PACE Newsletter | February 2023

February 2023

Welcome to Partners for a Clean Environment's (PACE) newsletter. PACE is your one-stop shop for business sustainability in Boulder County. This newsletter is emailed once a month and shares ways your business can save money and energy through sustainability and climate action initiatives.

Conduct a Building Electrification Study,

Receive a Rebate!

Interested in transitioning away from natural gas equipment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, but not sure where to start? Consider an energy engineering study and receive a rebate from PACE.

Changing all your equipment from gas to electricity can boost your bottom line by reducing operating costs while improving competitiveness and environmental performance!

Building Electrification Study rebate:

$1,500 + $0.50 per building square footage up to 50% of study costs, $10k cap for most properties
$1,500 + $1.00 per building square footage up to 70% of study costs, $15k cap for small businesses (2,500 sq. ft. or less) or buildings owned by nonprofits serving low-income populations
Rebate can be assigned to the engineer if the building owner chooses
To be eligible for the incentive the study must:
Be shared with PACE when complete
Meet all of the Electrification Study Incentive Criteria
View a list of contractors partnering with PACE to perform this study

Thanks to the City of Boulder’s Climate Tax, the first 10 buildings to utilize this incentive in Boulder in 2023 may be eligible for an additional $1,000 incentive for up to 100% of study costs.

EnergyStar Induction Cooktop Rebate

PACE now offers a rebate for EnergyStar induction cooktops to replace natural gas equipment! The rebate provides $450/hob (burner), but if your business qualifies for the Small Business Equity Program, PACE could cover up to 70% of the costs.

For more information on the rebate, visit the Food Service and Grocery Equipment tab on our Energy Efficiency page.

While we at PACE and businesses using induction technology are fully on board, it can be a hard shift for those who have historically cooked on gas. If your business has already installed an induction cooktop, we’d love to hear from you so we can collaborate on how to help other Boulder County businesses overcome any concerns. Contact us at 303-786-7223 or info@PACEpartners.com.

Calling All Event Venues: A Reusable Cup Option is Now Available

Americans discard more than 120 billion disposable cups every year. Over 4 billion of those cups are disposed of at live events alone! To combat the use of single-use cups in Boulder County, we are pleased to announce that a reusable service is now available- r.Cup!

By using, then returning, these cups, you join the global effort to reduce waste, CO2 emissions, and overall climate impact.

Here’s how it works:

Get r.Cup with every drink
When done, return cups to the r.Cup Bins
r.Cups are collected, washed, sanitized, then used again & again & again

2.5 million single-use cups have already been eliminated, plus:

Waste Diverted: 50k lbs
CO2 Eliminated: 150 tons
Energy Saved: 550,000 KWh
Water Saved: 1 million gallons
Crude Oil Saved: 200,000 liters

In Denver alone r.Cup has helped divert almost 530k single-use cups! Check out the impact of three Denver event venues:

Join the movement by visiting rcup.com or emailing tina@rcup.com.

If you are an event venue in the City of Boulder, you may be eligible for a $1,000 incentive to get started with r.Cup. Contact PACE at 303-786-7223 or info@PACEpartners.com to learn more.

DeliverZero at Work in Boulder

Ordering lunch for the office? Go with DeliverZero!

DeliverZero creates and distributes reusable containers that are more environmentally friendly than single-use options. As more stringent ESG (Environmental, social, and governance) standards are coming, the emissions that come with regularly ordering for the whole office in single-use packaging add up.

According to Upstream’s Reuse Wins Report, reusable materials are more sustainable by every measure, including climate pollution, energy use, water consumption, resource extraction, waste generation, litter generation, and plastic pollution.

DeliverZero makes it easy for offices to order in climate-friendly reusable packaging. Employees can place group or individual orders through the delivery apps and office ordering channels DeliverZero integrates with. DeliverZero can collect the containers from your office on a daily basis, either on demand or at a regularly scheduled time. After they pick the containers up, they are sanitized and redistributed, creating a closed loop!

Ready to get started? Learn more at deliverzero.com/enterprise or give them a shout via camden@deliverzero.com

Winter Bike to Work Day!

Join us, and cyclists around the world, Friday, Feb. 10, 2023, to celebrate Winter Bike to Work Day! The annual event encourages folx to brave the elements and ride to work on their bikes.

On the day of the event, there will be breakfast stations giving out free food, fun swag items, coffee, and more. View a map of confirmed stations so you can plan out where you would like to stop by the morning of.

If you'd like to join, let us know by pledging to ride !