Transcript Slide 1

Greener Denver Initiative
A Climate Prosperity Strategy
Climate Prosperity Project
National Leadership Meeting
San Jose, CA
February 21, 2009
Project Sponsor
Office of Economic Development
City and County of Denver
Project Coordinator
Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation
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Key Stakeholders
Mayor’s Office / Greenprint Denver
Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation
Metro Denver WIRED
Governor’s Energy Office
Connected Organizations for a Responsible Economy
Alliance for Sustainable Colorado
University of Colorado (Boulder), LEED School of Business
National Renewal Energy Labs
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Project Leadership
Andre Pettigrew
Executive Director, OED
Christopher Smith
Project Lead, OED
Holli Baumunk Vice President, MDEDC
Mary Jeffries
Energy Sector Lead, MDEDC
Jeff Romine
Lynn Sargent
Jennifer Zacker
Chief Economist, OED
Green Savings, OED
Green Opportunities, OED
Georgia Howard
Green Talent, OED
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The “regional climate” for Greener Denver…
Challenges
Challenges
Opportunities
Current financial crisis
constrains adoption of
energy innovations
Strong energy research
infrastructure matched with
entrepreneurial culture and spirit
Environmental
Region’s long history in fossil
fuels may delay industry and
personal transformation
Harness region’s distinctive
renewable energy resources
and innovation assets
Political
Transition of local strategy to
9 county regional strategy
Success in various regional
initiatives sets stage for
climate prosperity approach
Outdoor culture not fully
translated into sustainable
economic actions
High readiness to apply
entrepreneurial thinking and
investment to new economy
Economic
Social
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What we intend to accomplish…
Savings
Talent
Opportunities
Goals
1. To transform our
dynamic economy
2. To achieve our climate
goals
3. To ensure social equity
in a sustainable future
Objective
Accomplish goals by 2020
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Green Savings
Marketing /Outreach
Education /Training
Technical Assistance
Financing
Industry — Our Economic Drivers
Work within our region’s 9 clusters to identify
individual and shared challenges and determine
appropriate actions that:
 Reduce cost
 Improve competitiveness and innovation
 Reduce Dependency on foreign oil
Community — Our Homes and Markets
Engage our neighborhoods and business districts
by using a place-based approach to achieve
energy efficiency objectives
Institutions — Major Infrastructure
Help our cities, school districts, hospitals and major
public facilities achieve greater efficiency and
renewable energy usage
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Clean Tech Cluster
Greening of Regional
Cluster Supply Chains
 Aerospace
 Aviation
 Bioscience
 Energy
 Financial Services
 Information Technology
 Beverage Production
 Broadcast & Telecom
Financing Innovation
Support innovations that
bring technologies to
market, optimize business
operations and create
workforce opportunities
Green
Opportunities
Capitalize on metro
Denver’s strong position as
a center for the emerging
clean tech industry
Research &
Development
Size Today: Renewable
energy companies; 1000+
firms related to clean tech
Tech Transfer
Employment: 13,940 jobs,
6th largest nationally
Commercialization
Venture Capital
Traditional financing
Diversity and Depth:
Broad and diverse industry
sector: wind and solar to
advanced materials and
storage and sequestration
Research Infrastructure
Assets: Leveraging NREL,
university collaborations
and 28,000 employee
regional energy cluster
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Preparation K-12 Readiness
STEM
Career Academies
 Energy: Red Rocks Early College
 Math Science & Creativity Academy
 Denver School of Science and Technology
Advancement Occupational & Professional
Community Colleges (WIRED funded)
 Front Range: Energy Boost
 Red Rocks: Solar energy AA and certification
 Solar & Wind Apprenticeship Center
Green Talent
Education
Skills Development
Career Paths
Transformation Retraining & Adaptation
Metro Denver Wired Initiative
Pipeline for high-tech-high industries
 iCAST: Trains unemployed for careers in energy
efficiency and solar installation
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Our key actions taken to date…
Action 1
Established Office of Economic Development
Business Development
Small Business Opportunity
Workforce Development
Housing and Neighborhoods Services
Greenprint Denver Initiative
Citywide 2012 emissions reduction target
Action 3
Action 2
Greening the Democratic National Convention
Green Vendor Directory
Industry Sector Partnerships
New Energy Economy Roundtables
Green Community Building
Greener Denver Initiative
Climate Prosperity Project
Strategic Framework
Action 4
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Step 1
Our future
actions…
Step 3
Mobilize: Convene Core Partners
Metro Denver Economic Development Corporation
Metro Mayor’s Caucus
Governor’s Energy Office
Analyze: Launch Collaborative Process
Assess Regional Efforts To Date
ex: Smart Grid – Boulder
ex. Colorado Energy Coalition – MDEDC
Catalyze: Identify Strategic Priorities
Green Savings
Green Opportunities
Green Talent
Realize: Align Regional Efforts
Metro Denver EDC assumes lead responsibility
Take best practices and bring to scale
Develop new aggregation and delivery options
Step 5
Step 2
Step 4
Actualize: Build Partnerships
Determine how to best sustain strategic implementation
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Greening Denver: Leveraging Assets for Climate Prosperity
Climate Prosperity
Input Advantages
Green Savings
(Demand)
Accessible
Capital
Innovation
Pipeline
Greening
Of
Industry
Logistical
Advantage
Next
Generation
Skills
Greening
Communities
Climate
Change
State
Policies
Natural
Resource
Center
Greening
Of
Institutions
Green Opportunity
and Talent
(Supply)
Clean Tech
And Green
Supply Chain
Triple
Bottom-Line
Results
Climate Change
Progress
Economic
Vitality
Green
Workforce and
Entrepreneurs
Enhanced
Opportunity
We have the RESOURCES to succeed !
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Key obstacles to accomplishing our goals…
Transform – Economy
Change Market Behavior
Overcoming resistance to change among businesses,
residents and policy makers to build scale of demand to
enable markets to grow.
Achieve – Climate Goals
Creating Greater Greener Denver
Securing regional ownership and support for this effort
Ensure – Social Equity
Realizing that success is defined broadly such that all
members of the community benefit from this effort
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Financial and In-Kind Resource commitments to date…
Financial & In-Kind
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1. Mobilize: Ready
stakeholders to
work together via
early stakeholder
outreach—with
active media
2. Analyze: Provide comparative data to
the strategy process – and share
through open forums
3. Catalyze:
Convene the
stakeholders to
What about us?
define bottom-up,
Community role in creating
user-driven,
Greener Denver
market focused
at each step
solutions
We are committed to
engaging and
4. Realize: Structure
sustaining community
actions that are based on
participation…
commitment of
5. Actualize: Play our
community stakeholders,
part in implementation not just top-down
and tracking results
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3 ways national and global network can best assist us…
Help us attract additional financial
support for our efforts
Collect and distribute key research and
best practices from across the nation
Collaborate across regions to build market
demand and delivery to accelerate change
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