could all use critical thinking and be able to say, “Huh, I really believe in this but I’m at least able to listen to what someone who opposed that is thinking.”

TNEP: When I’ve received resistance as an “environmentalist” I turn the conversation to personal health and toxicology and that usually gets their attention.

AZ: Our rational arguments aren’t working. We’re trying to look at other movements that have happened – civil rights or LGBT movement. They’ve started using emotional arguments. Emotional arguments that tend to resinate with people are getting American inovation and leadership back. Let’s regain that. Another that tends to resinate with grandparents or younger people is, let’s leave a healthy planet for our kids and grandkids. And that tugs at the hearstrings. We got to get past the rationale arguments. They haven’t worked. They’ve been out there for 30 years.

TNEP: In your time in this field, is there an area where you’ve seen good progress and conversely something that needs a lot of work or attention?

AZ: I think on the progress side, where I see the biggest sucess is in the local food movement. There are lots of pepole who are fed up with agri-business and Monsanto and genetically modified corn and soybeans and they’re just fed up and they want healthy local food. Community gardens are booming. Denver Urban Gardens has waiting lists. Average people are starting to garden again. We all had Victory Gardens, or our parents did, and all of the sudden that’s coming back. A half a block from me I have an urban farm. Wonderful people are doing CSAs out of their backyard. It’s everywhere. I don’t think Denver is the only community where that’s happening. I know it’s happening in other parts of Colorado. It’s not yet enough to really shift the way that we get our food, but it’s starting to resinate.

The biggest issue where we’re not making progess is our carbon emissions. In Colorado, Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment are doing a greenhouse gas inventory. There hasn’t been one done in Colorado since 2005. We’re doing all this stuff in state and overall they’re not going down. Now we’ve got more people, so you have to look at per captia too. Globally, nationally, state-wide, we saw a little dip whent the recession hit in 2008, but ultimately we’re not doing what we need to do.

I think that’s why the President finally said, “You know what? I don’t care what Congress is going to do here. I’m coming out with a robust and progressive climate action plan and I’m going to count on some of my agencies to address this.” Ultimately if we see over a 2 degree change in global temperatures, we’re screwed! If we’re really serious about the people and the economy then we got to look at this issue at a very different way that we’ve been. Burrying our head in the sand, we’re screwing ourselves and our kids.

TNEP: I was going to ask you about your passion and it’s clear you’re very passionate about this, which is great.

Now let’s talk a bit more about you. Do your friends and family understand what you do? Do they appreciate what you do?

AZ: My mother is a climate denier. Yes. Although I think she’s coming around. My stepdad, although a staunch Repbulican, he is an NPR-listener, reads Mother Jones, National Goegraphic, Scientific American. So he is starting to change her mind. I’ve sent them many letters, articles. My mother describes me as a “greeny.” That’s her term, not mine.

I think she appreciates the passion that I have, but she feels it is misguided. That the problem isn’t as bad as it. So, no. I don’t think my family appreciates it.

I’ve aligned a lot of my friends, especially here in Colorado, to have similar values. I think most Coloradans do. Whether they are super passionate about it or not, I think they are educated.

TNEP: That’s good to hear. You’re connected to and talk to a lot of people in the state. It’s good to hear that they mostly understand.

AZ: They understand and they see. They see what’s happening to our environment because they love to be out in the mountains and then look at the pine beelte kill. I was just up in Rocky Mountain National Park and I literally had a momement where I had not seen beetle kill as bad as this, since I hadn’t been up there in a couple years. There’s huge ares of dead trees. There’s not one green tree and it hits you. It hits you when you’re working and love the nature. So Coloradans see that.

My friends here are very much aligned and I have lots of friends in the non-profit world who are working on some of these things – Denver Bike Sharing and Denver Urban Gardens, and Conservation Colorado.

TNEP: I ask that question because I feel that my friends and family do not understand what I do, but they appreciate it. At least I think they do. Although I think some of them still think I’m climbing mountains with my rock hammer in hand.

AZ: And that saddens me a little. because that means we haven’t made environmentalism as much as a value as I’d like to think it is.

Cub Lake in Rocky Mountain NP. Pine beetle kill trees aided the Fern Lake Fire of Oct 2012.

TNEP: Was there moment or a project when you realized that this was interesting, important work?

AZ: I’ve been in this field for just over 5 years. I kind of fell into it. I started volunteering for the Democratic National Convention, their greening team and got put in touch with our founder who was looking for help on a big even they were doing during the DNC here in Denver called the Big Tent. I don’t know that I had a, “Oh this is cool” moment. I’ve secretly been an environmentalist my whole life. I was very pragmatic. I went to business school and never really thought I could have a career that allowed me to tap into my passion for the outdoors and the environment. I think by studying economics and finance was really important because that is the major driver for humans, for most things. I’m not a social scientist. I didn’t do environmental studies or a science, which is normally the path to this career. So having more people who understand the business side is important becuase it is such a driver.

I had an a-ha moment that said, as much as I thought I was a closet environmentalist my whole life, I didn’t know a tenth of the information that I know right now. I actually had about a 2-month period where i couldn’t sleep. I woud just sweat and wake up at night and just worry about everythat that was happening. My boyfirend at the time was telling me to chill out. Civilizaiton is not collapsing tomorrow, there are lot of smart people who understand the issues and you can’t do this to yourself. And he was right.

I’ve had to step back a little bit and not internalize so much and just say, “I’m a fighter. I’m a hopeful fighter.” I have hope that the human race is loving enough, strong enough, smart enough to figure this out. That’s my stance now, but I did have a crisis moment about 6 months into my career. It was just way to overwhleming.

TNEP: Is there an example of an interesting or fascinating opportunity that was presented to you by working in this field.

AZ: I think the biggest success story of the past year is the passage of Senate Bill 252, which was expansion of our renewable energy standard to rural Colorado. There were lots of opponents to this particular piece of legislation, but it just showed that Coloradans want more renewalbe energy on their grid. That they look at as the future and what we need to do. And we pushed it through. It took everyone working toegether to make that happen, including industry, including government, including non-profits, ranchers. There was pushback about cost incerease and whether rural Coloradans could absorb it, but there was a cap, a 2% rate cap put into the bill to ensure that working families wouldn’t be burdened with additional dollars spent on renewable energy. It increased the renewable energy standard for rural Colorado from 10% to 20% by 2020. We were the first state in the nation to pass a renewable energy standard, back in 2004. This showed that at a time when the politics of renewable energy are just as partisan as you could imagine, in a purple state we were able to do this.

I never looked at legislation as the answer. I still don’t think it’s the way that we should be doing things. But when there’s strong opposition, especially from industry or utilities, to something that makes sense and that people want, legislation is an amazing way to get things done and done quickly. I’m a convert. It’s not the answer I would want but if you don’t give us another option, if the market won’t do it, we have to do what’s right. So we passed some good policy.

TNEP: You come from a finance and background and you made the leap into the environmental field. Was it hard?

AZ: I made the leap. I got laid off in 2008 when Lehman Brothers crashed. I was working for a small mareting company that was doing student loans and Lehman Brothers was one of our biggest partners. Pretty much 80% of the company was let go overnight. That was hard.

Then I volunteered not thinking career path. I had time and I might meet some people, because I didn’t have a network here. It was tough initially because I almost took a half pay cut. It felt like a huge set back. You’re at a point in your career where you think your income is only going to increase. It wasn’t quite a 50% paycut, maybe 40%, but you make it work. It’s amazing. Since then I’ve been able to get my income back to where it was. Non-profits are on the lower level pay, much less than business. but once you get into more senior management roles at non-profits, you can live comfortably.

TNEP: You clearly have a passion for it and enjoy it. That goes such a long way.

AZ: It does. It does. People don’t look at non-profit work seriously becuase they are afraid of the financial consequences. That’s the fallacy I want to break. My important reality is that I do something I love with people I care about who are all passionate about this. If I can do that and get paid for it…I just won the lottery.

TNEP: I think what you just said is very important to what people in the environmental field are doing. It’s good to hear that from someone like yourself who is working so hard in the network and legislation and policy. I don’t see that side everyday.

AZ: I was thinking again about people not understanding what you do. Why don’t you just carry a picture of a water pipe with green sludge coming out of it and go, “See this, I try to prevent this from happening.”

Environmental Professional Profile – Ravi Ajodah, US Army Corps of Engineers

You’ve probably heard of the US Army Corps of Engineers and may have an idea what they do. A long-time friend and former colleague, Ravi Ajodah, is the Senior Program Manager and Team Leader for the North Atlantic Division US Army Corps of Engineers’ Environmental Program. He is responsible for the oversight of all military, civilian, interagency and international environmental and munitions cleanup programs throughout the Northeast US and Europe. He’s had a passion for the environment as long as I’ve known him and it’s great to know that someone with that passion is helping to further the Corps of Engineers’ environmental programs. We caught up over the phone to talk about his influences and his career as an environmental professional.

Ravi on the 77th floor of the Freedom Tower

The National Environmental Professional (TNEP): You’ve spent your entire career in the environmental field, was there person or a project that you worked with or on when you realized that this was good, interesting work?

Ravi Ajodah (RA): That’s a tough one, not because I can’t think of any. There’s just so many people and places and projects that I’ve found interesting and confirmed my choice of going into the environmental field. Every time I meet someone new, another environmental professional or at another project or site, I reaffirm the field I’m in is extremely interesting and evolving.

I think if I had to pick one I have to go back to college. I did this project where we rehabbed this greenhouse and a second one where I was doing this aquatic ecology research at Fort Totten (Queens, NY). The work at Fort Totten is really what started my career. A junior in college at that time, it helped me get my first job, at Fort Totten, and that was an early building block to my career and my education. Every day was interesting; every day in the field; every day in the lab. The environmental field as a whole is evolving and challenging and that’s what makes it interesting. It’s not monotonous. You can be doing the same thing over and over again and it will be different every time.

TNEP: You said that when you work with other environmental professionals, it reaffirms your work. What about your interaction with people who aren’t environmental professionals, both work related and friends and family? How is that relationship?

RA: The easy answer is they have no idea what I do. But that’s not the whole picture. The larger picture is that it’s hard for people who are not working in the environmental field or who don’t have it as a personal interest; it’s hard to get their arms around what it is we do. That’s partially because it’s a very large field, literally as large as the environment. You could be doing environmental compliance, cleanup, munitions response, safety, or training as you do, Rick. It’s a very diverse field. To tell someone I’m an environmental scientist or environmental program manager, really there’s so many possibilities to what that could mean that I wouldn’t expect folks who aren’t part of the field to understand them.

One of the things I’ve noticed over the years is that I don’t get the funny looks anymore. You know this as well as I do, Rick. We’d go out to the field and say we’re here for environmental visit and you’d get someone who would absolutely have no clue what that means, or they would look negatively on it, or they would just want to get us out of the way. I don’t see that as much anymore, maybe because it’s a little more main stream. People can associate the environment with something they’ve heard on the news or some other way. It’s not something that’s viewed negatively.

I think where I see things causing the most friction is when we try to integrate environmental processes a little too late in a project or construction. If it’s integrated correctly then really it should be no impact. Let’s use an example of building construction. You have all kinds of permit and NEPA requirements. I remember when I first started, the environmental person was brought in as an afterthought and then it was too late to do anything. I’m seeing more and more environmental professionals are brought in on day one and are fully integrated into the entire design process, say for a construction project or a civil works project and it works really well. That “extra work” that you need to ensure your actions are minimizing impacts to the environment really is done right and integrated into the project are seamless.

TNEP: You’re doing worked related to the Hurricane Sandy relief and recovery. For this and other civil response projects, does the Corps of Engineers try to promote their work to the people and communities they’re supporting? Not the project itself, but the environmental responsible side of the work?

RA: Yes, we do try to promote some of the great things the Corps is doing to reverse past impacts, our contaminated site cleanup program, but we’re integrating it into our civil works project as best we can. The reality is we just don’t do a very good job of that. That’s because we’re really mission focused. Our mission is to perform a civil works project on behalf of the country. How we do that in terms of being as good as we can as environmental stewards. That almost becomes sort of secondary credit. The reality is we’re trying to do our job as best we can in the most responsible manner as possible.

Some of the things I think about are some of the Sandy response actions. The New York district Corps was doing debris removal as part of the response. They ended up diverting most of that waste away from landfills through recycling efforts and wood chipping efforts, recycling concrete. It was a cost savings but it also converted hundreds and thousands of cubic yards of debris out of the waste stream into various recycling programs. That’s something where the team will receive a Corps of Engineers award, but we don’t really promote that outside of the agency.

One of the things that the Corps does do that I think is done well is having these environmental operating principals. It’s basically seven short principles that talk about sustainability and minimizing environmental risk and also promoting response when necessary. That’s integrated throughout the organization. I think the Corps does a good job of promoting environmental processes and the necessity for those well, within the organization. That’s something I noticed right away when I got here.

TNEP: Is there anything you see in the environmental field that is still lacking or not being addressed enough?

RA: That’s a tough one. The environmental field is so wide open. There are so many niches. If I had to pick one thing in the environmental field that we could do better it is breaking down some of the stovepipes within the field. Maybe do more cross sharing of skill sets. One of the things we’re trying to do more of is green remediation. This is where we integrate into our large cleanup projects more sustainable practices, bringing together many parts of the environmental field into one to make our own execution work. I think that brings more to the table for customers and for the public for the best results.

The other thing I’d like to see more of, in terms of projects, is more brownfield-type work where we’re focused on economic growth, and job growth. Taking the next level of an environmental cleanup where we take previously unusable, formerly contaminated land, clean it up and have it be reused for something that would benefit a community. I’d like to see more for a number of reasons. It would then require less new land to be developed and it also returns what may have been unusable back to a community.

TNEP: You obviously have a passion for this. When you go home, how does that passion influence you at home?

RA: I think this is the case with most people who work in the environmental field. We got into because we have a general interest and we just genuinely like what we do. Definitely didn’t get into for the money. We just like what we do. That helps motivate me. My own person interest really carries over to the office. It doesn’t matter how mundane the task I’m working on at the moment. It doesn’t matter if I don’t like it or it’s something I really don’t feel like doing. It’s that personal interest that I have that carries me through.

I think on the other end of work influencing my life – one of the things is when I learn something new at work. I may learn about sustainable energy or alternative energy or park land that the Corps of Engineers manages. I’ll bring this home and maybe look them up or read something, or even visit some of these sites.

Going back to your question about friends and family, they still do give me funny looks, but they understand that it’s an interest of mine and something I’m passionate about. I’ve always been passionate about, long before professional life, long before I went to college for it. I think they understand it’s not what I do; it’s more who I am.

TNEP: That is a great line, “It’s not what I do; it’s who I am.” That’s awesome and a perfect summary of how many environmental professionals feel about their work and life.

RA: Regarding the profiles of environmental professionals: It’s good to see what everyone else is doing and share that knowledge.

Regarding the profile of the LEED AP+ architect: LEED is almost like a future for the environmental field – having environmental attached to traditional disciplines, such as architecture or engineering. You see it more and more in the health professions.

TNEP: Thanks, Ravi. Hopefully next time we can do this in person over a pint.

TNEP Interview: Scott Morrissey, Director of Environmental Programs, DIA

Denver International Airport, with Denver in the background

I’m a regular at Denver International Airport. I come and go through this airport a few times each month, learned it’s ins and outs, and I often view it through my environmental tinted eyes. Recycling and waste management, fuel storage and use, spill response, deicing, aircraft maintenance, compliance, permits, it’s facility environmental compliance on a massive scale and I wanted to know more about the environmental professionals who take care of it.

Reaching out through DIA’s Media Relations Director, I was able to interview the airport’s new Director of Environmental Programs, Scott Morrissey, about what it takes to keep the airport environmentally healthy, his life as an environmental professional, and what’s new with the South Terminal Redevelopment Program

TNEP: I can imagine most of the environmental professional’s work at DIA goes unnoticed to the flying public. At the same time, I’d think it’s important for DIA to outwardly show a commitment to the environment; for example, the placement of the solar array. Is it important for DIA to promote your work to the public?

Scott Morrissey (SM): It’s true that a lot of DIA’s environmental work is behind-the-scenes, but we take great pride in demonstrating our environmental commitment to our passengers and business partners. Rather than only discussing regulatory compliance when something goes wrong, DIA has a created an Environmental Management System that helps to manage our regulatory responsibilities in a systematic and comprehensive way. This gives us the opportunity to proactively communicate our compliance record to all stakeholders and promote how we ensure continuous improvement. Ultimately, that’s a lesson that we want to share, so everyone knows that DIA is a facility that manages our environment in a responsible way. DIA was originally built with sustainability in mind – from the Aircraft Deicing Fluid collection infrastructure to daylight in the terminal – and we go out of our way to provide tours and presentations to other environmental professionals to help tell our story.

TNEP: What are the biggest environmental challenges at DIA? Is it the day-to-day operations (waste management, compliance, permits, etc.), or is it the large one-time projects?

SM: I like to think of DIA as a “city within a city” – with our thousands of employees and 50 million-plus passengers, we tend to have the same types of environmental issues that any large city would. We need to divert waste from the landfill, reduce energy use, conserve water, and improve water quality, and ultimately the large projects are just an opportunity to advance our underlying goals in an efficient way. I wouldn’t say that either large projects or day-to-day operations are more challenging – since all of our work is oriented towards continuous environmental improvement, we try to investigate all cost-effective opportunities that will help achieve our goals.

DIA Main Terminal

TNEP: Personally, what part of managing the environment in the airline industry is the most passionate for you and/or the staff?

SM: I really appreciate the opportunities for direct implementation that come from working at the airport. All environmental jobs are rewarding in their own way, but I appreciate the fact that the results of our jobs can be so tangible. DIA is a 53-square mile facility that is Colorado’s largest economic engine – ultimately our role is to protect the environment of those 53 square miles so that we can be good neighbors and ensure that our passengers and the public can continue to benefit from having a world-class airport in Denver.

TNEP: Does the passion for your work come from how you live your life, vice versa, or are your work and life connected?

SM: I think the motivation for most environmental professionals comes from a personal place. I didn’t grow up in Colorado, but moved here for the same reason so many of us did – to have opportunities to enjoy the outdoors that aren’t available in other parts of the country. That attitude helps to frame my work life, by providing a constant reminder of why the work we do at DIA is so important. To play a small part in preserving the environment of the place we call home is an exciting opportunity whether you work in the environmental field or not.

TNEP: Tell me about your interaction with flyers and co-workers who are not environmental professionals. Do they understand and appreciate your work?

SM: One of the benefits of working at an airport is that most people understand and appreciate the basics of the work we do, because they can visualize the scope of the potential environmental impacts. It’s fair to say that non-environmental professionals may not understand all of the regulatory aspects, but we generally get a lot of support on the “why,” even when folks don’t understand the “how.” Aircraft Deicing Fluid collection and recycling is a good example – DIA is an international leader in reducing the amount of fluid that is sent for treatment, which has important environmental and economic implications. We think that’s a message everyone can appreciate, even if they don’t understand the nuances of industrial stormwater regulations.

TNEP: Are there any new or unique environmental projects or opportunities being taken with the light rail/terminal expansion project?

SM: The entire South Terminal Redevelopment Program (STRP) will create exciting environmental opportunities for DIA. In addition to being constructed sustainably, the three projects that make up the STRP – the hotel and conference center, the public transit center, and the public plaza – will independently help support DIA’s environmental goals. The hotel will create on-site meeting space and reduce the need to drive to do business, the public transit center will include a commuter rail station connecting the airport with downtown Denver, and the public plaza will create a new venue for programs and events.

You can learn more about DIA’s environmental management program here.