TELLURIDE – The New Community Coalition has launched yet another new project to work toward creating a sustainable future in Telluride. The Regional Sustainability Visioning Project, a self-described community conversation, was developed to address the long-term sustainability and economic ideas and issues facing the region.

And now regional community members are invited to get involved in one of the concept’s areas of focus – agriculture or food supply, “creative jugglers” and entrepreneurs, employees, transportation, housing, childcare, or land use, to name a few.

Each group will meet throughout February and March to answer a series of questions about the area’s sustainable economic future. Questions include: An ideal situation for your component of the local economy would be?; What innovations and changes would you need to reach that ideal situation (in terms of information, resources, organization)?; The impact of these innovations and changes on other components of the local economy might be?; Here’s what’s working elsewhere (examples worth considering from other communities).

Specific community members that might be too busy to attend meetings will be interviewed for their ideas, and RSVP will work with Benito Cardenas of the Telluride Foundation to garner input from the Hispanic community.

Once gathered, information will be compiled to create a community meeting similar to last year’s “Thinking Outside the Box Canyon.”

TNCC has several other projects in the hopper as well. Its composting program will have an in-vessel compost system up and running by late spring or early summer. The objective is to start by providing composting at festivals and then expand to businesses. The program will eventually include residential composting.

TNNC is also working with the Telluride Business Alliance and the Telluride Tourism Board to create a “Green Business” certification program, with a launch date six to nine months out. The idea is to recognize local businesses that are leading in energy conservation and green building practices.

Already this winter TNNC has hosted several successful “Caulk and Seal” parties, during which participants learn how to seal a home for more efficient heating and cooling. As TNCC Director Kris Holstrom explained, “You invite your friends and we will come in and teach you how to do it. The homeowner pays for the food and materials, we provide the skill set.”

And focusing on skill sets already available in the community will be featured in future TNCC programming. This summer, the organization plans to begin “Skills Share,” a program Holstrom described as a way to “gather and have fun and learn something at the same time.” Topics could include canning, building worm bins or bread making.

In an effort to increase renewable power sources, TNCC is working with San Miguel Power Association and the Governor’s Energy Office to distribute rebates as part of the Solar Rebate Program. Home and business owners who install photovoltaic, grid tied systems, including solar hot water, are eligible for the rebates.

TNCC is also working with the Insulate Colorado program to raise awareness about Energy Star certification. “Energy Star doesn’t just apply to appliances, it means you can have a whole Energy Star rated house,” said Holstrom. “We are working with Southwest Youth Corp to insulate houses for low income folks during the summer.”

On the recycling front, TNNC will be announcing a region-wide community meeting regarding recycling from a watershed standpoint. “It is important that we look at recycling as a regional system instead of one community at a time,” said Holstrom. This program is sponsored in part by the Rural Recycling Economic Opportunity Grant through the state of Colorado.

And in education, TNCC will be offering a course in sustainability with experiential learning as the focus as part of the Telluride School District’s new Intensive Study Period.

As always, TNNC is offering the Sustainability Café on Wednesday mornings in Telluride and Local Libations in the afternoons in Norwood. “People want to do stuff,” Holstrom said in reference to the objectives of the Sustainability Café, they “just don’t know what.”

For more information on TNCC and its programming, visit www.newcommunitycoalition.org.

To learn more about RSVP, visit www.telluridersvp.net or contact coordinator Dave Johnson at 970/708-9449 or coordinator.rsvp@gmail.com.