Environmental group lauds Boulder County's environmental work

An international nonprofit group that pushes companies and local governments to disclose their environmental impact, gave Boulder County an A for environmental action and transparency.

The Carbon Disclosure Project — or CDP — recognized Boulder County as one of 95 cities and counties across the globe taking bold leadership in working to improve the environment, according to a Boulder County news release.

Boulder County scored an A. Only 9.8% of cities and counties that were scored in 2021 received an A, the news release states.

The CDP is based in the United Kingdom, Japan, India, China, German and the United States and helps companies and cities disclose their environmental impact, the CDP website states.

Since 2002, over 8,400 companies have publicly disclosed environmental information through CDP, the website states.

To score an A, a city or county must disclose publicly an emissions inventory, have set an emissions reduction target and a renewable energy target and have published a climate action plan, the news release states.

A city or county must also complete a climate risk and vulnerability assessment and have a climate adaptation plan to demonstrate how it will tackle climate hazards.

In 2005 and 2011, Boulder County conducted greenhouse inventories to identify the main emission sources and to identify opportunities to reduce emissions. The latest inventory is now current as of 2016, according to the county’s climate change website.

Boulder County also:

• Approved by resolution the Sustainability Energy Plan in 2008, and the county set out to implement actions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The SEP is now replaced by the Environmental Sustainability Plan.
• Adopted a Climate Change Preparedness Plan in 2012 to help Boulder County and its communities become resilient to the anticipated effects of climate change.
• Adopted the Environmental Sustainability Plan in 2013, which was subsequently updated in 2018. The Climate Section of the plan describes the community-wide climate action strategies.
• In 2018, completed a Greenhouse Gas Inventory and Emission Reductions Strategies report with an updated greenhouse gas inventory (with 2016 data) emission reduction opportunities, and new long-term emission reduction goals.

Disclosing the county’s environmental impact is a critical first step in designing policies and initiatives that take action on the climate, Susan Strife, Boulder County Director of Sustainability, Climate Action and Resilience, said. “We still need major systems change, but tracking and transparency allows Boulder County to manage climate risk and launch ambitious new initiatives, like carbon dioxide removal innovation, that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and drawdown carbon.”

Carbon dioxide removal includes a wide array of approaches, including direct air capture coupled to durable storage, soil carbon sequestration, biomass carbon removal and storage and enhanced mineralization, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management.