Action Planning for a Sustainable Superior
Welcome! This page is intended to provide you with information and gather your feedback in the process to create the Town's first Sustainability Action Plan. Please look around to see all the features.
Staff and the Advisory Committee for Environmental Sustainability (ACES) are currently drafting the plan following several months of community input! Check back soon for the first draft of the Sustainability Action Plan! We will be looking for community feedback during the month of November.
Sustainability Action Plan
The Town of Superior is developing its first sustainability action plan that will serve as a guide for Town
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Following several months of work sessions, community engagement and conversations with community partners, staff and ACES have drafted over 90 specific actions across seven sustainability goal areas: Climate, Energy, Waste, Water, Air Quality, Transportation and Regeneration and Natural Environment.
Staff and ACES organized a Community Sustainability Workshop on September 16 where attendees were provided with the opportunity to review the proposed actions for the plan, provide feedback, and ask questions. The public has the opportunity to provide feedback on these actions through October 4, 2021.
To review the proposed actions and provide feedback, do the following:
- Review the Community Sustainability Workshop Presentation to see what was shared at the community workshop.
- Review the Proposed Actions for the Plan and take as long as you need to review the actions for each goal area.
- Add your feedback below! Be sure to note which action you are providing input for and use just one idea note per action.
- Lastly, if interested, share which actions are a top priority to you by listing your top five to ten on a note!
View All Ideas20 days ago
Adjust the new home solar mandate
On page 2, there's an action to "Require solar on all new homes to offset 100% of electricity use." While I'm fully supportive of this in theory, there will be some homes (such as new townhomes) where roof design and orientation may not allow for solar to offset 100% of the expected electricity consumption. I'd suggest adjusting it to something like "Require solar on all new homes to offset 100% of electricity use, or the maximum that is technically feasible for the roof."
21 days ago
Sustainability has to be tied to actual resource limits. With a growing population sustainability tied to per capita metrics is meaningless.
Substitute sustainable limit by resource for pre capita efficiency metrics
27 days ago
ACES recommendation to the Town of Superior Board to consider collaboration with the SEEDS Collaborative to land bank a key parcel of land.
Support a Letter of Intent for an emergency allocation of DOLA American Rescue Act Funds to land bank 102 Maple St. Superior for future net zero energy affordable housing under current R-L zoning or other highest and best use zoning as approved by the Town Board.
24 days ago
Charge 25c for a grocery bag
Why not keep oil in the ground and prevent plastic pollution
20 days ago
Create more housing at smaller, more affordable price points so workers do not commute from far away, adding emissions.
housing for workers
- Review the Community Sustainability Workshop Presentation to see what was shared at the community workshop.
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Do you have ideas on how Superior can:
Reduce emissions, decrease waste, save energy, conserve water, create cleaner air, strengthen community connection, and more? Provide your input to help us take better care of our planet and make our community thrive!
View All Ideas2 months ago
Year-round composting and encouraging Rock Creek HOA
My family would LOVE to see more year-round and easy composting options. We know there is a subscription service currently available, but it is not year-round, an inconvenience that has created a barrier to entry for us. We'd be very keen to compost if the town helped make it easier for us, either from a weekly pick-up service that coincides with trash pick-up, or by offering industrial composting bins alongside yard waste at Autrey Park. Additionally, in whatever ways they can, we'd love to see the town coordinate their sustainability efforts with the Rock Creek HOA. For example, we'd love to see the town encourage the HOA to relax its restrictions around xeriscaping so that Superior is comprehensively tackling water usage and encouraging native plants and habitats. It makes little sense to have the town tracking to greater sustainability without bringing the other local authorities along with it. Thank you for all your work!
2 months ago
Widely available composting
Require multi-home apartment/condo units to offer composting; provide incentives for businesses and communities who add composting in addition to recycling; share the benefits of composting to educate our community about why it's important and makes a difference.
2 months ago
Ban New Natural Gas Service
In order for the world to meet our climate goals, to avoid global ecological collapse, we have less than decade to cut our green-house gas emissions in half. Plastic bag bans and such are fine, but really don't even come close to addressing the real problem. The research shows that in order to meet these goals we need to start converting all our houses off of natural gas, which produces vast amounts of methane and CO2. One thing a small community like ourselves can do is ban new installations of natural gas in our town, and provide incentives for home-owners converting their water heaters and furnaces to heat pumps. This, of course, needs to be paired with converting our electricity supply to green sources.
2 months ago
Year-Round Composting
Superior is one of the only communities in the area that doesn't provide free year round composting. In Louisville and Boulder, the cost of trash service is based on the size of your trash bin, and composting is free. I see many of my neighbors getting extra trash bins for yard waste, which turns into methane, a powerful green house gas, in the landfills and takes good nutrients out of the plant cycle.
about 2 months ago
Ideas
The Town has recently joined the ICLEI–Local Governments for Sustainability CO, and Communities for Climate Action. With sustainability appearing to be a priority of the Board at this time, I'd offer the following: *Apply careful consideration and place a high regard on environmental, human, and economic factors when weighing the sustainability aspects of development proposals. We cannot talk about sustainability without acknowledging the impacts of new construction. -According to the United Nations Environment Program, buildings and their construction together account for 36 percent of global energy use and 39 percent of energy-related carbon dioxide emissions annually. -In the United States, residential and commercial buildings account for 40 percent of energy consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. -The amount of carbon generated through manufacturing building materials, transporting materials to construction sites, and the actual construction process—what’s known as the “embodied carbon of a building,” which accounts for about one quarter of a building’s total life cycle carbon emissions. Globally, the embodied carbon of buildings account for about 11 percent of emissions. -Globally, the energy intensity of the building sector is improving by about 1.5 percent every year; however, the number of buildings is on the rise—global floor area grows by about 2.3 percent annually—which offsets some of those energy intensity improvements. (Interpretation- little impact if you require net zero or energy efficiencies in new construction if the overall amount of new construction keeps increasing). (source: https://archive.curbed.com/2019/9/19/20874234/buildings-carbon-emissions-climate-change) *Integrate and apply to Town decision making the scientific findings about open space/ green space and mitigation of carbon, heat, and air pollution. As land across the front range and within local jurisdictions is rapidly being converted to new development (heat islands), this science needs to be at the forefront of discussions. *Overhaul the Town's landscape management practices: chemical applications are detrimental to the health of people, animals, and the environment overall. There are sustainable options that don't involve harmful chemicals and constant mowing. This would also be a more sustainable option from a budget perspective. *Year round, residential composting option. This dramatically reduces trash output for those who utilize it. *Collaboration with HOA Boards to approve and promote xeriscaping methods and to further reduce bureaucratic barriers to landscaping and tree planting. Thank you! I appreciate the opportunity to have this community dialogue.
Who's Listening
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Phone 3034993675140 Email alyssav@superiorcolorado.gov -
Phone 303-499-3675 Email ACES@superiorcolorado.gov
Documents
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Community Sustainability Workshop Presentation (822 KB) (pdf)
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Community Sustainability Workshop Feedback Summary (10.4 MB) (pdf)
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2021 Sustainability Assessment Report
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Community Sustainability Framework
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Meeting Notes - ACES Sustainability Action Plan Work Session #1.pdf (121 KB) (pdf)
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Proposed Actions for the Plan (114 KB) (pdf)
