Fort Collins Sustainability Group

The mission of the Fort Collins Sustainability Group (FCSG) is to develop and advocate a vision and strategy for becoming a sustainable community in partnership with key stakeholders and other communities.

A sustainable community is one that enables its members to thrive, both economically and socially, without compromising the welfare of future generations. It exists in harmony with our environment.

The FCSG Story

The Fort Collins Sustainability Group (FCSG) grew out of a meeting held in the spring of 2005, shortly after the Kyoto Protocol went into effect, between several people interested in getting the city to commit to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions. Over the following months, others who viewed such a commitment as a way to strengthen the local economy in the wake of high technology sector job losses joined the new organization.

Members of the FCSG soon learned that the Fort Collins City Council had passed a resolution in 1999 committing the city to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions significantly by 2010. However, we also learned that the city would fall far short of its goal unless additional actions were taken.

In response, the FCSG initiated a resolution to establish a “Climate Task Force” to develop a set of measures that could be taken to meet the goal established in 1999, which would also help strengthen the local economy. This resolution was passed by City Council in March 2007. The FCSG then actively participated in and supported the efforts of the Climate Task Force, which completed its proposed package of measures for City Council’s consideration in the spring of 2008.

Following the recommendations of both the FCSG and the Climate Task Force, City Council expressed its intent in May of 2008 to meet the original 2010 goal by 2012. Council also signaled its intent to continue reducing community-wide greenhouse gas emissions by establishing new goals for 2020 and 2050. In December of 2008, City Council passed a resolution to adopt the Climate Action Plan that emerged from the Climate Task Force’s work, and to begin the process of implementation.

In January of 2009, the FCSG lobbied successfully for an electric energy policy efficiency and conservation goal that exceeds the Climate Task Force recommendation by 50%. Due in part to that effort, Fort Collins Utilities has committed to reducing electric energy consumption in its service territory by 1.5% per year through 2020. The FCSG also provided input to City Council during the 2009 biennial budget process. In the end, the biennial budget provided funding for most measures in the Climate Action Plan, despite a somewhat difficult overall economic picture for the City.

The FCSG undertook two additional initiatives of note in 2009. The first was a pair of “Creative Climate Solutions Retreats” in the spring, which brought together community members (plus one employee of the City of Boulder) to develop breakthrough strategies on how Fort Collins might achieve 80% greenhouse gas reductions by 2030, rather than by 2050 as established in the Climate Action Plan. The second was to bring together ten local organizations for a fall conference to form the “Northern Colorado E3 Sustainability Alliance,” or NC E3 SA.

In 2010 and 2011, the FCSG dedicated itself to advocating for the implementation of a tiered residential electric rate by Fort Collins Utilities to encourage conservation and discourage waste. With support from the NC E3 SA, we achieved success in December of 2011 when City Council adopted a three-tiered seasonal residential electric rate to take effect in February of 2012.

Every year, the City of Fort Collins publishes a Climate Action Plan Status Report to track Climate Action Plan results. The most recent report shows that in 2010, the City of Fort Collins reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 11% with respect to the 2005 baseline, despite population growth of 13% and a relatively strong regional economy. This reduction puts the City significantly ahead of its first Climate Action Plan goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 3.3% with respect to 2005 levels by 2012, and well on its way to reducing emissions by 20% by 2020. However, we can and must do even better.

In the coming years, the FCSG plans to remain active in helping ensure that Fort Collins stays on track to meet or exceed the commitments established in the 2008 Climate Action Plan. We will also advocate for the adoption of the ideas developed during the 2009 Creative Climate Solutions Retreats. Finally, we intend to continue working with the Northern Colorado E3 Sustainability Alliance to help build sustainable regional communities in this area.